A New Challenge

I've said it before and I will say it again. I love the Marie Antoinette Mail Art Group. I am amazed with the types of projects I have taken on since joining. My newest is a round robin charm bracelet swap. There are two groups and nine participants in my group. I adore charm bracelets and to take on the art of creating my own is fantastic.

I am really nervous about doing a good job, but I am proud of what I have done so far. I went shopping for parts and went crazy. I even stopped by my local library and checked out some great books. I love that I can look up books online and then the library will gather them all up for me and all I have to do is go in and swipe my card.

Below is my starter bracelet. I used two lengths of chain and attached them to the clasp so that everyone would have lots of room to add as many charms as they wanted. You can never have too many in my opinion. Behind my bracelet is the inspiration picture. Everyone has the color of bracelet they want (silver, gold, bronze, etc.) but we keep our charms in the same color scheme.



I never knew how complicated it could be to thread beads on a pin and wrap the wire around to form a loop. I am anal about the appearance of my charms and it has to be just so or I have an OCD fit (and I'm not joking either). But the more I practice, the better. And hopefully everyone will love what I add on to their bracelets.



I also made this tag "book" so that contributors could add their personal info and info about the charms that they added. I am really excited about how it turns out and my oldest is excited about me making more bracelets for her.



Here are some previous posts that I have done about my charm bracelets. Below is a link to my post on my French charm bracelets which has actually grown since I wrote it:

http://rhondamum.blogspot.com/2009/02/blog-post.html

A post about the bracelet I made in honor of my Gma Betty, whom I was very close to is here:

http://rhondamum.blogspot.com/2007/11/in-honor-of-g-ma.html

And one of my first blog posts ever is here:

http://rhondamum.blogspot.com/2007/11/tradition-of-charm-bracelets.html\


Today is the official last day of summer for me. My oldest goes back to school on Monday. Where did the summer go? I am a little sad, but also excited because I will have more "me" time and will be able to get back into my art more as well as blog more and visit my blogging friends. I still feel way behind.

Enjoy the last days of summer and feel free to leave me your comments and constructive criticisms!