Challenge of Music

Blog Hop February 29th

Welcome to the Challenge of Music Blog Hop!

I saw a call from my friend Erin of the blog Treasures Found and had to sign up. My current favorite song 

is Set Fire to the Rain by Adele so I immediately signed up with that song. I thought I had plenty of time but when I started to work on my polymer clay beads for the necklace I have envisioned I realized I didn't have a ton of time or the skills to make polymer clay beads :-/ What I envisioned turned into big, brown, blobs. Not exactly the look I was going for :-/

Oh well back to the drawing board for me.

I like to think of songs as colors. I close my eyes and listen to songs in vibrant colors bursting out from the speakers. I know I am odd. This song always looks like yellow, orange, red and blue to me so those are the colors I wanted to use. I ended up making 2 pieces inspired by this song.

Anyway here is what I made and I have added the lyrics to the song in case you haven't heard it before.

Bracelet:

I made 2 etched copper hearts and joined them together with wire. I thought this symbolized the 2 hearts that can never be together, they are so close but being separated by the twisting, twirling wires, much like his lies and deceit in the song. I then wire wrapped red sea glass, I made my own copper clasp and added a tiny blue heart from Mary Harding. I felt the blue symbolized the rain and her moving on. 

Necklace:

My wonderful husband brought me home this handmade wood heart after I had a meltdown at my polymer clay beads turning to doodoo. I had told him my vision and he executed it perfectly. I added coral and wire wrapped Jade beads.

I hope you will visit the other participants. I will be hoping around all throughout the next few days when I have a few minutes free. 

Thanks for stopping by!

~Shannon

"Set Fire To The Rain"

I let it fall, my heart,

And as it fell you rose to claim it

It was dark and I was over

Until you kissed my lips and you saved me

My hands, they're strong

But my knees were far too weak

To stand in your arms

Without falling to your feet

But there's a side to you

That I never knew, never knew.

All the things you'd say

They were never true, never true,

And the games you play

You would always win, always win.

[Chorus:]

But I set fire to the rain,

Watched it pour as I touched your face,

Well, it burned while I cried

'Cause I heard it screaming out your name, your name!

When I lay with you

I could stay there

Close my eyes

Feel you here forever

You and me together

Nothing is better

'Cause there's a side to you

That I never knew, never knew,

All the things you'd say,

They were never true, never true,

And the games you play

You would always win, always win.

[Chorus:]

But I set fire to the rain,

Watched it pour as I touched your face,

Well, it burned while I cried

'Cause I heard it screaming out your name, your name!

I set fire to the rain

And I threw us into the flames

Where it felt something die

'Cause I knew that that was the last time, the last time!

Sometimes I wake up by the door,

That heart you caught must be waiting for you

Even now when we're already over

I can't help myself from looking for you.

[Chorus:]

I set fire to the rain,

Watched it pour as I touched your face,

Well, it burned while I cried

'Cause I heard it screaming out your name, your name

I set fire to the rain,

And I threw us into the flames

Where it felt something die

'Cause I knew that that was the last time, the last time, oh, ohhhh!

Erin Prais-Hintz

Marcie Abney

Christine Altmiller

Elisabeth Auld

LJ B

Lori Bowring Michaud

Shannon Chomanczuk

Cece Cormier

Jenny Davies-Reazor

Malin de Koning

Beth Emery

Michelle Escano-Caballero

Erin Fickert-Rowland

Therese Frank

Amy Freeland

Tanya Goodwin

Stephani Gorman

Amy Grass

Beth Hemmila

Kristina Johansson

Jennifer Justman

Tari Kahrs

Susan Kennedy

Ema Kilroy

Kathleen Lange Klik

Kirsi Luostarinen

Paige Maxim

Beth McCord

Natalie McKenna

Alice Peterson

Cat Pruitt

Bobbie Rafferty

Johanna Rhodes

Cynthia Riggs

Sally Russick

Sarah Sequins

Amy Severino

Staci Smith

Kristen Stevens

Lola Surwillo

Stefanie Teufel

Sandi Volpe

Holly Westfall

Shaiha Williams

BlogLovin'

