Week One of the craftpimp Blog Ring - featured artist Laney of Izzybeads

Time flies doesn’t it? I’ve been a member over at the craftpimp forum for almost a year. In that time I have been fortunate enough to get to know lots of very talented people. The beauty of craftpimp is that no matter what you craft there is a place for you there and people eager to offer support and appreciate what you make.

One of the talented artists I’ve had the pleasure to get to know is Laney of  "izzybeads". Laney is a lampwork glass artist and Oh Boy does she make gorgeous beads. When I first said "Hello" to Laney on craftpimp I think I called her Izzy lol, an easy mistake to make I guess but "Izzy" is actually the name of one of her dogs :o).

Laney has two dogs which she walks regularly and rarely without incident, much to the amusement of the rest of us over at craftpimp, when she regales us with her stories.

Here they are:-

Meet De-Fi and Izzy fresh from a hopefully incident free walk :o)

Laney is one talented, grounded, funny lady, although I struggle to use the word "lady" she strikes me as still being more of a girl! Her sense of humour often comes across in her work and the results are awe inspiring.

available here on Ebay

I adore the frog beads, they were the first beads of Laney’s I ever saw, so bright and cheerful and beautifully made with such an attention to detail, look at their eyes.... and the way their arms are hugging the beads, too gorgeous for words :o) and I've just bought one whoop.

Giraffe Lampwork Glass Pendant available on etsy

Laney sells her beads through her Etsy Store and through her ebay shop.

Here are some more gorgeous beads.

Easter bunny focal lampwork glass bead available on Etsy

 What a perfect Easter gift for someone you love.

Under the sea focal lampwork bead available on etsy

White Roses Ocean Blues Glass Focal Bead Set available on ebay

Bones Lampwork Glass Beads available on ebay

Laney also creates fused glass pieces, something that I am sooo jealous of as I would love to work with glass.

Set of 4 fused glass coasters available on etsy

As you can see Laney’s work is stunning, quirky and perfect in every way.

Laney also has her own blog called "Life with Izzybeads" where you can learn a bit more about her.

 One of the posts on her blog is a wonderful tutorial on how to make a super cute elephant bead "Elephant Beginnings" This is the first tutorial Laney has ever posted and is in aid of a wonderful cause. Laney and many of the other beaders on craftpimp actively support the Beads of Courage Programme, a very worthwhile cause so please click the link for more information.

When I was involved in my first craftpimp blog ring almost a year ago I didn't even know how to create links or upload photos properly. What a difference a year makes lol.

Happy Crafting.

Mel :o)



Challenge 17 - Jellypark Friends - A night at the Oscars

Hello there and a very happy Friday to you.

It's time to reveal what the latest challenge is over at Jellypark Friends and Jennifer (who I am sending big hugs too, right now) has picked such a fun theme for us.....A night at the Oscars, we would love to see all of your movie inspired cards. This time round my group is covering the challenge cards. I knew straight away what I would do and Claire had the perfect image for it over in the store. My favourite film is "A Knights Tale" with Heath Ledger, I really love the use of modern music within the medieval setting.

Here is what I made.

I had lots of fun colouring him up and trying to get his armour to look like shiny metal.

There are also 2 new releases out today and they are pretty special I can tell you, so pop on over to the Jellypark Challenge site for a looksy at what our fab DT have made with them.

Another brand new image to the store is the amazing digi that Claire drew for the 1st Jellypark Junior Challenge winner P.K.

The image is one of the Little Haven Charity images so every penny from each one sold will go to the charity :o) 

P.K wanted her sibings and herself represented in the image and here it is. P.K is leading the parade.

"Follow me"

How WOW is this?

Have a fantabulous weekend guys and Happy Crafting.

Mel :o)x
Challenges entered :-
lollipop crafts ~ challenge 68 ~ anything goes
the sisterhood of crafters ~getting digi with it

pennys challenges ~ challenge 73 ~ anything goes
craft us crazy ~ challenge 21 - favourite embellishments - buttons every time, just love them :o)
willow sketchie challenge ~ anything goes

Challenge 16 - Jellypark Friends - Shades of Love

Good morning fellow crafters, I hope you all have wonderful plans for the weekend. I'm so pleased that it's half term next week, hopefully get a fair bit if crafting done with the kids and maybe the odd lie in ;o) I can live in hope he he.

