A quick little bracelet

I have a new obsession.

It's a website called Listia and I'm hooked. It's like an online garage sale auction. You earn credits by selling your own stuff (for credits) or doing some of the activities they have available. No money exchanges hands unless you charge for shipping or win an auction that charges shipping.

Anyway, I have bought all kinds of stuff on there and it's so much fun because I'm not breaking the bank doing it. :0)

Recently I won these little bead doo-hickies that someone had left over from their own project.

 

 They were hand twisted on the wire and there were just the five of them. I had no idea what I was going to do with them, but I liked them.

Well, when they arrived and I could see the actual size of them all live and in person I knew exactly what I would do.

I grabbed a few jump rings and a clasp.

Then, a few curse words later, wallah....

I had a new bracelet!!

I'm thrilled with the outcome (and the price). Especially since (little known fact here) I'm a bracelet junkie!!

OK, it might be a pretty obvious fact since I almost never leave home without at least one bracelet on. I know people that won't leave home without lipstick, my Mom won't leave without earrings, and for me it's bracelets....and earrings....and make up..... lol

If you haven't been to Listia yet, go check it out. I usually narrow my search to just look at the craft stuff, but there are all kinds of things to score. However, if you get hooked I hold no responsibility.....you've been warned.

It should have been quick

So I bought some large-hole beads and leather cording to make a quick bracelet.


Well, in theory it should have been a quick bracelet.


Instead I managed to mess up the cording where it attaches to the clasps for the bracelet. By the time I got everything worked back together, it felt like half the kitchen counter (where I was working) and half of myself were covered in E6000 adhesive.

But hey, it worked!

Here's the final product:

I haven't worn it yet.......waiting to be fully recovered from the trauma of the adhesive.......lol.......but I like how it looks. :0) That's gotta' count for something!

Fun for Easter

I had an order for chocolate Easter Bunny brooches, which are hand stitched of brown felt. I think these are so fun and make a cute little Easter gift.

I hope they've made their new owners happy!!

A Quicky

Finished a quick little project over the weekend.

I fed beads onto memory wire. It's curled in on itself at both ends. At one end I made a bigger loop so that I could add these cross charms.

That's it. Quick, easy, and cute. Now I like that!!

Quick Necklace

I put together a quick necklace over the weekend.

I really like it.

Too bad I never remember to wear necklaces.

Back to Jewelry

I got a quick little bracelet made.

I got the beads on clearance at Hobby Lobby for around $2 (all of them.)

Dax asked me just the other day why I have to go to Hobby Lobby almost every day. Duh! I made a bracelet for $2 and they add new stuff to the clearance wall all.the.time! Will they every learn?

I also bought some similar beads in a sage green kind of color. I haven't made that bracelet yet, but you know I'll post it here when I do.

Another bracelet....

OMGosh y'all!!! It has been so crazy busy around here that it's been impossible to find the time to take pictures and get them posted.

I've got all kinds of things either made or in the process of being made. It's just getting them from 'there' to here.

Anyway, here is a bracelet that I made.

I saw these roundels and just fell in love with them. I also like to wear several bracelets at a time so decided to make this one three rows so I could wear it all along.

I LOVE how it turned out. The picture doesn't do it justice because you can't see how shiny and sparkly it really is.

Okay, I promise I'll be back soon with more.

Besides being busy with my day job I've made several name shirts and have orders for several different felt foods waiting to be made. (Having the electricity off for 6 hours last night certainly isn't helping me to get things made, either.)

New bracelet from trash

The girls and I had some fun playing with some of the trash from the office. We have a candy dish at the office and I keep the good stuff in there--the fun size candy bars. I saved up several of the wrappers that didn't get all torn to pieces when they were opened.

I put them on parchment paper in the oven at 300F for just a few seconds (probably about 30-45) and shrunk them down.

Keep a close eye on them because once they start to shrink, it happens fast.

After it shrunk down (it was less than half it's starting size) and cooled, I punched holes with a small hole punch and put a black chain on it.

The daughter wearing it thinks it's the coolest thing ever....and I'm good with that.

I left some in too long and they got really small. I liked that but the stuck to the paper in weird spots and couldn't be read any longer, so I may try again and see if I can get them small enough to make charms.

Who knew trash could be so much fun? Besides, if clients don't come in and eat the candy, I'll just have to do it.....in the name of art, of course.

Jewelry

I found the cutest mustache charms on Top Hatter. Abigail is crazy about mustaches and I knew I had to make something for her with these.

I opted for a pair of earrings and a necklace.

I want to use some type of ribbon for the necklace but haven't decided what color yet. I was thinking black, but her favorite color is orange so that might be better.

I think she's going to love them.

Handmade with love

For Mother's Day Kirsten (my daughter that is wild about crochet) made some jewelry for me.

