January BJP... and February's Too?

I appreciate all the helpful suggestions for hanging my BJP ornaments. I appreciate the positive response to my work too! I believe I have come up with a way to create a hanging loop that I can use throughout the Bead Journal Project. You can see a bit at the top of January's ornament.

Basically I threaded a strand of #5 perle cotton between the face and the back. Adding a bead at that point made the string follow the diamond point more closely. That was a happy accident. Then to create a closed loop I knotted the two ends of the perle cotton together, added another bead for decoration, knotted the ends again, and then trimmed the threads short. You can see what I'm talking about in this picture:


Which happens to be the hanging loop for the second ornament I made!

I bought the Jack Skellington pin on clearance after Christmas this year (my one trip to the mall, possibly for the whole year). Over the years I've collected a whole bunch of little things like this with the intention of using them in my artwork someday. This is the first time I've used one so soon after acquiring it!

I didn't make this to be February's BJP, but I did intend to use red in my February piece. And I do love Jack and the Nightmare Before Christmas and Tim Burton and Halloween. Since we don't know when the twins will be born, and life is likely to get a little chaotic once they are, maybe it's a good thing this ornament appeared when it did. ;- )

I've had the devil of a time getting decent pictures of these pieces. One is too light and sparkly, the other too dark. And it's been cloudy and overcast outside, making it darker inside. When I try to get a good image of the beads on the red piece the red background turns a weird shade. I am no photographer, that's for sure. I've even used both cameras. It's very frustrating. In case you can't tell, those are bats (rescued from Halloween earrings also purchased on clearance one year) filling in the top and bottom of the red ornament. It truly looks much better in person.

I've done some other beading since finishing up these two pieces but I'll save that for another post. (It's not another BJP ornament!) The urge to bead has subsided somewhat so I'm thinking it may be time to go back and quilt Sunflower's quilt now. The sewing table was cleared off a bit to give me room to do my beadwork. It will be a simple matter to clear the decks further to make room for the bulk of the quilt. Better to get it done, if I can, before those babies show up. By the way, DD is doing fine. She is having to go in twice a week now for non-stress tests - to make sure the babies aren't stressed. Guess the fact that getting there is stressful for DD is irrelevant.