Featuring the very best of the Bead & Button show, Bead Dreams, this beauty has just been released for 2010.  Each month shows first and second place winners from the 2008 contest.  You can order your copy on the Kalmbach website.  This would make a great gift for other bead lovers on your list!

Bead & Button Magazine has published a catalog of over 70 glorious photos for Bead Dreams 2009 competition in pdf format.  Subscribers can download it for free at the Bead & Button website, and non-subscribers can purchase it for only $5.95.   Included are winners from these categories: lampwork and glass, polymer clay, metal clay, beaded objects, seed bead jewelry, crystal jewelry, and finished jewelry.
There is a video preview that you can watch on the website as well.

Kalmbach Press, the publishers of BeadandButton Magazine, have a new special issue coming out that covers all kinds of techniques to combine with art glass beads.  Instead of always just sticking your gorgous bead on a satin cord, how about featuring it in bead weaving, wire work, metal work, and more?

Jewelry Designs with Art Glass Beads will show you step by step instructions and photos, in the usual clear style that B&B is known for.  This special issue will be available in October 2009.

The competition is open to professional and amateur beaders from the U.S. and around the world. All work entered in the competition must be original.
Deadline: April 6, 2009
Bead Dreams contest information
Finalists will be on display at the Bead&Button Show, June 3-7, 2009 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
To enter the Bead Arts Awards – Fill in the online form

Vintage Redux
by Brenda Schweder
Mom’s bizarro bracelets…That “what-was-I-thinking?” necklace… Aunt Bertha’s big glunky brooches. Vintage Redux shows readers everywhere how to take a drawer full of jewelry duds and turn them into dreams. More than 30 projects, from traditional to totally over-the-top, offer readers a wide range of possibilities. Each project is presented in step-by-step instructions and photos so it’s easy to create all-new pieces. Revisit the past and make it better than ever before with Vintage Redux.
After enjoying Brenda’s book Junk to Jewelry, I was anxious to get a hold of her newest venture. Well, I wasn’t disappointed. …read more

Some of my favorite beading magazines have wonderful free projects online for your holiday beading frenzy! Here are a few of my favorites.

Interweave Press:
Holiday Crochet Necklace

Kalmbach Press:
Vintage Filigree Earrings

Simply Beads Magazine:
Using paint and innovative craft supplies

Bead Journey
by BeadStyle Magazine
The top 26 projects from BeadStyle Around the World special issue, plus eight all-new projects representing five countries and three additional new pieces, provide even more inspiration. Where do you want to go today? Asia and the Pacific Rim, Africa, Europe, the Americas? Take an exciting trip around the globe with Bead Journey!
If you didn’t get to see BeadStyle’s special Around the World issue, you’ll love the projects packed into this booklet. With the large, easy to follow step-out photos that BeadStyle is famous for, there are projects that will take you all over the globe …read more

Art Attack Thursday
All of the pictures! It’s an eye-candy feast!! You can see all of the winners here on Bead & Button’s website. Grab and cuppa and settle in…there are 10 pages of gorgeous pieces, 116 items altogether. For instance, how about these beads, the first place winners in that category:

Barely a Bear’s
1st Place Handmade Beads or Buttons
Robert Jennik

Make Art Monday!

Here’s my take on a fun little project that Gretta Van Someren created for BeadStyle Magazine. You can find the directions in the July/August 2008 issue!

Yay!! We’ve got 4 winners in the Bead & Button magazine giveaway!
Amy P
Wendy B
Karen P
Alex