G Clef Earrings

While I wasn't blogging... I was still being creative. I can't really turn that creativity thing off and survive.

I did manage to document a few projects, not always the process, but often the finished pieces. So I'll be posting a few of my favorites... these in particular I've remade on more than a few occasions so perhaps one of these times, I'll pull together some pictures of the process.

I ended up taking orders for this last Christmas through friends and family. For some, I went with a distressed hammered look, others wanted them smooth.

The most challenging part of these was that I love wearing what I make, but I'm not musical at all and it felt wrong to wear a symbol of music while having NO musical talent at all.

Baseball Bracelet

I have a baseball boy... he would eat, sleep and breath baseball if it worked. He loves all sports, but baseball really is his love.

He's also fidgety little thing and with second grade starting next week I was hoping to make a bracelet that he could fidget with in class that would be less of a distraction. I had 2 ideas for bracelets, this is the one I thought he'd like best so I started with it.

It is really quite simple, all you need is a baseball and knife of some kind. Each ball will yield 2 medium bracelets.

Very carefully cut around each side of the stitches. In design school we had to cut boards, mattes and all kind of materials, they taught us it was better to strike several light cuts than to try and muscle through a material with a single cut. Cutting a ball seemed like an opportunity to take this advice and not end up dragging 2 kids to the emergency room to have my thumb reattached. Thankfully, no thumbs were severed during this project.

Then peel back the leather from the ball. I started with the larger sections which made the sections with the laces much easier to remove.

This is where I got confused. How on earth did they tie the knots of the red laces INSIDE the baseball. Mind blown.

Untie the magic laces and begin to unravel them.

Then cut the leather so you have one long-wavy snake... If you work with the leather to warm it up, pull it straight, it will relax some of the curl. But after just 2 hours of wearing the actual bracelet there is hardly any curl left in it anyway.

Continue unraveling the laces until you have about 2-3" of thread at each end. Then cut the leather in half and unravel the laces at the other end.

I used a safety pink to attach the bracelet to my jeans so I could braid the ends of the laces together.

And then tied the bracelet on my boy... who I thought was going to be thrilled. He was not.

Thankfully, it seems to be growing on him a bit and I have caught him fidgeting with it, which is just what he's supposed to do... Hopefully he'll stick with it and save his second grade teacher the torture of trying to deal with my fidgety britches.

Mardi Gras Jewelry

A couple of weeks ago my husband and I took a trip to New Orleans, we just missed Mardi Gras, but that's ok - Mardi Gras isn't really our scene. But we loved New Orleans. This was my 4th trip there and his first. I have a friend there who told us all the spots to see and she was 100% right, she picked just the right things for us. 

While Mardi Gras might not be for us, the city of New Orleans and Mardi Gras is what she is all about. And I wanted to do something as a thank you - so I created these bracelet and earrings for her. 

 Here are the supplies to create this set:

•  A variety of gold, green and purple beads
• Stretch magic 
• 10mm gold jump rings
• Gold tone crimp tubes
• Ribbon
• Jewelry tools including a needle & crimper
• Tape

Step 1 - Arrange the beads as you'd like them for the strands of the bracelet. 

Step 2 - Cut a length of stretch magic to the length of bracelet plus 4". Then put a piece of tape 2" from the end of your stretch magic.

Step 3 - Then string your beads onto the strand. 

Step 4 - And then attach each of the strands to the jump rings. 

And then loop a length of ribbon through the loops and you've got a bracelet! 

And I'll admit - I liked this set so much, I made one for myself... just because I don't like the wild side of Mardi Gras, doesn't mean I don't want to celebrate it with my own style. 

Coffee Hand Scrub

I enjoy cooking - what I don't enjoy are the smells that can end up on your hands when you cook, especially when you cook with things like garlic and onions.

Recently I heard that you can use coffee grounds to remove the smell from your hands - we don't drink coffee here so I bought a container of coffee and tried it. Sure enough it worked.

I figured I could get more, so I researched making my own scrub and thought you might like to make it too. It works great!

