The time has come for the 14th Annual Easter Egg Hunt at Lima Beads! It’s been another egg-citing week around Lima HQ as we’ve been meticulously hiding eggs all over our website… and we hope you have a blast finding them : ) Just like the previous hunt, we have over $2,000 in gift certificates that we’re giving away to the top hunters! :) And, there are over 100 great prizes this year… Read more below, or check out the Hunt Page to get started!

The Basics

We’ve scattered 300 Easter eggs all over our website. The more eggs you find, the more prizes you get! We have a leaderboard to track the progress of all the egg hunters, and the top 100 hunters will all get gift certificates! The hunt lasts all week, and ends at 11:59pm Pacific time on Easter (April 9).

The Prizes

Just like last hunt, we have a big pool of prizes, and you use your eggs as currency to pick and choose your prizes. For example, if you find 10 eggs, you can pick a couple prizes–for example, you could pick a prize that costs 3 eggs, another that costs 4 eggs, and one that costs a single egg (for a total of 10). The more eggs you find, the more prizes you’ll be eligible for! PLUS, we’re giving away a $20 gift certificate to every single hunter on the leaderboard when the hunt ends–just like last hunt! Lastly, we have a $250 gift certificate grand prize that will be randomly awarded to one of the beaders in the Top 25 on the leaderboard at the end of the hunt. Keep an eye on the leaderboard and read more about the prizes on the Hunt page.

Where are all the eggs?

Make sure to read the entire Hunt page including the FAQ, where we post some details about where you will and won’t find eggs.

The Rules

We have detailed rules and some FAQs on the hunt page, so we suggest you check those out. There are a few things we want you to know, however. When you place an order to redeem your prizes, normal shipping rates apply (as low as $3.99 for U.S. customers). We have lots of great gifts this year, but we can’t guarantee they will all be available when the hunt ends on Sunday. So place your orders early to make sure you get the gifts you want!

What are you waiting for? Start hunting!

The time has come for the 13th Annual Easter Egg Hunt at Lima Beads! We’ve been egg-xtremely hard at work for the past few days hiding eggs all over the site for the past few days… and we hope you have fun again this year : ) Just like the previous hunt, we have over $2,000 in gift certificates that we’re giving away to the top hunters! :) And, there are tons of great prizes this year… Read more below, or check out the Hunt Page to get started!

The Basics

We’ve scattered 300 Easter eggs all over our website. The more eggs you find, the more prizes you get! We have a leaderboard to track the progress of all the egg hunters, and the top 100 hunters will all get gift certificates! The hunt lasts all week, and ends at 11:59pm Pacific time on Easter (April 17).

300 Eggs??!

That’s right, we hid 300 total eggs on our website (the same as the previous several years). It seems like a lot, but it really helps cure those droughts between eggs.

The Prizes

Just like last hunt, we have a big pool of prizes, and you use your eggs as currency to pick and choose your prizes. For example, if you find 10 eggs, you can pick a couple prizes–for example, you could pick a prize that costs 3 eggs, another that costs 4 eggs, and one that costs a single egg (for a total of 10). The more eggs you find, the more prizes you’ll be eligible for! PLUS, we’re giving away a $20 gift certificate to every single hunter on the leaderboard when the hunt ends–just like last hunt! Lastly, we have a $250 gift certificate grand prize that will be randomly awarded to one of the beaders in the Top 25 on the leaderboard at the end of the hunt. Keep an eye on the leaderboard and read more about the prizes on the Hunt page.

Where are all the eggs?

Make sure to read the entire Hunt page including the FAQ, where we post some details about where you will and won’t find eggs.

The Rules

We have detailed rules and some FAQs on the hunt page, so we suggest you check those out. There are a few things we want you to know, however. When you place an order to redeem your prizes, normal shipping rates apply (as low as $3.99 for U.S. customers). We have lots of great gifts this year, but we can’t guarantee they will all be available when the hunt ends on Sunday. So place your orders early to make sure you get the gifts you want!

What are you waiting for? Start hunting!

The time has come for the 12th Annual Easter Egg Hunt at Lima Beads! We’ve been egg-xtremely hard at work for the past few days hiding eggs all over the site for the past few days… and we hope you have fun again this year : ) Just like the previous hunt, we have over $2,000 in gift certificates that we’re giving away to the top hunters! :) And, there are tons of great prizes this year… Read more below, or check out the Hunt Page to get started!

The Basics

We’ve scattered 300 Easter eggs all over our website. The more eggs you find, the more prizes you get! We have a leaderboard to track the progress of all the egg hunters, and the top 100 hunters will all get gift certificates! The hunt lasts all week, and ends at 11:59pm Pacific time on Easter (April 4).

300 Eggs??!

That’s right, we hid 300 total eggs on our website (the same as the previous several years). It seems like a lot, but it really helps cure those droughts between eggs.

The Prizes

Just like last hunt, we have a big pool of prizes, and you use your eggs as currency to pick and choose your prizes. For example, if you find 10 eggs, you can pick a couple prizes–for example, you could pick a prize that costs 3 eggs, another that costs 4 eggs, and one that costs a single egg (for a total of 10). The more eggs you find, the more prizes you’ll be eligible for! PLUS, we’re giving away a $20 gift certificate to every single hunter on the leaderboard when the hunt ends–just like last hunt! Lastly, we have a $250 gift certificate grand prize that will be randomly awarded to one of the beaders in the Top 25 on the leaderboard at the end of the hunt. Keep an eye on the leaderboard and read more about the prizes on the Hunt page.

Where are all the eggs?

Make sure to read the entire Hunt page including the FAQ, where we post some details about where you will and won’t find eggs.