Over at jellypark friends we have a new challenge for you and the theme is "Shades of Love", we'd like to see pink, purple or red in your projects or all 3 if you so wish :o) perfectly apt really as Valentine's Day is next week. I don't have a challenge card to share this time as my group are covering the new release images from the jellypark store. I've been lucky enough to get a sneak peek of the gorgeous challenge cards the other team have made and you can see them too when you pop over to the challenge blog.

My card is made with one of the new release images, I shall blog about the other one later in the week.

You can see what my DT teamies have made with both new releases over at the challenge blog.

How gorgeous is this little guy and so perfect for your Easter projects.

I coloured him with my promarkers, I got my cricut earning it's keep for the 2nd week running lol it's been hard at work cutting out tulips, the plant pot is a die cut which I coloured with promarkers. The papers are another freebie from a magazine (don't ya just love freebies) they are so cute with little bunnies and lambs and spotty eggs. I can't wait for Easter, chocolate always seems to taste better :o).

Have a great weekend.

Happy Crafting

Mel :o) x

Jellypark supports Little Havens Children's Hospice

Last Friday over in the Jellypark Store Claire released a new image. This is a very special new release as it's this month's charity image. During 2012 Claire has chosen to support the Little Havens Children's Hospice. Little Havens cares for life-limited children and their families throughout the journey of their illness.

Every month Claire will release an image and every penny from the sale of the images will go to the charity.

I went straight to the shop to buy this little beauty. Here is the first of many cards that I will be making with her.

I've just realised that I've given her the same colour hair as the one Claire coloured up, funny that I thought she looked like a girl I went to school with and she had beautiful strawberry blonde hair which is why I chose that colour :o)

The background papers are a freebie from cardmaking and papercraft magazine, the pink and purple card on each corner are from a paper pad I got from Create and Craft, I've hand stitched them in place.

The gorgeous little girl is coloured in with promarkers as per usual and I've die cut some swirly sparkly bits and added pearls to each corner. Oh and I've finally gotten around to looking at cricut craftroom so the lemony swirly background frame was made on there and cut out on the cricut.

Happy Crafting

Mel :o)

Challenges entered :-

The paper shelter - swirls and pearls 31/1 (pink sparkly swirls and pearls in each corner)

Crafts and me challenge-challenge 68-pink and sparkly 31/1 (pink sparkly swirls)

I love promarkers - challenge 101 - purple and pink 31/1 (my colours exactly)

My mums craft shop challenges - challenge 41 - flowers 31/1 (flowery backing paper)

digidoodle shops best - challenge 92 - anything goes
Party time tuesdays - ptt53 - anything goes 7/2

Polka dots and a new vocation

I've decided that I missed my vocation in life, my mum always said I should have been a nurse and oh boy with the amount of ill peeps in my house recently that is all I've done. I'm up and down the stairs like a yo yo. It's the OH's turn now bless him and he really isn't very well at all. He's sleeping after a terrible night and the kids have been dispatched hopefully for a full day in school with no phone calls.

So it's..............

Blogger time for a bit whoop :o). Today I have a card which I made especially for the Polka Doodles fb/twitter (@Polkadoodles_uk) challenge. Nikky provided the image for the challenge and you have until Sunday 29th Jan to enter.

I printed the image off and my first instinct was to do some paper piecing as I thought that would look cool but as I was pondering I spotted my collection of silk threads, many of which match my promarkers perfectly and an idea was born :o).

Voila

I started off by colouring the images with my promakers and did all of my blending etc then I got my pokey tool and created the holes I needed to stitch through. Once I had finished the stitch work I used my white pen to create the polka dots. I was going to stitch around the edges of the card but didn't think it needed it, you can mess too much sometimes :o).

Challenges entered:-
my mums craft shop challenges - challenge 41 - flowers