Merry Xmas & Happy New Year and a GIVEAWAY!

I know I haven't been blogging a lot lately, my apologies. But yes, been very, very busy and I really haven't taken the spare time I have to blog, rather I prioritized my beading :)

Anyway, Xmas is today (in Scandinavia and in lot of other countries around the Baltic Sea we celebrate the 24th - it has to do with that we used to have the old Norse believes) and 2013 is soon at an end, so I'm feeling extra spirited and I've been wanting to host a giveaway for some time I just didn't know when. But since it's the holiday, I figured this is the perfect time.
My little way of saying thank you to everyone out there that love and support my work. Of course I would love to give each and everyone something, but that isn't possible.

So, what will you be able to win and how?
The necklace in the photo I added in this post is what I'm letting one random, lucky winner get.

All you have to do is like my FB Page AIFDesign like the correct photo and share it. When I've reached at least 100 likes I'll draw a random person from my like list.

The giveaway is open to EVERYONE.

Necklace: I Believe

So the latest piece I created is this little necklace I made using, well mainly bead embroidery as usually.
I didn't really have a clear idea of what I exactly wanted to do, but yeah, a pendant to start with. So it became ones of those things that manifested over time as I was working on it. For some reason I find that type of creating the most relaxing, since it provides you with such a great amount of freedom.

At first I ended up picking out a filigree with a fairy motif that I've been having in my stash for ages, I think it was ones of the very first materials I ever bought, and then it just ended up staying there as I never found a purpose for it. So I ended up playing around with that and the rest of the focal pieces I had chosen to work with. Some I actually decided not to add when the piece began to take form.

I just ADORE the seed bead color I chose for this (Toho #284 - gold lined aqua), but sadly it's so darn hard to find it from any supplier. I think I ordered the 20 gram I still had stored away from Beadaholique.com, that I ordered through Amazon. I've found another carrier of the color in EU that I'm gonna order from when the time comes. Sadly, I haven't found anyone what so ever that carries the color in other sizes then 11/0, and I need 15/0 as well! Ah, well...

For the chain I decided to make a St. Petersburg chain (one of my very favorite chain stitches), well two, as I wanted to attach each one of them to the upper parts of the pendant and create a V shape.

Have you ever wanted a seed bead color but had a very hard time finding it?

Necklace: Innocence & Nicole's Bead Backing

A few months ago I purchased one of the fabulous cabochon packs from "Wir War Kralen". The main reason really to why I purchased from them (haven't ordered from them before) is cause I saw that they have "Nicole's Beadbacking". Lots of ppl from the US. have been saying how great it is and how much more affordable it is compared to Lacy's Stiff Stuff, which is the beading foundation I use in my pieces.
At their site you could choose to either order an A5 or and A4 size format, which is great since the A4 is a lot bigger then the biggest piece they sell of lacy's.  Nicole's Beadbacking also comes in a variety of colors, which of course is the plus point; no more dying or permanent marker drawing.
Now... Comparing the prices, I did not find it to be more affordable then Lacy's. In fact including the extra costs I have to pay for shipping it over from Holland (I order my Lacy's from France) makes it really not worth it. Or maybe the store is just overpricing it? I have no idea. I would compare it with other suppliers of it if I could find another one in the EU who sells it. But so far, I have only found one.

So going over to the necklace I made with the Nicole's Beadbacking...

First off, the design concept for this one pretty much came over time, after playing around with the different materials that were included in the cabochon pack. I knew I wanted to make another necklace, so I first drew out a 14cm in diameter circle on a paper and calculated the center of the circle. Then I began to play around with the cabochons I had, placing them on various places and I also ended up adding some materials that I already had in my stash for some time that really fit with the rest.

For the first time I felt that I wanted to make a bead soup and use it as a primary material in the bead embroidery. Now, if you've seen any of my previous pieces you can pretty much see that a lot of them are color blocked in some basic way (basic in my opinion lol). I wanted to jump out of that comfort zone again and give myself a little bit of a challenge. I'm a bit of a perfectionist in the way my head works, so just starting to mix all the different seed bead colors in a bunch really scares me. What is worse is when I began to pick up the beads is that my brain is telling me pick up that color then that color after etc. when what I should really be thinking is "nothing" and just pick up the beads in random order.
Well, I followed those guidelines I put out for myself, noticing that I was actually struggling with it as I was working. Still I think I did a pretty good job, so I'll give myself a little pat on the back, heh.

Necklace: Lady of Time & Glass Eyes

I realize I haven' t been blogging very often lately; I have to admit that I haven't really been in the mood. I've also been doodling off on a few larger pieces which I don't really find worth blogging about as it's nothing major.

A few weeks ago I got my hands on that face silicone mold from Sculpey and I ended up playing around with them and made a couple of faces from it. One of the bigger one, I ended up embellishing with some more clay and cogs, to end up with a bit of a steampunk style.

I really felt, after I had finished it that I wanted to make a necklace of it, but I was stuck on what kind of necklace I wanted to make. So after picking out some matching materials and laying them out on a circle template I played around with the placement of the materials along with the face until I saw exactly what I wanted.

I'm absolutely in love with the Khaki iris (#2035) beads by Miyuki since I decided to stack up on that color in different sizes and shapes. I thought the color was a perfect complimentary color, not only for the polymer clay face but also for the other main materials I had chosen to work with.

Something that has, or is still going around are those gorgeous eye cabochons - I just LOVE them myself and I've purchased a couple of them from some sellers on Etsy.
I've been wanting to try to make my own, but I haven't really had the required mats until now. I found a few sellers on Ebay whom are selling those clear glass cabochons for a very nice price/bulk so I decided to get myself some of those.

And now I've also got my photo printer working, and got my hands on some Canon photo paper so I decided to play around in Photoshop to make my own. Printed them out and glued them. I actually though that the ink on the paper would get smeared out from the glue, but it doesn't. I think it might have to do with the photo paper, not sure. Anyway, it was a success and thought I would share a photo of them.

Polymer Clay Cabochons & Necklaces

Okey, so I've been taking some interests to those fabulous polymer clay cabochons with flower motives that I've been seen going around the web, and being used in different types of jewelry and accessories.
I've been curious on how to make my own, and when I did some research about them I've noticed that they're either called filigree or "embroidery". I would guess that they're called embroidery cause you pretty much use a basic needle tool that you work with clay to "attach" a small piece of clay into the clay base you want to attach them on...

So yes, I finally took some time and decided on making my own. As I did I also thought I would use the Premo Poly Clay instead of the FIMO, which I've always have been using so far. Darn! I love Premo, and I wish I had a lot more. I found the Premo in Perles & Co.'s webshop, as the reason to why I have a load of FIMO is cause that is the most common brand they carry in hobby stores over here.

I'm sharing a few pictures of what I've made in polymer clay way...

I've also used two of the ones I created so far. They ended up as pretty simple necklaces. I didn't want to make something too complicated, as I know that too much can distract from another pieces; in this case I wanted to put focus on the polymer clay cabs so I kept it pretty simple design wise.

Currently I'm also working on a little different project where I also ended up using one of the yellow/green gradient flower cabs I made and posted in this blog-post. But I'm not gonna post any preview piccies of it, so I'll just wait until it's completed :)