The Rules

We have detailed rules and some FAQs on the hunt page, so we suggest you check those out. There are a few things we want you to know, however. When you place an order to redeem your prizes, normal shipping rates apply (as low as $3.99 for U.S. customers). We have lots of great gifts this year, but we can’t guarantee they will all be available when the hunt ends on Sunday. So place your orders early to make sure you get the gifts you want!

What are you waiting for? Start hunting!

The time has come for the 11th Annual Easter Egg Hunt at Lima Beads! We’ve been egg-xtremely hard at work for the past few days hiding eggs all over the site for the past few days… and we hope you have fun again this year : ) Just like the previous hunt, we have over $2,000 in gift certificates that we’re giving away to the top hunters! :) And, there are tons of great prizes this year… Read more below, or check out the Hunt Page to get started!

The Basics

We’ve scattered 300 Easter eggs all over our website. The more eggs you find, the more prizes you get! We have a leaderboard to track the progress of all the egg hunters, and the top 100 hunters will all get gift certificates! The hunt lasts all week, and ends at 11:59pm Pacific time on Easter (April 1).

300 Eggs??!

That’s right, we hid 300 total eggs on our website (the same as last year). It seems like a lot, but it really helps cure those droughts between eggs.

The Prizes

Just like last year, we have a big pool of prizes, and you use your eggs as currency to pick and choose your prizes. For example, if you find 10 eggs, you can pick a couple prizes–for example, you could pick a prize that costs 3 eggs, another that costs 4 eggs, and one that costs a single egg (for a total of 10). The more eggs you find, the more prizes you’ll be eligible for! PLUS, we’re giving away a $20 gift certificate to every single hunter on the leaderboard when the hunt ends–just like last year! Keep an eye on the leaderboard and read more about the prizes on the Hunt page.

An Important Note for Long-Time Egg Hunters

Make sure to check out the FAQ on the hunt, where we post some details about where you will and won’t find eggs.

The Rules

We have detailed rules and some FAQs on the hunt page, so we suggest you check those out. There are a few things we want you to know, however. When you place an order to redeem your prizes, normal shipping rates apply (as low as $2.99 for U.S. customers). We have lots of great gifts this year, but we can’t guarantee they will all be available when the hunt ends on Sunday. So place your orders early to make sure you get the gifts you want!

What are you waiting for? Start hunting!

The time has come for the 10th Annual Easter Egg Hunt at Lima Beads! We’ve been egg-xtremely hard at work this weekend hiding eggs all over the site for the past few days… and we hope you have fun again this year : ) Just like the previous hunt, we have over $2,000 in gift certificates that we’re giving away to the top hunters! :) And, there are tons of great prizes this year… Read more below, or check out the Hunt Page to get started!

The Basics

We’ve scattered 300 Easter eggs all over our website. The more eggs you find, the more prizes you get! We have a leaderboard to track the progress of all the egg hunters, and the top 100 hunters will all get gift certificates! The hunt lasts all week, and ends at 11:59pm Pacific time on Easter (April 1).

300 Eggs??!

That’s right, we hid 300 total eggs on our website (the same as last year). It seems like a lot, but it really helps cure those droughts between eggs.

The Prizes

Just like last year, we have a big pool of prizes, and you use your eggs as currency to pick and choose your prizes. For example, if you find 10 eggs, you can pick a couple prizes–for example, you could pick a prize that costs 3 eggs, another that costs 4 eggs, and one that costs a single egg (for a total of 10). The more eggs you find, the more prizes you’ll be eligible for! PLUS, we’re giving away a $20 gift certificate to every single hunter on the leaderboard when the hunt ends–just like last year! Keep an eye on the leaderboard and read more about the prizes on the Hunt page.

An Important Note for Long-Time Egg Hunters

Make sure to check out the FAQ on the hunt, where we post some details about where you will and won’t find eggs.

The Rules

We have detailed rules and some FAQs on the hunt page, so we suggest you check those out. There are a few things we want you to know, however. When you place an order to redeem your prizes, normal shipping rates apply (as low as $2.99 for U.S. customers). We have lots of great gifts this year, but we can’t guarantee they will all be available when the hunt ends on Sunday. So place your orders early to make sure you get the gifts you want!

What are you waiting for? Start hunting!

The time has come for the 9th Annual Easter Egg Hunt at Lima Beads! We’ve been egg-xtremely hard at work this weekend hiding eggs all over the site… and we hope you have fun this year : ) Just like the previous hunt, we have over $2,000 in gift certificates that we’re giving away to the top hunters! :) And, there are more prizes than ever this year… Read more below, or check out the Hunt Page to get started!

The Basics

We’ve scattered 300 Easter eggs all over our website. The more eggs you find, the more prizes you get! We have a leaderboard to track the progress of all the egg hunters, and the top 100 hunters will all get gift certificates! The hunt lasts all week, and ends at 11:59pm Pacific time on Easter (April 16).

300 Eggs??!

That’s right, we hid 300 total eggs on our website (the same as last year). It seems like a lot, but it really helps cure those droughts between eggs.

The Prizes

Just like last year, we have a big pool of prizes, and you use your eggs as currency to pick and choose your prizes. For example, if you find 10 eggs, you can pick a couple prizes–for example, you could pick a prize that costs 3 eggs, another that costs 4 eggs, and one that costs a single egg (for a total of 10). The more eggs you find, the more prizes you’ll be eligible for! PLUS, we’re giving away a $20 gift certificate to every single hunter on the leaderboard when the hunt ends–just like last year! Keep an eye on the leaderboard and read more about the prizes on the Hunt page.

