West Coast Crafty » bead simple

tiny ribboned gift bags!

Susan — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 20:57:31 +0000

I made Pearl’s teachers some carnelian and black agate earrings for gifts this year,

and stitched up a set of Tiny Ribboned Gift Bags to put them in. Both halves of the project are very quick and easy (perfect for a day like December 17th, ahem) and I thought I’d share the how-to over here if anyone else is looking for a nice way to wrap up some small things like jewelry or trinkets, too! These bags are great for jewelry storage or travel, or just for re-using for the next gift, and you can make dozens of them from a quarter-yard of fabric, or use up your scraps making a whole rainbow of them. It’s been far too long since I’ve had the chance to post a tutorial over here and I hope you like it…

Tiny Ribboned Gift Bags

For each bag, you’ll need a remnant of fabric, an iron, scissors, a piece of ribbon, sewing machine (or needle and thread), and pinking shears. These instructions are for an earring-sized bag with some size variations at the end of the steps!

1. Cut your fabric into long rectangular pieces, about 7 inches by 2.5 inches. Press them in half with right sides facing (as shown).

2. Stitch up both sides with a 1/4-inch seam allowance, back-stitching at the beginning and end of the seam to hold it. Turn the bag right side out and give it a quick press to shape it. Trim the top with pinking shears to give it a pretty edge (scallop-edged scissors would be nice too!)

3. Cut a length of ribbon (stitching it to hold it at the back if you like — I left mine loose) and place your gift inside the bag. Tie the ribbon in a bow above the gift and trim the ends.

For a wider, larger bag that would work for a pendant or bracelet (like the center one above, which holds the Circle Deluxe Pendant from the jewelry photo), cut your piece of fabric 7 or 8 inches long and 3.5 – 4 inches wide. For larger gifts, just place the present on a folded piece of fabric and cut generously on each side and above (since some of the width will go to a seam allowance, and the top will be tied with ribbon too). For a larger bag, fold your fabric, stitch, press, pink the top and tie with a (wider) ribbon the same way described for the little version.

If you’re interested, I also have two more holiday craft tutorials up today — please go check them out if you’d like to!

The Carnelian and Black Agate Earrings I put inside these little gift bags are over at Bead Simple,

and I designed a new Tiny-Eyed Owl Ornament project for Button It Up!

I’ll be around this week with a few more holiday things (we decorated the tree and the house last weekend, which was so much fun) and I’ll be part of Kayte’s blog tour for Applique Your Way, too! See you then.

crafty writers talking

Susan — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 23:04:18 +0000

We’ve been on a pretty blissful eastern Oregon vacation for the last week and off the computer and the cell phone circuit, but I’m back in Portland and loving this gorgeous summer-fall weather… I’m already thinking about Halloween costumes and making a new quilt and tempting stuff like that.

I also wanted to let anyone local know that this coming Sunday (September 20) I’ll be part of Crafty Writers Talking, a panel with Alicia Paulson and Diane Gilleland over at Hollywood Library on books, blogs, craftiness and everything in between. I am really looking forward to it and honored to be on the panel with these two superstars, and would love to say hello if you can make it! All the info is over here and it starts at 2:00.

I’ll be back with more crafty stuff later on this week too… it’s been a crazy end of the summer but I have gotten to do a few things I’m excited about!

p.s. I recently made the not-so-fun decision to change all my photos of Pearl to friends and family only on flickr after an incident where one of them was taken off the site and republished without my consent. Things are resolved now, but I do have a bunch of holes here where the formerly public photos were — I’m leaving a few up where she is a small part of a larger photo for now, but that may change too. So please bear with me while I do some blog-mending over the next while, and my apologies in advance if the re-edited posts all show up on readers again or anything like that.

bead + button jewelry loveliness

Susan — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 19:30:50 +0000

This week has been so ridiculously hot that I can’t seem to get it together to post much of anything, and I haven’t had the energy to write about the wonderful Denyse Schmidt workshop I took (Amy, who is much more industrious than I am, has a fantastic post about it here with tons of photos). But I do have some photos to share from the Bead + Button Jewelry class I taught last week — my students were wonderful, and everyone made really lovely things in our four days together. It was such a joy to be part of it!

