Firework Burst Earrings

 My daughters, Cheyenne and Natalie, and I have really been having fun making jewelry for the past couple of days.  We haven't done that for quite a while.  I learned some new skills, I introduced them to the fun of "Clue" the movie (they didn't find it that fun), and we escaped the heat while making super cute things.  I love summer!

Last week Cheyenne and I (oh, and Billy, he was in it for the Sonic for lunch) went shopping.  While we were in Shopko, Cheyenne found some really cute earrings and at the same time we both said, "We could so make those!"  So we came home started looking through the beads we have deciding what colors to make when I thought they would be perfect 4th of July earrings.  So our Firework Burst earrings were born.

Okay, so I had a little fun editing this picture, too. :)

Here's what you need to make your own:

You can make these as long or as short as you like.  We held the chain up to a pair we like and guesstimated that way.  Remember when you add the beads to the bottom link it will be longer.  1.  Attach the chain to the hooks.  2.  Put the beads on a head pin.  Using the wire cutters, cut of the excess of the pin, leaving about 1/8-1/4" above the beads.  3.  Then using the round end pliers, curl that extra 1/8-1/4" making a loop at the top and then use the loop to attach it to the chain.  This was the new technique I learned, I've never done this before.  It was kind of fun. lol  And I promise, it get's easier with practice and you'll see for yourself how much extra to leave depending on how tight you roll, etc.  The first pair I made it took me about 30 min. per earring.  By the second pair, I could make the pair in 30 min. and by the time she was done making several pairs, Cheyenne was pretty fast at it.

We started by putting one pin in each link of chain and then filling in "holes" when we were done.  You can make them as full or sparse as you like.

Cheyenne's pair are less full than mine are, it's just preference.  Finish by cutting off any excess chain links you have.

Give it a try, it's really kind of addicting.  I think we ended up each making 3 different pairs.  I'll show you our other pairs later.

Me and my beading buddy in our matching earrings - sorry it's a little blurry.

Safety Pin Watch or Bracelet

Hi everyone!  This was a guest post I did last week for Between U and Me.  Enjoy!

I'm so excited to be here guest posting today.  Just a little introduction, I'm Kimberly from The Brown Eyes Have It.  I'm trying to be the best wife and mother I can be and having a little fun along the way and I blog about all that includes.  Also today is my birthday! Yeah!!  So as I was thinking of what I could post about, what the date was, realizing my littlest three need a birthday present for me, and I wanted a new watch, so that's what we're doing today - an easy safety pin watch or bracelet.

Supplies:
Safety pins - around 60 for a watch, around 70 for a bracelet
Stretchy cord - 2 pieces about 20" each - I used 1 mm thickness, you can use thinner, but the thicker
     it is the stronger it is
Seed beads - picture shows two tubes, but I only needed one
Watch face - I forgot that in the picture, oops.  A face with bars or holes in edge of the face is fine. If
      you use a face with holes, make sure your cord is small enough to fit through the holes.
Clear nail polish or super glue

Open the pins and start loading the beads on.  If you want a random pattern, the easiest thing to do is dump the beads in a bowl and just start scooping the pin through.  Or, you can painstakingly pick out each bead and slide it on the pin in precise color order, the choice is yours. :)

After you've loaded all the beads onto the pins, start stringing the pins on one of the pieces of string.  String them head up, head down, head up, etc.  It makes them lay them nicer.  Also make sure they're all laying the same way, either the clasp (beaded) side all up or the blank side up, just make sure they're the same.  Really, take a look through them and make sure they're all the same, not that I had any experience with this. :)  Lucky for me, my upside down one was towards the end.

After you've got them all strung on one string, string the other cord through.

If you want a bracelet, tie the two ends of the top cord together in a square knot and do the same for the bottom cord.  Now the knot won't hold tight, but it'll help you see if it's the right size.  Either add or take off pins as needed.  If you're making a watch, thread the cord over the bar and under the face and tie the two ends together.  Carefully, try on your watch and adjust to fit.  Take it off and flip it inside out with the back of the face, up.  I put a piece of tape on the back of the face to keep it clean while gluing.  This part is a little tricky.  Pull your knot as tight as you can and while holding it tight, drop some glue on it or paint it with nail polish.  It's much easier if you have someone help you.  Then repeat for the other cord.  Cut off the excess cord.

Voila! That's it, a totally customizable, cheap, easy, fun watch.

Or bracelet.

Thanks again, Courtney, for letting me hang out with you all today.

Come visit me at The Brown Eyes Have It.  I'd love to see you there!

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Thrifty Jewelry Christmas Gifts - Part 2

From my post the other day here, you know part of our Thanksgiving weekend was spent gettin' crafty.  My sisters, sisters-in-law, Mom, daughters and niece have an annual tradition of a big craft day.  We spread out all over my mom's big table and talked, laughed, ate chocolate cinnamon bears and the occasional piece of pie, and just had a great time together.  These are some of what we made:

Today I'm going to show you what else we did.  My sister Kristen (with help from SIL Alana) made this really fun interchangeable necklace.

 You can change the bottom row of beads to match your outfit, and it's adjustable from 18" long to around 30" long.  Cool!  The initial cost was a little more expensive, I think it was about $10 for just the chain, but then each bead strand cost only around $5-$10 depending on the beads used.  Still not bad considering each necklace is totally unique to you.

Supplies:
12” of nicer chain
12” of extender chain
4 jump rings
3 lobster clasps
beads
wire
crimp beads

Let me start by explaining the difference between "nicer chain" and "extender chain".  The "nicer chain" is the chain that you'll see mostly.  Kristen bought some cuter, bigger, twisted looped chain that was more expensive.  The "extender chain" was the cheapest stuff they had, just plain regular chain, but it's mostly in the back, so you don't really see it.

