Are you taking Advantage of the Auntie's Beads Membership Program?  If not, now might be a good time to consider it.

 

On Saturday, we had a wonderful Clearance Countdown sale, which many of you took advantage of.  And if you were an Auntie's Beaders Advantage member, then you REALLY took advantage with an ADDITIONAL 10% OFF of already-heavily-discounted beads, pendants, supplies & jewelry findings.  Did I mention they also got FREE SHIPPING? 

 

Beader's Advantage gets you 10% OFF every single order and Free Shipping for an entire year.  That's 10% OFF regular items, clearance items, sale items, you name it.  If you're still not sure, see what others are saying about this great program...

 

 

We wanted to give you a heads up on our Special Clearance Countdown Sale this weekend.  We will be Clearancing quite a few products this coming Saturday (Aug 28th).  The sale will begin at 10PM CST and start with all items at 10% OFF.  We will then take an additional 10% OFF every hour until all products are completely gone! 

 

You will receive an email at 10PM which will direct you to the special clearance category where the countdown will take place.  If you are not already signed up for the Auntie's Beads newsletter make sure you do that now so you can be included in the Clearance Countdown Sale.  NEWSLETTER SIGNUP

Tomorrow (Thursday Aug 26 2010), we will be having a Glue-in & Glaze special promotion!!  All pendants, rings, charms, glues/glazes and collage sheets that you need for these creative and personalized projects will be marked down by 25%!  Plus, we've got several new pendants just waiting to be filled with collage sheet images, scrapbook paper, seed beads or whatever you can dream up!   We've also added a couple of pendant projects for inspiration using Glue & Glaze components (sneak preview below).  Full instructions and materials list will be published tomorrow on the Glue & Glaze SALE page, so be sure you don't miss out!

  

 

Sign up for the newsletter today to be first in line for the Glue & Glaze special promotion, starting Thursday Aug 26th.  New signups receive 10% OFF their 1st order! 

 

As an added BONUS, everyone who orders tomorrow can get a FREE Tierracast picture frame template card using the following coupon code...

 

 

 

 

Okay Auntie's Beaders, it's time to let your competitive sides show! We are very excited to announce the beginning of Battle of the Beads, a customer driven design contest that will place our bravest customer designers head to head in a ruthless fight for the votes of their peers!  Okay, maybe not ruthless, but intense!  Why?  Well, because of our FABULOUS PRIZES!

 

 

 

1.  Create an original necklace, ring, bracelet, earrings or other beaded design using mostly* Auntie's Beads products

 

2.  Submit a single photo (JPG or GIF) of your finished piece to blog@auntiesbeads.com

w/ Subject "BATTLE"

     • Size of photo should be at least 400 x 400 pixels and can be a collage of 2 or 3 images

 

3. Make sure you include the following...

 

     • Your email address associated with your Auntie's Beads account 

 

     • Name (note: will not be displayed until contest is over)

 

     • List of Auntie's Beads products used in design

 

*We require that you use predominately Auntie's Beads products.  We understand that a finding, a clasp, an accent bead, etc. may come from elsewhere, but we request that you submit designs with a spirit of showing off the work you've done with Auntie's beads.  We will accept or decline entries at our own descretion based on this rule so please do your best to follow it. 

 

 

 

     • Must submit before September 30th

 

     • Entrant is the creator of the design

 

     • Entrant grants Auntie's Beads permission to showcase designs in our Customer Image Gallery

 

     • 1 submission per person please

 

     • HAVE FUN!!!

 

 

 

 

After September 30th when all entries have been submitted, the competition will begin!  In bracket form, pairs of designs will compete against each other head to head on the blog.  Photos of both competing designs will be posted together and all blog viewers will be permitted to click and vote for the one they like better.  Voting periods will last 24 hrs.  Winners from each competing pair will advance and compete against winners from other competing pairs.  We will continue to narrow the pool of competitors in this way until we have our top two competitors! Then, the final two designs will compete against one another for the highest number of votes and claim their prizes.

 

We have seen some AMAZING work from our customers throughout the years and we are very excited about holding this contest and rewarding you guys for all the hard beading work you do! 

 

Good luck everybody!

This is my nephew, Gideon.  He's three months old and a big Auntie's Beads fan!

 

-Kelly McCoy, Auntie's Beads Designer

For me, much of the appeal of these African turquoise beads is their cool blue and green colors as well as their smooth texture.  I paired them with mocca colored crystal and black seed beads to pull the darker shades mixed throughout.  The result was an earthy bracelet with just enough sparkle.  The woven pattern of the bracelet provides the structure necessary to support the large square beads, and the bracelet lays beautifully on the wrist.

 

Today we want to reward our long time customers with a little contest.  The first person to comment on this blog post with the correct answer to the question below will win this cute pink jade bracelet for FREE!!

  Here's the Question...

I was surfing the web this morning and I stumbled upon some information about a very heart warming organization called Beads of Courage.  Members include glass bead makers, bead shop owners and many other beading community members, who all share a sense of altruism and a passion for creativity.

 

The California organization focuses on helping children who suffer from pediatric cancer.  They give each sick child a piece of string with letter beads spelling out their name. Then, each child is allowed to pick out a glass bead, from a large donated collection, to commemorate certain milestones in their treatment- a red bead for a blood transfusion, a white bead for a chemotherapy treatment, etc.  The beads the children receive represent a kind of medal of honor as they go through their treatment journey. They watch their necklace grow in length as they complete more treatment goals, reminding them of their strength and accomplishments.

 

Members of the organization commented that they were amazed of the beading ritual's profound effect on the children.  While they expected the small bead gifts to be a nice treat for the younger children, they were surprised and inspired by adolescent patients' application of deep meaning to each bead and usage of the ritual as a rite of passage.

 

 

For information in general or to donate to Beads of Courage, contact:

 

Lori Greenberg
Director of Development
Beads of Courage, Inc.

520-331-1984

 

-Kelly McCoy

Auntie's Beads Designer