Lily Loves... MSE Jewellery Challenge Week 3

Over on MSE we are having a jewellery challenge each week (as you may have noticed from my previous posts). The challenges theme is set by a member of the thread each week and they decide on who will choose the theme the week after also. Last week Yukkibear chose me to choose the challenges theme for week 3.

After having a little think about it I decided to choose the theme...

'We're all going on a summer holiday...'

This may seem like a strange theme to choose, but there is a reason! As a child I didnt go abroad till I was around 10 years old (quite old by todays standards!), instead we would holiday in caravan parks, often with my auntie, uncles, cousins, grandparents etc hiring vans too! I have lots of fond memories of these holidays and there is a video of me, my brother and my two cousins all sat on my Grandads carbonnet singing 'We're all going on a summer holiday...' and its often something that is recalled during family conversations. This little video had been in my head that day and I thought it would make a lovely theme, added to the fact that we are currently at the start of our British summer (hopefully one that will have more sun than rain!) and many people (although sadly not me) are counting down the days to their summer holiday abroad also!


So on to my entry into this weeks challenge...






As you can see I have made a bookmark for my entry, perfect for the days lying in the sun reading a book! I have used a mix of pink beads and added a pink flipflop charm to the end. I have to say I think it looks really cute! I am going to add it to my facebook store now.

Actually I am off on holiday to a caravan next week, so heres for some sun for my summer holiday, and you never know... I might recreate that video hahaha


Love Lily
x x x

New makes for the Lily Loves...fanpage

Good evening,

As Lily Loves... now has a fanpage I decided to make some items specifically to place on the fanpage. I have made use of the necklace I bought from the summer fayre to create two memory wire bracelets in shades of brown. I think brown bracelets are very versitile and are also great for people who dont tend to wear colourful items.





I have added both the above bracelets to the Lily Loves...Fanpage for £5 each. If you would like to have a look at the Lily Loves...Fanpage (and maybe even 'like' it) then please follow the link on the previous Lily Loves....Facebook post.

I was also inspired by one of the necklaces and used the beads mixed with some brown pearl beads I had in my stash to create the below memory wire bracelet.



I loved the bead combination and for the first time I experimented with adding a charm to the memory wire coil midway through (before I have only added a charm at the end of the wire). The charms really compliment the bracelet I felt, although I do think a 3rd charm added would create a better balance. However when I had finished the bracelet I realised that the beads were too heavy for a memory wire bracelet and the wire was slipped slightly when the bracelet was worn. So I have decided to undo the bracelet, but as I love the combination so much I am going to use tigertail to create a bracelet insead. I haven't used tigertail to make a bracelet before and I think its about time I gave it a go, and now I know what my first bracelet will look like too! Now I just need to find the time (hopefully wednesday)!


Love Lily
x x x

Lily Loves...Facebook!

Lily Loves... is now on Facebook!

I have opened a fanpage for Lily Loves... and would love if anyone reading this is able to 'like' the fanpage. Just search for Lily Loves... or follow this link to the page

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Manchester/Lily-Loves/107740405941247?v=wall&ref=ts&ajaxpipe=1&__a=23


There is a shop on the fanpage where I will be adding some of the items I make. I will also be adding lots of pictures to the fanpage as I make items so should you see anything you like but would like it in a different colour or style or with a different charm you can just message me to discuss or email on lily-loves@hotmail.com.


There are also lots of other jewellery fanpages on Facebook, all of which have some stunning jewellery for sale. Each month the Lily Loves...fanpage will be recommending another fanpage, so keep keep your eyes peeled :D


Lily Loves...
x x x

Lily Loves.... Summer Fayres!

Well its been another hot weekend, I hope everyone made the most of it and no-one was too dissappointed about the football!

On Saturday I went to a local church fayre. I dont usually go but this year I really want to make sure I did, I love things like this, and it was well worth the effort! We didnt stay too long as it was extremely busy and there were far too many stalls crammed into the small room (unfortuantly they didnt take advantage of the lovely weather and set up outside!), plus I had my other half with me who wasnt as enthusiatic as me (despite it being his church!). Most of the stalls were games or selling food items then I came across a jewellery stall! As you can imagine my beady eyes (no pun intended!) were scanning the stall for any items that had beads on which I could recycle to use in my jewellery makes. There was around 40 bead necklaces hung on necklace holders and they only wanted 20p per necklace, bargain! I bought 10 in total (quite a few were lovely but the beads werent reusable) and I think for a total of £2 I got a huge bargain!





I have cut most of these necklace up now and added them to my stash, although I am running out of space to store the beads! I need to go buy some more storage this week I think!


Lily Loves...
x x x

Lily Loves....MSE Jewellery Challenge Week 2

Week 2 of the challenge over at MSEs jewellery thread was set by yukkibear and was

"Think of someone who deserves a present and make them something they'll love. You don't have to actually give it to them, but it has to have a meaning" Tell us who it's for and why.


For me the idea for this weeks challenge literally popped into my head straight away! I have a wonderful best friend whom is extremely loyal, thoughtful and brutally honest! She loves to sew and has recently started getting her sewing mojo back, and she also loves to read and has farrrrrrr too many books! When I made some online purchases a few weeks ago I had also purchased some mini bookmarks, which I had yet to try out, and I had also bought some sewing machine charms with my best friend in mind. I decided to combine these two purchases to make my entry into the challenge, which you can see below






My friend has a tendency to MSE stalk me (hahaha) so I knew I had to tell her about the item before she came across it so I text her and directed her to the thread. She text me straight away telling me how much she loved the bookmark and when I took it round to her she was just as happy when seeing it in the flesh, which is good! She has also asked if I can make a charm bracelet with the sewing machine charms too! I have 4 left but I do think they are lovely and such a novelty, so I have had a search on ebay and think I will have to buy some more to put into my stash.


