Welcome to Kit Day! We have a snap of firecrackers and a shower of fireworks waiting for you. You are going to love the explosive Lunar New Year designs from our friends and community! And don't miss the unboxing of our latest themed kit, the Supernova Design Kit, Sara is revealing this otherworldly bundle of beading supplies live on YouTube and Facebook. Finally, we want to share the low key love of our newest mystery kit - the Pastel Party Design Kit is a splash of delicate colors that is great for a joyful mood. Thank you for joining us for our favorite company holiday - Kit Day! You are in for a creative day full of inspiration!
Blast off! Kit Day is here! If you have never joined us for Kit Day, make sure you visit us on our social media. Sara will be doing a live broadcast on the Soft Flex Facebook page and YouTube Page, with the Supernova Design Kit at 3pm (PT). We are celebrating the stars above. We are witness to a once in a lifetime event. An aging star rapidly expands. Runaway nuclear fusion thrusts the ancient lantern into an unchecked expansion. The galactic body buckles and a radiant explosion rips through the calm. Shock waves roll across the nether. The once massive orb is blasted into glittering dust and nebula. The sparkling remains are a cradle for the birth of new heavenly bodies. The Supernova Design Kit is an interstellar mix of beautiful bead ands components. This kit is ready for galactic designs!
Before the stars shatter with our Supernova unboxing, we are taking a look at a kit that celebrated the Chinese New Year. You are going to want to dance in the streets when you see Lunar New Year finished jewelry from Kristen and Sara, at Soft Flex Company. We have some explosive videos from our friends on YouTube. Rosanna Brafford and Aleshia, from Beadifulnights, show us the jewelry they made with their design kits. Marcie Creates unboxed her kit and gave us her thoughts about the contents. We have the good fortune to share some abundant designs from the crafty and amazing people that are a part of our Facebook VIB community. These talented designers are elevating us and inspiring us to create. Join the fun!
The sweet kiss of spring is in the air. Winter has faded and the stark tones of cold have recessed. Life is repainting the garden with a delicate palette of pretty florals. Let's celebrate the soft pastels with a tea party! The mood is peaches and cream. Relaxed styles and joyful jewelry are on the menu. Warm colors fill our vision and there is a promise of good fortune and harmony. Let's gather our friends and enjoy the budding days of springtime with a bouquet of hushed pastels.
Sara will be doing a live broadcast on the Soft Flex Facebook page and YouTube Page, with the Pastel Party Design Kit, on Wednesday, March 30th at 3pm (PT).
If you'd like to join us in the design challenge next month, buy this kit and challenge yourself to try something new and unexpected. If you are new to beading, this kit comes with findings, beads, wire, and surprises.
Our kits are great for skill building. We want our kits to feel challenging. We want them to be accessible for beginners and advanced designers alike, but we love to throw in elements that may seem difficult to test our beaders skills and make them think out of the box. We think jewelry is great when it is easy. But when you really have to engage your mind and process your materials and tools, we think that your jewelry has the potential to be life changing.
Our kits may be inspired by a colorway or theme, but they are meant to be creative interpretations. Imagination and innovation do not follow the rules. Expect the unexpected.
Supplies are very limited. Don’t miss out!
Finished Jewelry Designs From Our Lunar New Year Design Kit
Sara Oehler Designs
过年好 - Happy New Year! The Lunar New Year celebrates the beginning of the new year on the lunar calendar. It is an important holiday in China that is steeped in tradition. It is said, once upon a time, there was a terrible beast named Nian. Nian tormented villagers and destroyed their towns. They repelled the demon with a shower of fireworks and spectacle. Nian shrank away as the villagers donned deep red garments and made a clamorous noise. Rather than live in fear, the villagers celebrated the event. Vibrant color and festive fireworks ensured that Nian would never return and joyous life abounded. Celebrate with style!
This year, the Lunar New Year began on February 1st. The animal sign for this year is the Tiger. Tigers are known for their strength and bravery. They are also symbols of good luck. Go into the new year with the confidence of the great Tiger!