An Important Note for Long-Time Egg Hunters

Make sure to check out the FAQ on the hunt page… we’ve updated it this year to explain some details about where you will and won’t find eggs. The details are the same as last year, so no changes here

The Rules

We have detailed rules and some FAQs on the hunt page, so we suggest you check those out. There are a few things we want you to know, however. When you place an order to redeem your prizes, normal shipping rates apply (as low as $2.99 for U.S. customers). We have lots of great gifts this year, but we can’t guarantee they will all be available when the hunt ends on Sunday. So place your orders early to make sure you get the gifts you want!

What are you waiting for? Start hunting!

UPDATE: Winners Announced!

The contest has officially ended, and we had nearly 100 designs submitted… what an awesome batch of Earthy Inspiration! The two winners have been selected, and we’ll be sending out their prizes shortly. Without further ado:

Winner #1: People’s Choice

The winner of the People’s Choice category is River Force by kye! This design had the most favorites, and we can see why… what a beautiful combination of colors and materials–and of course, skill Congratulations!

River Force by kye

Winner #2: Lima’s Choice

The winner that was voted on by the Lima Beads staff is… bead-roll, please… Ancient Earth by E Strother! We were particularly enthralled with the mix of materials that are completely unrelated… yet completely go together We also loved the balance, even though it isn’t perfectly symmetrical in every way. Congrats!

Ancient Earth by E Strother

Thanks to Everyone!

I can say with complete honesty that I wish we could just pick everyone as a winner… we love all the designs, and owe you a HUGE Thank You for uploading your creative creations. Thanks again, and keep an eye out for more fun in the future

Original post is below…

Tomorrow (4/22) is Earth Day, and we want to lend a hand with some inspiration for your Earthy and organic designs. Ali created 6 new designs with some of our latest components, shown below. We’d love for you to get in on the fun, too… so we’re hosting a design contest and we’re calling for all earthy designs! Check out Ali’s new designs below, with suggestions on how to make them your own coming soon. And keep reading below for the contest details… Happy Earth Day!

Make it your own:

Focal Web – try these: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Fibers – metallic hemp
Necklace Cord – leather cord or lace
Small Beads – Toho frosted & glazed 8/0 and 11/0 seed beads
Feathers – feather charms

Make it your own:

Spikes – Zola Elements spikes
Leather Cord – stitched suede cord or braided bolo (especially brown, green, pacific, gray, and pink)
Silk Ribbon – natural edge ribbon

Make it your own:

Magatamas – shop all
Round Beads – 2mm and 3mm round beads
2-hole Focal – try these…

Make it your own:

Wood Beads – shop all
Large Chain – lots of choices
Irish Waxed Linen – 12-ply

Make it your own:

Bead Chain – shop all
Charms – shop all
Beads – 10mm & 12mm beads

Make it your own:

Tassels – mini tassels
Silk String – shop all
Irish Waxed Linen – 7-ply

Earthy Inspiration Design Contest

If you have some Earthy and organic ideas of your own, we’d love to see them! You might even win a Lima Beads gift certificate & a hand-picked bag of samples from our shop. Here’s how it works:

1. Make a necklace, bracelet, or pair of earrings (or any jewelry piece you’d wear) that’s inspired somehow by the Earth we live on. There are no specific components to use–everything is fair game.

2. Post your design (or multiple designs) to our Design Gallery, and select the “Earthy Inspiration 2016″ promo when you save/edit your design. Make sure you post your design by 11:59pm on Wednesday, May 18th, when the contest ends.

3. Vote for your favorite(s) while browsing the Design Gallery… more on this below

The Prizes…

There will be 2 winners selected on Thursday, May 19th. The first will be the “people’s choice” winner, which will be the design receiving the most favorites now through May 18th. The second winner will be “Lima’s favorite”, which will be voted on by all the amazing staff at Lima Beads. Each winners will receive both a $50 Gift Certificate and a hand-picked bag of sample strands & supplies from our shop. We don’t know what will be in the hand-picked bag yet… but there will probably about $25-50 worth of supplies inside. We’ll surprise you

Happy Earth Day!

We all feel blessed to live on an amazing Earth. And we hope to see some amazing jewelry from you all soon! If you have any questions, feel free to post it in the comments below.

The 8th Annual Easter Egg Hunt at Lima Beads has come to a close, and we have the usual recap and results to report Read on…

Leaderboard Gift Certificates

Just like last year, everyone that was on the Leaderboard at the end of the hunt gets a $20 Gift Certificate. We sent them yesterday morning via e-mail… if you finished on the leaderboard, we’re in awe of your sp-egg-tacular dedication to finding those pesky little pastel pods. Congrats again!

The Grand Prize

This year’s grand prize winner (awarded by random drawing from the Top 10 hunters on the Leaderboard) is…. Myriam V! Just like last year, we drew her name out of an empty Twizzler container (we’ve got a lot of those lying around for some reason). Congrats, Myriam! Your gift certificate was also e-mailed to you.

The Prizes

As you know, we changed the way we handle prizes this year. We know there were some hunters that liked the old way, and some who liked the new way better. We ran some numbers, and we’re happy to report that we sent out well over twice the number of prizes this year! Regardless of the new format, we hope you all love your prizes. We’ll be sure to take everyone’s feedback into account when we decide what to do next year.

Some Stats…

Since we can’t reveal the positions of the every egg, we wanted to give some stats to quench your thirst for eggs this week. Here goes:

• As I mentioned above, there were more than twice the amount of prizes redeemed this year
• Over 130,000 eggs were found this year across all the hunters who participated–WOW!
• It took Matt longer than ever to hide all 300 eggs this year (haha)
• All the eggs were found at least once.
• The most commonly found egg was the one on the home page, very closely followed by the one on the Gemstone Beads page.
• The first egg was found even before I could find one after launching the hunt at 6:30am on Sunday. Talk about fast hunters!
• The final egg was found only 21 seconds before 12 midnight Pacific time on Sunday night… talk about cutting it close!
• The most popular prize was: Zola Elements Patina Green Brass Falling Feather Pendant 8x38mm
• The second most popular prize was: Pewter Beech Leaf Charm 7x15mm

… and a Big THANK YOU!

