~ Latest Chainmaille Projects

Just finished making these little babies this morning.  Pretty quick projects considering I started making them late last night.  Each has wire-wrapped beads of spider agate, jade, aventurine, jasper and hematite.  The necklace has two main sizes of jump rings while the bracelet is generally one size with exception of the connector rings for the toggle.  Click on each of the photos for a closer look.  For more inspiration, go to the Blue Buddha Boutique website.

~ Instagram – May 26

~ Beginning of the End

If you’ve kept up with me these last couple of years you know I have been on a bit of a Twilight Saga bender.  All good things must come to an end…but we still have Breaking Dawn 2 to watch and then I’ll be done.  Really, I’ll be done! =)  It is still a few months until November so here you go, my latest digi-layout of the latest BD2 posters I made for the ladies in Twilight Sorority.  Yes, I couldn’t resist.

~ Instagram – May 19

Wow, looks like food and chainmaille were mostly on my mind this week!

~ Awesome Birthday Weekend

I had a great birthday weekend starting with Friday lunch at Filomena in Georgetown with the ladies from work.  We were fortunate to be in Filomena when the owner came in.  She was super nice coming by to talk with us and wished me a happy birthday.  She even joined us for picture! =)  She is the lady to right in pink.  Sadly, the Pasta Mamas were not making pasta in the window while we were there but that gives me an excuse to go back for a visit!

After lunch we walked a couple of blocks to pick up my cupcakes.  If you’re familiar with the show DC Cupcake, that’s where I purchased my birthday cupcakes (AKA Georgetown Cupcake) I took my three dozen cupcakes home and made it into a cupcake tower.  After taking plenty of photos of it, I gave many of the cupcakes away.  Really, how can a family of four consume 36 cupcakes before they go stale?

The festivities continued on Saturday with the family at La Tasca in Old Town Alexandria for tapas and Sunday we watched The Avengers.  It was a great three days!

~ Mother’s Day at Lorton Farmer’s Market

My hubby and I spent an early Mother’s Day morning at the Lorton Farmer’s Market.  This was our first visit of the season and we were surprised by the amount of greens and flowers this time around.  We generally frequent the marker later in the season when peppers and peaches are in abundance but were happy to partake of the fresh goods nonetheless.  We bought farm-fresh daikon radishes, garlic, green onions and two loaves of bread.  Support locally grown food and farms by going to your nearby farmer’s markets.

~ New Chainmaille Bracelets

It has been a while since I last worked on a chainmaille project.  The pink bracelet is for a friend who recently underwent surgery on her wrist.  Hopefully this little bit of bling will make a happy gift. =)  It is two byzantine chains connected together at the larger connector rings and at the ends.

I broke out my copy of Chained by Rebeca Mojica for a little coiled inspiration.  The purple coiled and byzantine combo is for me.  We have “purple day” every Thursday at work and it was high time I made a bracelet with purple  rings.

~ Instagram – May 12

~ Instagram – May 5

~ Instagram – April 28

~ OZZ April Bind-it-All Project – Smile

For More Bind-It-All Inspiration, Tutorial And Supply List For This Project, Please Go To The Bind-It-All Blog.

 

~ Shine Minibook

Here is my latest Bind-it-All project, just a spur-of-the moment “I need to make something” project.  I’ll eventually put photos in the book but for now, here it is. =)  The inside pages are tabbed acrylic while the covers are very thick chipboard.  I pulled the flower off an affordable bunch I purchased at Michaels.

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Supplies:

• Zutter – 1″ antique brass O-wire, 5×7.5″ tabbed acrylic
• 7Gypsies – bookboard
• Fancy Pants Designs – patterned paper
• Epiphany Crafts – round epoxy
• Timeless Twine – twine
• flat bottlecaps, fabric flower

~ USMC Retirement Easel Card

Let the party continue!  There is another event for the Spasojevich extended family today.  Yesterday was the retirement ceremony and this afternoon there is a renewal of wedding vows at the chapel at the National Museum of the Marine Corps.  I made this easel card from the photos I took yesterday that my husband will present to Col Spasojevich with a couple of small tokens of appreciation. =)

Supplies:

• PaperSource – cardstock
• Stamping Station – patterned paper
• Epiphany Crafts –  epoxy circle
• flat bottle cap

~ Retirement Ceremony – Col David Spasojevich

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~ Instagram – April 20 at the National Museum of the Marine Corps

My husband and I were invited to a retirement ceremony at the Marine Corps Museum today.  In addition to using my camera, I took a several photos with my phone to share right away on Instagram.  Here is what I shared earlier today.  Other photos to be posted later.  Come back for a visit. =)

~ Instagram – April 19

~ Instagram – April 15

Instagram – April 14

My new obsession (believe me, my obsessions are pretty impulsive and sometimes fleeting) for now is the Android version of Instagram.  Every so often, I’ll share a compilation of photos, random at best) on my blog.  Here are the first nine I took just this week.  If you’d like to follow me on Instagram, I’d totally love that. =)

~ All Occasion Card Class

Finally got around to putting these photos up.  I taught three sessions total of my All Occasion Card Class in March and early April.  Here are my co-workers putting their projects together.

