Filigree stampings are one of my favourite jewellery making components. The lace-like patterns add a really delicate touch to your designs and yet they add substance at the same time. With such a wide range of shapes and finishes to choose from, they are also very versatile. Here's some ideas to get you going. 1. Use them as dangles in a charm bracelet. Dangle lacy filigrees from jump rings and they become charms on a charm bracelet. In this design they're lilypads for the frogs! 2. Form them into napkin rings. The soft metal of these square brass stampings made them easy to shape around a cardboard cylinder. Connect them together with jump rings and beads to give the napkin ring stability. 3. Turn them into a jewellery bail to slip the stringing material through. This one does double duty by adding decorative detail to the front of the pendant as well! 4. Wrap them around a teardrop crystal to form a custom fitting bead cap. 5. Add a cluster of smaller beads to the centre of ...

CHA Summer Show is geared a lot more to the paper craft industry than it is to general crafts so there are fewer bead manufacturers who exhibit. But without a doubt, the blingiest booth at CHA was Connie Crystal . You just about needed sunglasses to cut the glare - it was truly sparkletastic! Take a look at some of the wonderful crystal creations on the stand. Crystal wedding bouquet Red Christmas Tree. There was a blue Christmas Tree on the other side of the booth too. Hello Kitty Bicycle - just too cute! Mini bike The spectacular bejewelled gown I showed you the dress in the last post but take a look at the beautiful matching slipper. This is just a selection of the many beautiful pieces displayed in the booth. Aren't they inspiring? They also hosted an easy but eyecatching Make It, Take It which I'll share later. In the meantime, check out their blog which features some pretty designs (with instructions) created by their Design Team. Why not have some fun creating some of yo...

By the last Day of CHA things are beginning to wind down and there are fewer people on the show floor making it much easier to take photos. Here's what I liked today. I found some great project samples at the Canvas Corp booth: Burlap Jester Stockings from Canvas Corp Burlap and Canvas wall art Stretched Canvas shadow box Graphic 45 always has beautiful themed display stands at their booth. This one was my favourite. Wonderful Christmas Display at Graphic 45 featuring their new paper collection, Nutcracker Sweet Heidi Swapp had quite a few new innovations which took my fancy. Firstly, the neon embellishments. Neon is a hot new trend but she cautions us to use it sparingly! Neon Tapes and embellishments. Heidi Swapp used Hero Arts new Neon  ink pads in for this hot look! Day Glow Tape Color Shine mists - designed to spray on Heidi Swapp resist papers but works equally well on canvas and leather! Connie Crystal had the most wonderful display of crystal beaded objects at her bo...

I'm back on the show floor for Day 2 of CHA hunting out great eye candy and new products to tempt you with. One of the new trends emerging is the use of colour. Even in the distressed Ranger products line there is a definite move towards strong colour. The vintage look is still around too but there is a shift towards the whimsical look. Here's today's selection: Tombow's Irotjen Pencils in fantastic neon shades. They glow under a black light - a very fun effect! Tim Holtz Bottle Brush Christmas Trees - before...... and after staining - very eyecatching display! Queen & Co's very creative washi tape table - it took 5 hours to complete! A whimsical ferris wheel at Prima Check in again tomorrow to see more of the things which catch my eye. 'Til next time..... If you can't get enough of My Tutorials and you want even more inspiration,  click here to find my books and printable pdfs...

One of the wonderful things about CHA is the incredible amount of creativity on display. Some of the displays are so clever and eyecatching. Take a look at these wonderful things which caught my eye today. Bejewelled and embellished pumpkins at DCWV. Love the black lace and creepy beaded spiders! Bling by the sheet from The Buckle Boutique 'cos a girl can never have too much bling! Prima Ballerina - hand decorated and beaded ballet slippers for comfort walking the show floor.  Tonic interleafed flower punches. Punch out one of each flower, lay one on top of the other and then push the top petals down and the bottom petals up to create this clever, multi coloured flower. Tim Holtz App - downloadable from iTunes and it's free! I'll be back tomorrow with another instalment. 'Til next time..... If you can't get enough of My Tutorials and you want even more inspiration,  click here to find my books and printable pdfs...

After flying across the Pacific and then half way across the US I've finally touched down in Chicago and I'm rearing to go for CHA. With the enormous banners on the outside of the building there is no doubt that CHA has come to town too! ! The Donald E Stephens Convention Center is located just a few minutes from the airport so there is a lot of air traffic flying over and one of the ways they've combated the noise level is with this beautiful fountain which sits in the forecourt of the Convention Center. The sound of water splashing and tumbling is very soothing and of course cooling with the warm weather Chicago is turning on for us. If you sit and watch it long enough, you'll see it change colours. Here it is all bathed in a red/purple glow. Today is Education Day and I booked myself into 3 sessions that centred heavily around social media: Things like building a better blog and how to manage all your different social media platforms. I didn't realise I had so m...

I've been invited to teach a workshop for the upcoming Southside Stampers Stamp Camp. My brief: a mixed media project other than a card. Now this is a stamping group so when they asked me what I had planned for them, I held my breath as I told them it was a resin jewellery project.  It's quite a step away from their comfort zone but the organisers were delighted to hear that I'll be introducing them to resin. Of course, it still needs to be paper crafting related so here's a glimpse of the gift box they will make to present their resin necklace in. I'm off to CHA in a couple of days to check out all the latest "must-have" crafting items so look out for reports in upcoming posts. But in the meantime, I have a "to-do" list a mile long so it will be busy, busy. 'Til next time..... If you can't get enough of My Tutorials and you want even more inspiration,  click here to find my books and printable pdfs...

And more importantly, how do you use it? Ever come across a jewellery finding and wondered what on earth it is used for? If you're not familiar with bolo slides , the image above might be a bit of a mystery.  Bolos, also known as lariats, are typically worn to give a country and western flavour to an outfit and in fact the bolo tie is the official neck tie for the states of Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. But they are not only used for fastening bolo neckties: You can use them in your jewellery making too.  Turning a cabochon or pendant into a lariat instead of a necklace gives it a totally different look. With the addition of the dangling stringing material, it has a whole new appeal. And the beauty of using a bolo slide is that you can adjust your lariat to whatever length suits your outfit - wear it high for a formal look or wear it lower for a more casual look. So now that you know what this strange looking finding is, it is much easier to work out how to use it; just thread a t...