Split the nicer chain into two 6" pieces.  Then attach the extender chain with a jump ring at each end.  Now Alana and Kristen were debating over which way to do this next part.  Either you can split the extender chain also and attach a lobster clasp at one end, this is the professional, store-bought looking way.  OR leave the extender chain in one piece, just attaching the lobster clasp on it so when you shorten the chain, you'll have a loop of chain in back instead of a dangling piece.  Either way is fine, it's all in back anyway so it doesn't really matter.  Both ways look good, not cutting the chain is just easier.  Then add a jump ring at either end of the nice chain.  Now your basic chain is done, you're ready to attach the bead string.

This is the fun part.  Make about a 6" long string of beads.  Cut a piece of stringing wire about 8" long, and string on whatever beads you like.  At the ends, string on your crimp bead and lobster clasp, then loop the wire back down and through the crimp bead.  Crimp it.  Do this for as many different bead strands as you like.  This makes a very fun, unique gift.

Now on to the second necklace.  Mine was much easier. :)  I made this necklace which was inspired by this post:

Supplies:
Christmas bead garland - $5 at Michaels and I made 4 necklaces with few beads leftover
Jersey knit material

First of all, I cut a piece of material 2 yards long, but only about 3/4" wide.  You could probably piece it together, I just happen to have a scrap piece that long.  After it's cut, grab one end and start stretching it.  It'll curl in onto itself and make a sort of rope/chord.  My 2 yards of fabric now stretched to 3 yards.  Cut off on end at about 22" for your second string.  This is made in two parts.

Left side - stretched, Right side - not stretched

Then start stringing.  Wrapping the ends with a little tape makes it so much easier.

Slide a bead on down to the middle of your long string, and tie a knot on either side.  Then string another bead, and tie a knot.  I strung 13 beads on the bottom strand and 11 on the second strand.  End each strand with a knot.  Then you'll attach them together with a little hot glue.  Since the material curls in on itself, I uncurled the bottom string, put just a dab of hot glue in it and put the short strand inside it, letting it curl back around it.

Cut off the extra from the inside/short strand, and slide on another bead over the top of the glued part.  Then tie another knot and you're done.  Word of caution, after you're done, it might look a little crooked in places and not lay just right, just wiggle it around and play with it a minute and you'll getting looking right.  DON'T stretch it more, though, not that we had any experience with that (but it wasn't me).  However, if you do happen to stretch it out, we found out that you can undo the whole thing, untieing each knot and do it over again. :)  This is really quick, maybe 30 min, really cheap, and another great gift idea.

Hope you enjoyed our crafting session as much as we did.  My family is the best! We all get along really well and have a lot of fun together.  Love you all!

Help me reach and exceed my goal of 100 followers! I'm so close!

Thrifty Jewelry Christmas Gifts

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year.  It's a good long weekend full of family, fun, and good food without all the other stressors that come with so many other holidays.  I love it!  This year we ate with Bill's family and the next day we hung out with my family.

We have a tradition now for the past few years that the girls (actually, nephews have been known to be involved before, too, making stuff for girlfriends) have a big crafting day, either after the food is put away or the next after everyone wakes up from late night/early morning shopping.  My sister, Leslie, and I had been checking out blogs, scouring Pinterest for this year's fun idea.  We never really came up with one big idea, we all kind of did our own things.  So I'm sharing this with you today to give you some fairly quick, all pretty easy, and mostly pretty cheap gift ideas you can whip up for those on your Christmas shopping list.

At my mom's house in the middle of the crafting L to R: my daughter, Cheyenne; sister-in-law, Alana; sister, Kristen; niece, Ashtyn, Mom, nephew, Mitchell, applying to college; sister-in-law, Geri; sister, Leslie; and daughter, Natalie.  Not a great picture, with two big windows it's kind of hard to take good pictures here.

I'll share a little of what we were all working on.  My mom has made great headbands and hats for many of the girls and she was busy finishing flowers and attaching them and stuff.  (I'm giving a headband away when I hit 100!)

Leslie and Ashtyn made this really cute necklace.  Here is the tutorial from Little Miss Momma, she did such a good job with it, why redo a good thing. :)  Here's my tip for this one, just from watching Leslie, the actual assembly of the necklace was fairly quick, but she already had a bajillion circles cut out.  So put on a good show and start cutting first.

Geri, scored a great deal on her Black Friday shopping and got a whole bunch of Swarovski crystal beads and charms for $1 a box.  So she got busy making a bunch of bracelets.  She just strung them on stretchy chord, tied them off with a square knot, and put a little super glue on the knot to hold it tight.  I believe she also made a pair of earrings to match by gluing a charm to some posts she bought.

Kristen (with help from Alana the jewelry making expert!) was busy making a really cute interchangeable necklace.  Come back on Friday and I'll show you how to do it.

I was being very frustrated making a leather wrap bracelets like Want to Get Crafty's here.  My advice - DON'T use sinew for the thread, it's way too sticky, and when you're working with a piece that's around 10-12' (yes feet!) long, it's a pain in the butt!  Then after I finally got it all done, I didn't like it, so that's in the redo pile.  This one was not so quick, but that was mostly because I was trying to figure it out for the first time.  Once I got the idea of how to do it, it went pretty quickly, and if I used waxed thread instead of the sinew it would have been even faster.  I'll redo it and let you know.

  However, I also helped several of my family make this bead necklace.  Again, come back on Friday and I'll show you what I did. (Part 2 here.) 

I hope this gives you some fun ideas for Christmas gifts.  It really is fun and so satisfying to say, "Yah, I made that!"  What is on your Christmas crafting list?

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