She made both the necklace and the bracelet. She used two different patterns to make the necklace. I was really impressed that she did it all without any help.

I'd better get busy practicing my own skills or I won't be able to teach her anything more.

But then she can always teach me, right?

Bracelet making

I made a quick little bracelet.

I liked the way it turned out, but it's too big. I wasn't paying close attention while I was making it. Duh!

I didn't have the heart to take it apart though and start over. lol

The beads for it are from a necklace that I really liked, but haven't worn it in years. So, last night I closed my eyes and cut into it. I think I probably have enough beads from it to make another couple of bracelets. It was a rather large multi-strand necklace (which could be why I haven't worn it years.)

Besides, I just love making something new without having to go spend money. Don't you?

Jewelry Making

Abigail spent a majority of her time this weekend making pendants and earrings.

She had requested that I buy her some clay (which I did) and she got to work as soon as I got home with it.

Here are just a FEW of the many things she made.

Dreamsicle

 from the side

 Fortune Cookies

 Hot Dog

 Chocolate pie earrings

 Cake pendant with slices earrings

and these truffle pendant and earrings were my favorite.

 

I'm just blown away by her ability to see something and be able to reproduce it. Or, more impressively, to be able to visualize what she wants and then make it. I don't generally have that ability. I need a lot of helps along the way. lol She totally gets this talent from my Dad. Wish it hadn't skipped right over me. lol

Valentine's on my mind....

I'm already thinking about Valentine's Day. Is that some kind of sickness? Do I need to take some time in between holidays instead of just rushing on to the next one?

Regardless, I have a work in progress and I'm really liking the way it's turning out.

But, yesterday I got up earlier than anyone else in my house so I snuck out to my craft room.

I say 'snuck' because if anyone knows I'm going out there, they can't stay away. I've asked more than  once if there is some kind of alarm that goes off in the house when my butt hits the chair in my craft room. They keep telling me there isn't one, but I'm not convinced yet.

Anyway, I spent some time out there tinkering and came away with this:

It's always so exciting to sit down and work on something and actually come away with a finished product.

We all need a quick project thrown in every now and then.

It's even better that I already had all of the items on hand. I used jump rings to make the chain and the hearts are buttons. It makes me want to get in there and make more, which my girls have all asked for anyway. :0)

A quick bracelet

I can't remember where in the world I saw an idea similar to this (one of the problems with just surfing the craft sites/blogs out there.) but, it's been on my mind a lot lately.

It was soooooo easy to make.


It's simply a seam from a pair of jeans, strung on memory wire.


My denim strips weren't quite long enough (they came fron the back above the pockets of a pair of my daughter's too small jeans) so I used two pieces. I put a square glass bead in between the two strips to make it look like they were in two pieces on purpose. Then I put a pink bead at each end and a clear glass bead where the wire is turned in.

That's it!!!

I swear it took longer to cut out the denim seams than anything else. While I was doing it I thought to myself how it was just one more piece of an old pair of jeans that wouldn't get thrown away. LOL

Try it......you'll love it!

Bracelets

On Sunday night I decided to dig out some of the stuff I've been acquiring for all those bracelets I want to make. So I sat on the bed watching tv (need to clear some of the stuff out of the dvr) and putting some together.

Here's what I got made...



This one is made from pink buttons. I used tube beads to hide the string coming through the button holes. It's made so that it looks the same from both sides (the buttons are off set). I'm happy with how it turned out and I think I'll probably make another some time in the future.







These are all just made from beads that I've collected over time. You know, they were on sale at a price too good to pass up, just what I was looking for, and whatever other excuses I've used to justify the purchases. :0)

They're all glass beads and the blue'ish' one has silver filagree beads mixed with it too.

I'm so glad that I finally got some made and hope I get the chance to make some more soon. I love bracelets. :0)

One thing I have discovered is that my camera is no good at up close kind of pictures. I guess I need to figure out a different way of doing that. I should probably also make sure I have my glasses on when I'm taking pictures because they look fine to me until I put my glasses on. lol

Pink Christmas

I can't believe that I forgot to post a picture of my Pink Christmas goodies. I love jewelry and got these three bracelets and a necklace with matching earrings. All have already been worn. :0) There was also a wonderful plaque that came with a great easel. And a peppermint candle, which has also already been used.



It was a great experience and I can't wait to do it again next year. If you've never participated before you should really consider doing it. You can click on the link in my sidebar and see some of the gifts that were sent out.

On another note, yesterday I was trying to delete an inactive link from my favorites list and somehow managed to delete my whole craft link folder. GAAH!!!! I'll bet there were 100 links in there and now they're all gone. I'm just sick about it. So I guess now I need to spend hours searching the internet to rebuild my list. Wonder if my clients would mind getting all of there year end stuff a little late. lol