Do you BlogLovin'?
I do.
I will admit that when I first read about it I was apprehensive, I like following all my blogs by e-mail and by network blogs. BUT not every blog had the ability to subscribe via e-mail and with my over 1,5060 unread e-mails it is likely I will miss their posts anyway. Yes, I hate reading e-mails so I just don't. Okay, sometimes I do and I always do if it had a good subject line :-)

Anyway, what is Bloglovin' and why do I love it so much.
It is an awesome way to follow your favorite blogs.
They have an iPhone and iPad app that I love because I have both of these awesome gadgets.
They send you an e-mail everyday with a listing of the newest blog posts from that day.
Now I don't have to scroll through a bunch of stuff to find the newest posts.
It also removes posts as you read them.
Oh and you can put all you blogs into categories. So follow all your jewelry blogs in one tab and dog blogs on another, coupon blogs, well you get the idea.
Oh and it's all fo' free! Yep, this awesome app is free. So forget e-mail subscriptions, forget GFG which never works right anyway, forget network blogs which has glitches all the time. Bloglovin' baby!

So visit http://www.bloglovin.com and sign up today. Don't forget to follow my blog while you are there. If you look to the left
<------------over there I have a button, just click it to follow me :-)
Enjoy!
~Shannon

Andrew Thornton&apos;s February Challenge

Don't forget to check out my previous post! Today was also the reveal of the Echo Creative Club....


When I saw that this was the last challenge that Andrew Thornton was hosting I jumped at the chance to participate and much to my surprise I got a kit. He didn't have many available and what he did have sold fast.

The catch? The contents were a mystery.

Here is what was sent:

Yikes! Pink

Awesome Sauce! Loved this little bag of goodies :-)

I let the beads simmer on my beading table for a few days and then popped open that little baggie and dove right in. I decided to stick with the randomness of the baggie and use the contents randomly.

Here is the necklace I made, it is pretty far out of my box but I love it.

Bead dangles all from the baggie of beads and Vintaj natural brass chain and findings.

Pendant from Marsha Neal

I also made this bracelet. This is so "me" in its rustic simplicity. I have a shirt that is stripes of purple and grey with 3/4 length sleeves and this bracelet is so awesome with it.
I used the mystery components which are the 2 enameled round beads. I also grabbed the ceramic bead from Keith O'Connor. 

Chalcedony Briolette and Round Rabbit Extra Focal

Mystery component, enameled round beads

Toggle bar made with a stick from Marsha Neal and a Vintaj natural brass ring.

Ceramic beads from Gaea Cannaday, lamp work from HMB Studio

Head over to Andrew's Blog to see what he made with their pink palette of beads and here are the participants:

Shannon Chomanczuk <---you are here

Kari Asburty 

Suzette Bentley

Peg Gyldenege

Therese Frank

Patti Vanderbloemen
Kari Wilson

~Shannon

Echo Creative Club - February 2012

Hello!
Welcome to my second Echo Creative Club challenge.
Peeled Paint Chip Beads provided by Jewelry by Jeannie.



I was sent a package of white, gold and copper peeled paint chips for this month's challenge and with so much on my plate this month almost forgot about them! Yikes!!!

I had tucked the package away for safe keeping (my 2yo plays at my bead table) and then almost forgot to make anything. Luckily for me Jeannie sent a reminder e-mail and I went straight to my work table and got out my goodies.

I wanted to pull out the copper color in the beads so I grabbed one of my etched copper pendants, copper bead caps, my handmade copper ball headpins, some goldstone from my friend Katie Deck and some dyed riverstones. I <3 riverstone.

I stamped the pendant with my daughter's name because she is our little princess ;-) As you can see she loves it and it works as a mother's necklace for me too.

I hope you will visit the other participants for this month's challenge. I can't wait to see what they have come up with.

