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Design challenge: who won?

May 4, 2011

Thanks to a couple hundred πŸ™‚ of you guys for jumping in on our latest Design Challenge: brushed copper beads! *And welcome to you visitors from the Rings & Things News Flash email!*

From the dozen or so
brushed copper bead recipients, Rings & Things received dozens of awesome photos showing what they designed.

The grand prize winner is Kym Hunter! Kym built this simple but wonderful ring.

Front view (showing the flower bead)

We loved the simplicity, cleverness and cuteness of Kym’s ring! Besides two brushed copper beads (puffed flower and striped disk), Kym used just a couple of pieces of felt and some copper wire–to great effect.


BOOKMARK THIS PAGE!
GET INTO OUR NEXT CONTEST
…to be announced very very soon…


See Kym’s other brushed-copper bead creations at the original Design Challenge blog post. They’re in a photo gallery there with everyone else’s entries.

Don’t miss out! You’ll find jewelry there like Melissa Meman’s drape earrings, inventively using the small brushed disk beads (which she oxidized) as vertical design elements .

I promise you’ll have a great time browsing the photos πŸ™‚ Thanks for sending a friend the link, to share & enjoy!

Your Designs Rock: design contest update

April 5, 2011

Interested in upcoming contests? Visit us on Facebook!

Update on Rings & Things’ design contest

While the hard work is over for the contestants of our 2011 jewelry and design contest, the work for us has just begun!

Our panel of 6 judges is busy scoring this year’s entries, based on 3 criteria:

  1. originality (creative concept)
  2. craftsmanship (skill)
  3. aesthetic appeal

Once the numbers are in, top scorers in all 3 criteria will be contacted and asked to send in their physical entries for the final judging round. (Note: we do not give out scores, so please do not contact us asking for numbers!)


We expect to contact finalists via email between April 8 and April 12. So entrants, watch your inboxes!

For those of you anxiously waiting to see if you’re moving on to the finals, rest assured that our judges know what you’re going through!

Our judges are not only active in the arts-&-crafts community, but are required to have submitted their artwork to competitive juries in the past. They know all about the sweat and mental effort each of our contestants has contributed during the past months!


For those of you who do not make the final round, keep in mind that along the way you’ve gained experience promoting yourself and your artworkβ€”and that’s always useful experience to have!

We love seeing everyone’s creativity and hard work each year, whether it comes from Olathe, Kansas; Maple Ridge, British Columbia; Nizhny Novgorod, Russia or anywhere else your talent might reside.

Congratulations again to our 2011 Early-Bird Drawing winner Sarah Breivis of Juju by Sarah (San Francisco, CA). Click here to see the beautiful goodie bag Sarah received for getting in her entry by February 7.


PS, our New-Entrant Drawing is yet to come! All contestants who entered Your Designs Rock for the first time in 2011 have had their names put into the hat for another chance to win a hand-picked goodie bag. Watch for our New Entrant Drawing winner, along with all contest winners, the first week of June.

Till then, happy designing and keep creating with confidence!

Take our design challenge!

March 17, 2011

[last update, May 2nd:
designer entries added at the bottom–scroll down!
Grand Prize winner to be picked this week]

Take our design challenge!

(PS: while you’re all waiting for the entries to be posted at the bottom of this post,
enjoy our last design challenge featuring glass bezels!)

The theme is brushed copper beads, look at ’em:

Brushed copper beads

Design challenge! Satin-finish copper beads

We think you’ll love these: They’re gorgeously shiny… fun to touch…

and we like how people’s faces light up when they see ’em at our bead shows!

Here’s how to enter:

  1. Leave a comment below.
  2. Get an extra entry in the drawing: Link from your blog to this post. Share this post in Facebook or Twitter.

Then, wait for an email from me: One week from today, on Thursday, March 24th, I’ll do a drawing & pick 15 lucky participants. I’ll send those 15 people a packet of these satin-finish copper beads.


