STEPHIE'S BEADS AND BAUBLES

Been working on filling my Etsy store and putting the website behind me. After researching and not finding anyone using the domain I was going to use, I had bought a domain. Was not happy with the host so I changed and when I changed hosts I was doing more research and found a blog with nine posts with the name I had bought. I could just not get the one host to give me the information to move the domain to the new  host and at that point, I just said enough. I had changed Etsy to the new name, but explained the circumstances and they let me go back to the Stephies beads baubles one.

So, had decided to sell kits to make the old vintage satin beaded ornaments. I spent  a lot of money on Ebay and Etsy buying vintage satin balls in various colors. Collected all the things I would need to make some pretty balls, to then make kits to sell . Pins, sequins, beads, metallic gold seals, ribbon.

pretty glass pearls I got on sale for half price, so a dollar a package,  and clear plastic rhondelles from Hobby Lobby, also much cheaper than any I found online.

so many pretty boutoniere pins from Ebay. Lots of pretty pearls and love the rhinestone ones too. Plastic but cute !! Very good prices and then the plain pins and the small plastic box of pearl , short pins, are also from Hobby Lobby.

sequin ribbon, so pretty !! got it wholesale at a really great price. That I already had for a while

most of these are the 2 and a half inch, just one package is the 3 inch I really wanted and are almost impossible to find in styrofoam, most are in the hard plastic, which I cannot push pins through.

several sheets of metallic seals,

Just the seed beads I had purchased in bulk , most of them previously , a drop in the bucket of all my seed beads, I have so many !!! Some purchased bulk in small individual packages and some in bulk bags.

That is when reality hit me. I have no talent at all with this project. I can make beautiful beaded and sequined ornaments on felt, and use seed beads to make lovely earrings and necklaces, but this odd round satin  ball , along with using pins that are too thick for most of the seed beads, it was a hot mess. Now, no doubt I could keep at it until I get better, but I cannot sell the satin balls in kits if they are full of holes, so I can only do a few and second of all, I hated doing it. Really hated it. Was shocked by that realization as I love to sew with seed beads and sequins.

Here is some of what went on yesterday in my studio

first I tried a gold seal,  a basket of poinsettias, did not like how it looked at all. Knew it would snag at first chance but to put enough pins in to insure it would not snag, would look horrid. So, plan two, vintage sunburst style gold sequins. Eh. Not sure about that either, but that one is still made up.

So, having looked at pinterest, which is an insane thing to do when you already feel like you do not know what you are doing, I decided to do something like one of my beaded felt ornaments, oh. my. gosh. No. Not fun like sewing is. Looks awful. Hated it. Every. Single. Minute.

It does not look bad per se, but it looks bad. Pins put in sideways instead of straight, not balanced, not at all. I am used to using the felt cut out as the guideline, so it is always straight because I fill it in. I do not have to try, it is easy.  This was horrid. Not fun at all.   Put some layered  sequins on the back but never even took a picture, hated it. Here is what I used.

Top is a sunburst vintage sequins with the same color gold vintage slightly cupped sequins on top of it, and then a round gold bead, also vintage from when I bought them back in the early 80’s to keep the pin from going through both sequins. I also used some huge 12 mm gold sequins with slightly cupped red sequins on top, with a red seed bead.

I love the look and will use both on a sewn ornament, but the snowflakes are big and did not lie flat on the round ornament and just looked awful.

So…….

my new idea, confess in the listing what happened, and just sell a bunch of seeds, sequins , pins and a satin ball, all done in colors , like a blue set, pink set, gold set, white set, and red set, let others figure out what to do.

Seems like the best way to go at this point.

So, that is where it stands. I am off to set up those kits and see what happens next !!! ha !

Thanks for stopping by !! Be sure and check out my Etsy shop, link is to the side !! ——>

Stephie