Jewelry Making With Plaid and Martha Stewart. I'm In Love!

This post is sponsored by Plaid , Martha Stewart Crafts, and The Blueprint Social. Projects and opinions are my own.

When I heard that Plaid was launching a Martha Stewart Jewelry line, I was excited. When I had the opportunity to get to play with products from this new line, there was no living with me. I camped out at the front door waiting for Mr. FedEx man. Martha and jewelry? This could only be phenomenal.  The only thing missing was chocolate.

Let’s start with the amazing variety and choices in this new line. Whether you’re a new jewelry maker or an experienced one, there’s something for you. Findings, chains, beads, charms, rhinestones, bails, bezels, tools. Two of the most exciting new products are the jewelry glazes and enamel paints.

You can make your own very elegant enamel charms in a variety of colors.  There are also  epoxy clays and silicone molds to make even more components. I had to start somewhere (this was the hardest part!) so I decided to play with the jewelry glaze.

I covered two of the silver charms with  Ivory jewelry glaze. To apply it, squeeze a little glaze onto the silicone mat then stipple it onto the charm. This little silicone mat is genius! Works with the jewelry glaze and the enamel paints and cleans up easily.

I wanted a vintage look so I wiped a bit of the Ivory glaze off with a clean dry rag but if you want a more contemporary opaque look, just don't wipe away the glaze. After about an hour’s drying time , I went over the Ivory with a coat of the Light Gold glaze.

While my glaze was drying, I played with a couple different sizes of the rhinestones and settings, using the Martha Stewart jewelry glue to secure the rhinestones.There are two different kinds of settings; pronged and glue in. I used the 3MM and 6MM hematite colored rhinestones and settings .  I've mentioned before that I'm really sensitive to strong fumes and smells. The jewelry glue didn't bother me at all.

I used two types of silver chain that came in my supplies, connecting the rhinestone components with jump rings to sections of one of the chain and using the other chain in its entirety. I made a pendant out of one of the glazed charms and rhinestones and used the other glazed charm (with chain I had on hand) to make a matching bracelet.

The rhinestones come in a variety of colors and sizes and coordinate with other beads in the line. 

There are endless possibilities with these products, limited only by your imagination. You can check out the full line of products (available exclusively at Michaels) and get some other ideas here: 

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/InspiredByPlaid
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/PlaidCrafts
• Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/plaidcrafts

And be on the lookout because other creative bloggers will be sharing their Martha Stewart Jewelry creations too.

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The Best Blog Recipes

Just The Ticket Card

Happy Monday all. I'm over at the CutCarstock Blog today sharing how I made this fun ticket themed card and matching envelope. Hope you'll drop by!

BFF Open House Link Party #105

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It's already the middle of MAY! Mother's Day has come and gone. End of school and graduation season is upon us, not to mention Father's Day, wedding season, SUMMER! Let's jump right into the deep end of the pool and see what everyone's been up to. Can't wait to share some new Martha Stewart goodies from Plaid with you next week!  It's a party. Grab something chocolatey and have fun!

Turquoise and Toffee Multi Strand Necklace and Bracelet

I wear a LOT of black. I laughed when during one of the “Dark Knight” movies, Morgan Freeman’s character turned to Bruce Wayne and said “ Yes Mr. Wayne, it comes in black”. College Boy looked at me like “uh huh”. Consequently, I also wear a lot of black and silver jewelry. I guess that also means I'm Batman.

I decided to challenge myself both creatively and stylistically and reached into my stash of Blue Moon Beads from my Design Team supplies and my eye fell on some turquoise beads along with a bead mix of turquoise and toffee. Inspiration!

I used a ribbon necklace and antique silver chain as my base and then strung different beads on stringing wire, closing each end with crimp beads.

I just eyeballed where I wanted the strung bead sections and attached them to the chain using jump rings. No real plan involved.

