The December Challenge Reveal

Thank you so much to everyone who joined in with our winter themed December challenge where we asked you to create something fit for a Snow Queen. As always the entries are beautiful!

Before I show the entries and announce the winner, I wanted to make a quick announcement. I've been organizing the blog challenges for six years now and while I've enjoyed it immensely, I've decided that it's time for me to step back and let someone else take the reins. That person is the lovely Sarah Tucker, founder of the OTTBS blog! I hope you will all continue to join in with the challenges that Sarah will be setting for you. I'm very much looking forward to them and hope I can join in with them a little more often. 

Ok, so on with the reveal and here are all the wonderful entries we received for this month's challenge!

All the names were put into the list randomizer at random.org and the luck beader whose name is at the top of the list is...


Shirley Moore!


Congratulations Shirley,  you're the winner of the £25 voucher to spend at Beads and More by Yashma!


Wishing you all a very beady 2017!

~ Liz ~

The December Challenge

Welcome to the December challenge! This month we would like you to create a piece of jewellery FIT FOR A SNOW QUEEN!

Image by Princess00lyl on DeviantArt

THE PRIZE:

This month our sponsor is Valentina and she's offering £25 to spend in her Etsy shop Beads & More by Yashma!

HOW TO ENTER:

Email a photograph of your entry to Liz at ottbs@live.com along with any other details we have asked for. The challenge runs until Midnight on Saturday the 31st of December 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 December 1st 2016.
• You can make any item, it does not need to be jewellery.
• You can use any craft technique but it must include beads.
• Findings are exempt from the colour challenge.
• Your entry must be a finished piece.
• If your entry isn't your own design you must credit the original designer.
• The photo above is for decorative purposes only, please refer to the text below it for details on the theme or colours allowed.

There is more detailed information on the challenge here but if you have any questions please leave a comment below or email us. 

Good luck everyone and happy beading!

The December Challenge Reveal

Well done to everyone who joined in with our December Metallica challenge, where we asked you to create something using only metallic beads. Beautiful entries as always!

I put everyone's names into the list randomizer at random.org and the lucky beader who's name is in the number one position is...

MARIAN HOBLYN!

Congratulations Marian, you're the winner of the £25 voucher to spend at Beads and More by Yashma!

Well that's it for 2015. We hope you've enjoyed this year's challenges. It's been wonderful seeing you all bringing our themes and colour schemes to life with your amazing creations and we look forward to enjoying more of your work in 2016. Speaking of which, join us a little later on when we'll have a brand new challenge for the new year! 

The December Challenge

Welcome to the December challenge! It's colour time and the theme is METALLICA. No, we don't want you to create something inspired by the rock band (although you can if you want to!). Rather than choose a particular colour scheme this month we're inviting you to use ONLY metallic beads in your piece.

Thinking that metallic means just gold or silver? Wrong! There are so many glorious colours made in metallic and galvanized finishes these days - including Miyuki's Duracoats and Toho's Permanent Finish as well as all the beautiful metallic finishes on other types of beads - that you may be spoiled for choice. And if you want to use just gold and/or silver then that's fine too!

Specifics for this challenge:

• You can use as many or as few colours as you like but please make sure you are using only metallic beads in your piece.
• They can be shiny and/or matte.
• Please note that silver/gold lined beads do not count as metallic.
• If you're using a focal bead, it doesn't need to be metallic. So if you have a gorgeous handmade bead or a cabochon that you wish to use in your project then please feel free to do so.

THE TWIST:

For the twist this time we'd like you to include TWO-HOLE BEADS with a metallic finish in your entry. Also known as twin-hole beads, we mean the speciality beads that have two holes like Superduos, Tila beads, Rulla beads or Silky beads to name just a few! Remember, the twist is optional, you do not need to include it for your entry to be accepted but if you do you will receive two entries into the draw. 

THE PRIZE:

Our sponsor this month is Valentina and she's offering £25 to spend in her online shop Beads & More by Yashma!

HOW TO ENTER:

Simply email a photograph of your entry to Liz at ottbs@live.com. The challenge runs until Midnight in your own time zone on Thursday the 31st of December and the winner is drawn and announced the following day. The challenge is open to beaders worldwide.

RULES & OTHER INFORMATION:

• Entries must have been started on or after December 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.
• Findings are exempt from the colour challenge.
• Your entry must be a finished piece.
• If your entry isn't your own design you must credit the original designer.
• The photo above is for decorative purposes only, please refer to the text below it for details on the colours allowed in this challenge.

There is more detailed information on the challenge here but if you have any questions please leave a comment below or email us. 

Good luck everyone and happy beading!

The December Challenge - And the winner is...

Thanks to everyone who joined in with our December challenge! We know that December is always an extra busy month so we really appreciate the time you took to create and send in your entries. Our lucky winner is announced at the bottom of this post but we're sure that you'll enjoy looking at the gorgeous entries along the way :)

All names were added to the list randomizer at Random.org and the lucky entrant whose name is at the top is...

MARTA!

Congratulations Marta, you're the winner of the £25 voucher to spend at Beads & More by Yashma!

We hope you all enjoyed the December challenge. We'll have a brand new challenge for January 2015 posted later on today!

The December Challenge

Welcome to the December challenge. We hope that you've enjoyed this year's challenges and felt inspired to join in with some of them. We're finishing 2014 with a choose-your-own colour scheme and we're inviting you to be inspired by a DESIGN SEEDS PALETTE of your choice!

Images by Design Seeds

You do not have to choose from the the images above, this is just a very small selection of the many palettes available. Click here to go to the Design Seeds website. Once you've chosen your Design Seed, use the palette as your inspiration using as many or as few of the colours as you wish and try to get your beads as close as you can to the shades. You may compliment the shades with lighter and darker tones if you wish but please do not use any colours that aren't in your chosen palette.

THE PRIZE:

This month our sponsor is Valentina and she's offering £25 to spend in her shop Beads and More by Yashma!

HOW TO ENTER:

Simply email a photograph of your entry, AND the photo of the Design Seed you used, to Liz at ottbs@live.com. The challenge runs until Midnight on Wednesday the 31st of December and the winner is drawn and announced on New Year's Day. The challenge is open to beaders worldwide.

RULES & OTHER INFORMATION:
Entries must have been started on or after December 1st 2014.
You can make any item, it does not need to be jewellery.
You can use any craft technique but it must include beads.
Findings are exempt from the colour challenge.
Your entry must be a finished piece.
If your entry isn't your own design you must credit the original designer.

If you have any questions at all please email us!

Good luck everyone and happy beading!

The December Challenge - And the winner is...

Thanks to all of you who joined in with the December challenge! We asked you to create something in Black, White and another colour of your choice and here's what you all made...

Everyone's names went into the List Randomizer at Random.org and the lucky beader who is at the top pf the list is...

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

Thanks once more to everyone who joined in with our challenges during 2013 and also to those of you who dropped by to leave comments, your support is very much appreciated! Please come back a little later today when there'll be a brand new challenge for January.