They’ll have 1 month to provide photos of the jewelry they make with these beads. Out of all those entries, Rings & Things will pick a Design Challenge winner to receive a surprise pack of our jewelry supplies! So enter now, tell your online friends, and get thinking–what will you do with a bunch of brushed copper beads? Doming? Sawing in half? Image-transfer solution? Patina’ing? Hole punching? –Dave at Rings & Things–


Update, March 29th: Yay! Winners! Here’s the list of the lucky 13 people whose names were drawn:

1. Penny Neville,
http://copperpennydesigns.blogspot.com/2011/03/take-our-design-challenge.html
2. Marie-Noel Voyer-Cramp,
http://skyejewels.blogspot.com/
3. Erin Prais-Hintz,
http://treasures-found.blogspot.com
4. Erin Strother,
http://www.studioEgraphics.com
5. Francine Vorbeck,
http://www.exclusivelyoursdesigns.blogspot.com/
6. Jenny Mac,
http://jennymacoriginals.goods.officelive.com/default.aspx
7. Amy,
http://spritecreations.dnsdojo.com/
8. Kristi Bowman,
http://dreamsomedesigns.blogspot.com/
9. Melissa M,
http://melissameman.blogspot.com
10. Kym Hunter,
http://kymhunterdesigns.blogspot.com
11. Tina Lawrence,
http://www.etsy.com/shop/statementsinsterling
12. Jenny Vidberg, http://shymessmycken.blogspot.com
13. Laura Staley,
http://www.etsy.com/shop/laurastaley

The design entries keep coming in…


And the Early-Bird Winner Is …

March 3, 2011
Creativity’s A-popping with Bottle Caps!
How about some easy, custom mixed-media jewelry? Just pop images into these bottle caps (aka bottle crowns), seal, and glue the cap to a jewelry blank of your choice. (Pendants, pins, rings, bobby pins, cuff links, belt buckles…) These bottle caps are good to go: they have no pesky rubber lining! Choose from 4 sizes & 16 colors, plus a unique flower-shaped cap!
Pop the top on creativity with bottle caps!

Jewelry Bottle Caps

Jewelry Inspirations:

some ways to use bottle caps…

Give peace & bottle caps a chance with this adorable pin design.
“Flower Power” Pin
Make trendy belt buckles with our super jumbo bottle crowns.
“Blue Rabbit” Belt Buckle
Hello Kitty is always a favorite, and so is this earrings design!
“Meow” Earrings


Design contest: Early-Bird prize deadline!

February 2, 2011

Your Designs Rock Contest Early-Bird Drawing

Enter our annual contest by Monday, February 7, and we’ll add your name to our Early-Bird Drawing for a goodie bag!

Last year’s Early-Bird goodie bag included gemstone beads, wooden chain & gold-filled components.

Contestants are entered in the drawing 1 time for each of up to 3 complete entries submitted by February 7.

Don’t delay β€” that’s less than a week away! Contest details & entry form.

Design challenge results: glass bezels, glass tiles

December 3, 2010

Rings & Things just ran a design challenge with several of our Blog Partners. Look what they made!
(Note added on March 30, 2011: also see our next design challenge with brushed copper beads!)

We sent our crafty guinea pigs some packages of Rings & Things exclusive new items: glass bezels and glass tiles.

Krissi Sandvik used these glass findings to frame tiny reproductions of her own paintings:

Krissi-Sandvik-design-challenge-glass-tiles

Click to enlarge!

