Crafty jewelry: collar necklace

collar
Jewelry making

Crafty jewelry: Make a Fabric Covered Gem Necklace

Lately, fabric seems to be making its way into necklaces, earrings, bracelets – all kinds of accessories. I love that it can add an entirely different textureand look to a piece of jewelry. For this DIY, I incorporated fabric from a thrifted skirt with some plastic décor gems and chain to create a one of a kind necklace. Totally customizable and really easy to make!

Supplies:
- Plastic lightweight decorating gems*
- Scrap fabric (mine was 40 inches x 4 inches)**
- Thick chain
- Scissors
- Jewelry pliers
- Hot glue gun (optional)

*I used 7 gems. These can be found in the home décor section, and are usually used to fill vases.
**Make sure your fabric is thin, lightweight, and not too thick!

1. Tie a knot at one end, making sure there’s about an inch of fabric left above the knot. Place a gem in the tube that has formed. Make sure the fabric wraps around the entire gem, and tie another knot.

2. Insert another gem, and tie another knot.

3. Keep going! Again, make sure there’s about an inch left after the last knot.

4. Cut a slit in the fabric at each of the ends.

5. Tie onto the chain. Repeat at the other end. If you would like, use a little hot glue to further secure the knots.

jewelry making

Source: weheartthis.com

Crafty jewelry with cross stitch patterns

Fimo and yarn

I get a little over excited sometimes when it comes to craft projects. An idea pops into my head and I immediately think it's THE BEST IDEA IN THE HISTORY OF EVER. Ok, so this one might not be all caps worthy but I thought it would look cool.


White fimo (to look a bit like ceramic) shaped and then with holes poked in a grid then baked and stitched with traditional needlepoint or cross stitch patterns.

I didn't quite like the shinyness of the embroidery floss (top image) so I dyed some wool crewel yarn with plant dyes. I like the muted colors and fuzzy textures better but ran out of chain link to make these wool ones into pendants like the floss one.

So I was totally jazzed about these but every time I show them to someone their reaction is along the lines of, "Hmm...." Which is totally fine! Whatever floats your boat, right? But it makes me question my own taste in great ideas. Perhaps a bit of self editing is in order?

Speaking of taste, I did determine that, although I still love this in concept, the execution wasn't quite there. These are pendants of thumb prints of my two kidlets. But the disk of fimo into which they pressed their thumbs was too large. And turns out babies don't have much of an actual thumb print--skin is too soft.
So, on that note of projects not well received, the baby is napping so I'm off to work on my next BEST IDEAS EVER IN THE HISTORY OF IDEAS. One is a quilt project and one is a series of mini books. Fun!
Source: underconstructionblog.typepad.com

Crafty jewelry: The Thimble Necklace Tutorial

Crafty jewelry: The Thimble Necklace Tutorial 

I've been thinking about this project for a very long time. Today it was sticky with heat and humidity and in the middle of  trying to get my house clean, I just dropped everything and did it. I absolutely love it. I love it so much, that I want to show you how to make it.

Supplies:
Sewing Pins in with the color heads you like
Metal Thimble
Coordinating threads. (my thread came from the edge of some fraying fabric I adore.)
Hot Glue Gun
Tiny Drill bit and Drill

Step One:
Drill a small whole directly below the lip of the thimble. Watch your fingers and go slow!

Step Two:
Fill the thimble 1/4 of the way with hot glue. Let the glue cool slightly and start placing your pins however you wish. I'm very much into pink right now, so most of my pink pins were towards the front. You need to work quickly to get them placed how you like them as the glue will cool quickly. Adding little bits of glue at a time, move your pins around until you are satisfied. Be careful not to hold onto the thimble as it will get very hot as you squeeze in more and more glue.

Step Three:
When your thimble is 3/4 of the way full, ball your threads and place them into the glue. You can use an extra pin to arrange the threads and make sure they are attached to the glue.

Step Four:
If you would like to attach your thimble charm to a chain you will need to place a ring in the hole you drilled. I opted to attach mine to a length of colored hemp with a simple loop through the hole.

Step Five:
Wear it with pride!

  If you don't want to make one yourself because of the heat and humidity at your house you can buy one here
http://www.etsy.com/listing/46867034/thimble-and-pin-charm

Source: thewindandthesail.blogspot.com

Recycling ideas: jewelry making

DIY rosette necklace

 

Snow Day everyone! We have a snowy day! That means no school for us Texans (don't laugh!) ^_^
I could have slept late but instead I got up and found things to do. I wish waking up early was as easy when I have to go to work, hmmm...

Today I have a tutorial for this rosette necklace, I told you I would put every inch of this vintage blazer to good use.

Ahh! Look at that lining!? Doesn't it just scream to you "Make me into a beautiful rosette necklace!"? It did to me.

