Beads, beads, and more beads!

Today marks the day of a new Micro Challenge at {Caardvarks}! You saw a sneak peak yesterday of my card for the gallery...did that give you a clue on what the challenge was going to be today? If you guessed beads, you guessed right! Your next Micro Challenge is to make a card using beads on the front! I love this idea. I've got a gazillion beads sitting around my studio that I bought many years ago when I thought I might like beading as a new hobby. Mmmmm, not so much. Not my cup of tea. Too much stress on the fine motor skills!

Be sure and run over to {Caardvarks} today to see my card in full. It was such fun to put together. And it was one of those cards that just "worked" from the git go. There was no hemming and hawing, no tearing off and re-doing. I hope you like it cuz I really do!

In honor of the new challenge, I whipped up another beaded card this morning! This time, I used Beate's new sketch challenge as my layout. The designer paper I used is Basic Grey's Infuse. I made my circle on the left of the card using my Creative Memories cutting system. To decorate the circle with beads, I first used my paper piercing tool to punch holes all the way around the circle. Then I got down to the business of beading. To start, I threaded a needle and knotted it at the end. I poked the needle from the back of the paper up to the top of the paper. I picked up 5 pink beads with my needle and pushed them down the thread till they reached the paper. Then I poked my needle down into the next hole, and UP into the hole after that. And then I repeated the process of adding 5 more beads. I hope that makes sense. I've never had to describe sewing with a needle and thread before! It's not my forte!

I did this all the way around the circle and then just knotted the thread in the back so it wouldn't come apart. After I got this part of the card done, I sewed down a chocolate brown panel of designer paper to the Infuse paper using a zigzag stitch. I laid my beaded circle down on top of this panel using Mono Multi. The scallop circle sentiment is from my So Many Sayings SU set. I wanted it to tie in with the sentiment in the beaded circle, which is from Happy Harmony. At this point, the card seemed a little bottom heavy, which is why I added the two bows at the top of the card with a circle paper clip. This seemed to do the trick in balancing the whole thing out!

If you've got lots of beads sitting around your house, try incorporating them into a card today for the {Caardvarks} micro challenge. I can't wait to see all the fun designs that will be pouring in!

Hugs,
Amy

p.s. Our trip to the MN State Fair was miserable last night. It was gorgeous, but it was HOT, it was CROWDED, and it was expensive!!! The boys each had a blast with their respective friends, but remind me next year how much I hate crowds and hate wasting my money on fried foods! For the kind of money we spent last night, I could have bought a TON of new stamping supplies!!!!