Armored Hearts came up with the inspiration of using up old beads that were lying around the workshop. They make some really fun patterned designs in resin…

Armored Hearts design challenge glass tiles

Armored Hearts design challenge glass tiles

Armored Hearts design challenge glass tiles

Armored Hearts design challenge glass tiles

Armored Hearts design challenege glass tiles

Armored Hearts design challenge glass tiles

Armored Hearts design challenge glass tiles

Juli Nocita took two approaches, layering some ArtChix images into the glass bezels…

Juli-Nocita-design-challenge-glass-tiles-with ArtChix images

…and placing same-size glass tiles and glass bezels together to make an image “box”:

Juli-Nocita-design-challenge-glass-tiles-with glass bezels to make an image box

Suebeads made this magnet set with Tim Coffey special paper:

SueBeads-design-challenge-glass-tiles

Click to enlarge!

Courtney Breul commented, “Loved the bezels, but the clear back can be difficult. You can see the bail.” (So consider covering it up with an image placed inside.) This concern didn’t stop Courtney from making all of these great pendants:

Courtney Breul design challenge glass tiles

Courtney Breul design challenge glass tiles

Courtney Breul design challenge glass tiles Mouse immersed some metal charms in resin on glass bezels…

Mouse-design-challenge-glass-tiles-metal charms

…as well as painting unique designs on paper that she resin-ated onto the back of glass tiles.

Mouse-design-challenge-glass-tiles-painted-paper

She’s also contemplating an experiment where she’ll fuse metal clay onto these!

Faye Hadfield made, among other items, this cute Mom gift for her daughter:

Faye-Hadfield-design-challenge-glass-bezels-and-tiles

What would you do with these exclusive glass tiles & bezels?

"For a holiday gift, I hope for __________ from Rings & Things."

November 18, 2010

How do you finish this sentence?

“For a holiday gift, I hope for __________ from Rings & Things.” <|:-)

Leave a COMMENT below, for a chance to WIN a bag of HOLIDAY BEADS! And for extra brownie points, tell a friend to stop by & do the same.

Here’s what some Facebook friends said…

Lynn Perry Bennett metal stamping supplies

Joy Mcdonald Pearls and Amethyst necklace from my best friend πŸ™‚ lol πŸ˜‰ Helen where are you πŸ™‚

Juli Nocita A gift certificate!

Anita Carbone Anthony one or two of everything (Can you tag hubby in this?) lol

Stephanie Dixon A gift certificate for a million dollars….

Kala Taylor You to relocate to the UK

Adrienne York Campbell texturing hammers!!

Claire Goverts The metal stamping kit (though that’s probably going to be a ‘to me from me’ gift)

Linda Roden A Large Gift Certificate.

Miz Fit new and exciting products

Patricia L Beaudin sterling silver wire to string some mirage beads on for rings!

Sandy Flynn chokers, chokers, chokers!!!!!

Krissi Sandvik GLASS TILES and glue-on bails

Vanessa Kennedy There’s far too much that I would love to have to pick just one thing, so I would definitely love a large gift certificate..or lots of small ones πŸ™‚

Are you a winner? (Product review contest)

August 17, 2010

Really? You haven’t gotten around to reviewing that last batch of Rings & Things stuff, in our website store? Here’s why you should do it now:

Congratulations to Valerie Fordham of Apopka, FL! She’s the first winner in Rings & Things’ monthly Product Review Contest drawings.

Valerie reviewed several items that she bought from us, including some choker cables and genuine watch parts. One of her reviews was picked at random as our July winner!

Want to be the August winner? It’s easy. Haul out that R&T merchandise, look it up by stock number in our online store, and “Write your own review”!

Congrats to the 2010 Bead Dreams winners

August 12, 2010

Congratulations to the winners of the 2010 Bead Dreams “objects & accessories” category!


Rings & Things is pleased to provide prizes to these three talented designers:

1st Place – The Elegant Bead Partition with Fluttering Cherry Blossoms, Satoko Toyoda – $300 gift certificate (Also won “Best in Show”!)

2nd Place – Swirl, Cindy Pankopf – $200 gift certificate

3rd Place – Gaze of a Rose, Olga Shumilova – $100 gift certificate

We’ll post pictures as soon as we have them πŸ™‚ In the meantime, you can also read about last year’s winners in this category!