Thank you again Jeannie. These were beads I would have never thought of using but I love them so much, they are lightweight, well made and just a perfect accent bead for your projects.

 Sorry this necklace is not for sale, it's mine, if I can get it away from Emily Grace :-)

~Shannon

Here are the stars for February:

Cindy Cima Edwards  http://www.cindycima.com

Courtney Breul  http://beadsbybreul.blogspot.com

Dagi  http://kokopellidesign.blogspot.com

Jeannie K Dukic http://site.jkdjewelry.com/blog

Kristen Stevens  http://kristen-beadjourney.blogspot.com 

Lola Surwillo  http://www.beadlolabead.blogspot.com

Malin de Koning  http://beadingbymalindekoning.blogspot.com

Michelle Buettner  http://www.MiShelDesigns.blogspot.com

Molly Alexander  http://www.beautifullybrokenme.blogspot.com

Shannon Chomanczuk  http://www.formysweetdaughter.blogspot.com <---You are here :-)

Visit our Flickr group:

Flickr group http://www.flickr.com/groups/1908988@N22/

Last Friday in February - The stumped designer

Today is the last Friday in February. Do you know what that means?

It is Artisan Clay reveal day :-)

I am so excited to show you this necklace because I struggled with it. Yes that's right I was stumped. I had no clue what I was going to make.

It went something like this...
Hmm. I could make earrings.
That might be cool but you said you were going to push yourself creatively this year.
Yes but it's due in 3 days and I have to work at the salon those days and earrings would be easy.
Yes but you didn't want to do easy.
Ugh I know but what. A necklace? Yikes!
Go look at your bead stash.
Ok, ok, I'm going.
Yes that's me talking to myself. I do that from time to time.

This month I received 2 of these circle recycled glass pendants from Kristie's Shop, Artisan Clay.
I have received these before in another Design Challenge, remember these?
For My Sweet Daughter May 2011
I left them on the counter for a few days while I sketched what I wanted to do. Then I got sick and took a week off from everything. I barely even touched Facebook so you know I was really sick ;-)

The design all started when I found these 2 polymer clay beads from Barbara Bechtel of Floridity. The brown and lime green were the perfect compliment and rustic feeling I was going for.
Now what to pair with them? I knew I wanted a circle or circle like object. I pulled out all my circles from Vintaj and different ceramic artists but nothing seemed to work. Then during my drive home from work the other day it hit me. I had this awesome bronze ammonite connector donut from Staci Louise at SLArtisanAccents. Perfect!

Then I went to my collection of smoky quartz beads and found this faceted round bead and this funky nugget which I love but rarely use hoard.
I was struggling with the final part of the necklace because the bead I had in place was so not working.  I called over my business advisor, my husband, and I pulled out several different lampwork beads. I was striking out till I remembered this tiny box of beads I had from Pink Beach. Bingo! I grabbed the brown and raku beads and started working.

I wanted to make the connections sturdy so I used a double loop technique with 22 gauge wire and I did a messy wire wrap to add to the rustic feeling.
I connected the segments to each other so that visually they worked as one unit. I find separating them with jump rings gives a different feeling (which I love for my other pieces).
I wire wrapped the donut with 22 gauge wire to make it a connector and attached it right to the pendant, then got to adding the other elements.
On the Pink Beach bead I textured (beat to heck) 2-10mm  Vintaj natural brass washers. Then I wrapped wire around the Vintaj hook clasp.
Through the 2 etched jump rings I threaded silk from Marsha Neal of MarshNealStudio in a beautiful pumpkin color, tied 2 knots, trimmed the silk and I was d-o-n-e.

Thank you for visiting and be sure to check out the other participants.

