2021 Fall Inspiration Box, Volume 20- coming to Etsy October 1st, 10:00 am, mountain time

 The time is near! Prepare for a surf and turf feast served by Nancy and Marley. I know that when you think of fall the colors what comes to mind are not blue and red. Mostly orange and gold and rust and purple. But this inspiration box thing has been going on for so long, that I can't just rely on good old ideas and do them year after year. It would get boring real quick. And boring is not what we are about here, at Crimson Frog Designs. 

In order to shake things up, the team of dedicated canine image consultants decided that to honor Sammy's life and times, we are going to serve up a seafood themed box that has nothing to do with fall but everything to do with delicious crustaceans.

Most of you will be getting a blue box this time. Some are packaged in black boxes.  The cover shows pretty red crabs, announcing what to expect on the inside.

The boxes always contain a card. Usually from Sammy with boxer elder wisdom. Sammy has sailed to the West in July though, so she is only imparting her wisdom from the great beyond these days. This time the note card features wee Nancy in a crab costume. I guess you will have to get to box to see what the note says.

Here is a peek into what's inside. Rachel Hungary of Rachel's paint skins made you guys a most beautiful triangle shaped paint skin cab. I asked her to make them look like larimar. And boy, did she deliver! The cabs are pearlescent, glowy and peacefully sky and ocean like. All of them so pretty.

There are two itty bitty larimar cabs too, perfect for earrings. In that spirit there is a gold plated silver earring finding in the shape of a nautical knot.

There are tiny crab brass charms and a bigger enameled red crab brooch.  One small tube of size 11 seed beads, two small tubes of size 15 seed beads and two tubes of teacup beads. (Note: one tube of the 15s might be a different color than pictured.)

There are small English cuts and you will also be getting either firepolish beads, or top drilled rounds.

There is a half a strand of baby blue freshwater pearls, more firepolish beads, teardrop shaped Chinowski crystals in a color changing blue to green. Mini daggers, one hole lentils and a random glass cab that depicts one of dozens of sea critters, plus a pretty red silky drawstring cord. Two kinds of lambskin and a pretty color changing fabric complete the box.

There is a Facebook group dedicated to sharing what everyone makes with these boxes. It's called Kinga's Inspiration Box Group. The next challenge will be to use the red enameled crab brooch in any bead embroidery, wearable or not. Other items from the box can be used too, or anything else from one's own stash. The deadline is November 19th. While there are prizes for the winners who are chosen by others participating in the challenge, the best thing is just sharing and celebrating each other's creativity.

Every time there is a new box coming out, I keep a box for myself and I make up some "inspiration pieces". The box does not contain any instructions and it is not a kit. It's just a curated assortment of new and exciting goodies. But in order to show you what could be made out of a single box, I tend to make up afew simple pieces of jewelry to showcase what I was thinking of, picking the colors and shapes for this particular assortment. 

Here are the pieces I made this time. I made a simple little crabby bracelet, a set of earrings and a pendant.

The bracelet is an elongated oval shape. It has the enameled red crabby in the center, he is sitting over a pile of freshwater pearls and the English cuts surrounded by the size 15 beads that everyone is going to have in their box. Then, away from the center, I added the blue teacup beads and finally, along the two sides the red teacup beads too. I stitched the draw string cord's eyelets to the back of my bead embroidery before gluing on the embossed, alligator print red lambskin. The bracelet is cute, not too big, very comfy and fits almost any size wrist with the use of the drawstring cord.

The backing is the pretty leather you will get in your box. There is enough for at least one substantial bracelet  to be made out of the alligator print lipstick red and the metallic distressed blue too.

Here we have the earrings I made using the little larimar cabs and the teardrop shaped crystals. You can see the gold plated silver earring finding's shape well enough here. I loved the knot design and it went so well with the sea theme. What is a little harder to see is the fact that those tear drop crystals go from a grassy green to a deep blue. Somehow the color shift does not want to show up on the images, but when you get the box, you will see how pretty they are. 

And a closeup of the pendant. I used the Rachel cab at its center. Underneath is a small crab charm, of which you will have two in your box. Then a large, 8mm AB turquoise firepolish bead surrounded by mini daggers and one hole lentil. After completing three pieces of jewelry, I had about half of the stuff left in my box.

I only used beads and leather from my box. Of course I used my own foundation and needle and thread, but other than that, everything one needs to make things similar to these pieces are in there. Except the instructions. The  inspiration pieces are always simple and I encourage anyone who purchases my boxes to use them as a starting point to make their own version of it, if they find them worthy.

Or design something magnificent with that big old crab and enter the next challenge.

Do remember that this is not a subscription. I do not have a waiting list. The available boxes will be listed on Etsy at exactly 10:00 am sharp, mountain time on October 1st. First come, first served. Of course I like to accommodate my customers who for whatever reason can't be online at that time. In that case you can reach out to me preferably on Etsy, right here to let me know I should hold one for you.

 Given that the last two inspiration boxes did not sell as well as the ones before, I have made half as many as in the past and I think these will sell out pretty fast, so mark your calendar, Friends.

 Important dates to remember, regarding this box: the challenge deadline is November 19th. 

The next one, the winter box will be released on December 1st.