When that was done, I was staring at a big pile of turqoise seed beads and have been wanting to make a multi-strand bracelet so I did.

I cut five pieces of stringing wire the same length and put a crimp bead on one end of each strand.

Then I gathered all of the crimped ends and ran a piece of beading wire through each loop, twisting the ends of the wire together to hold them.  Strung a mix of seed beads and other beads onto each strand, closed with another crimp bead , gathered the ends with a piece of wire and then ran the wire through copper bead cones and made a wrapped loop.  I joined both “cone ends” with jump rings.

Your cone bead will cover those ugly ends.

Now I'm craving some dark chocolate covered toffee!

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Chase The Star 

WHIPPERBERRY

Mod Podged Mini Dress Form Photo Prop

Being a jewelry maker, I’m always looking for different ways to photograph my creations. I got this idea when I stumbled upon mini paper mache dress forms in the 2 for $3 section at Michaels.

For this project you will need:

• Mini Paper Mache Dress Form
• Mod Podge ( I used matte)
• Wood Spool
• Printed Tissue ( I used a damask print, 5 12x12 sheets to a pack by Recollections also at Michaels)
• Coordinating Trim and Paper Flowers

Cover your spool and dress form with Mod Podge; apply paper. When I’m working with tissue paper I like to “pre-scrunch” it since it’s likely to get wrinkly anyway. I find this keeps the wrinkles uniform. You can be exact and line up the patterns, or you can be me.

I trimmed the top of my spool with some leftover pom pom trim, hot glued two coordinating paper flowers to the top of the spool, glued the dress form on and DONE!

Now I have another little photo prop to use in my posts.

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Tree of Life Sympathy Card

Another Sympathy card. I try to strike a balance recognizing the solemnity of the occasion, celebrating the life of the deceased, and honoring and comforting the living who mourn. This one is for a friend of mine who lost her brother after a long illness.

I decided to use a tree in this card, representing the Tree of Life. My Cricut “Wall Décor and More” cartridge has a great tree image so I used that to cut my image from a neutral cardstock. The cardstock is double sided so I ran another piece of it through my Cuttlebug  using a honeycomb embossing folder.

I layered a gray panel across the middle, adhered the tree, bordered the gray panel with coordinating scrapbook borders and tied a black and white polka dot ribbon around the panel before adhering the embossed panel to the card.

Finished off the card with different sizes of black self adhesive rhinestones and a brass leaf charm.

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Mothers Day Cards in Pink and Gray

If I could have sent each of my bloggy mom friends a handmade card, I would have. Since I can’t, I’m sharing the ones I made for the moms in my non-bloggy life who have been shocked to see pink coming from me!

I am not known for being a pink person but for some reason I just felt like using pink.Maybe it was the washi tape I found? OK it was the pink washi tape!

I stamped on cream cardstock using a Hampton Arts rose stamp and black pigment ink then embossed with clear embossing ink. Some of the images I colored the area behind the rose with pink chalk ink. For others, I colored in the flower with colored pencil. Trimmed and layered with black and pink papers. I added a drop of pink liquid pearls to the center of each flower. I used  a combination of grey and silver floral papers, pink papers and embellishments including American Crafts glitter tape to finish the cards.

Wishing all the moms out there a very Happy Mother’s Day!

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Wrapping Up Blogiversary Week: Final Giveaway from DCWV/Blue Moon Beads

Happy Mother's Day eve everyone. I'm here with the last giveaway celebrating my blogiversary  week. I'm on the design team for Blue Moon Beads which also owns the amazing paper line Die Cuts With a View. I'm super excited that they've offered one of my readers the chance to win a goodie box containing a mix of both! Trust me, you won't be disappointed.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I'm also behind on announcing the winners for the last two giveaways so here goes.

The winner of the $25 gift certificate to CutCardstock.com is LM. The winner of the bird's nest pendant and leaf charm bracelet is: Angela M. CONGRATS ! Both winners have been emailed. The DCWV / Blue Moon Beads giveaway winner will be announced on Tuesday.

