Just for Fun/Upgrade Me

Just for fun I did a Lily Pulitzer colored chevron bracelet! It looks more red in this picture, but I promise-- pink, green, and white!

So I decided to go back to what I'd originally wanted to do and add a clasp on! 

Ribbon clamps in multiple sizes

I didn't have any glue, so I improvised with tape!

Snipped off the end just past the tape

found the right size clamp

and, well, clamped it!

This side was a little bit bigger... not something I'd anticipated!

but the next size up was too big...

I ended up squeezing that end in to the slightly smaller one and clamping it nice and tight.

So now I have my bracelet with clamps, jump rings, a lobster clasp, and a small pair of pliers to finish the job!

Since my pliers were small, I put them inside the ring and gently opened it up

Because the bracelet was long enough to go around my wrist, I only put a couple of jump rings on

Then I used one jump ring to put the lobster clasp on and...

Voila! Removable friendship bracelet!

Pretty in Pink

I love seeing all the vintage style jewelry floating around Pinterest, and when I saw this Swarovski elements piece at Michael's a couple of weeks ago I knew I had to do something with it!

So I decided to do a necklace! Now, when I took a closer look at it last night, I noticed something strange-- there are three holes on one side and one hole on the other. Decisions, decisions... should I just use one strand to hook up? Should I do something to dangle down? Then it hit me-- the pink pearls! I love the faux pearls at Michael's because they come in so many different shades and they LOOK fantastic! I don't honestly know where the idea came from to do a three to one pearl necklace, but the pink pearls looked absolutely stunning with this piece, and all I could see in my head was three strands of pearls going in to the pendant, slightly off center, with one strand leading out.. So, without further ado, I give you the three to one necklace!

Three strand necklace clasps, pearls, Dandyline, needle, and pendant-- I figured out later that the lobster clasp would be the best way to go for the one strand side. 

Again, I like using the needle to thread the pearls on-- just makes it so much easier!

When I got to the end (about 39 pearls on this strand), I wound the thread through the loop several times without tying it, that way I could give it a good tug and get the strand nice and tight against the pendant before tying it off. 

Then, I just tied the knot a few times around the loop and gave it a few good tugs with no bad results!

Three side is done! I used 39 pearls for the top strand, 42 for the second, and 44 for the third.

OK, so I just liked this picture and wanted to put it up. Keep reading!

As previously mentioned, I'm not great at forethought, and it was at this point I decided to use the lobster clasp to finish out this end rather than have two empty hoops hanging out. 

I wanted to do the one strand shorter than the three side so the pendant was off center, so I put about 30 pearls on and then looped the thread through without tying it off so that I could test it-- it looked just like I wanted so I tied it off and finished the project!

Now the only question is... do I keep it or sell it?!

A Rose Ever Blooming

Little Things Bring Smiles had a great tutorial on felt flowers that I've become obsessed with! I won't re-do the whole long boring thing for you here, but here are the highlights and modifications from the Meg point of vew!

I'm hoping to do a whole garland of roses, so I pre-cut a LOT of things while watching a movie one night...

Instead of hot gluing while I go, I just roll the whole thing up and make sure I like how it looks

(which I do)

I then insert a needle with knotted thread in to the very center, and aim for one side

Pull the needle and thread through, then make a quick loop back towards the center

Then come back out the middle and do it all over again to another side of the rose

Then, when you're comfortable with the number of stitches (I've been doing four and it works out well), just come back to the center and make a little knot in the middle!

I've always had a bit of bad luck with hot glue, but a needle and thread are my best friend! Since these will have something on the backs, the knots won't be visible or matter, and the same will hold true if you're doing hair pins like Little Things Bring Smiles showed you how to do. Of course, hot glue will probably be best if you're attaching it to something like a headband, but the sewing trick works great and I think is just as quick and easier to do if you're not going to be in one place for a while. I do my crafting at home, on the road, and in the office when I have spare time (during pickup I can't start any work projects, but I can usually get a flower sewn up pretty quickly) and a hot glue gun isn't exactly portable! 

I promise I'll share the garland when it's finished, but since I have until spring (it's for a friend's wedding) it may be a few weeks!

Pinspiration Nails

Being sick takes a lot out of me, so I'm excited to get back to some little projects here and there that I love so much! This week, I went with some more nails-- I found this pin a while back and I've wanted to try it out, and when I sat down to try it I of course decided to make it snazzy!

I chose the orange and blue because they were nice, vibrant colors but I didn't want too much of one or the other. So, here goes!

A sheet of hole protectors, your polish colors, and since I lost my top coat I just used the base coat twice.

Cut your hole protectors in half

Paint your base color on

I used Caliente Coral from Sephora by OPI

For the look I wanted, I put the stickers on about halfway up my nails

Paint over the entire nail with your contrast color (I used "Teal We Meet Again" from the same Sephora by OPI Collection)

I found it was easier to pull the stickers off immediately after painting-- unlike scotch tape, the paper on the hole protectors got a little soggy and messed up the bottom coat a bit

If you look at the thumb and pointer here, you'll see why it's important to push the stickers down all the way so you get a nice even edge!

These looked great and I got a LOT of compliments on them! The only funny thing was that the blue paint over the orange turned out greenish!! I'll definitely try the original Pinspiration soon, especially since I have some beautiful green shades to try and some time to kill with surgery coming up!

Candle In the Microwave

It just doesn't have the same ring as "Candle in the Wind" does it? Well, either way, here we are... I'm going to warn you in advance that I don't have a picture of the finished product. Because I left it at my in-laws. Because I am special... We'll see them again at Thanksgiving, so I'll update with a picture and a new addition to my expanding repertoire of awesomeness.

I've had a growing fondness for the tea-lights that I've seen around Pinterest, so I dove right in and decided to try my hand. Without reading the directions, of course... 

Down to business! You will need... 

An awesome something to hold your candle-- I picked this one out for my aunt!

A big bunch of microwaveable wax, dye bricks, and scent if you like-- plus wicks so you can, you know, burn your candle..

First, you'll fill the wax up to the desired level 

I went with about halfway up the seashell to start, but...

After a suggested 60 seconds in the microwave (the container IS microwave safe!), it was still chunky...

And had melted down juuust a tad. 

So I threw in another handful of wax, plus this palm full of dye (which I didn't think would work, but it did!) and kept on microwaving until I got this:

But then I noticed the wick was kind of floating off to the side... I know people have some super fancy ways of stabilizing and centralizing wicks, but as we all know I make a habit of being unprepared for these things, I feel it keeps me sharp. Anyways, I MacGuyvered this little contraption together:

Why yes, my dental floss DOES make the difference!

Until Thanksgiving you'll have to take my word that it turned out alright, just a little bit shorter than I'd hoped. The small amount of dye shavings made me skeptical like woah but it turned out nice and white! I'll probably add a little more wax to see if I can get the level up and then gift it to my Beachy Keen Aunt!