As always, we owe everyone a huge “Thank You” for taking part in the hunt. It takes a lot of time to pick out hiding spots and place all those little eggs, but that doesn’t come close to the amount of time you all spend trying to find them So thanks for helping make the week fun for everyone. We hope you enjoyed it! We hope everyone had a safe & happy Easter. Until next time…

The time has come for the 8th Annual Easter Egg Hunt at Lima Beads! We’ve been egg-xtremely hard at work this weekend hiding eggs all over the site… and we hope you have fun this year : ) Just like the previous hunt, we have $2,000 in gift certificates that we’re giving away to the top hunters! :) And, we’ve made some BIG CHANGES to the prizes this year… Read more below, or check out the Hunt Page to get started!

The Basics

We’ve scattered 300 Easter eggs all over our website. The more eggs you find, the more prizes you get! We have a leaderboard to track the progress of all the egg hunters, and the top 100 hunters will all get gift certificates! The hunt lasts all week, and ends at 11:59pm Pacific time on Easter (March 27).

300 Eggs??!

That’s right, we’ve upped our game… and hid 300 total eggs on our website (a hundred more than last year). We hope this shortens the time you have to hunt and peck between finding those blasted eggs

The Prizes

The biggest change this year is all about the prizes. This year, we have a big pool of prizes, and you use your eggs as currency to pick and choose your prizes. For example, if you find 10 eggs, you can pick a couple prizes… and the more eggs you find, the more prizes you’ll be eligible for! PLUS, we’re giving away a $20 gift certificate to every single hunter on the leaderboard when the hunt ends–just lke last year! Keep an eye on the leaderboard and read more about the prizes on the Hunt page.

An Important Note for Long-Time Egg Hunters

Make sure to check out the FAQ on the hunt page… we’ve updated it this year to explain some details about where you will and won’t find eggs. There are a few small changes this year. We hope it makes it easier to collect as many eggs (and prizes) as possible!

The Rules

We have detailed rules and some FAQs on the hunt page, so we suggest you check those out. There are a few things we want you to know, however. When you place an order to redeem your prizes, normal shipping rates apply (as low as $2 for U.S. customers). We have lots of great gifts this year, but we can’t guarantee they will all be available when the hunt ends on Sunday. So place your orders early to make sure you get the gifts you want!

What are you waiting for? Start hunting!

The 7th Annual Easter Egg Hunt at Lima Beads has come to a close, and we have an important announcement to make Let’s get right down to business…

Leaderboard Gift Certificates

Everyone that was on the Leaderboard at the end of the hunt gets a $20 Gift Certificate. We sent them out this morning via e-mail… if you’re on the Leaderboard, you should have yours shortly. We never underestimate the dedication it takes from the “egg-splorers” in the Top 100. Great job, you’ve earned it!

The Grand Prize

The Grand Prize for a $250 Gift Certificate is awarded to one of the hunters in the Top 10 at the end of the contest by a random drawing. This year’s grand prize winner is…. M Chen! We drew her name out of a Twizzler container, and we posted a pic below of the slip with her name. Congratulations! She searched diligently from the first day of the hunt up until the weekend.

Looking Back…

It’s hard to believe that we’ve had 7 Easter Egg Hunts, and we took some time to look back at the fun we’ve had in previous years. Does anyone remember when there were only 16 eggs? We’ve come along way (and literally hundreds of thousands of eggs have been found since then). Thanks to everyone for their ideas and suggestions for next year’s hunt. We’re listening!

Do you remember when there were only 16 eggs?

Thank You!

As always, we owe everyone a huge “Thank You” for taking part in the hunt. It takes a lot of time to pick out hiding spots and place all those little eggs, but that doesn’t come close to the amount of time you all spend trying to find them So thanks for helping make the week fun for everyone. We hope you enjoyed it! We hope everyone had a safe & happy Easter. Until next time…

UPDATE: The results have been posted!

The time has come for the 7th Annual Easter Egg Hunt at Lima Beads! We’re egg-shausted from a long weekend of egg hiding… and we hope you have fun this year : ) Just like the previous hunt, we have $2,000 in gift certificates that we’re giving away to the top hunters! :) And, we’ve made some changes to our website this year that we hope will keep everything nice and snappy. Read more about the hunt below, or check out the Hunt Page to get started!

The Basics

We’ve scattered 200 Easter eggs all over our website. The more eggs you find, the more prizes you get! We have a leaderboard to track the progress of all the egg hunters, and the top 100 hunters will all get gift certificates! The hunt lasts all week, and ends at 11:59pm Pacific time on Easter (April 5).

The Prizes

We have 5 different levels of prizes this year! You have to find at least 10 eggs to get your first prize, and you can unlock additional prizes after finding 25, 50, 75, and 100 eggs (for seriously insane egg hunters only) PLUS, we’re giving away a $20 gift certificate to every single hunter on the leaderboard when the hunt ends–just lke last year! Keep an eye on the leaderboard and read more about the prizes on the Hunt page.

The Rules

We have detailed rules and some FAQs on the hunt page, so we suggest you check those out. There are a few things we want you to know, however. When you place an order to redeem your prizes, normal shipping rates apply (as low as $2 for U.S. customers). We have lots of great gifts this year, but we can’t guarantee they will all be available when the hunt ends on Sunday. So place your orders early to make sure you get the gifts you want!

What are you waiting for? Start hunting!