Lily Loves...
x x x

A special make for a special Great Auntie!

On the 15th June my Great Auntie turned 80 years old, although she doesnt look a day over 60 trust me! As it was such a special birthday I really wanted to make her something she could keep and wear. I had bought some gorgeous blue mix beads from Jillybeads (the ones I mentioned in the earlier post) and thought these were perfect. My Great Auntie is a very elegant lady and I felt these beads fit that description perfectly also!

I started off by making a memory wire bracelet and then a matching set of earrings. When admiring my make I thought how it would be lovely to have a necklace to complete the set. I hadnt made a necklace before and hadnt intending to experiment with making necklaces for quite a while yet, but well, she is only turning 80 once! I made the necklace by threading some beads onto some tigertail with a crimp at either end then attaching this to some chain using a jump ring. This is probably not the most common way of making necklaces but as I didnt want to research too deeply into the methods yet I felt it was good enough.




My Great Auntie loved the jwellery (she didnt even realise I had made it at first!) and it was a lovely evening with all the family gathered at her house laughing, arguing and eating lots of cake! Infact this is the picture of the cake I made especially for the occasion....



Lily Loves...
x x x

Lily Loves...Bagcharms.

When I have been browsing bead suppliers I have noticed that you can buy bag charm clasps, so when making a purchase from Jillysbeads I added one to the basket so I could have an experiment. Making the bag charm took alot longer than I expected but it was great practise for using headpins and I loved the end result. I am a real girly girl so it was inevitable that the first bagcharm I made would be pink and girly too!






Although I was happy with the end result my only criticism was the clasp that I used. Due to the way it operates it can not be fitted to an area that is over a certain diameter. So I wont be ordering anymore of these exact clasps but I will be putting in an order for alot more bag charm clasps as I do think they are a stunning accessory.

Infact my Auntie liked the bagcharm so much she purchased it right away after seeing the picture on facebook and has told me that lots of people were commenting on it on her holiday in Greece last week!


Lily Loves...
x x x

Lily Loves.... MSE Jewellery Challenge No.1

I am a member of the Martin money Saving Expert website and regularly post on the jewellery making thread (infact those ladies inspired me to get started!). On the 10th June we decided it would be a great idea for challenges to be set each week for those ont he thread to participate (if they wanted to!). It would not only encourage us to make some pieces each week but also broaden our creative imagination as we not only aim to fulfil the challenge but also see how other people interpret it.

For the first week the challenge was to make a memory wire bracelet with the theme of 'love' set by Nic2075. I felt this was a great first challenge as it was simple and can be interpreted a number of different way. Some simply stunning memory wire bracelets were produced by the ladies on the thread and my contribution to the challenge is shown below.



The bracelet was also a gift for my best friends Mum whose birthday it was that weekend. Unfortunatly my camera decided to not play games when I made this (I have now figured out that the settings had accidently changed!) so I was unable to get a good enough picture of the bracelet before I gave it to my friends Mum. The picture I have used is one taken on my mobile phone, which is why it isnt as clear as it could be. The mobile phone charm you can see in the picture was the other half of the birthday gift and was made at the request of my best friend as her Mum had a beaded phone charm but it snapped a few days before.


I really enjoyed the challenge as it really does encourage you to get your thinking cap on and motivate you to get the beads out!


Lily Loves...
x x x

Lily Loves...Earrings

Now that I had my new lovely purchases I was able to experiment with some other styles of jewellery and first up was earrings!





I intially wanted to wrap the wire around each head pin to finish it off nicely but this is alot harder than it looks! Plus it isnt kind to the fingers! After a few attempts I decided this was something that I needed to leave for the minute and continue to practise to I instead just created loops with the head pins.

I love butterflys so I think my favourites would have to be the butterfly earrings. I have lots and lots of these beads so I am going to have a good think about what piece I can create to really show them off!


Lily Loves...
x x x

Time to catch up!

I have been a little MIA on my blog over the last few weeks, not that I wasnt thinking of you all mind! My life has been quite busy over the last few weeks, but its not time to get the work-funtime balance back!

So be prepared for some serious catch up blogging to take place!

Having waited till I had some pennies in the bank I was then able to be 'let loose' in the bead buying world and below are some pictures of my very many purchases I have made over the last few weeks!



This first picture is my purchase from Jillybeads.com. I was really impressed with their service and the products. Plus not only did they include a guide on how to make a necklace but they also included some free beads. The blue mix beads in the middle at the bottom at used in one of my proudest makes later.



Most of the item in this picture were from an ebay seller named Sanctuary Beads, who has fast become one of my favourite sellers on ebay. They have very fair prices and p+p is always 99p no matter how much you buy, and the service is very fast too!




I have gotten into a habit of finding someone whom is selling lots of different jewellery items, it seems to be either businesses closing or people who are selling off their old craft items. Most of the item in this picture come from a seller who was doing this, I always seem to get a little carried away and just buy various mismatched items! I absolutely love the little charms in the bottom right of the picture and intend to use them on bag charms and christmas decorations (maybe thats thinking a little too far ahead!).


I just love coming home to lots of parcels and being able to inspect all your new purchases, it makes the post coming much more exciting (usually its just bills hahaha)


Lily Loves...
x x x