Hollow Glass Bead Tutorial

I’ve been making a bunch of hollow beads lately. I think of them as a kind of sorbet to all of the cupcake beads I make. A hollow bead is more zen like in its creation. Generally one rod of glass, one color, maybe a few accents, but usually very simple. I like to use glass that does all of the talking like a raku or other silver glass. The bead pictured above is one of mine made with raku glass that’s been frosted. I just love it!

So I went looking for a tutorial since I don’t have one yet and found a number of them in googleland. I’ll share links to a couple of them the first being Lori Greenberg’s blog (she used to write this blog). She always explains things well and has good pictures.

There are some videos out there in the internets but I do have to say, Lori’s tutorial can have you making a hollow bead in no time. That is with a bit of practice. Happy zen bead making!!

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These adorable critters are having a blast sledding down the hill on a card from Amy. She used stamps from Purple Onion coloring them with Copic Markers and creating her own snowy background with the markers too. Visit the Thousand Sheets of Paper blog for a closer peek.

If you love wintery, snowy weather then why not incorporate that into your cards this Holiday season? Creating cards with scenes are my favorite type of card to make and for Christmas time and Winter I love snowy landscapes and scenes! This style of card can be cute with little critters or children playing in the snow or serene and elegant designs with snow topped mountains and tress with beautiful blustery skies. So let’s take a look at some handmade card ideas for creating Snowy Scenes for the Holidays.

Below each photo you’ll see a link, click it to learn more like products used, tutorials and techniques.

This beautiful scene uses dies from Simon Hurley, The trees and hill were cut from white card, deer cut from brown with inked edges with a white heat embossed sentiment over a blue inked background and white splatter for the snow. Learn more at the Spellbinders blog.

Elaine always amazes me with her coloring skills like on this cute ice skating penguins card. She’s sharing a detailed video on her coloring process with Copic alcohol based ink markers over on her Marker Geek blog.

I love the mix of stamping and die cutting on this darling card from Cynthia as well as the pink and red color combo! She used stamps for the girl and her puppy adding them to a die cut sled on a hill of die cut snow. The large snowflakes are also die cut, notice how all the dies have faux stitching to help tie them together. Learn more at The Greeting Farm blog.

How cool is this snowy scene from Bobbi with a retro VW Van in trendy teal all decked out for the Holidays in the snow!? She used dies for all the elements, adding color with markers and ink blending for her background. The final touch was lots of white paint splatter for the snow and a layered die cut sentiment. Find all the info on the Honey Bee Stamps blog.

Santa delivering gifts on a Vespa scooter instead of a sleigh? Why not? This fun card from Maaike uses digital stamps, a die cut snowy hill with houses and wonderfuliinked Northern Lights background. I spotted this idea on the Whimsy Stamps Instagram page.

This clean and simple design would be easy to make multiples of in one sitting. Seeka created this serene scene of Santa’s village with simple black stamping and die cutting. The background was masked off and the top inked with blues with white paint splatter and a heat embossed sentiment. Find all the details at the Hero Arts blog.

This Polar Bear is packing up a wheel barrow full of gift to deliver on this amazing card from Lynn. She water colored all her stamped images with Zig Clean Color Markers and added a wonderful sentiment shaker element too. Watch her video tutorial on the Art Impressions blog.

Del designed a one layer card on white for this adorable scene of animals in the snow. They used stamps by Simon Says, colored with Copic markers, adding snowflakes stamped in blue ink. Take a closer look at the Del and Artie blog.

These super sweet Llama are frolicking in the snow on this design from Mimi. I love the soft non-traditional pastel colors she used to color their scarves and sweaters as well as inking the snowflake background. Take a closer peek on the Mama Elephant blog.

Pauline created a winter wonderland with stamping and masking techniques in tones of blue inks. She used a stardust gel pen for the glimmer and white pen for the snow for subtle sparkle and shine. Find more details at the Passion for Papercraft blog.

This stunning wintery scene card is stamped and water colored on watercolor paper for a one layer card design. Small touches of red add pops of color and half a die cut arch in white draws the eye to the stamped sentiment. Find this and lots of other snowy cards on the Penny Black blog.

No matter where you live I hope you’ve been inspired to incorporate snowy scenes into your Winter, Holiday and Christmas cards this season!

-Heather

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