WOW, what a week! The 6th Annual Easter Egg Hunt at Lima Beads was egg-citing, eggs-hausting, and egg-ceptionally big. More eggs than ever were found by a record number of hunters, and we enjoyed all of the hilarious comments, e-mails, and facebook posts that poured in. And now, onto the important stuff…

Leaderboard Gift Certificates

Everyone that was on the Leaderboard at the end of the hunt gets a $20 Gift Certificate. Steve is sending out those e-mails today… if you’re on the Leaderboard, you’ll be getting yours in the next couple hours. It took a LOT of persistence to stay in the Top 100, and we admire you all!

The Grand Prize

The Grand Prize for a $250 Gift Certificate is awarded to one of the hunters in the Top 10 at the end of the contest by a random drawing. This year’s grand prize winner is…. Cynthia C! We drew her name out of a Twizzler container (we have a lot of those around here)… and you can check out the video on our facebook page. Congratulations, Cynthia! She hunted through thousands of pages from April 14th all the way up until the very end of the contest on Easter.

Joe draws the winner...

Fun Facts

This year, we had a record number of hunters searching for those little diabolical eggs all over our website. The first egg was found 4 minutes after the contest officially launched, and the very last egg was found at 11:59am Pacific time with only 10 seconds left before the contest ended. Talk about hunting until the last minute! The egg that was discovered the most was the one right on the home page (of course)… and all of the eggs were found at least once.

Thank You

We want to extend a sincere “Thank You” to everyone who hunted for eggs this year. We have a lot of fun putting it together, but you are the ones who make it all worth it. We know as well as anyone that time is very precious, and we’re honored that you chose to spend some of it (or, in many cases, a LOT of it) with us this week. THANK YOU!

The time has come for the 6th Annual Easter Egg Hunt at Lima Beads! We’ve scoured our shelves this year, looking for great prizes to offer… and we have more than ever this year. And that doesn’t even include over $2,000 in gift certificates that we’re giving away to the top hunters! Read more about the hunt below, or check out the Hunt Page to get started!

The Basics

We’ve scattered 200 Easter eggs all over our website. The more eggs you find, the more prizes you get! We have a leaderboard to track the progress of all the egg hunters, and the top 100 hunters will all get gift certificates! The hunt lasts all week, and ends at 11:59pm Pacific time on Easter (April 20).

The Prizes

We have 5 different levels of prizes this year! You have to find at least 10 eggs to get your first prize, and you can unlock additional prizes after finding 25, 50, 75, and 100 eggs (for seriously insane egg hunters only) PLUS, we’re giving away a $20 gift certificate to every single hunter on the leaderboard when the hunt ends–just lke last year! Keep an eye on the leaderboard and read more about the prizes on the Hunt page.

The Rules

We have detailed rules and some FAQs on the hunt page, so we suggest you check those out. There are a few things we want you to know, however. When you place an order to redeem your prizes, normal shipping rates apply (as low as $2 for U.S. customers). We have lots of great gifts this year, but we can’t guarantee they will all be available when the hunt ends on Sunday. So place your orders early to make sure you get the gifts you want!

What are you waiting for? Start hunting!

UPDATE, April 15th at 12pm:

We want to make a clarification about the rules, and admit a mistake that we made placing eggs. In the FAQ on the Hunt Page, it states that you “never find eggs on ‘view all’ pages”. Last year, that was true. This year, we forgot about that rule, and we hid some eggs on those pages. This is our mistake, and we want to make it fair for everyone. So, here’s what we’re going to do. For the first time ever, we’re going to post the location of those eggs so everyone can find them Egg 1 – Egg 2 – Egg 3 – Egg 4 – Egg 5 – Egg 6. Make sure you’re logged into your account to see them.

We know that there are some people that found these eggs fair and square, and might feel that their hard work went to waste. We understand that. But this is the only way to keep it fair for everyone that followed our rules and ignored those pages. It’s not perfect, but it’s as fair as we can be. To clarify, those eggs above are the only ones on “view all” pages. There aren’t any more (so you can skip other “view all” pages while hunting). Hopefully, this saves everyone a little time We apologize! If you have any questions about this, please use the “Contact Our Team” button under the Customer Service menu at the top. We’ll be able to respond to you personally.

UPDATE: The winners have been announced!

We had another great Scream Week this year, and we hope you all enjoyed it as much as we did! We had to put some extra hours in the warehouse to pack up all the orders with free gifts… but it was all worth it. The last order of business for Scream Week 2013 was to tally up the votes for the Fresh Pick contest. Each winner will receive a $25 Lima Beads Gift Certificate, and we’ll be sending those out within 24 hours. Congratulations to all the winners! Without further adieu:

Best Composition Winner: Hocus Pocus by SaruHime. We loved the colors, variety, and overall balance of this spooky & sparkly pick. It cast a spell on us!

Coolest Costume Winner: Gypsy Queen by Gail Layne. This costume is nothing short of mesmerizing in our minds. The gold and glass, along with the ribbon and chain, really paint the picture of a gypsy queen.

Story or Poem Winner: Twas the night of Halloween by Beadzilla aka Wanda. We loved the spooky twist on this classic poem, and the irony of the bat being the good guy! And I’m sure all the parents out there have had a good scare when thinking about unwrapped treats or chaos in the streets.

People’s Choice Winner: Jack’O by Gina P – Delta Chick. This take on the classic Halloween symbol won over the hearts (and favorites) of beaders around the world. It’s no surprise to us–we love it, too!

Congrats again, and thanks so much to all the pickers out there who made this possible! Until next year…

Below is the original text announcing the contest…

The Halloween Fresh Pick contest was a lot of fun last year, so we’re doing it again! Read below for details or check out last year’s contest for ideas!

