Ranie's Version of Lillie's Headband

A friend asked me last week if she thought we could put together some baby flower headbands for her little girl. Lillie is turning 1 in a few days, and I was confident that Emma and I could put something together.
We decided to make it a little competition so we could give my friend some options to choose from. Emma made one that she will post here when she is finished... and this is mine. Following the tutorial found here :http://www.u-createcrafts.com/2011/01/creative-guest-vintage-rosettes.html... and adding a little bit of my own twist, this is what I came up with. Check back in a few days to see Emma's finished headband. Lillie is already such a beautiful girl, and I sure hope her momma loves what we made for her!

Antique Obsession

A few months ago, I found a new favorite antique store. I suppose it isn't that new, but I recently found it... and it is a bit dangerous because it is pretty close to my work. Talk about tempting!! Anyway, they have little bags of random mostly broken jewelry near their check out stand for $10. I bought one, and fell in love.

 Here is a picture of the bag before I reconstructed anything...

 Here is one of the items- a bracelet. I dont think I look very good in bracelets, so I up-cycled this into something I think I would wear... a necklace... Here is a tutorial

 collect the beads and decide on a pattern

start stringing them on your favorite jewelry wire

(can be found in the jewelry section of most craft stores)

String them along however you would like...

 Next you will need a crimp bead and a link ring

 loop your wire through the crimp bead and the link ring

then back through the crimp bead the other way

 Pull it through very tightly

 Use your needle nose pliars to clamp down tightly on the crimp bead

repeat this process on the other end of the necklace

 depending on the style you want, you can add a chain to make the necklace adjustable

 on the other side add your clasp- these come in all shapes and sizes

 then make sure they clasp correctly

 ta-da! Your new necklace!!

I have a thing for off centered jewelry so you can see this is off center- its just my style, but you dont have to do it this way of course

Following this same basic process, I made all of this jewelry from my $10 bag from the antique store. Because I was able to re-use the clasps... my total amount on the project was around $15... so getting 7 pieces of wearable adorable antique-ish jewelry is a bargain! These also made wonderful Christmas gifts! Needless to say I will definately be off to the antique store again very soon!

BETH GIVEAWAY!!

hey!! i just wanted to pop in and let anyone who would like to you... they are having a beth (silhouette) giveaway at the darling blog i found!!

SILHOUETTE GIVEAWAY!!

and the blog is so crafty!! i'm gunna have to follow her.. oh wait! we do :)

lame is a good word

hello our fellow bloggers! i have a confession to make, we are super lame! i wish i had a good excuse for why we havn't posted in almost two weeks, but i really dont. after christmas we just kinda went back to our normal fun schedule but its gotten a little out of control! another reason why we have lost our craftyness for a week or so is our craft room light has burned out.. and i'm (the taller one) not tall enough to reach the lightbulb and i keep forgetting to tell the dad!! sorry!! um... i would also like to introduce you to our friend Beth though... she is the third party in our craft blog... here is a picture of her, isn't she so beautiful?

beth is very friendly and loves to do service for others! if you have anything that you need a cut of.. just shoot us a comment and we could be happy to work something out with ya!! we will be back later with an actual project, until then have a great time working on your cuteatude!!



Recycled Jewelry Storage

I (Ranie) have a confession... I am an antique jewelry addict! Seriously. If I have had a hard day, or if I want a great weekend activity- there is nothing higher on my list to do than hit up the local antique store to raid their jewelry stash. I will show you other examples of this... but for today I thought I would show you one of my solutions for my addiction. Ok, maybe it isn't a solution for the addiction, but it is a solution for keeping my habit organized!

 Here is my collection of earrings, cardi clips, brooches, rings and a few bobbi pins and hair ties all mixed in.

This was a nightmare to sort through when I wanted to find that perfect pair of earrings to go with my outfit. Back in the day, I would just look at my stash and sigh... then proceed to let all of these gems sit there in hopes that one day I would get over it and sort through the stash to find what I actually wanted.

 Then I remembered these babies... That's right, they are empty Gerber baby food containers

 I discovered them back in my working-in-daycare days, but since I don't have a baby and therefore a ready supply of these, I had to beg. That's right, I begged them (for free) off of my friend/coworker who does have a little gerber food eating little one. She thought I was weird for asking, but I assure you, it was well worth the beg!

 First I selected some scraps of paper that would match my room decorations and cut them to the right dimensions. I also needed to round the edges so that they would fit in the lid wedge "just so"

Then I grabbed my favorite tools- good ol' Mod Podge and a spounge brush

I put the mod podge all over the little inlay on the lid

 Then set in the paper in their proper places...* Be sure to do one at a time and take the time to press the paper into the mod podge so bubbles do not form*

 After the base layer of mod podge dried, I covered the tops of the lids with mod podge. I put on a couple of coats because I have a little OCD

 While that dries... go ahead and sort out your piles and make sure your earrings all have their pair (evidence of OCD again)

Once dry, put in your jewels

I made 4. 1 for rings, 1 for earrings, 1 for brooches/cardi clips and 1 for bobbi pins/hair bands...

Now that they are organized... they are getting used much much more! Hooray!

Let me know if you make any!