A Charming Exchange

At long last the cover of the book!
we got to see it last week for the first time!
as a special surprise just for me our amazing art director put a image of a tree oh the cover!
to pass your art to another artist and then have there spin put into is just what this book is about... sharing what you do the best with some one that has a different skill then you and then steeping back and allowing the process unfold.

Tonia our editor and Christine our photographer were so great! they made each day we filmed the books as pain free as they could... but there was a little bit of pain as some things just took longer then expected when your sleepy and jet lagged and some steep outs turned out to be a little more complex when you working with watchful eyes :)

I want to also congratulate my fellow cover girls from right to left:
Deryn, Catherine, Jess and Crystal!

I am still away from home, I am now in Chicago with my Friend Deborah enjoying her family and hanging out at her most amazing bead shop! we are also working on a blog for her and a etsy shop where she will sell bead kits!

on the road

Kelly and I are in Ohio...this was day two of filming the steep out for the book...
and today we got to see our most amazing cover!I will share it with you all as soon as I can they have a few more little changes they want to do to it but it is so beautiful!
our art director is the same girl who worked on sally jeans book :)
we shoot the steep outs from 9am till 5pm... everyone we have meet is so great and so creative!
I am a little out of it... its such a strange thing to be sitting in a white tent room and having to say out loud just what your doing and just what your about to do and then having to stop and have your hands posed and then a photo shoot is taken... I keep telling my self that it will be OK and that I am doing a good job but I have to admit that its a little scary!

Domed Decorated Cupcakes

Domed Decorated Cupcakes, originally uploaded by kylie lambert.

These Kylie Lambert cupcakes are making me happy right now!

Woven Jewelry

I made up these class samples today for my Woven jewelry class that I will be teaching at Bellaluna Beads
in the East Dundee, Illinois on Wednesday, august 8Th (please call 847.426.2323 to sine up)

We will start the class by creating a woven leaf that can be use to make earrings a pendent or a bracelet



Next we will make a beaded ladder and I will show you how to also make a bail so you can create earrings or a pendent.

then I will show you how to create a woven crown.

I will also be doing a Demo at Bellalunabeads on fabric charms and organza flowers, just like the ones I did in Cloth papers scissors on Sunday, August 6Th from 2-3pm

with my own two hands

Crystal
made a basket necklace for "A Charming Exchange" and we have decided to steep it out in the book... so last night I sat down to recreate crystal's basket from memory because all the jewelry has been sent off to be photographed... so when I went online to look at what she had done, I discovered that my baskets did not look like hers at all!!! the basket on the left is a close match and I feel that this will be the one that we will steep out :)

I will be teaching a class at Bellaluna Beads in East Dundee Illinois On Wednesday August the 8Th and I will be doing a demo on my fabric Jewelry (if you happen to be in town all my jewelry from the CPS article is there on view as well as Crystals and my just simply charming charm bracelet that is featured in this months Bella Amoire) on Monday I will have all the details worked out and will post them here.

Tree of Life

I am so intrigued with the tree of life image, that when I saw this LibraSunDesigns- Handmade Ceramic Pendants on Etsy, I just had to have it! I received it in the mail yesterday and I went right to work on it! and came up with this necklace. I can not wait to get dressed so I can put it on today!

I used some amazing faceted yellow opals on twisted 14k gold wire along with white keishi peals, Faceted Peridot Briolettes
I even pulled out my special dimond bead Brioletts !

When I was a little girl The Giving Tree was my favorite book... I would read it over and over again and when I had my kids, it was one of those books that I was always so over joyed when a chubby little had pulled it from the shelf for me to read to them!


The Oak and The Rose
By: Shel Silverstine

An oak tree and a rosebush grew,
Young and green together,
Talking the talk of growing things-
Wind and water and weather.
And while the rosebush sweetly bloomed
The oak tree grew so high
That now it spoke of newer things-
Eagles, mountain peaks and sky.
"I guess you think you're pretty great,"
The rose was heard to cry,
Screaming as loud as it possibly could
To the treetop in the sky.
"And now you have no time for flower talk,
Now that you've grown so tall."
"It's not so much that I've grown," said the tree,
"It's just that you've stayed so small."

Spirit Cards

After two day's of workshops trying to channel my inner Teesha Moore I was inspired to create in my own style. This Spirit card swap hosted by Susan Tuttle has been going on for almost a year now but we are just about at the end... we each made our first spirit card and a folder then we sent it off Round Robbin style, each girl was to make a card with a inspiring word and add a little bit to each folder.

"Kindness"
This spirit card is for Deryn.
Layers of burnt resin cover bible page, burnt transparency's all hand stitched to a mettle frame, along with the "lovenkindness" and "protect" additions I made to her folder.


"explore"
my card for Susan's spirit folder is a book page with fabric and fibers machine sewn, and the "faith"addition I made to her folder.

"Truth"
is for Fiona
this butterfly card is all fabric and the wings are slightly stuffed, all the edges have been burnt.
"kindness, beauty, truth" is my addition to her folder.
(you can view details of all the cards here)

"Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart." — Kahlil Gibran