~Shannon

Now if you have read to all the way down here I have a surprise for you. I got 2 of these pendants. I only used one. I am going to give the other one away to a random reader who leaves a comment telling me how much they love what I made, or hated it let's be honest here. I will use random.org to help me pick a winner on Monday 2/27, although I can be bribed with pie and chocolate ;-)

What I am cooking up

This has been a crazy week.
I know a cold is my bodies way of telling me to slow down but I am pretty slow all the time anyway. If I slow down anymore I am going to be moving backwards. Lol
But seriously, I didn't think I was doing too much till I sat to write this post.
Here are some things I am working on:

Bead Soup due March 3rd.
I got my beads from my partner Rochelle Brisson of Sea Chelles Design, visit her blog here A Creative Chelle. Out of my comfort zone for sure but that's the fun part of these hops!

The Challenge of Music due Feb 29th. I have a song picked but haven't started working on my piece yet. All I am gonna tell you is that I love Adele ;-)

Blog Hop February 29th

Artisan Clay due February 25th:

Got my beads at the end of last week and have been too sick to work with them yet.

Echo Creative Club due Feb 25th:

Got my beads, made an awesome necklace, took pictures, working on the blog post this afternoon :-)

Andrew Thornton's February Challenge also due Feb 25th:

Necklace finished, photographed and I am working on some other pieces because this kit was huge.

The colors of spring blog hop due March 31st. Got my beads, have been sketching what I want to make but haven't had a chance to make anything yet.

And finally I am a member of the Allegory Design Team due Feb 28th.
My pieces are made and photographed, now all I need to do is write up the instructions and get them to Andrew :-)




Whew! I can now see why I got sick. I love all these challenges and they push me creatively but I think I may have over done it for February. I have never been pushed so far creatively though and that is fueling my fire. All of the pieces I have been sent are out of my comfort zone and that is awesome. I hope you will keep following me to see what I have made for each of these challenges.

~Shannon

I am happy for

My sweet daughter (2-1/2 years old) and I have been sick.

People call it the crud. Never hear it called that before but it is the worst.

When I was having a coughing fit a few minutes ago my daughter brought me a toy spoon and said 

"you don't sound very good, have honey."

So I thought I would take a minute and be thankful for some things:

Staying in PJ's all day (I did shower and put on clean one's though)

The sound of her footsteps in her footed PJ's

Honey

Garlic Bread, hubby will be making me for dinner, yum

Chihuahua kisses

my daughter "learning" how to blow her nose

pigtails

A chandelier where a hole was (hubby is a carpenter and the hole was there for a long, long time)

a hubby who went to church, sat with my parents and then did all the grocery shopping because baby and I were too sick to go

then he made pancakes <3

What are you happy for today?

~Shannon

Valentine's Challenge

About a month ago I read on my friend Patty G's Facebook page that Michelle Mach of Beads and Books Blog was having a card challenge.
Michelle was going to send 25 people an embossed card and we could do whatever we wanted to do to/with the card. I chose the alphabet card to give myself a challenge and because I figured that everyone else would pick the hearts and flowers being this is a Valentine's challenge.


I was so excited by this challenge because many of the items I use to make jewelry are also scrapbooking/cardmaking supplies.
It didn't take me very long to figure out what I was going to do with the card. Burn it!

Yep! I started out making the card my own by burning the edges. I went outside during my daughters nap and burned the edges with a lighter. Next, I cut a piece of decorative scrapbook paper to layer underneath, then another piece of cream card stock for the inside. I punched the holes for the die cut flowers, button, binding and earrings. Then, I stamped the words on the inside and a key on the back side.
I made the flowers using a flower die cut, then embossed them with a script folder and my Big Shot machine. I ran over the front of the card with light pink and red ink and then filled in some of the letters with nail polish (I am a nail tech, it was all I had). I taped the 3 sheets together with double sided tape, attached the flowers using brads, set the eyelet on the inside, tied on the button and tied the 3 sheets together with hemp.  Slip in a pair of earrings as a gift and you are all set!

Thanks Michelle for a great challenge I really enjoyed this challenge and finished it way early,

which is not me at all.

Thanks for checking out my card :-)

~Shannon