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Supplies:

• PaperSource, Stampin’ Up! – cardstock
• Fancy Pants – patterned paper
• American Crafts – adhesive fabric paper
• buttons

~ Happy Easter and Easel Card

Happy Easter, all!  We kept our Easter celebration small and just the family today.

Here is my card sample for the next class I’m teaching later this month, a 5 1/2″ square easel card.

Supplies:

• PaperSource – cardstock, satin ribbon
• My Mind’s Eye – patterned paper
• Epiphany Crafts – large circle and epoxy
• Prima – flowers
• Stampin’ Up! – large brad
• flat bottlecap

~ Greeting Card Gift Set & Minibook Teaser

This weekend I made a set of six cards for a co-worker as part of a going away present.  She expressed interest in the color orange at the last card class I taught at work so there is a bit of orange in both the cards and the envelopes.  I also made a small pockets and tags Bind-it-All minibook that I’ll show a sneak peek of below.  Please come back another day to see a full post on the minibook sometime next month or so. =)

Teaser of my latest minibook cover.

Card Supplies:

• Cardstock – Stampin’ Up!; Bazzill Basics
• Patterned Paper – DCWV
• Flowers – Creative Imaginations; Prima
• Twine – The Twinery
• Epoxy Stickers – K&Company
• Gems – Doodlebug
• buttons

~ OZZ – March Bind-It-All Project – Flat Stanley Adventures

For More Bind-It-All Inspiration, Tutorial and Supply List For This Project), Please Go To The Bind-It-All Blog.

{Click on the photos for a closer look!}

~ OZZ – March Bind-It-All Project – Danielle & Stephen

 

For more Bind-It-All inspiration (and a supply list for this project), please go to the Bind-It-All Blog.

 

~ Valentine’s Day Card Class

Here are the photos from my first class of the year!  Valentine’s Day tends to be a big draw for my office!

I kept the design of the card simple but provided a lot of paper and embellishment options for each of the participants to design their own unique projects.  To ensure that the attention would be paid to putting the projects together instead of the mechanics of prepping the different pieces, I pre-cut/creased all of the paper and pre-assembled ribbon bundles.

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Supplies:

• PaperSource – cardstock
• Recollections – cardstock
• Wausau Paper –  textured cardstock
• Echo Park – patterned paper, cardstock stickers
• K & Company – adhesive borders
• Kaisercraft – bling borders, pearl borders
• Doodlebug – gems
• ColorBox – ink
• Tattered Angels – Glimmermist
• Epiphany Crafts – epoxy caps
• ribbon, flat bottle caps

~ Happy 2012!

Happy first day of 2012, all!  Hope you have great creative projects in store for this year.

I finally got around to uploading some of my photos of handmade Christmas presents.  The projects above are chainmaille bracelets with personalized charms for my sisters-in-law and mom.  The weave is byzantine with rings I ordered from Blue Buddha Boutique.  The charms are scrapbooking charms from 7Gypsies which are now very hard to find.  I printed photos to fit on the double-sided charms and sealed with Golden self-leveling medium.

Come back this week for a visit in the next few weeks.  I should have some new photos and other projects to share soon.

~ My Blog – 2011 in review

Thanks to all who have visited my blog this year and over the last several years!  Happy New Year and may you have good luck and prosperity in 2012!

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The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 23,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 9 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

~ Latest Cooking and Crafting

 

Been busy these last few weeks with all sorts of crafting – candy-making (first time — not so good but tried it anyway), Christmas stocking card class at work, jewelry-making and pie-baking.  I’ll have more photos to share soon!

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~ Team Emmett Bracelet

Here is my most current Twilight-themed project for a recent contest I ran on the Twilight Sorority Facebook page.  This is a combination of Byzantine chainmaille with scales, beaded embellishments and a double-sided Team Emmett charm.  It is a more elaborate Twilight-themed bracelet than the ones I’ve made in the last few months.  Congratulations to my Twi-sis, Christina, who was randomly chosen as the winner!

 

~ Autumn Card Class

It has been a while since I’ve posted photos from a lunchtime work class!  Here are a few of my co-workers who made my latest card design last week.

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Supplies:  Stampin’ Up! – cardstock; Bella Blvd – patterned paper; K&Company – cardstock stickers; The Twinery – twine

~ Oopsy! Turned a boo-boo into something good!

Here is my latest chainmaille –  a 6-in-1 with scales and beaded embellishments.  The reason I call it a “boo-boo” is because a co-worker ordered an 8-in-1.  I mindlessly went along with the 6-in-1 weave and when I finished it realized I made the wrong one!  D’oh!  So, instead of wasting it I added scales and beads and matched the colors to a new dress I just purchased. =)

Was very productive this past Veterans Day weekend.  In addition to the bracelet shown to the left, I completed two Turkish Roundmaille bracelets and two 8-in-1 bracelets.