Halloween: Don't Forget To Decorate Yourself...Skull Earrings and Bracelet

 

Not that I'm going many places these days, and I know a lot of people are barely wearing clothes, but I do go out once or twice a week to run errands, and despite the fact that it's still triple digits here in the desert, and I'm still wearing shorts and tanks, that doesn't mean I can't get into the season right? Right! 

So I made myself some seasonal earrings and a matching bracelet. 

Michaels continues to expand their jewelry making supplies and there's not a trip that I make without a few things sneaking their way into my cart. 

Supplies: 

• Skull Charms ( I found mine on clearance at Michaels but they have some other similar beads)
• Silver Connector Links 
• White Marble Beads 
• Filigree Bead Caps
• Rhinestone Dangle Charms
• Small Silver Spacer Beads
• Jump Rings
• Misc Charms
• Jewelry Making Pliers

All of my supplies except for the little star charms, small silver spacer beads, and the swirly flat bead shown at the top of the earring are from Michaels Bead Landing / Charmalong lines).  

I found these on clearance when I wasn't even looking for them. They were up by the register, on clearance, so naturally I bought two sets! 

Step 1: 

If you're a novice jewelry maker, there are tons of great tutorials on You Tube. Here are some on "How to Open and Close Jump Rings") 

Open a jump ring, then use it to attach the skull bead and silver connector link. Sorry this is blurry! One handed photography while trying to hold up pliers with your non-dominant hand is tricky! 

I used the same process to attach the little star charm to the other end. 

Step 2: 

If like it seems 95% of people, you have pierced ears, you'll use the same process to attach an earwire. I'm in the ( I made up this stat) 5% of people who doesn't have pierced ears. Can't. Apparently I'm missing the connective tissue that prevents them from ripping so....it's me and your grandmas and people deathly afraid of needles. 

For us "clippies" the good news is Michaels has us covered. 

Problem Solved!

I use Loctite Gel Glue to adhere these to whatever misc flat backed findings I have. And then you're done! 

Bracelet

I do a lot of my bracelets on stretch cord which is how I did this one. 

Supplies: 

• Stretch Magic Jewelry Cord ( Michaels)
• White Marble Beads
• Filigree Bead Caps 
• Skull Charm
• Dangle Charm 

I always cut off more stretchy cord than I need because I've found it makes it easier to knot and I learned the hard way of trying to be very specific in my measuring only to find out I couldn't quite tie the knot. 

Clamp one end ( you can use an official bead clamp which they sell in the jewelry supplies or I've used clothespins, binder clips, or clamps I found in the hardware section of the Dollar Tree). 

Starting w/ a bead cap string as follows: bead cap, white bead, bead cap, spacer. Lather, rinse repeat until your bracelet fits your wrist. For reference, I have what are considered small wrists and I used 10 of the marble beads. Once you're satisfied w/ the sizing, close your bracelet with a knot. Dab a dot of Loctite Glue and then knot again dot of glue, knot again and trim the ends. 

Open another jump ring and attach your skull charm and rhinestone bead dangle and you're done!

And since it's 2020, my accessories wouldn't be complete with out a mask right? 

I already had this fabric in my stash so it was a no brainer! I've been using a pattern from Sweet Red Poppy to make my masks. 

I hope you've found some inspiration! 

Family Paint Pouring: Meet Mr. Chocolate and Chocolate Chip

 

Since he left for undergrad, we've been used to going months without seeing our son each year and looked forward to his Summer visits. Needless to say with COVID, we weren't sure that was going to happen this year but he made a carefully planned drive from where he's studying in Chicago to come see us in the desert. We've been hanging out at home and it was the perfect opportunity to do a family craft project so I asked my "boys" if they'd want to try  paint pouring and they did. The above is mine which I kind of mucked up because I messed up the white paint and it got lumpy but theirs turned out GREAT! 

Meet Mr. Chocolate and Chocolate Chip (off the old block...get it?! I'm punny) and their paint pours! 

Mr. Chocolate loves yellow, silver and black so those were his color choices: 

During COVID, son started a plant collection so he chose colors to complement his plant area in his apartment, green, brown and gold. 

I'm working on some Halloween decor and decided to use burgundy, black and white. I ended up doing two canvases to use up some of the leftover paint. The one above and this one. Stay tuned for upcoming projects that will use these as backgrounds. 

All of the supplies came from Michaels: Artist Loft Acrylics and Pouring Medium

A good time was had by all and they're happy with their first foray into paint pouring! 

Swirls & Swirls : Paint Pouring and Quilling

Sharing a gift I made for the friend who started me on this Quilling obsession. We've been friends since the 7th grade and since I've recently retired, you can figure out that's a loooonnng time! She also just became a Grandma this weekend! Age is a state of mind though right? So despite over 60 years of marriage between us, we're still in HS, going to our favorite pizza place and ice cream parlor. 

Where I'm heavily into neutrals, she's heavily into colors. The paint pour I did was in honor of the peacock feathers and jewel tones that were part of her wedding colors. Swirls of turquoise, greens and purples. Did I mention she made her own wedding dress and each of our bridesmaids dresses then fast forward to her daughter's wedding 2 years ago and she made her dress? She's amazing. 

I did this piece on a wood cradle board which is one of my favorite surfaces on which to paint pour.

For the Quilling piece, I once again turned to embroidery hoops as my "frame" which have become my go to as you'll see in some upcoming projects! I went with shades of purple and dark brown which coordinated with the paint pour colors.

And being a cardmaker and a paperholic at heart, I made a card to send along with:

I went with Jewel Tones that coordinated, using a Jewel Tone paper stack by Craftsmart and a bicycle themed sheet from another Craftsmart paper stack, In Bloom. I am hopeless when it comes to Michaels either buy one get two free or 70% off on these stacks. Hopeless.