All my snapshots of the finished pieces are in this set and the Summer of Making pool. Thank you so much to Patti, Dee, Marty, Mandi, Aya, Sandra, and Hannah for being part of the class, and a special thank-you to Diane and Hannah for guest-teaching their bead and wire crochet and structural wire approaches, too!

Speaking of beads and buttons, I’m getting ready for Urban Craft Uprising this weekend (in substantially cooler-sounding Seattle, hooray) and I’ll post more about that tomorrow! I’d love to say hi and make some button hairclips with you if you’re planning on attending the fair on Saturday…

quilts squared

Susan — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 21:29:48 +0000

This month is filled with quilt events and exhibits all over Oregon. Here are the ones I’m going to in the next few weeks — if you are nearby, you might want to check some of them out too!

This afternoon, Pearl and I are meeting some friends to see the Quilts of Gee’s Bend exhibit at Elizabeth Leach Gallery, which includes both quilts and archival prints! I am so excited to see this show. I saw a big show of the Gee’s Bend Quilts at the DeYoung Museum in San Francisco several years ago and it was incredible. The Schneider Museum of Art in Ashland also has a larger Gee’s Bend show this month and I am already planning a trip down…

Speaking of trips, Andrew, Pearl and I are heading to Sisters this weekend to see the world-famous Outdoor Quilt Show — we will miss yet another Gee’s Bend event that’s going on earlier this week, but will get to see a whole Saturday’s worth of quilts! I’m really looking forward to it, I’ll be taking tons of pictures and I’ll post them next week. While we’re there, I’m also going to see the “Patterns from the Past” show at the High Desert Museum in Bend — a collection of seventeen quilts made by Southern women from the Revolutionary War through the Civil War eras…

…and the exhibit includes a communal quilt that visitors can embellish or stitch on, a lot like the wonderful Stitch-O-Rama tablecloth we embroidered at craft events in Portland in 2006 as part of the New Embroidery: Not Your Grandma’s Doily show at the Museum of Contemporary Craft.

The Museum is also hosting a lecture by Denyse Schmidt which should be phenomenal, on Friday, July 17th at 5:30pm . It precedes her two-day workshop, which I am thrilled to be taking. I’ve always wanted to take her Connecticut-studio class and now that she’s coming to Portland, I am so excited to learn new color and quilting techniques!

The museum has an exhibit upstairs in the Lab with one of her quilts and work from the other teachers in the Summer of Making program. I am so honored that four pieces of my jewelry from Bead Simple and Button It Up are displayed in front of the quilt — Denyse is one of my craft heroes!

Just a reminder, too, that you can still enter to win a free spot in my Bead + Button Jewelry class through tomorrow. I’d love to see some fellow crafters there so if you’re blessed with a flexible schedule and want to spend four days making pretty things and learning new jewelry and embellishment techniques, please leave a comment on the Summer of Making post or on their Facebook page!

Thank you again to PNCA and the museum for putting on the Summer of Making, with a special thank-you to Josh, who has curated such a lovely program.

win a free class in the Summer of Making!

Susan — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 23:10:40 +0000

I’m very grateful to PNCA for generously offering up a spot in my Bead + Button Jewelry class for someone to win — the winner will take the class for free, with all tuition and fees are covered, a $275 value! Just leave a comment here on their blog, on their Facebook page, or mention it on your own blog or Facebook by this Saturday, and you are entered in the drawing. All the details are here.

The class meets July 20-23 from 10am – 3pm at the college, and you can find out lots more information and download the class syllabus here. I’m very excited about it! I would love to see some crafty friends there, so if you’re interested in learning new jewelry and embellishment craft techniques, and having a whole four days to try all of them out, please go ahead and comment there!

The other Summer of Making classes are all so fantastic — Artful Blogging (which meets every Wednesday night, so convenient), By Hand: Needlework + Macrame, and Contemporary Fiber Arts.

Thank you again to PNCA for hosting this program and for offering the chance to win a class!

summer of making

Susan — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 21:54:25 +0000

I’m very happy to be part of the Summer of Making next month at the wonderful PNCA here in Portland!