Making earrings is easy with Soft Flex Beading Wire. Simply string your beads and create a crimped loop. Add an ear wire through the loop and you have instant earrings. You can make your designs as simple or as complicated as you like. Add as many beads as you want - a single bead on our colorful beading wire looks elegant. Add a tassel and make a statement. Since you do not need a large piece of wire, you can use remnant wire - wire that was too short to use on anything else, but too long and you kept it because you thought it would be wasteful to throw away. Keep your remnant wire! The fact that you need very few beads and wire to complete the design means that you can make earrings for every night of the week, if you would like!
Kristen Fagan Designs
Kristen adored the festive colors of the Lunar New Year Design Kit (Sold Out). She gave us two illuminating jewelry making videos featuring the kit. The first is an intricate mala design. Everything on this necklace serves a purpose - the color of the wire, the number of the beads, the focal piece - it is a necklace full of intention. If you would like to learn more about how Kristen creates intention jewelry, make sure you check out the blog linked below. Learn how to be a storyteller and make meaningful jewelry that is designed with whole in mind. Make your bead placement and numbers significant!
Intention Jewelry: Make Your Jewelry Tell Your Story
Mala Necklace for Prosperity
Check out Kristen's blog to learn how she created this mala. She gives an in depth explanation about the colors she used. Why she selected the beads she used. The reason she uses a set number of beads in her design. She created this necklace to be a talisman for prosperity. Kristen is incredibly talented, in making this necklace, she never forgot to make the design appealing. This is truly a lovely design!
How to Make a Prosperity Mala Necklace - DIY with Soft Flex Wire
Don't miss our favorite Free Spirit Beader on our YouTube channel. Kristen is sure to teach you a new trick if you are a beginner beader. If you are a pro, join her live and offer your suggestions. If you are a perfectionist, you will love her show. She teaches you how to accept your flaws. She is a free spirit that believes that mistakes can make a piece better. Incorporate the flaws into your design. Learn from your errors but don't sweat correcting them. Enjoy the journey and don't be hard on yourself if you do not create a masterpiece. Your finished crafts will be abundant and you will proper!
Lunar New Year Pip Bead Necklace
Kristen was working on a pip bead design during our recent beading party with Cassandra Spicer. Cassandra has a huge selection of pip beads at her shop - Beads to Live By. Kristen used the pips she had on hand. She was having fun stringing the beads but did not get a chance to finish her necklace during the party. On this episode of Free Spirit Beading, she wanted to share her design. She based her necklace on Cassandra's but did not use the same techniques. Her necklace turned out lovely! She turned the Lunar New Year Design Kit inspired jewelry into a real firecracker!
VIB Group Member Videos
We are seeing more and more jewelry making videos from our community. We love it. If you are a creator that works in front of a camera, let us know what you are filming. If you are working with Soft Flex Beading Wire or products, we would love to share the spotlight and put you on centerstage for a bit. Check out some of the fun unboxing videos our community filmed with the Lunar New Year Design Kit (Sold Out).
Rosanna Brafford Designs
Rosanna Brafford is a talented designer and exciting artist. She has been a part of the Soft Flex Facebook group – VIB for years. We have watched her create a staggering number of new and beautiful jewelry designs over the years. She is always innovating and always trying something unique. We were excited to hear that she is a new Jesse James Beads Design Ambassador and that she is making videos on YouTube. If you are not familiar with her work, you owe it to yourself to subscribe to her channel and follow along on our community. She is sure to inspire you to try a new technique or two!
From Rosanna:
This adorable earrings and bracelet set are made from the beads from my January Soft Flex Company Lunar New Year kit. This set is fun and stylish.
Check out Rosanna's Links:
Beadifulnights Designs
Want to know what Aleshia, from Beadifulnights, thought about our Chinese New Year inspired jewelry making kit? She unboxes her kit and tells us her thoughts. We then get to see the finished necklace she made with the contents.
From Aleshia:
Hello everyone, I am Aleshia, welcome to my Beadifulnights channel. For this video I am going to open up a Soft Flex mystery design kit. I have done a few of these before, in the past, and these kits are amazing, they have everything you need to make jewelry, except for the tools. I just love their color combinations with the Jesse James Beads that they have and they have Czech bead strands - it's a pretty cool kit, so let's go ahead and open this up.