Thanks again SO much for making my blogiversary week fun.

BFF Open House Link Party #104: Come Share What You've Been Working On!

It's Friday Eve and once again time to party! Thanks so much to you all for making my blogiversary  week celebration so much fun. There will be one final giveaway starting on Saturday.

It's been a busy week around blogland. Lots of inspiring Mother's Day, Teacher Appreciation, Graduation, and Father's Day ideas popping up. 

Ales from anportraits shared this gorgeous kusudama ball made from origami flowers. She has a step by step tutorial to show you how to make these flowers. 

I am forever losing sunglasses or else breaking them because they're not in a case. Jeanie from create and babble has a stylish case makeover at a price that can't be beat. Embellish a case from the Dollar Store! 

While there are no babies anywhere near on my horizon, I adore this yellow and gray nursery shared by Andrea from Arch. The color scheme works for any room. 

Finally, if you're looking for a special dessert perfect for Mother's Day, Aimee from Twigg Studios shared this citrus cake complete with pineapple flowers! So pretty and I know...it's not chocolate ! 

OK on to this week's party! 

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Bird's Nest Pendant and Leaf Charm Bracelet Giveaway: Still Celebrating My Blogiversary

Are you tired of giveaways yet? This is another one from me to you celebrating my blogiversary week. If you spend any time here you know how much fun I have making jewelry and one of my recent popular posts involved wire bird’s nest pendants so I made one to give away!

For the eggs, I used silver glass pearls and wrapped them in aluminum wire. The pendant is strung on suede cord.  I also love making stretchy bracelets, so the same winner will get a coordinating one of those. In keeping with the nature theme, this one has a silver leaf charm.

The bracelet is a mix of stone beads and more silver glass pearls.

Ready, set, GO:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Blogiversary Giveaway #3: $25 Gift Certificate to CutCardstock.com

Hope everyone is having a great week and participating in the giveaway fun. I'm thrilled to be a Design Team member for CutCardstock.com. The wonderful folks there are giving one of my readers a chance to win a $25 gift certificate to their site!

With upcoming holidays like Father's Day ( I'm sure you've all got Mother's Day taken care of by now) , graduation season, prom season and it's always someone's birthday, who couldn't use some notecards or invitation sets?  CCS has got you covered. Flat Cards, Gatefold Cards, Invitation Sets and more, ready for your creativity. 

If you want full size card stock, CCS has a variety of sizes and brands. In case you need some ideas on how to use the variety of products you can find at CutCardstock.com, pop on over to the blog and see what my fellow Design Team members and I are up to each month. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Blogiversary Giveaway #2: Cigar Box Full of Goodies to Alter It With

Don't forget I have a giveaway from My Memories Suite going here.  

This giveaway is sponsored by : ME. My readers know that I love to alter things. I'm also really lucky to have a husband who gets that, and does things like bring  home cigar boxes for me to play with. I have seen them for sale at up to 10 times what he's gotten them for. SO ...I want to give one away to one lucky reader. 

I think I read somewhere( or just made up in my head) that it's bad luck to give away an empty box. What fun would it be to have a cigar box to alter without anything to alter it with anyway?  One reader will get a box filled with some of my favorite goodies to play with. Want to see? 

There are rub-ons and embellishments and washi tape oh my! Couldn't resist including a mini paper mache dress form too. 

Here's the top of the box (some places I've found cigar boxes rip off the lid but this lid is fully in tact which makes this a great place to store bits and pieces) You can use as is, cover it, or incorporate the design into your altered vision. 

And the box itself is a nice cedar ( I think ..but it's some kind of wood!). So in keeping with my history of "craftsplaining" um no, I don't smoke cigars but I sure do love the boxes they come in! Who wants it? (Gonna have to limit this to US only because ....postage)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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