The Continuing Education department has put together a fantastic line-up of classes, and they’re offering a very generous giveaway this week if you help spread the word about them…

from the blog:
We have a nice package of promotional items to give away. This includes a signed copy of Susan Beal’s Button It Up, Denyse Schmidt’s Quilt-It Kit, a yard of County Fair, Patchwork Promenade Print by Denyse Schmidt and a Summer of Making Poster. To win leave a comment on the blog, become a fan of Summer of Making on Facebook or mention us on your Facebook profile or blog. You will get one entry for each of these (maximum of 4). We will randomly select the winner June 21.

I am very honored to be one of the teachers alongside some of my favorite crafters. Denyse Schmidt is coming to teach a two-day workshop, which I am so excited to take! Jess Beebe is teaching By Hand: Needlework and Macrame, Sarah Schlosser-Moon is teaching Artful Blogging, Brenda Mallory is teaching Contemporary Fiber Art, and I am teaching Bead and Button Jewelry.

I’m so excited about this class. We’ll have four days to work on jewelry, beading and embellishment techniques of all types, a luxurious amount of time to make things! Bead + Button Jewelry meets Monday through Thursday, July 20-23 from 10-3 in a nice big classroom with natural light at PNCA — all the details are here.

from the website:
In this hands-on class, students will learn and practice a range of beading, jewelry-making and embellishment techniques, including wirework, stringing, weaving, knotting, gluing, hand-sewing, and other craft methods. Bring in your own favorite pieces to design around, complementing them with vintage and new beads, buttons, findings, chain, fabric, and other materials from Susan’s collection.

Aside from the nuts and bolts of practical making, we’ll focus on color, balance, arrangements, and intuitive design – creating a collection of jewelry and other crafts that bring your treasures to life. With four days to work together, we’ll create a collection of instant favorites for gifts or for yourself, while building a strong foundation for designing future projects with your new skills.

The projects we create will reflect each student’s personal sense of style and other favorite elements – instead of a cookie-cutter approach, each designer will enjoy the flexibility to focus on what he or she prefers.

If you want to know more about any of the classes, you can download a syllabus for each one on its page at the Summer of Making site. And if you have any questions about mine in particular, please ask away over here!

One last thing: if you are interested in taking Bead + Button Jewelry, I would be thrilled to have some crafty friends in the class. If anyone who registers mentions that they read my blog or either of my book sites (or have checked out my flickr, or know me through Portland stuff) I will put together a special package of vintage beads and buttons as a thank-you! You can leave a comment here or just let me know the first day of class, and I’ll put something fun together with some of your favorite colors and styles and bring it for you to craft with the second day and beyond.

p.s. I’m cross-posting this announcement on my Button It Up and Bead Simple sites, too, so sorry for the exact repetition if you see it more than once, but since the class ties together techniques from both of my books, I’d like to spread the word in all directions!

the end of another crafty era

Susan — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 21:21:37 +0000

Andrew was working on a project in Seattle all last week, so instead of flying down to the Golden State as planned, Pearl and I ended up heading up to the Evergreen State for a couple of days instead. We stayed right downtown, which was fun, and got to visit the market, the big awesome library, Uwajimaya (for browsing craft books and sharing a Beard Papa cream puff), numerous coffee shops, a couple of kid-friendly pizza places, and Szechuan Noodle Bowl (for green onion pancakes – delicious). Best of all, we took the ferry out to Bainbridge Island, which Pearl loved. It was a gorgeous sunny day and I took about a zillion photos, but here are my two favorites… leaving Seattle

and approaching Bainbridge… Mt. Ranier is really something on a clear day!

Meanwhile, Sunday was my last-ever CraftStylish post. As of yesterday, June 1, the site has been restructured pretty dramatically (which you can read more about here and here; update as of June 3, also here and here) and none of the dozen of us who were regular contributors are going to be weekly posters any more. But they’re keeping the archive up, so while I’m sad to lose the freelance job and the chance to design projects over there, I’m really grateful that my work will still be out there — along with all the great projects I want to try from Kayte, Linda, Erika, Lee, Diane, Cal, Jennifer and Jeffery! I may do something else there occasionally later, but for now they’re streamlining quite a bit, and Sunday’s post is it for now. My project posts are all archived over here and I made a flickr set with some of my favorite project photos here, if you’re interested.