Find Beadifulnights on:
Pinterest
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
Marcie Creates Unboxing
From Marcie Creates:
Please join me as I unbox Soft Flex incredible beads in this gorgeous collection called Lunar New Year ! Between the beautiful Czech glass beads the amazing mix by Jesse James Beads and the really cute lucky cats ……:you can’t go wrong with this kit!
My name is Marcie Hall and I live in North Texas. I am a mixed media artist, jewelry maker, recipe creator and an avid Dachshund Lover (I have two rescues- Ginger and Cha Cha). I have been an artist my whole life. In my early art days, I would create prints, sculpture, ink drawings and oil paintings. About 25 years ago, I started making jewelry after a friend invited me to take an intro class at my local bead shop - I was hooked! I loved everything about jewelry making- the colors, textures and shapes really spoke to me. Soon I was making jewelry for family and friends and then everyone said, “you should sell your jewelry” and Marcie Hall Designs was born.
I recently started a YouTube channel called Marcie Creates to share my passion for beads, jewelry making, mixed media art and cooking. YouTube is a new venture - I am really enjoying it and would love for you to join me!
Visit Marcie's links:
Marcie Creates YouTube Channel
Instagram
Facebook
Facebook Marcie Hall Designs
VIB Group Member Designs
We gathered a small assortment of fun designs from our VIB Facebook group. There were so many wonderful ideas and jewelry pieces. You really need to join our group to see them all. A lot of our members also have stores online. If you see a design you love, make sure you let the designer know. They may sell you that design or at least let you know how they made it. We would love to see your work too, join us today!
VIB is a great place to visit. It is an online bead gathering. It is a place to chat and meet new friends. It is a great way to stay social. You can learn a new tip or technique daily. You can get inspired by the gorgeous jewelry designs other people in the community post. You can also get your own jewelry gently critiqued if you want pointers on how to make your designs really stand out. We love wallflowers and chatty designers alike. Lurk or showcase your talent. You are going to love our fun club.
If you would like to see more Lunar New Year jewelry designs, go to our VIB group. In the 'Search this group' field (or magnifying glass icon on the upper right), type or paste this: #lunar. This will search the inspired designs we hash tagged.
Designed by Soft Flex VIB Studio Member: Stacy Leigh Meissner
See more of her designs in her Etsy Shop.
Designed by Soft Flex VIB Studio Member: Carey Marshall Leimbach
Designed by Soft Flex VIB Studio Member: Dawn Boswell
Designed by Soft Flex VIB Studio Member: Devine Thomas
Designed by Soft Flex VIB Studio Member: Jenny Kyrlach
See more of her designs in her Etsy Shop.
Designed by Soft Flex VIB Studio Member: Juliana Blessington
See more of her designs on her Gallery page.
Designed by Soft Flex VIB Studio Member: Mercedes MillerBartley
See more of her designs on her Etsy page.
Designed by Soft Flex VIB Studio Member: Nancy Clark
Designed by Soft Flex VIB Studio Member: Paula Ruth Gospel
Designed by Soft Flex VIB Studio Member: Robin Oldham
Designed by Soft Flex VIB Studio Member: Robin Wilke
See more of her designs on her Ebay page.
Designed by Soft Flex VIB Studio Member: Rosanna Brafford
See more of her designs on her Facebook page.
Designed by Soft Flex VIB Studio Member: Shirley Marks Koch
Designed by Soft Flex VIB Studio Member: Sue Waldheim
Designed by Soft Flex VIB Studio Member: Susan Frost
Designed by Soft Flex VIB Studio Member: Tonie Etcitty
Designed by Soft Flex VIB Studio Member: Trish DeAngelis
Join our Facebook group – VIB. Stay in the know. Stay up to date. From our bead shows to our video shows and sales, you can stay in touch with us. The community is full of artistic and helpful beaders and crafty people. Inspire and be inspired. Share your pictures and get the beading bug from others!
Visit the Soft Flex Company YouTube Channel!
Blog contributor Thomas Soles loves Jazz Age writers and crunchy french fries. His favorite gemstones are Lapis and Pietersite. His favorite hobby is day dreaming. And his favorite mustache is Freddie Mercury's. As you can see, he has a healthy (or possibly unhealthy) sense of humor. You can write to him at Thomas@SoftFlexCompany.com