Make a Pair of Easy, Glamorous and Romantic Queen of Hearts Earrings for Valentine's Day!

I've always hated "beginner projects" that look like beginner projects. When I learned the basics of knitting many years ago, there was no way I was going to make a 6-foot, solid color stockinette or garter stitch knitted scarf as my first project. I'd have been bored to death within the first 20 minutes! Nor was my first metal clay project a simple, stamped charm. The same principle applies to learning any new skill: you have to make the experience engaging! So when I was a French language drill instructor for fellow students preparing for their junior year abroad in France, I didn't just drill them on conjugating verbs they had memorized; I created crossword puzzles for them in French. My students did great on their tests because they were learning by doing something interesting.

I'm a firm believer that every piece of jewelry you make - even your very first "beginner project" - should be something that you'll be proud to wear or give as a gift. You can learn and use basic jewelry making techniques just as easily by making a beautiful design as a boring one! And if you're anything like me, you'll be more motivated to continue learning, experimenting with new techniques and honing your skills if you only make projects that really appeal to you aesthetically and emotionally.

As the new Bangles, Baubles and Beads contributor on Squidoo I'll be creating a wide range of jewelry making tutorials, projects, tips, techniques and product reviews, and one of my goals is to build a library of jewelry project tutorials that feature sophisticated designs that also are easy to make, with detailed step-by-step instructions, lots of close-up process photos, and professional jewelry making tips so that even beginner jewelry makers can have successful results.

Here's my first such jewelry project tutorial, just in time for you to make and wear or give as a gift on Valentine's Day:

Romantic Queen of Hearts Earrings Project

Happy beading!

Share Your Favorite Bead Organizers and Bead Storage Solutions!

We all love seeing each other's studio spaces or work areas, favorite tools, books, etc. Yesterday I shared some of my favorite bead storage solutions.

Now it's your turn to share your favorite products for organizing and storing your beads. 

I've compiled a list on Squidoo of 50 great bead organizers and storage products for you to review.

Just pick a product you own and love and click the Review It button. Then write about why you love it. (And if your favorite product isn't in the list, you can still review it as long as it's sold on Amazon.) It's simple, easy, and fun, and you might even earn a bit of cash along the way if someone buys the product on Amazon through your review.

When your review is published, share the link to your review in the comments section of my product review list page (or here, if you prefer) so I and others can check it out. I'll be sharing some of my favorites here, on Squidoo, and on social media.

Ready to get started?

Review your favorite bead organizers and storage solutions.

 I've shared my favorites with you, so come on and show us yours. Fair's fair! :)

So Many Beads, So Few Places to Put Them...

Those of us who are addicted to beads know how quickly a small stash of a manageable size can grow into an enormous collection. When I started making jewelry 16 years ago, my beads fit nicely into small, see-through ArtBin boxes like this one.

When my bead stash outgrew those containers, I used them for storing some of my specialty beads, like my (mostly) vintage Swarovski style 3700 and 3701 crystal margarita beads and the Czech pressed glass flower beads that I use in some of my Haskell-style designs, and moved the rest of my beads into Plano tackle boxes. But soon after I started collecting vintage glass and Swarovski crystal beads in earnest, I started rapidly down that slippery slope that all avid collectors with no "won't power" find themselves on eventually.

My bead addiction has caused a number of problems over the years. It goes without saying that it has put a major dent in my wallet. It also has threatened my marital harmony from time to time as my huge stash has encroached increasingly on our available living space. And the more beads I acquired, the harder it became to organize them in a way that let me see all my choices and find what I'm looking for when I'm designing a new piece of jewelry.

I'm betting this sounds familiar to many of you, right? It's a lot harder than it looks to find a system that works, and what works for one person's bead stash isn't necessarily the best solution for someone else's. My own bead collection - which at this point is large and varied enough to stock a good-sized store! - has lived in and eventually outgrown many different storage solutions, and I've invested a lot of time, effort and money experimenting with different storage boxes and bead organizers trying to find solutions that worked well not only for the number, size and type of beads I collect but also for my personal approach to designing beaded jewelry. Thanks to my husband, I eventually found a solution that had let me organize and store even my ridiculously large bead collection in a way that works for me: portable organizers designed to carry around hardware and other small parts. I've now got more than a dozen of these awesome cases with see-through lids and removable compartments. I have one (or, in some cases, several) for each color family.

They come in two depths, and my favorites are the shallow cases. Here's the one I use for my lavender beads:

Unfortunately, I need to use the double-deep cases for my favorite colors because those are the colors I have the most of. This is my "greenish aqua" bead stash - one of three double-deep cases that house my blue beads: The other two cases, which are just as full, contain my "bluish aqua" and "true blue" beads. (It's a sickness, I know!)

If you're looking for a better way to organize and store your own bead collection, you can get more great ideas in my article about my favorite bead organizers and bead storage products on Squidoo.

What do you find most challenging about organizing and storing your beads?