Cabochon Sneak Peeks

I recently received a gorgeous shipment of vintage and vintage style cabs from one of my favourite vintage suppliers (a BIG thank you to them too, they know who they are) and couldn't stop myself from creating a few new designs immediately!  The designs below are mostly earring stud sets, which come packaged in a Two Cheeky Monkeys gift tin, but I will also be working on some new hair accessories and jewellery pieces after Christmas.  None of these items will be added to my stores until after Christmas, so if you are desperate to purchase any of these creations for yourself or a loved one, please email me using the details on my contact page.

The Daisy, Cornflower and Carnation brooches

Peacock ear stud set

Monochrome ear stud set

Scarlet Pimpernel ear stud set

Mediterrannean ear stud set

Sunshine ear stud set

Coming Soon to a Two Cheeky Monkeys Store Near You!

Okay, so maybe I am exaggerating a little since you will only have a Two Cheeky Monkeys store near you if you live near to me, LOL.  Although Christmas is almost upon us and many of us are busily in the midst of Christmas preparations, I have managed to find a little time to work on some new creations.   Digging through my boxes of supplies has produced some forgotten treasures with which I have been having fun playing.  Since I probably will not be listing any new items in my store until after Christmas, I thought I would tease you all with a sneak peek of just some of my new creations!

I revisited my love of lockets by creating these dainty earrings which are yet to be named.

My store is sadly bereft of snap clip sets at the moment, which I am working hard to rectify.  The Pastel Posy set includes two of my regular snap clips as well as a new addition of a vintage-style cabochon and vintage button combination.

Like the previous snap clip set, the Summer Garden set includes two of my regular snap clips and a third clip with my new cabochon and vintage button combination.

If anyone desperately wants to purchase any of these items now, please contact me (you will find my contact details on the "contact" page of this blog) and I will sort something out with you!  And on that note, let me remind you that my shipping cutoff dates for Christmas purchases are today, the 8th of December for international (non-Australian) customers and 15th December for Australian customers.  Purchases made after these dates may still arrive in time for Christmas, but I can't make any promises, especially as Australia Post has not been providing a particularly efficient delivery service in recent months.

Coming Soon...

With Christmas approaching, things are getting a bit crazy in Two Cheeky Monkeys land.  I have been working on lots of new pieces for both of my stores but haven't had much time to work on product photos and listings.  So I thought I would show off some of my latest creations - the photos aren't the best, but they will hopefully give you an idea of what's inspiring me at the moment.

The Peacock necklace

A yet to be named pair of Swarovski and glass pearl earrings

The Ines ring - featuring a Swarovski flower

P.S. Can you tell I have been having fun playing with Photoshop?  He he.

Pride and Prejudice Sneak Peeks!

I recently found a rather battered, vintage copy of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice for sale at the open day of a local historical site and snapped it up knowing that it would be very useful in my crafting endeavours.  I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it, although it was tempting to keep the little tome as it was on my bookshelf.  I decided to try something a little different from the other creations in my stores and have used snippets of text from the book to create Jane Austen-inspired jewellery.

I haven't created many pieces yet, with only the "Dramatic Mr Darcy" brooch being sold at the moment.  But here is a sneak peek of three pieces which are currently still in the "works in progress" stage.  I would love to know what you think: which pieces do you like more, which Pride and Prejudice characters would you like to see encapsulated in jewellery, if you bought a piece like this, who would you give it to?  My list of questions could go on and on, but I think you get the idea.   ;)

This vintage-style double-sided mirror is going to become the focal pendant for a long necklace.

This cameo will be decorated with a beaded dangle and turned into a brooch.  I am considering using a similar cameo to this one as a focal point for a beaded necklace but am not sure how popular that would be.

This cameo will eventually be turned into a brooch; I will probably add a beaded dangle to the bottom to add some extra interest to the overall look.

Swarovskis, Sequins and More!

Many of you will know that things have been busy in Two Cheeky Monkeys world as I work on pieces for stockists (more about that in another post!), prepare for the oldest cheeky monkey's birthday and recover from a bad Spring cold.  But, do not fear, I have been slowly working on some new creations for my Etsy and Madeit stores.  And here are some sneak peeks of a few items which will be hitting my stores very soon.

The Xylona ring, which features a peridot and emerald green Swarovski flower

A new vintage art print featuring a tailor's dress form (currently sans photo mat)

The Jasminder headband, a funky combination of a vintage beaded applique and ribbon

Blue - the New Purple?

