Quick Fire Challenge: Michaels Toast of the Town Necklace Hop

Hello peeps!

Sorry for the radio silence this past week. That was completely unintentional. I had some big projects brewing that had to be focused on. I just never found my way back to you. But I missed you!

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of attending a concert of the Silk Road Ensemble with Yo-Yo Ma. Right here in little Stevens Point, Wisconsin. What an incredible collaborative musical party that was! They were in our city for about 5 days and over that time they held master classes with University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point students as well as local high school band students. My daughter was one of 1200 students that got to attend a presentation where they shared some of the very unique cultural instruments they played. There were 15 members from far-flung countries like Russia, India, Iran, Spain, and China. They did an impressive 2nd half performance of a work that was commissioned for them to perform that was inspired by Stravinsky's Rite of Spring. We learned that it was only the 3rd time that they had actually performed that live. And that our concert was the last stop on their 2012 tour. All I can say is WOW!

I think I have some ideas for my February Challenge of Music. ;-)

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Quick Fire Challenge: Michaels Toast of the Town Necklace Blog Hop

{Toast of the Town necklace}

Remember this post where I shared my participation in the October Jewelry Celebration "Made by Me, Inspired by Life" over at Michaels.com? The whole point of this experience is to encourage you, dear reader, to make the projects that all the experts created.

Well, the fine folks at Michaels and I have come up with a fun Quick Fire Challenge for you: using the instructions that I wrote and my piece as inspiration, I challenge you to create your own Toast of the Town necklace in a completely different colorway.

{Wore this to the Yo-Yo Ma concert last night!}

The beauty of this necklace design is that you can make unlimited variations of it just by changing the beads. Right after I made this, I made another in a purple/fuschia color palette. Just goes to prove how versatile this is!

To help jump start the creativity, I went to Michaels today and selected four strands of beads each in three different color palettes. I will be giving away these bead strands, plus a toggle clasp, and a copy of the instructions as a kick start to your creativity and to prove that YOU can make this necklace in any color combination.{Pardon the raindrops! Just as I was taking this picture it started to sprinkle! I promise that raindrops will not be included ;-}

{Grey/Blue Palette: hematite - silver - dyed jasper - ceramic}

{Red/Black Palette: faceted glass - millefiori - hematite - etched silver}

{Copper/Brown Palette: shell - metal - ceramic - glass}

Are you up to this quick fire challenge Michaels challenge?

•  Will you use the instructions provided to make your own version of the Toast of the Town necklace?

• Will you be willing to add beads from your stash, or better yet, take a trip to Michaels and fill in the blanks?
  
• Will you share your variation in a blog hop on Friday, November 2nd?

If you are can answer yes to those three questions, and you are willing to play by those rules, please comment on this post by Sunday, October 21st.

Be sure to have a way to quickly get in touch with you {Note: I try to reply to virtually every comment on my blog. If you have never received a reply from me, you don't have your email address turned on in your profile!}

I will pick three random winners to be gifted with a random colorway of four strands of beads, a toggle clasp and a set of the instructions. Since this is a quick turnaround, I have to limit the giveaway to U.S. addresses only. I will announce the winners on Monday, October 22nd and mail out the beads that day. I will also be playing along to make a third variation of this necklace.

This is a quick turnaround, hence the Quick Fire name! Would love to have you join me!

And even if you are not randomly selected, or you are outside of the U.S.,  you can still play along by taking a copy of the instructions found on the Michaels.com website and making your own version. Everyone is welcome to participate in this Quick Fire challenge!