So, here are my last two projects — I gave my jewelry-making heart free rein for these. First, I used some of the stellar Crafty Chica paints and imagery to make this simple decoupaged pendant and matching earrings. This is a sweet little project, very quick to do and fun to wear.

And then this week I wrapped things up with an Art Nouveau-inspired pendant using some of my all-time favorite bits and pieces: vintage beads, charms, and shrink plastic.

So, thanks so much to Michaela and everyone at CraftStylish for the chance to be part of it all this last year and a half!

spring flowers

Susan — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 19:24:48 +0000

Wow, after a super busy week and a lot of things I’m excited about and wanted to mention (mason jars! inventing some hanging flower baskets! estate sales! garden! making a cookbook!) I am suddenly feeling horribly under the weather so I’m going to save those bits and pieces for another day. Bummer.

I do have one thing to show before I crawl back into bed: a little flower-embellishment project to resparkle a plain vintage handbag over at CraftStylish. I took some assorted rhinestones in two different colors

and mixed them into a floral pattern in the spirit of my favorite handbag designer ever, Enid Collins.

It is also a bit like the Blossom Book project from Bead Simple (same color mix — I love those deep-gold rhinestones) and a bit like the Treasure Box I made for CRAFT: 05 (yes, same center rhinestones again! I am a creature of habit, I guess.).

I like it!

Okay, I’m heading back to bed for now… I need to rest up so I can cheer on the Blazers in Game 5 tomorrow night.

mending broken jewelry

Susan — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 20:38:31 +0000

Thanks for the terrarium love! I had so much fun making those little things. I made a pizza yesterday and used about 1/10 of a glass jar of tomato sauce, and before I could help myself I had emptied the rest of it into a plastic container, just to instantly liberate the jar for terrarium-ing instead of having to wait til it was actually used up. And my Aunt Susan told me something so nice yesterday when she saw my post: my dad made that huge old green-glass terrarium at my grandparents’ house that I loved so much. I never knew that, and it feels like a very sweet and unexpected link back to him, now that I’m making some with Pearl in tow.

I’m excited to do some terrarium kits for my nephew Julian (I wonder if this fascination is genetic? we’ll see) and a few other friends I think would especially like them, and I’ll post some pictures of those too…

Today has turned out to be busy and filled with Pearl so I’ll just be quick and mention that I wrote up a new tutorial for mending your broken jewelry over at CRAFT:, if you have any snapped chains or bent earring wires or missing clasps to deal with.

photo by Burcu Avsar + Zach DeSart, from Button It Up

I hope it’s helpful! Along with the photos and written instructions, I included two videos I’ve made, one on basic wirework I posted months ago and a new one on opening and closing jump rings. I filmed it last spring when I was 38 weeks along with Pearl so you can see a good glimpse of my pregnant belly at about the 4-minute mark, which I find hilarious.

Tomorrow, I’m excited to show my estate sale finds from last weekend! I go to so many that are eh, and this one was really something.

Crafty Wonderland this Sunday!

Susan — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 02:28:02 +0000

I hope I’ll see you tomorrow at the Super Colossal Crafty Wonderland sale — it should be amazing! I stopped by today and got a sneak peek at the goodie bags being filled up with fantastical craft treats. If you’re one of the first 200 shoppers, you’ll get one on your way in!

There will be over a hundred vendors, free craft activities, and tons and tons of space for easy browsing and shopping, plus it’s right on the MAX line and street parking is free on Sundays. Pearl and I will be heading over with Diane, Caitlin, and Sarah, and I can’t wait to see all the amazing things for sale!

I had planned to be part of the event myself, and sell my jewelry kits and sign copies of Bead Simple, and I’m still listed in the program. But unfortunately I had to change my plans at the last minute this week when some personal things took over my Sunday and I couldn’t spend ten hours away from my little Pearl after all. So I passed my spot along to the first crafter on the waiting list, Mode Noir Flowers and her lovely brooches. And Torie generously offered to sell my kits and signed copies of my book along with her gorgeous accessories at her Totinette booth (#50), so you can find them there if you’re so inclined. I’ll be writing up a post all about the sale next week at CraftStylish and I’ll be sure to share my finds and my favorites then!

Hope to see you there!