Angel Wing Necklace : Handmade Holidays

Like all of us makers, I made a lot of holiday gifts so I'll be sharing some that I wasn't able to share at the time. 

This one was for our favorite server at our regular Friday night go to restaurant. From the first time she came to our table we had an instant bond.  We are creatures of habit and the second time she came to our table she already knew our order! She's so good  to us, often treating us to dessert and just always such a sweet person. So I wanted to make her a little something and this Angel Wing charm seemed perfect. 

With the holidays being so busy I didn't take the time to take pictures of the step-by-step. One of my blogging resolutions for 2017! But the process and materials are simple: 

Supplies: 

• Black chain ( Blue Moon Beads)
• Silver Bead Caps ( Bead Landing)
• Opaque White Crystal Beads ( Stash)
• Black Crystal Spacer (Stash) 
• Head Pins ( Stash)
• Angel Wing Charm ( Shipwreck Beads)
• Jump Rings (Stash)
• Silver and Black Large Rings ( Bead Landing)
• Toggle Clasp ( Stash) 

Measure lengths of black chain. I did 4 sections, 6 inches long, two strands each. Wrap white beads and bead caps on head pins and attach to each end of the double strands of chain.

Attach Angel Wing charm , spacer beads, and wrapped white bead to large jump ring as shown to make the pendant part. Attach chain and pendant to black and silver rings as shown. 

Of course what's a gift without a card so I made this one to go with it since her disposition is always Merry and Bright...not just at holiday time. 

Oops. I see my Merry & Bright was a little crooked. The card was super easy. Combination of papers from Recollections Black and Gold Christmas paper pack I fell in love with and a coordinating scrap from my stash!

Happy New Year all. Happy Making! 

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Graduation Gift: Silver Softball Themed Necklace and Bracelet

Sharing a graduation gift I made for the daughter of one of my besties. We have been friends forever (7th grade) and now her baby has now graduated from college!

My “niece” is a lifelong softball player and earned a scholarship to play softball in college. I knew I wanted to incorporate softball into her necklace but now that she’s a college graduate, also wanted something grown up that she could wear. I found this enameled softball charm that was neutral in color and designed things around it.

I used a combination of silver chains and a rhinestone chain I picked up at Michaels and deconstructed.

I didn’t take a lot of pictures while I was making it but basically just laid out the chain the way I wanted it, added a couple of the rhinestone links along the way, and then used one as the base for a pendant, attaching the softball charm, another silver charm, and a silver pearl attached using a head pin.

The bracelet (this pic came out a bit blurry) is a mix of silver crystal beads, silver pieces, and another link from the rhinestone chain.

Graduation was yesterday and I am really honored that she chose to wear these for her graduation. Wishing you all the best Ro!

Gardening Lover's Necklace

I’m catching up with a couple of girlfriends later this week and always like to bring them a little something. One is an avid gardener so I knew when I saw this little green garden boot charm on sale at Michaels I had to get it for her. There was also a beaded chain in the same section so I picked that up too.  Both are by Bead Landing from their “Derby Chic” collection.

I had some complementary colored seed beeds in my Blue Moon Beads design team supplies, along with a very cool silver bail and bell charm.

I attached the boot and the charm to the bail along with some silver charms I had in my stash.

I took the beaded chain apart at the middle , ran a small length of plain chain through the bail and then attached the beaded chain to either side.

Using the seed beads, I strung two sections and attached oval jump rings to each end. Attached these to more plain chain .

I don't think she'll be wearing it while she gardens but I hope it captures her passion. 

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Double Strand Hammered Metal Connector Necklace

So apparently I really have lost my mind because I had this ready to post in DECEMBER and thought I had. That’s the sound of my palm hitting my head.

I made this necklace ( shown here doubled) with Blue Moon Beads and Bead Landing chain. The lightbulb went off yesterday when I was wearing it and someone asked me if I made it. That made me start thinking about when I made it and I realized I never posted it!

Whenever I’m making jewelry, I gather up what I think I’m going to use so here are the things I started with. The blue grey beads came in a pack of 23 coordinating pieces as shown on the card.

I cut different lengths of chain and made varying sections of beads and then randomly put them together with jump rings and hammered silver connectors:

I made it really long so I could either wear it that way or double it. It’s hard to get a good photograph of it the long way but I’ve mostly worn it doubled anyway.

A mind is a terrible thing to lose!

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Fashion Trend: DIY Shamballa Bracelets

I’ve been on a jewelry making bender lately. Don’t worry paper, I still love you so much, and Fall and Winter is when I tend to get my glitter on, but right now it’s a bead thing.