Part of the fun of Halloween is to show off your creepy, creative ideas… from decorations to costumes to jewelry. If you’re feeling extra creepy this year, then this contest is for you! The rules are simple, and the prizes are sweet (even sweeter than Twizzlers).

Make a Fresh Pick and Win

Conjure up those ghost stories, costumes, and creepy color combos… and make a Fresh Pick to share them with everyone! We’ll pick 4 winners from the Fresh Picks submitted as a comment to this blog post (instructions are below). One winner will be chosen for each of these four themes:

• Best Composition: The overall composition is one of the most important qualities of a beautiful Fresh Pick. Creating the best possible color & texture arrangement (with a Halloween theme, of course) is key to winning this category.
• Coolest Costume: Were you a crayon? A princess? A robot? A superhero? Show off by making a Fresh Pick inspired by your costume idea. Sure, colors are important… but try and tell more about the costume through the items you choose.
• Scariest Story or Poem: Everyone loves a good ghost story (*ahem* most of the time). We’ll read your description that you add to your Fresh Pick. It could be a scary story, a tale about your favorite childhood Halloween memory, a poem (that you write yourself), or pretty much any type of Halloween prose.
• People’s Choice: We’ll total up the number of favorites that each Fresh Pick entry receives… and the one with the most favorites will be the People’s Choice winner! Make sure your vote is counted by going to the Fresh Pick and marking your favorites.

Now, for the important part…

The Prizes

The winner of each theme will receive a $25 Lima Beads gift certificate. You can use it to buy anything from our shop!

When you’re ready to submit your Pick, just select it from the drop-down menu in the comment form below. You’ll be able to choose from your 10 most recent picks. Choose the one that you’d like to submit to the contest and “Voila!” Not sure what a Fresh Pick is? Find out how to Design Your Own Fresh Picks!

Here are a few final ground rules before you get started:

• There will be 3 submissions allowed per person. If you make more than that, only your most recent 3 will be counted. You don’t have to match your picks with the themes above–you can do all costumes, all stories, or a mix of everything. Just remember, 3 is the limit!
• All Picks must be submitted as a comment on this blog post by Thursday, October 31st at midnight.
• You can win up to one gift certificate per person.
• The Lima Beads team will pick the winners on Friday, November 1. The People’s Choice winner will be selected by the number of favorites received. The winners will be announced here on the blog.

OK, get picking! Good luck!

Update: We have our winners!

Wow, what an amazing collection of Stained Glass Window designs we had! We want to take a moment and thank everyone who participated by making jewelry, marking their favorites, or just following along. With busy schedules and the start of Fall, we know things can get crazy… so we really appreciate you taking the time to have fun on our website!

We tallied up the votes, and first place for the most popular design goes to… Elis Mom for the design Stained Glass Dragonfly Love! We’ve been loving the sari silk lately, and we’re glad the voters agreed! Second prize goes to puppychick labratbecky for the design Centuries of Worship. We love the story behind the inspiration–it really shines through the design! We have a bit of a surprise for third place… a tie! Congrats to Katelynn L for her Layered Glass Drop Earrings, and to dragonflyvine for the design Vineyard Harvest. They were loved equally by beaders from around the world, and we’re thrilled for both of them. They’ll each get the third place prize.

We’ll be sending out the gift certificates via e-mail to the winners shortly. Congratulations again, and thanks so much for designing and voting! We have some more fun planned in October, so stay tuned

Original post follows…

In the spring of 2012, we worked with Vintaj on a “Spring Rain” inspired promotion that resulted in some beautiful designs from our beading community. We’re partnering up with them again this month, and they’ve chosen use “Stained Glass Window” as the inspiration for their designs. Plus, we’re having a fun contest to get your spin on these mosaics of color.

We’ve packaged the beads used by Vintaj into a kit that you can purchase below. Here’s how it works: purchase a kit, add other components, design some jewelry, and add it to our Design Gallery. The people with the 3 most popular designs will each win a Lima Beads gift certificate. Full details are available below. Happy designing!

Get the Bead Kit

Add Components to Finish it Off

After you purchase your bead kit, you’ll want to finish it off with other components. We’ve got a list of official components to use in your designs over on the contest page. The majority of your design (about 75%) should be made up from items in the bead kit and/or these additional components. The rest of your design is up to you… anything goes!

Enter Your Design to Win

Once you finish making your design, just add it to our Design Gallery. When you are uploading your photos and entering the information, remember to select “Vintaj Stained Glass 2013″ for the seasonal promo option. When you’re finished, your design will show up alongside all the other Stained Glass Window designs. Click the button below to begin!

See the Designs

To start us off, the designers at Vintaj sent us over the following designs inspired by the “Stained Glass Window” theme. Follow along on the contest page to see ALL the designs uploaded by beaders from all around the world. Make sure to add the ones you love to your Favorites… and remember, the contest ends on September 20!

Official Contest Rules

1. You can make anything you want–a necklace, bracelet, earrings, or anything else.
2. The majority of the components in your design (about 75%) must be from the bead kit and/or the additional components listed on the contest page. It’s OK to use your own components, but they should accent your design–not be the focus.
3. To submit your design to win, you need to add it to our Design Gallery. Make sure to choose “Vintaj Stained Glass 2013″ from the seasonal options when you upload your design–that’s important! When you’re finished, your design should show up with all the other Stained Glass Window designs.
4. There will be three winners. First prize is a $100 Lima Beads gift certificate. Second prize is a $50 gift certificate. Third prize (you guessed it) is a $25 gift certificate.
5. Winners will be chosen based on a combination of how many times their design was viewed and favorited–the most popular designs win!
6. All designs must be submitted to the gallery by 11:59pm US Eastern time on September 20th, 2013. The winners will be announced a week later.
7. The MOST IMPORTANT rule is this: Be yourself, get inspired, and have fun!