Here is what you need:

lining material or old lining from an old jacket

needle & thread

glue gun

felt fabric

old pearl necklace (again you can substitute for ribbon)

pearl beads

candle, lighter or stove burner

scissors

I started by removing the lining from the blazer and then cutting many little circles 2-3 inches in diameter. You'll need about 5-7 lining circles for each rosette.

Use a candle to burn the borders (it's easier then the lighter), this will prevent the lining fabric from fraying and will also give the rosette an antiqued look.

 Here I have all the petals I made...

With needle and thread make small stitches in the middle of the petals.

 They will look like this from the front.

 After you have a few petals done stack them in order from largest to smallest and sew them together like so.

 Once they are all bound...

 sew a pearl bead in the middle.

 Place the rosettes on top of your felt fabric to calculate how large to cut the felt fabric.

  Trace the shape of the bib necklace, I used gray felt because I like the contrast of the colors.

 Cut a banana shape or a U shape bib (U shape looks better I later had to make a few stitches to make this bib more of a U shape, but it depends on the size of your necklace (measure first to see how you prefer it).

I had a vintage necklace that choked me so I cut it in half and took one pearl off from each end.

Stitch the ends of the necklace to the felt fabric for extra support. 

 Cut out little ovals to cover the stitches.

 Glue stitched ends of the necklace in place and then glue the covers on top.

 We are almost done...

 Arrange the rosettes the way you want them on your necklace and glue them to the felt fabric.

Enjoy your new upcycled necklace!

Source: modestyispretty.blogspot.com

Crafty jewelry: Lucky Charm Bracelet tutorial

 

Lucky Charm Bracelet

Jewelry making

Did you know that Sublime Stitching patterns lend themselves oh so well to all kinds of Shrinky Dink fun? It's true. Necklaces, keychains, zipper pulls, you know - anything you can make with Shrinky Dinks - are twice as nice when made with Sublime Stitching patterns! Like...uhm...I know! Howsabout a charm bracelet? St. Patrick's Day is coming after all, so this'll be perfect. Plus, this is a fantastic project to do with kids (just be sure to supervise around the hot oven)!

Who: You!

What: Sublime Stitching Lucky Charm Bracelet 

 

When: Right now! Who doesn't need a little luck? It'll take an hour tops.

Difficulty Level: Beginner

You'll need:

 

* "Lucky Charms Sheet" Template (download below)
or, these Sublime Stitching Patterns you may already have:
Country Cool, Unicorn Believer, Darling Daschund, Viva Las Vegas,
Pirates Ahoy, Sublime Stitching Book and the Craft Pad

* Shrinky Dinks - One 8 1/2" x 11" sheet

*  Permanent markers, or colored pencils in vibrant colors

*Embroidery Scissors

 

 

*Hole Punch

 

 

 

* Bracelet with fairly large chain links

*7- 9mm Round Open Jump Rings
(found in the jewelry suppy section at most
craft stores for about $1.50)

* Parchment Paper or Brown Paper Bag

*Toaster Oven (recommended) or Oven 

*Cookie Sheet or Toaster Oven Tray

* Heavy Book (optional) 

INSTRUCTIONS
x - x - x - x - x - x

1. Place the Shrinky Dink sheet over the patterns, and color in the image.
Yes - before you trace it. Otherwise, the black marker that you'll use to outline the image will bleed into your pretty colors. 

 

2. Trace the lines of the pattern. 

 

 

 

 

3. Punch a hole near the top of the image.
Remember: The hole will shrink too! And make sure you've punched the hole all the way through. 

 

 

 

4. Cut out the shapes.  Cut circles as smooth as possible (*cough* not like in the photo).
You can also make the edges fancy with pinking shears or scalloped edge scissors, etc.

 

5. Pre-heat your oven to 325ºF (163º C). Cut 2 pieces of parchment paper to fit your toaster oven tray. Place one sheet of parchment paper on tray or cookie sheet and place charm pieces, colored side up onto the paper. Place into oven and watch as your charms shrink to cuteness! It took these about 60 seconds. The pieces will curl up and then lay flat. Once they lay flat, allow an extra 30 seconds of baking time to complete the process.

 

6. Remove from oven and quickly (within 15 seconds!) place your other sheet of parchment paper over the charms and press flat with a heavy book. Like War and Peace.

 

 

 

7. Awwww - Look how cute and teensy they get! 
(And see what I mean about cutting the circles as smoothly as possible? Sigh.)

 

 

 

8. Arrange the charms how you'd like them. We made 7 charms (just seemed luckiest).
Attach charms to bracelet using the jump rings.

 

 

 

 

 

9.That's it! You now have one very lucky wrist. 

Source: sublimestitching.com