Yellow is the perfect cheery color, and a perfect way to welcome Spring. The golden hue is the color of so many happy things, such as the daffodils, mentioned above, and also springtime afternoons, brick roads that lead to the Emerald City, rubber ducks, and my favorite, lemon pie. And beads, of course. Get out your brightest-colored beads and bring some sunshine into your designs.

Yellow is suited to this year's spring and summer fashions. Bold black and white prints are popular, and a touch of yellow can often be found peeking out from a neckline. Yellow handbags, heels, and other yellow accessories are popular for Spring of 2007. Carrying on the playful theme, these earrings are the perfect bright accessories -- when worn with a matching twin, of course.

Polka dots are always fun and breezy, and these hand-painted beads are a sunny way to showcase them. Graduated sizes of white and yellow beads on top add extra length and interest. Clear cane glass with an inside of lemon-drop yellow and an outside of diagonal sugar-white stripes makes a delicious earring. Small, white, fiber optic beads provide a "striped" top and bottom bead for a pretty finish.

In the center of the above picture is a  single shimmering pendant.  Of lightest AB lemon yellow with its lovely swirls, it  would be more appropriate with one of this season's more feminine white blouses with romantic details of eyelet and lace. The pendant is a single disk of pressed Czech glass with a silver eyepin and bail.

Yellow has often been thought of as a happy color, and yellow roses have long stood for friendship (and Texas, too!), but this color's symbolism also includes joy, gladness, delight, and the promise of a new beginning.

To begin this casual design, these three yellow flowers were combined with white "rice" beads and four silver spacer beads. The result, depending on how long you wish to make it, is perfect as a casual necklace or bracelet with spring shirts, or as a sweet anklet with summer shorts and skirts.

One of the things that makes Spring a happy season is the return of flower gardens. In time, in these gardens, you will find busy butterflies in search of nectar from each flower. But with some patience, and some beads, you can have your own yellow butterflies early this year.

The bright, sunny yellow of these butterfly beads are the perfect base for a spring morning garden bracelet. In this design, each butterfly visits a flower with a crystal clear drop of dew falling from one of its two leaves. The flower shown is bright aqua with a yellow center. The flower is a five-petal aqua flower bead with a small yellow whiteheart bead at its center.

This design is a little more complex and requires a little more patience. Using a headpin or beading wire, turn a loop at either end of each yellow butterfly. Then, I like to make all of my charms, in this case my leaves, my dewdrop, and my flower, and attach them to my jump ring. Then I attach my jump ring to the loop at the bottom or top of each butterfly. Recreate your garden group of charms -- a flower with a tear of dew dropping from its two leaves, and start over again, as I have started with my two leaves at the top of the second yellow butterfly. After you have the length you want, add your closing clasps or toggles.