Give us YOUR take with Fresh Picks

During the contest (now through 9/20), you can also create Fresh Picks with the Stained Glass window theme. Just select the “Vintaj Stained Glass 2013″ seasonal promo for the picks you create, and they’ll show up on the contest page. If you’ve never made a Fresh Pick before, don’t worry… it’s easy! To make it even better, Vintaj is holding their own contest centered around Stained Glass Fresh Picks. Head over to the Vintaj blog and submit one of your picks for the chance to win!

Thanks and Good Luck!

We want to thank all the beaders out there that make these contests fun. And, of course, we want to thank Vintaj for partnering up with us. You can leave any questions

The two things that stress me out the most here in bead-land are probably the mere mention of seed beads (we carry over 1100!) and/or chain maille. There’s so many LITTLE pieces! My fine motor skills have never been stellar (though I can type 75 wpm, does that count?) and all these little rings and beads can feel overwhelming. Anyone else get anxiety like that??

So when Kadie told me we were launching Weave Got Maille kits and suggested we try it out for another craft night, I was a little dubious. But as I considered her proposal, I figured this was something I could handle. After all, a kit has all the materials you’d need to make the picture on the box AND it has step by step instructions. (Also, they are bracelet-making kits, so I hoped to have a finished product in no time. It helps to have that positive sense of accomplishment early on when pursuing something new).

Challenge Accepted

*Note: do not wreck your chain nose pliers by trying to pry off a bottle cap, please use a bottle opener for safety

Kadie and I gathered our materials and because of the SUPER nice Michigan weather we’ve been having, we sat out on my front porch. People watching, pizza eating, and chain-mailling ensued. We noticed there was no warning on the kits for Beginner, Advanced, or Expert– so we had no choice but to jump right in and select a kit based solely on looks. Kadie chose the Byzantine bracelet because she liked the intricacies of the rings connecting. I chose the Shaggy Loop bracelet because it had seed beads in it (kill two birds with one stone right!?).

Now, I must admit, beading outside was THE BEST. Fresh air, friendly folks, birds singing, and being so close to the green grass helped me totally forget how crazy all these tiny pieces make me. I know, I know, folks often feel most comfortable in their little beading den, which is fine. But have you ever been outside? It’s great. I took a tip from one of our customers and brought out an old cookie sheet. Because my kit had the seed beads, I also brought out a dishtowel to serve as my beading mat (pretty inventive, right?). Being overwhelmed by the sizes, gauges, and types of jump rings was totally cut out of the picture with these kits. Upon opening, we found each type of ring in its own separate bag– made organization so easy! Then, my favorite part…the directions!! All we had to provide were the pliers. Kadie and I found ourselves using a mish-mash of different types of pliers, but decided using chain nose pliers without ridges was the best. It seriously cut down on ‘marring’ the rings. (At one point I started in with a pair of pliers from my travel tool box– thanks, Dad!– and while they held the rings well, the “grips” on there really dug into the jump rings).

Down to Business

Kadie got off to a great start. With over 200 rings before her and a first instruction of “open all your jump rings,” she was a little exasperated. But WOW. Be sure to listen to that first instruction! It makes it so much easier to get into a groove while chain maille-ing! It seemed like a silly instruction– and why not open while you go?– trust us, these Weave Got Maille people know what they’re doing! My kit didn’t have nearly as many rings as Kadie’s, but it did have the seed beads. I actually snatched a few other colors from Lima Beads’ stash because I wanted to make a Michigan State themed bracelet…so I needed some greens to go with the included whites.

After about an hour, we had definitely made some progress: all our jump rings had been opened, we started in on the patterns given us, AND we had nearly polished off a whole pizza (mmmm!). Alas, the sun was setting so we had to move the operation indoors. My living room coffee table hosted our very portable cookie sheet cum beading tray and we were back at the assembly.

Kate, trying not to go cross-eyed and facing her fears!

 Wrap Up

All in all, these little kits were great. It provided all materials (except pliers). It explained things clearly. And it made some pretty fancy looking jewelry! A mere three hours and what an accomplishment! Kadie thinks her bracelet was a little more difficult than mine… because it involved a little extra ‘weaving’ rather than just open/close of the jump rings. However, the instructions taught her how to do it. If a couple of novices could handle it, I think you can too! If you’ve ever been curious about chain maille, but overwhelmed by where to start, these little kits will set you up right and get you on the path to making your own tie-dyed-t-shirt (thanks, Pinterest!) in no time!! (No joke- we’ve got tons of multi-colored rings, perfect for a tie-dye project!)

Happy crafting!

We’ve been thrilled with the response to this year’s Easter Egg Hunt. Looking back, adding 100 more eggs made hunting more fun given the enormity of our site. If we keep growing, who knows, you could be looking for even more eggs in years to come! I think we’ll have to start hiding them in January if that’s ever the case.

We truly enjoy doing fun things like this on our site. Whether it’s the Crossword Sale in January, weekly Lunch Specials or the Big Green Bead Machine, there are lots of unique and interesting ways for you to save on beads. Stay tuned to see what we’re cooking up for the future.

Fun Facts

This year's most clicked egg

All of the eggs were found at least once. The hardest egg was only found once. I’d tell you where it was, but I think we’ll save that one for next year.

The egg clicked by the most hunters was the one on the main beads page. We were a little surprised that the giant egg on the home page that said “Click me to begin” wasn’t the most clicked…

The most talked about egg was the one hidden in the search engine. All you had to do was search for “Egg.” 702 of you found this one.

Is it an understatement to say that the check marks were a welcomed addition?

Here are a few more locations I had a lot of fun hiding.