Materials:

• Ground coffee - I'd imagine you could use your left over grounds...
• Liquid hand soap
• Olive oil
• Jars
• Mixing bowl & something to stir with

Step 1 - Measure out enough coffee to fill your jar about 80% full... And poor it in your bowl. 

Step 2 - Add the hand soap and olive oil. I was making enough scrub to fill 3 jars, so I used about a cup of soap and 1/4 cup of olive oil. You can adjust it however you like, you might want more soap for cleaning or more olive oil for moisturizing.

Then stir:

You might find that you need to add more liquid, just keep stirring it 'till the coffee is all completely coated in the liquids. 

Step 3 - Then simply fill your jars.

Then when you've that garlic smell on your hands, simply open the jar, scoop some out and watch your hands as you normally would.

There you go! No more stinky hands - and I've got to say, the scrub feels great to wash your hands with. 

Callie & Mac

In April, we lost our beloved cat Otto. Since then, our daughter has been desperate for kittens. We kept waiting and waiting for the right time... then we saw Christmas on the horizon and Bug decided that Santa should bring us Kittens for Christmas.

And that is just what he did. Meet Callie and Mac:

Otto's brother Wojo is not really happy about this gift. But he's adjusting...

Earring Box

I've loved giving the earrings I've made as gifts, and the favor boxes have almost been the perfect boxes for them. The only problem has been securing the earrings in the boxes so they aren't just rattling around or getting lost in a mile of tissue paper.

But - I've found the solution in a simple square of scrapbook paper.

Simply cut a square of paper the same width as the box and about 1" longer.

Then fold the extra 1" or so of the paper.

Then cut the number of slits you need at the fold.

Slip the earrings into the slits and if you'd like, secure on the back with a piece of tape.

There you go - the perfect way to secure the earrings in the box. And it actually works for any sort of jewelry. You can thread the ends of a necklace or bracelet through 2 slits.

Handmade Holidays & Giveaways! Part 1: Wine Charms

Welcome to the first installment of Handmade Holidays & Giveaways!!!


Last year, I posted a series of holiday tutorials... this year, I'll be posting tutorials, AND featuring a giveaway of that item!

All you have to do to enter, is to comment on the tutorial and you're entered to win. Each tutorial will let you know how long you've got to enter. Want another chance to win? Simply post a link to the giveaway on your blog or on twitter and leave a second comment with a link to it.

If you don't win the giveaway, you'll either be able to create the project yourself, or in many cases, I'll be making extra's and offering them for sale... any questions? Let me know...

Here is my first Handmade Holiday project, Crystal Wine Charms. These make the perfect holiday hostess gift. They are small to store, easy to carry and even if your hostess already has a set, you can bet she'll love additional ones, especially during holiday entertaining.

Plus, they are a great way to start working towards jewelry if you haven't ventured there yet.

Materials:

• 6 Wire Hoops with Eye Loops
• 6 6mm crystals each a different color
• 12 3mm crystals each, 2 of each in the same or complimenting colors as the 6mm crystals
• 6 head pins 
• 12 3mm silver beads
• 12 other beads, I picked simple white crystal tubes
• Wire cutters
• Chain nose pliers
• Round nose pliers
• Tin favor tin (to hold them in.) 

Here is a picture of all the materials go into making a single charm:

Step 1 - Thread the 6mm crystal on the head pin.

Step 2 - Bend the headpin at a 90° angle just above the top of the crystal using your chain nose pliers.

Step 3 - Cut the tail of the headpin so that you've goat a tail that is about 1/3 of an inch.

Step 4 - Grasp the tip of the tail on the headpin with your round nose pliers and roll the pilers back towards the bend.

Step 5 - String the beads onto the hoop.

Step 6 - Grasp the tip of the loop (the non eye end) and bend the end up 90°.

And there you go. Repeat though each of the other colors and you've got a set of wine charms!

So there you go! Comment below to enter to win a set of the wine charms. Or visit my little online craft show and check out these plus 2 other versions I've got left over after my craft show.

You've got 'till Midnight 6 pm eastern time on Friday, November 19th to enter to win the Crystal Wine Charms!