Today's post is just a short one showing off two of my newest creations.  Some of you may know that my favourite colour is purple.  I don't know what it is about purple, but I have loved that hue since I was ten years old.  But, I am noticing that a lot of my creations, especially recent ones, have featured a lot of blue beads or cabochons!  True, blue is one of the components of purple, so that could explain my penchant for creating pieces in this colour.  So let me show off two new necklaces which will be introduced to my stores soon!

A sapphire blue variation of the Water Lily necklace

A variation of the Blue Skies necklace

Neither of these necklaces have names as yet so feel free to add your suggestions to the comments below!

Works in Progress and Store Sneak Peeks

Things have been pretty busy in the Two Cheeky Monkeys world of late, so I have been struggling to find enough time to work on new designs and creations.  Those of you who are my Facebook fans or friends will know that I have been slowly working on some new headband and bracelet designs.  So...here are some photos of my works in progress and a sneak peek of a new bracelet style which will be hitting the stores in the next week or two.

The first item is a ribbon and flower headband I made for myself.  I find this style of headband to be more comfortable for my oddly-shaped head.  I bought some cute crochet flowers from Beadles and Pins and they are just perfect for fun accessories such as this headband.  And, since I am feeling uncomfortable looking so closely at my ear, let's move on to the next photo...

This is another flower and ribbon headband and the flowers were also from Beadles and Pins.  This headband is going to my older niece (actually, Malcolm's niece) and is made in colours which really suit her fair colouring.  I have had a lot of fun raiding my button stash for these two headbands, but being slightly OCD, I am thinking that I really should have chosen matching buttons for the flowers.
I really, really love this style of headband and am looking to add them as a new range to my Etsy and Madeit stores, but using vintage and beaded appliques as the adornment instead of crocheted flowers.

Finally, this cute little bracelet is going to be a new addition to my bar jewellery range.  I have enjoyed making my bar necklaces and I thought it was time to expand the range into bracelets too.  For the moment I have only used firepolish beads for the bracelets, but I plan to start creating these fun bracelets with other beads (such as freshwater pearls) too.

New Additions to the Glam It Up Range!

I know I've mentioned several times how much I love vintage beads, buttons, books, fabric, the list goes on.  So it seemed a logical step for me to create jewellery pieces which incorporated at least some vintage components.  I have been besotted with vintage glass jewels for months, but did not realise how besotted I was until a friend mentioned that she associates vintage jewels with me and called them my "trademark" range of jewellery.  She was referring to my Glam It Up range of vintage jewel earrings, and I have to admit that I love these so much that I made a pair for myself and wear them everywhere.

Today I have a sneak peek of some additions to this range, including a necklace.  I have been playing with new colours and designs and am excited about what I've created so far.

Emerald Green Teardrop Earrings

Peridot Green Earrings

Topaz Brown Earrings (the big sister to the Mini Glam It Up Earrings)

Emerald Green Necklace

I noticed as I was writing this post that there is a bias towards the greens and a gold-plated finish!  There are also sapphire blue, turquoise and smoky grey items to come in a range of finishes, and I will be incorporating metal components, such as charms, into some of my designs as well.  If you have any colour combinations you would like to see, feel free to drop me a line!

Sneak Peeks and Works in Progress

I have been toying with the idea of making a line of girls' jewellery and accessories due to the number of positive comments I receive when people see the pieces I have created for my own daughters.  Because my girls love matryoshkas and dolls of all kinds, I thought I would kick off this new line with some matryoshka-themed pieces.

A sneak peek of the charms I'll be using in my children's line of jewellery

A completed "Birdie Babushka Bracelet" to be seen soon in my Etsy store.

I plan to focus on bracelets and necklaces to begin with, but I hope to eventually create a line of hair accessories too (although many of my current hair accessories are suitable for children and teens).

As for my jewellery aimed at "big girls", I have been experimenting with large acrylic flower cabochons (as seen in the Rosita Necklace I made in my February craft swap).  I love the idea of a corsage-style bracelet and wanted to feature a large pink rose cabochon as the centrepiece of such a bracelet.

Partially completed corsage bracelet

As you can see in the picture, I decided to team the pale pink rose cabochon with peridot green Czech glass beads.  I threw in some Czech leaf beads too but I don't think this combination works.  My current thought is to remove the leaf beads and just go with all peridot-coloured round beads.
What do you think?