I Quilled the butterfly in coordinating colors.

Supplies Used: 

• Craftsmart Acrylic Paints (Michaels)
• Wood Cradle Board ( Blick Art)
• Embroidery Hoop
• Juya Quilling Papers (available on Amazon)
• Misc Coordinating Paper
• Aleene's Turbo Tacky Glue ( Walmart) 

Quilled Monogram in Black and White

My love of and adventures in Quilling continue. The more I do, the more I want to do! Apologies for the photo quality. Between it being overcast and the fact that the dog accidentally broke my main camera lens and I'm having to use my distance lens and it's hit or miss...frustrating b/c this may be my favorite project ever! 

Supplies: 

• Cardstock for outlining monogram and matting
• Scrapbook paper for matting
• 12x12 shadow box frame
• Quilling paper
• Glue
• Quilling tool 

Choose a font to use. I used one called "Acherone". I printed out then traced w/ my lightbox onto white cardstock. I cut 1/4 inch width pieces of cardstock and then glued the strips around the letter to form my outline. Once the whole letter was outlined, I added a middle strip for more definition.

I decided it didn't matter if my pencil marks showed because I could just fill in those areas with quilled coils. 

I made coils, swirls and teardrops and just kept filling in the frame at random until I was happy. Once done, I added a few swirled coils as shown. 

I trimmed the paper the monogram was glued to, and then  matted that w/ black cardstock. Then I chose a black and white piece of 12x12 scrapbook paper and framed using a shadow box frame (Michaels...they come in multiple sizes in packs of 2, $29.99 regular price but I bought mine when they were 50% off). 

First Cards of 2020

I have several friends and relatives having birthdays in January so here are the first cards I've made in the New Year. 

Supplies : 

• Cricut Explore 2
• Copyright Free Image
• Aqua Glitter Paper ( Michaels)
• Foiled Vellum Paper (Michaels)
• CraftSmart Classic Chic Paper Stack ( Michaels)
• 110 lb Cardstock ( Michaels)
• Rhinestones (Stash)
• Foam Squares

For this card, I found the birthday cake image online and uploaded in Cricut Design Space. Cut two images and layered them using foam tape to give dimension.

Card is sized 5x7. Cut vellum paper panel 5x7 ; aqua glitter paper to 4.25x6.25 ; polka dot paper ( CraftSmart stack) to 4x6 and layer as shown. Finish by mounting the layered birthday cake. 

I tend to leave the inside of my cards blank more often than not but I haven't been doodling / lettering much so I used the negative from the cake image I cut and traced it on a panel of paper which I think doodled / hand lettered: 

For the next card, I used: 

• Whisky Barrel "Hot Buy" Paper stack (Michaels)
• 110 lb Cardstock ( Michaels)

I have a little bit of a paper addiction ( OK I have a HUGE paper addiction) and when Michaels has their "Hot Buy" stacks either 70% off / Buy 1 Get 2 Free, I'm there. That's where I found this Whisky Barrel stack which is great for "man cards". 

For this card, used only the stack, selecting two coordinating sheets of paper and one panel from a sentiments sheet in the stack. Same process and dimensions for the basic card, trimmed the sentiment with a black panel and layered all as shown. 

For the interior, I drew a double banner ( thank you You Tube!) and then lettered the sentiment inside. 

For the last card:

• Silhouette Design Store Image
• Silhouette Cameo 3
• Antique Gold Glitter Paper ( Michaels)
• Cardstock 110 lb (Michaels)
• Music Themed Vellum ( Stash) 
• Cricut Brushed Gold Adhesive Foil ( Michaels or JoAnn's one of the two!)

Card is also 5x7. Layered vellum panel, then alternated gold glitter and white cardstock cutting the image on my Cameo and layering on a white panel. I like the simplicity of this one. I used the "stencil" from the first card for the interior and forgot to take pictures but did it in gold gel pen instead of black ink. 

Black and White Wickedy Witch Wreath

Happy October! Yikes. But here we are. I actually had time to make something this weekend and had so much fun with it. Super easy and inexpensive and I'm really happy with it!

Supplies: 

• Wire Wreath Form ( Dollar Tree)
• Recycled Packaging ( See below for description)
• Tulle (on hand)
• Ribbon ( Michaels 40% off, 2 rolls)
• Halloween Picks (Michaels 40-60% off)
• Hot Glue / Glue Gun

Don't ask me how my brain works. My family has tried and failed. It just does what it does, which is how I came up with the idea to use this "packaging stuff" that's used to protect things in shipping to pad my wreath which my brain decided needed to be done. That's it. I had a wire wreath form on hand from Dollar Tree and thought just wrapping it in ribbon the frame might show through so wanted to pad it before wrapping it in ribbon. 

I cut it in strips and then wrapped and glued it to the frame w/ hot glue. WARNING: I used to have a fancy glue gun then it broke and I've been using a really cheap little "one temp" one. You might want to use "low temp" if you use this material because it can melt. I recovered and kept at it but you've been warned!

Wrap and glue, wrap and glue, wrap and glue watch "SVU". 

I ended up not wrapping the whole thing because a couple of burned fingertips makes you lazy and I also figured that where I was going to put "stuff" didn't need to be padded.  You can see the difference it made though and I do like the padded part which is the exposed part of the wreath. Wrap with ribbon et voila. 

Once my wreath was ribbon wrapped ( say that three times fast) I made a six-loop bow from black tulle, tied the ends around the wreath, and secured with a couple of dots of hot glue. Using the second roll of ribbon, I made an eight-loop bow and glued down to the wreath. 

Then, assuming your puppy hasn't run off with your witch leg pick, remove the stems from the hat and legs and glue down and you're done. 

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