Buttons, beads, bright shiny things

I have been trying for the past half hour to upload a picture of my goodies from the Owl Swap to Flickr, but it's not playing. So, here is what I received:


The gorgeous bag at the back has owl fabric round the rim, and I got two (TWO!) gorgeous books on beading. I am itching to make something from them, but I need to get some nylon thread first. *impatient* I also got a pack of origami paper, which is really pretty, and might satisfy my cravings to make something immediately. As well as all this, I got some salt and vinegar crisps and Pringles, which, um, didn't fit in the picture. Yup. So a huge, huge thank you to Rebecca for sending me all this loveliness, and to Apryl for organising the swap in the first place.

And as if that wasn't enough, I finally got round to making the jade necklace I've been planning for ages:



The leave are brass, but they look much darker in the photo. I didn't have a brass clasp, so I used a regular gold-plated one, but I will swap it when I get some supplies in.
And here it is in action:

I like choker length necklaces, as I don't tend to wear lower cut tops (despite appearances in that photo). I have some beads left over, so I may make a bracelet, or maybe some more jade rings (I can't find the one I made for myself, so at the very least, I need to replace that one).

Finally, here are some more attempts at making polymer clay buttons:



I was trying to make some more vibrant colours, which I did, but I'm not that thrilled with them. Well, I like the blue/green one, I guess. I need to get a proper work surface for playing about with clay, as I found the clay picked up lots of bits while I was using it. I have treated myself to an acrylic roller, and I bought a book of polymer clay....in Dutch. So let's hope that both my language skills and polymer clay technique improve.