National Beading Week - Giveaway Winner

Thank you to everyone who joined in and commented! I enjoyed revisiting your choices!

And now, time to announce the lucky winner of the bead soup. I popped all the names into a list on Random.org and randomised them and the Winner is.....

Peapod Beads, congratulations!

Please get in touch with your address and I will send you your winnings!

Happy beading!

Sarah x

Celebrating National Beading Week - Giveaway now closed!

So, there's lots of beady fun going on this week and I wanted to get in on the action! I've celebrated National Beading Week by having fun making some bead soup! Apart from actually beading, this is one of my favourite things to do. Oh the colours and the shapes and the tinkle of the beads as I swish them altogether with my trusty triangle sorter!

This bead soup is predominantly blue and purple (hence the name Blurple) and includes size 8,11,15 seed beads, delicas, O beads, Superduos, Rullas, triangles, glass pearls and a few Swarovski Elements (including tiny butterflies and flower), for a total of 50 grams. I've added a blue Luna Soft cabochon and 2 x 12mm sapphire Swarovski rivolis for focals.

I thought I'd share this celebration with the OTTBS blog readers as a giveaway for one lucky reader! How can you win some of my custom made super sparkly blurple bead soup? Read on!

1. Have a good old rummage through the old challenge posts here on the OTTBS blog and pick your favourite challenge, be it this months beach theme, January's Inspired by a song theme or any of the other many fab challenges

2. Pop back to this post and comment with your favourite challenge by 5.00pm BST Friday the 31st July 2015

3. Be on standby at 8.00pm BST Friday the 31st July 2015 for the announcement of the winner (winner will be picked at random by random.org)

Good luck!

Sarah x

Beaders Bingo

Let's have a little bit of Friday fun!

Give yourself a point for each square that you have bought or thought in the last 3 months. Then check out what your score says about you below.

***Disclaimer

The results below are based on no scientific fact whatsoever and are merely a product of my overactive and slightly ridiculous imagination. If you disagree with your results, just pick the one you like best and bead happy ☺️.

***also, you don't have to go shopping just cos I said so! In fact, it's probably best you don't listen to me at all!

1-5

New Beader or a Beader of exceptional restraint and willpower. I think you need to buy some more beads to round out your stash and give you more options!

6-10

Organised Beader. You plan your projects in advance and purchase beads for each project. I think you need to impulse buy some new beads shapes just for fun.

10-15

Slightly obsessive Beader. You like to mix up impulse buying with planning a few projects here and there. You need to go pattern shopping on Etsy to help you use up those impulse buys.

16-20

Serious Bead Hoarder Extrodinaire. Dude, I'm jealous. You need to buy more storage, cos we both know it's only going to get worse.

Let us know your results in the comments below.

Sarah x

The July Challenge

Welcome to the July challenge! This month the theme is ON THE BEACH. What does being on the beach (or at the seaside!) mean to you? Is it family fun with colourful beach balls and kites, relaxing on the sand under an umbrella, swimming in the sea, or collecting pebbles and looking for crabs and starfish? Do you love the colours, the blues and browns and seaweed greens? Whatever it means to you, try to capture the essence of the beach/seaside in your piece.

Blackpool Sands

THE PRIZE:

This month our sponsor is Davida and she's offering £15 to spend in her online shop Old Bicycle Shop!

HOW TO ENTER:

Simply email a photograph of your entry to Liz at ottbs@live.com along with any other info we have asked for. The challenge runs until Midnight on Friday the 31st of July and the winner is drawn and announced the following day. You can email your entry at any time during the month. The challenge is open to beaders worldwide.

RULES & OTHER INFORMATION:
Entries must have been started on or after July 1st 2015.
You can make any item, it does not need to be jewellery.
You can use any craft technique but it must include beads.
Your entry must be a finished piece.
If your entry isn't your own design you must credit the original designer.

There is more detailed info here but if you have any further questions about the challenge please feel free to email us at ottbs@live.com!

Good luck everyone and happy beading!

The June Challenge Reveal

Well done to everyone who joined in with our June challenge. Our Earth Tones palette proved a little more challenging for some of you but you made it through with flying (earthy) colours!

The Rocks, Magic Light in Forest, Moss on Path

Here are all of the wonderful entries. The winner of the draw is, as always, at the end of the post.

All the names were put into the list randomizer at Random.org and the lucky beader who's name came top of the list is...

JEANNE EVANS

Congratulations Jeanne, you're the winner of the £15 voucher to spend at RB Beads!

Well that's it for the June challenge, don't forget to pop back later on today as we'll be posting a brand new challenge for July :)