Skip to main content

My Favourite Sites ~ Part One!

LIMA BEADS ~ http://www.limabeads.com/

Based in Ann Arbour, MI, USA, Lima Beads is a bright & funky site selling a vast selection of Semi~Precious Beads in all shapes & sizes, Freshwater Pearls, CZ, Cabachons, Charms, Findings in Sterling Silver, Copper & Brass, Vintaj charms plus lots more!
I've bought from them several times & have always been very happy when my order has arrived (usually  arriving in just over a week, not bad from the US!)

Chicks!
Another great thing about Lima Beads is the community of friendly fellow beaders that exists on the site. When you register with them you create your own profile to share. Lots of us have "Chick" names ~ I'm Spiral Chick, then there's Little Round Chick, Happy Chick, Chicky LE, Coffee Chick............... most of the community are from the US but there's also people from Norway, Belgium, & the UK.

Fresh Picks & More!
Once you register you can enter the interactive world of Fresh Picks, where you create a pick of 16 items that you can then post for others to see & comment on.

The Big Green Bead Machine ~ watch the prices of a selection of goodies drop every 5 minutes & bag them while you can!

 You can also create a Wish List of items that have caught your eye then easily transfer them to your shopping basket.

WARNING!  This site is very addictive & could waste lots of your time (in a good way!)

Design Gallery
 The Design Gallery allows you to upload photos of your jewellery for other Lima Beaders to see & comment on ~ all nice comments, don't worry!
There's so many beautiful creations in the Design Gallery, here are some of my favourites ~


                                                                                                           
Tic Tac Toe by doktordesigns



Tear Of Joy by Lynn G



Starry Night by Lorri G



The Malachite Challenge by Weimai Coffee Chick



Copper Swirls by ChickyLE



Faux Animal Prints Necklace by DivaChick



Out In The Cosmos by JessBell



Afternoon In The Garden by GemsChica Chick





Lima Beads is definitely worth a visit if only to play around with the Fresh Picks, look at all the beautiful beads & check out the fab variety of creations in the Design Gallery!

Bead Happy!




Comments

  1. Wow, thanks for picking us as your first site! We are flattered, and looking forward to keeping up with your blog! ~Andrew and the LB Team

    P.S. Your photography skills are worthy of their own website!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Andrew from Lima Beads! Thank you & you're welcome! Tracy x

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Your comments and questions are very welcome!
If you would prefer to contact me directly please use the contact form on my "get in touch" page.

Popular posts from this blog

Combining Soldering And Enamel

The need to make cute, brightly coloured enamel studs propelled me into the world of combining soldering with enamel a couple of years ago. I knew from reading up on it that it was possible to enamel and solder on the same piece but wasn't too confident I was able to do it back then. It was a slightly embarrassing occurance that made me just get on with - I'd made some enamel studs with glued on stud posts. I'd used 2 part epoxy resin which was a job in itself as it set hard after 5 minutes so I had to keep mixing more up. The finished studs looked ok but that little voice in my head kept asking "are you sure you want to use glue?" I wasn't but didn't think I had any other way to do it so I used glue. I sold my first pair and merrily sent them on their way to Canada. A couple of week later the buyer got in touch to say the stud post had come off one of the earrings and the other was hanging off. I was mortified, apologized profusely and refunded her m

Etching Silver Using Nail Art Stamps

So my love/hate relationship with etching sterling silver continues. I've tried a few times now and always end up with different results most of them not that great to be honest. I've tried connecting the silver and a piece of copper to a 9v battery and also heating the ferric nitrate. Sometimes the results are good sometimes not so good. I currently have an etched piece of silver sheet waiting to be reticulated and rid it of the mess that is the etched "pattern".  I now know that using stamps and Stayz On ink just doesn't work with silver - the time needed to etch using ferric nitrate is much longer than etching copper and the ink starts to wear away after about an hour. This results in the pattern being patchy as the resist is eaten away and the silver ends up quite lumpy and course looking. I have yet to try using pnp paper. I don't know why but it all seems a bit of a faff to do. I don't have a laser printer so would need to find somewhere or

Embossing Metal With My Sizzix Bigshot

I must admit up until a few weeks ago I was vaguely familiar with the name Sizzix but as to what you actually did with a "Sizzix" I was completely in the dark! That was until I stumbled across a video from Vintaj showing how you could use their embossing folders with a Bigshot to create designs on metal ("metal" - my favourite word after chocolate!) I was really impressed and itching to have a go, I just needed a Bigshot........ I waited a few weeks then when the urge to possess one overcame me I went out debit card at the ready..............and the shop had sold out! So I trundled off to The Range on the off chance and came home clutching my own surprisingly heavy pink and black wonder machine. It sat on the dining room table for a couple of days while I waited for the embossing folders I'd ordered online to arrive then the time came to start playing! I started with some pre-cut 24g copper hearts and the Wildflower Vines and the Butterfly Swirls Deco