The Stashbusting, Stashdive Challenge

This month sees the founding anniversary of one of my favourite blogs and beading communities - Operation Tackle That Bead Stash - and to mark the occasion, we've been issued with a challenge. The Stashbusting, Stashdive Kit Challenge! (Sarah, who founded Operation Tackle That Bead Stash has the best ideas, but rarely comes up with titles that roll off the tongue easily!)

The aim of the challenge is to reduce our deep stash just a little bit during the month of April. Sarah states "We all have lovely beads that we oohed and aahed over in the shop, brought home, put away and promptly forgot about. Well this is your chance to give purpose to those long forgotten treasures and let them shine! So let's take a dive in those stashes and dig out a kit to work on throughout the month of April. Don't worry about what you will make yet, just what you want to use."

Our directions were to include at least: two tubes of seed beads and/or delicas; one or more focals; and at least twenty accent beads. Everything included in the kit must have been in our stash for at least a month and, although we're allowed to supplement our kits with stash if we run out of beads, we're not allowed to purchase any additional beads for the challenge. 

My kit went through several combinations before I was happy, but here's what I finally chose to include: 200 x 3mm Swarovski Bicones, Padparadscha; 200 x 3mm Swarovski Bicones, Fuschia; 2 x Swarovski Drops, Padparadscha; 14mm Swarovski Rivoli, Rose, 10mm Swarovski Rivoli, Light Rose; 8s - Galvanised Gold and Rose Lined Crystal; 11s - Light Peachy Tan, Pale Rose, S/L Dark Amethyst and S/L Light Amethyst; 15s - Galvanised Gold. Taking pride of place as my focal is a beautiful Rose Quartz Pear Cabochon, gifted to me by the lovely Bonnie Houghton. 

We now have the rest of the month to use as much of our kits as possible and, thankfully, I have a few ideas. However, those ideas do include learning how to bezel a pear-shaped cabochon, so expect a few moments of panic during the next month! What would you do with this little lot if it were yours? Do tell, I'm going to need all the inspiration you can give me!