STEPHIE'S BEADS AND BAUBLES

I love making my beaded and sequined angels. I make them for family and friends and most of our kids have them in thier car and love having them there. Our son carried one to Iraq three times. They are special to our family. They are a lot of work, therefore I have never really sold them as no one wants to pay me the money it would be worth charging for around 8 hours labor each angel. They are truely a labor of love !!  Unfortunately, most of the ones I have made over the years were predigital camera and I do not have pictures of them . I have been making these angels for close to twenty years. Most of those however, were just plain white and not very fancy. Back then, there was not the selection of beads and sequins like there are today. It is a wonderful time to be a bead and sequin lover !!!

This is the angel I made last year when we bought our new car. My husband has one in both of our trucks, and both our sons and our daughter in law have them in thier cars as well. Made to order in the colors they chose !! I hand bead each seed bead and sequin , one at a time, then as I sew the two sides together when they are done with seed beads to make the beaded edge, I lightly stuff and then make a pretty bracelet like top with a lobster claw to attach to the rear view mirror.

 

 

the two in my husband picked out for the trucks. I retook the first one as you could not see it well through the window , It used to be really pretty, purple black with irredescent sparkle, but it has turned a dull black from age and needs to be redone, but he will not let me, he likes it. I used clear for the fringe on bottom and the edging along with on the sequins as well.

I took this through the window and it looks pretty cool, but it is the trees reflecting in the glass, not what it really looks like, you can see the trees all around it !! 

so I took it from inside, and here is a more accurate, although less cool looking picture of that angel . He chose a creamy white  bead on the edges, an AB clear for attaching  the sequins and a dark tanish brown sequin. Looks great with the tan interior of the truck . With both angels he has other things hanging with them, a daisy seed bead necklace one of our daughters made as kids in the other truck and a cool pendant he found at a yard sale in this one !!

 

Before I figured out to add a lobster claw, we just used a string or twist tie to loop it to the mirror. Why it took me so long to figure it out, who knows , lol !!! This one looks so vintage and pretty, I want to make another one for myself, our daughter has this one !!

the one I made our daughter in law

the army angel that went overseas with our son several times. he had me leave the loop off to store it in his bag easier. I actually used camo felt and matched the sequins  to the felt, using copper colored sequins for the darkest brown, came out great !!

 

for his truck he chose silver sequins and black beads for the edge, clear beads to hold on the silver sequins.

 

made for a friends granddaughter’s birth

I also love to bead and sequin ornaments and here are a few I have made

I gave the tree to our youngest son and I still have the red and white candy cane and the heart . I love making these ornaments !!

So, our oldest daughter asked me to make her an angel for her new car. I am of course, thrilled !! Here is what she picked out !! She picked the same shape her dad did.  Not sure if we will use the bugle beads , but I want to do a fringe like I did for her dads truck, but not sure if that bugle is too big.

close up of the sequins, a soft gray with an AB finish that makes them more purple,  from Cartwrights sequins, love that online store, I have spent way too much money there, but if you love sequins like I do, no place better to find a huge variety !!

She picked these beads first. She is 31 and she remembers these from when she was a kid, I have had them over 23 years. A lot of my seed beads are 20 plus years old although I have added a lot of new ones as well over the 25 years I have been working with seed beads .

 

I cut the shapes out of craft store felt, 20 cents to a buck a sheet depending on how fancy. This is the cheap kind !! I have a pile of it in every color !!

about a foot high, plus a box of items I have already cut out. Lots of angels and other fun shapes !!

 One more thing you need is a pretty thread. I prefer the beading thread as it is much stronger than sewing thread and you want your pieces to last a long time and though in a car on a mirror, even the beading thread will rot in time, it takes it a long time and lasts a lot longer than the thread you woudl sew with. They have it every color you could want !!

This is my entire stash, they are cheap, you can afford to have more than one of your favorite colors !!

You also need cotton for stuffing. I have always saved the soft cotton out of vitamin bottles. It is so soft, and seperates wonderfully so I have saved it for years and have a big jar of it now. But you can use ordionary cotton balls as well. I have done that too !!

 

You also need a small pair of sewing sissors and a good beading or thin needle that will fit through the seed beads and sequins.

I use chinet plates or large paper plates for each project and keep a plate set up after I use it, so I have that color ready to go with beads and sequins. I just keep a stack of them all loaded with the beads. The chinet is a good plate to work on, it is easy to grab your beads and sequins off of those plates. I have some chinet plates that are probably twenty years old with projects on them.  Here is my stack of projects, around 18 or so. Each plate has seed beads and / or sequins for a specific project I did and will do again. or at least use those colors again.

I pull a few out to show you the projects, you can see the crown, the Christmas tree ornament  above it and my beaded santa earrings on top !! Each one of those plates has a different color or colors on it.

So, this week I will start working on her angel and I am excited to see how it comes out !!! I will share the process here and show exactly how I make them !! They are a lot of work, and really only something you can do for yourself or gifts. I usually bead both sides of the angels, but ornaments I do one side and pick a pretty felt to use on the back, one with sparkle , like glitter or tinsel in it. You can also buy them with a pattern on them, I did that with this shoe I made.

 

It gives it a pretty back when you are not going to bead it.

I made this pretty princess crown for one of our grandaughters. I owe a lot of grandkids an ornament as well !! She was moving away two years ago when I made it for her !! I need to get the angel done and then start taking orders from the other kids, yikes, six to go, I got way behind !!

I had a lot of fun with detail on this one and layered lot of different sizes and shapes of sequins to make it unique

even covering the knot on the back  for the loop, with  bead and sequin work  as well

 

made this mustash for a fellow blogger who loves mustaches when she had her baby boy !!

Beading with seed beads and sequins is my true passion and I plan to do a lot more of that between other projects. I had kind of let it all go in the past couple of years as I worked to get my Etsy store up and running. That is no longer my focus although I will be keeping my store open, but will be doing different things there after the listings all expire. It is time for a huge change !! Going to do what I love, and should have been all this time !!

I will still be working with my friend on her dangles as well. We hope to get back to it soon. We are both excited to be working with blue after all those months of purple !! It will be weird, but fun !! As before, she has picked some amazing items to work with !! I cannot wait to see what we come up with !!! I am thinking the start of the new year, she has a lot going on at her end and it is crazy here too !! Fun project for the new  year !!

So, in the next week or so I will post a tutorial on making the angels or whatever you want to make . Whatever shape you cut out, you can bead and sequin. I have done a tutorial before but I figured since I am making the angel, might as well share again !!

bead you later,

Stephie