My Kind of Challenge

As a blogging partner of Artbeads, I was presented with the 'challenge' to create a piece that incorporates a little bit of yesteryear.  Oh yeah, I'm all about the vintage!  My mind immediately went to a button charm bracelet.

Here's all the Artbeads.com goodies I selected.  Links to all the products shown are sprinkled throughout the post, so please pop over to Artbeads and check out all they have to offer. 

 I have oodles of vintage buttons and Artbeads offers up some darn good faux vintage buttons. 

I love the open cutwork detail on this pewter button

This button is actually plastic, but you'd never know it !
It looks like metal

My first mission was to find a suitable chain.  No brainer there!  Loved Loved Loved this chain.  It was almost a shame to use if for a bracelet because it drapes so beautifully, I could definitely see it making a fabulous necklace.

Vintage treasures from my stash
and some Swarovski bicones thrown in!

Most of my vintage buttons in my stash were either cream or dark, so I choose the gunmetal finish and of course, Artbeads had both headpins and jump rings in gunmetal as well as a really cute toggle clasp in what they call a black pewter finish, which matched the gunmetal really well.  It was a bit small for the bracelet and I managed to find a really great vintage jet cameo clasp in my stash, so the toggle will be used for another project.

Vintage jet clasp from my stash that I didn't even know I had!

I love the look of using fiber with metal, and I was thrilled to have found this awesome hand dyed silk ribbon in a beautiful rich shade of blue/gray (all the shades Artbeads offers look gorgeous).   The ribbon I got looks a lot darker than what the website shows, but that didn't matter to me and I guess since it is hand dyed, color variation is to be expected, right? 

To pick up the cream of the vintage lace I was planning on using and some of my buttons, I thought this cotton yarn with the Swarovski pearls would work, but I found it really awkward to work with.  It sort of unwound and the pearls slid off the ends.

And speaking of Swarovski, I wanted to add a bit of bling, so nothing beats Swarovski products for that!  I made these little dangly charm kind of thing using channel drops in black diamond and a bicone in a midnight blue shade that I had in my stash.   My wire working skills leave a lot to be desired and I managed to break off a few of the head pins as I wound them around.   

When I saw this cameo with the three ladies on it, I knew I had to have it.  For a mere 54 cents!  Seriously?  It is sooooo nice! 

I mounted it on a TierraCast picture frame charm and it fit almost perfectly.  I love the detail on the back of the charm - I dare say it's downright charming (groan!). 

After getting all my goodies linked onto the bracelet, I wove the ribbon and cotton yarn through some of the loops and tied a piece of vintage lace to the clasp end. 

Its really fun to wear! 

FTC Disclosure:  The products shown as links in this post were provided to me at no cost from Artbeads.com in exchange for my honest opinion of the products on my blog.