Turquoise Beads Revisited

Remember this gift?

I received these Cousin Beads from Lisa Crone of A Bead a Day.  I used the beads in this necklace.  I thought the orange beads and the butterfly pendant gave it a nice summery look.

They also looked great in earrings!

Beautiful Gifts!

I just received a lovely gift from blogger and author Lisa Crone of A Bead a Day.  The pendant is large and adorned with aqua and red crystals in an antique brass frame.  It will coordinate with the faceted bi-color crystals in red and brown.

You can see that the pendant is completely open.  I would like to use this in a project where I put some sort of artwork as the base and possibly sealing it with resin.  I just have to do enough planning so I don't irretrievably muck it up!

As if that wasn't enough, I also received various bead strands in lovely shades of blue and turquoise.  Another project to contemplate!  I think I might use silver accents rather than the golden accents that it came with.  The turquoise might "pop" well with yellow or orange colors.  I have used the Cousin jewelry products in my designs before, and they always have many pretty things to get my ideas flowing.

These items were gifted to me, rather than purchased.

Violet in Chains

Violet matte pinched ovals, violet charms, violet chain.  Violet much?  I added almond colored pearls to the mix.  I think this has an updated Victorian look to it.  Pretty much all the components are from the Cousin Corp. , a brand sold in local craft stores.  They've recently come out with some new charms and pendants, which have piqued my curiosity.  I've found the widest selection of this brand at my local A. C. Moore store.

This necklace took a couple of tries.  I originally thought I would put the charms and pendant directly on the chain, but it didn't sit right.  Then I changed my tactics, and made the main necklace with the charms and pendant as the center focal, and strung the matte pinched ovals with pearls on either side.  I then attached two strands of their violet chain to the clasp area.  That seemed to work out much better.