This Year’s Winners

Congratulations to everyone who ended the hunt on the Leaderboard. As promised, we’ll be sending all of you a $20 gift certificate to Lima Beads.

We were watching the top ten intently throughout the hunt. It goes without saying that those hunters were determined to have their name in the hat for the grand prize. Speaking of, the winner of the $250 Grand Prize is… Hilda M! You can see a video of Kadie drawing her name out of an empty Twizzlers box on our Facebook page.

Gift certificate winners, keep your eyes peeled for an email from us in the next 24 hours!

Thanks for participating in this year’s Easter Egg Hunt. It’s going to be hard to beat, but we’ll give it our best in 2014. I love playing the Easter Bunny and look forward to stumping you all again.

The time has come for the 5th annual Easter Egg Hunt at Lima Beads! There are more prizes than ever, including more than $2,000 in gift certificates. We’ve also made the hunt a little easier and more fun by scattering double the number of eggs across our site. Read more about the hunt below, or check out the Hunt Page to get started!

The Basics

We’ve scattered 200 eggs across all corners of our website. The more eggs you find, the more prizes you get! We have a leaderboard to track the progress of hunters from all over the world, and the top hunters will all get gift certificates this year! The hunt lasts all week, and ends at 11:59pm Pacific time on Easter (March 31).

The Prizes

We have 5 different levels of prizes this year, including some great bonus prizes. You have to find at least 10 eggs to get your first prize, and you can unlock additional prizes after finding 25, 50, 75, and 100 eggs (for seriously insane egg hunters only) As a bonus this year, we’re giving away a $20 gift certificate to every single hunter on the leaderboard when the hunt ends. This means we’re giving away at least 100 gift certificates! Keep an eye on the leaderboard and read more about the prizes on the Hunt page.

The Rules

We have detailed rules and some FAQs on the hunt page, so we suggest you check those out. There are a few things we want you to know, however. When you place an order to redeem your prizes, normal shipping rates apply (as low as $2 for U.S. customers). We have lots of great gifts this year, but we can’t guarantee they will all be available when the hunt ends on Sunday. So place your orders early to make sure you get the gifts you want!

What are you waiting for? Start hunting!

New to our Artists line up, from a little fiber arts studio in Lexington, Kentucky, comes Nellie Thomas and WoolyWire. When I first saw these creations, I was immediately drawn to the vibrant colors and funky style of this 24-gauge fiber-wrapped wire. So many ideas swimming in my head on how to use this and incorporate into my design work! Spin-Culture studios sources the raw-wool, freshly sheared, and washes, cards, dyes, and spins it into the most delicious looking yarns. The genius behind all this is felting the yarn to a length of 24 gauge craft wire. Beautiful color throughout a project or as accents along the way. I am swooning.

Thanks to technology, we were able to conduct a long-distance interview from Ann Arbor to Lexington to get the scoop on Nellie the artist and her world of fiber arts.

Q. What drew you to spinning?

A. One reason I love spinning is because I enjoy playing with all of the different textures. There are so many different types of textures to play with when using a number of different breeds of sheep and other various textiles.  I also enjoy how the experience while spinning can be somewhat versatile; I can either relax and have a zen like experience of just making the same motions with my hands while not really having to focus on anything specific, basically enjoying it for the pure pleasure of spinning…and yet I can also be creative with it and let my mind run in different directions with ideas of how to create new types of yarn and spinning methods.

Q. What are your favorite colors? least favorite colors?

A. I would say my fave colors are within the blue/green spectrum…my least fave is pastel/cotton candy pink.

Q.  Do you have any pets we should know about?

A. I have one cat named Chloe and is all black and she is my cat pretty much. There is also a dog here in the house which is my mom’s named Casey…she’s a German Shepard.

Casey supervises the day's work

Q. What is your favorite hobby besides the fiber arts?

A. I haven’t had a chance to do this much recently, but I really enjoy playing pool (billiards)

Q. Where do you find your inspiration?

A. I would have to say helping people to find their creative outlet inspires me. When people tell me they are learning how to spin, or how to do something particular with fiber prep, or learn how to knit– that sort of stuff really makes me happy to help them to be able to accomplish their creative endeavor. I’m not really sure why..I guess I have just found spinning/finding my creative outlet has affected my life in so many good ways that I’m happy to see it might do the same for others.

If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to talk to a passionate person about their passion…read Nellie’s final comments to our Q&A session:

We just really love WoolyWire! Check it out and let us know what you think. Can’t wait to start seeing pieces pop up in the Design Gallery… In fact, I was so excited about this particular launch, I posted a few ideas, to get your creative juices flowing (earrings & bracelet). Check ‘em out. Tell me what you think!

Another January has finally passed us by, meaning only one thing. We’re just that much closer to Spring! I can hope, can’t I? That’s probably not why you’re reading thing post, though… So I’ll get right to the point.

Announcing the Winners…

We had lots and lots of people take time to solve this year’s Crossword Puzzle, and we’ve shipped out tons of free gifts. But there are only 3 $50 Gift Certificates to hand out, and I want to announce the winners here. The winners were selected at random from the entire list of people who solved the puzzle. And the winners are…

• Lee from Reno, NV
• Nancy from Port Hadlock, WA
• Cheryl from Cascade, WI

I’ll be e-mailing you the gift certificates personally today. So keep an eye on your inbox!

A Big Thanks…

We are always surprised by how many people take time out of their busy lives to fill out a crossword puzzle about beads. We want you to know that it would be impossible for us to have fun promotions like this without beaders like you. So, from the bottom of our Lima Hearts, thank you!

We’ve got some more fun on the horizon, too. You have all probably noticed that we have Free Shipping February going on… And I just looked at the calendar, and noticed that Easter is really early this year. You know what that means