Have you Shamballa’d? Shamballa bracelets have their origin in Tibetan Buddhism but they have become a very popular fashion accessory. Here's what one looks like:

Like every other fashion trend, they range from the high end in the thousands of dollars, to where people like you and I come in…knocking them off at a fraction of the price.

The core of the Shamballa bracelet is a macrame square knot. I just love the look of them. And so did Mr. Chocolate who had the nerve to tell me he thought it looked too hard for me to make.

Of course that meant it was ON. I was planning to try to make one already,  but there’s nothing like a little competitive incentive am I right?

The one on the left I used moonstone and a charcoal crystal bead in the middle and waxed cotton cord by Bead Landing from Michaels; the one on the right I used these kind of foiled / dusted silver beads and a thicker twisted Bead Landing cord.

The square knots you see in the middle are actually a type of sliding clasp and the ends with beads slide within the knots to tighten / loosen the bracelet so you can get it on and off.

There are tons of videos out there so I will not try to teach the knotting technique. I used a three part series from Beadaholique. You can find them all on You Tube and the first one is here: Shamballa Bracelet Pt 1. There are several other videos on You Tube so you can easily find one that works with your learning style.

The most important thing is to make sure the beads you choose have holes big enough for the cording you choose.  You can use hemp, leather, waxed cotton cord, whatever you want.

The other tip I’ll share is to glue your knots before you cut the ends of your cord. For this I like the original drippy kind of super glue. For other projects I prefer the gel kind for more control ( and less likelihood of gluing my fingers together) but you want this to seep into the knots. 

The supplies you’ll need are:

• Beads of choice
• Cord of choice
• Super glue
• A little patience to get the knot technique

So here is the inspiration for what Mr. Chocolate wanted:

$550 David Yurman . Uh No. He also didn’t want the double strand.

Here’s what he got:

He even went with me to Michaels and picked out the beads ( that’s a whole nother blog post!). Lava rock and silver.

He also didn’t want the long dangly ends ( picky customer!). It might not be David Yurman but it also wasn’t $550! The most expensive item was the 250 feet of cording for which of course I used a 40% off coupon. Total cost was less than $20 with cord and beads left over for other projects.

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Ribbon and Jump Rings Necklace Part Deux: Cream and Amber

I had so much fun with the Ribbon and Jump Rings necklace I shared last week that when I found myself at Michaels again this weekend ( they really need to give me my own parking space) I went looking for another one of the ribbon necklaces I used.

No more black ( eeek! boo! it’s my signature color!) but they had the same one in cream so I decided to branch out! Hello , my name is Carol and I’m a neutral-holic.

I also picked up a package of these Trinkettes beads by Cousin (fear not colorful people they come in loads of colors) and while I was scrounging around in the clearance bin again, came across these gorgeous amber-crystal-cabochony thingies. $1.99. SCORE.

Similar to the black necklace I made, I strung large jump rings onto the ribbon necklace, over all of the layers.

Total number of jump rings: 11 It made sense to  me to have 5 on each side and one in the middle. No reason other than that's what felt right. You could use more. You could use less.

Then I put some of the Trinkettes beads on some of the large jump rings and the amber cabochony thingies on other jump rings and used smaller jump rings to attach everything together. I’m very technical! Seriously. This is super super easy and there are several different types of ribbon necklaces avail even if you don’t find this exact one by Bead Landing because I bought them all.

Cabochony thingy, Trinkettes beads, cabochony thingy Trinkettes etc.

Look Mom, I didn’t even use the black beads ( YET!). And yes I did drive to another Michaels looking for another black ribbon necklace. No luck. There’s another Michaels I’m checking out this weekend. Sssssshhhhhh.

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Ribbon and Jump Rings Necklace

Sometimes the idea for something comes when you aren’t trying so hard to think of one. At least that’s true for me. I am one of those people who likes scrounging around in the clearance section of places like Michaels which is what prompted this project. I found this pre-made ribbon and cord necklace by Bead Landing for $1.99!

The Darice beads and jump rings I already had in my stash from one of those previous scroungy trips. This was super super easy to make.

I strung some of the biggest jump rings onto the necklace ( over all of the ribbons/cord). Added as many as I felt like which ended up being eleven.

Then I put some of the Darice beads on a large jump ring and attached to some of the rings already on the ribbon.  In my stash, I found some leftover washers from a Washer Charm Bracelet I made last year with washers from The Dollar Tree, and put those on a couple of the large jump rings, and then added one more bead/ring combo to the middle jump ring on the ribbon. Added a toggle clasp to each end.

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