Posts Tagged ‘jewelry’

Last Minute Gift: Double Wrap Bracelet

December 20th, 2011
4 Comments

These last couple of weeks have been chock full of gift swaps & holiday parties! I also participated in a snail mail Holiday Gift Swap (hosted by Kersey & Susan). With all of these festivities I needed to make a thoughtful gift (10 of them, actually) that expressed what I like to do, but didn’t take a million years to make. When I found out that I had an unexpected connection to a laser cutter, it somehow just dawned on me that I needed to  make a patterned leather bracelet. Not just any old bracelet, though. A double-wrapped one. Those are far more fun, anyway.

I didn’t get around to laser cutting the bracelets before my first gift exchange, so I cut 5 of them by hand. I did 5 in under 2 hours (while watching TV). So you can tell that these things are easy to make! There are only 4 days left until Christmas, but that’s more than enough time to head to your local leather shop & make matching leather bracelets for all of your girlfriends (and their pets).

• S U P P L I E S •

  • 2-4oz leather or industrial felt
  • pattern piece
  • 1/2 inch buckle
  • scissors
  • hole punch
  • hammer
  • needle
  • coarse thread or sinew
  • packing tape

• I N S T R U C T I O N S •

Print & cut out and assemble the pattern (see the download button below).

Lay pattern flat on a piece of leather or felt. Tape pattern down with packing tape or equivalent. Punch holes, THEN cut out outline.

Thread the flat end through the buckle. Insert the oblong hole through the filange of the buckle. Sew the end onto the buckle with your needle & thread, tying a square knot to secure ends.

Wrap around your wrist twice & buckle!

If you’re a pet owner or have a friend who is, these bracelets could double as a cat/dog collar. Just add a D-ring & a doggie tag! Also, if you’d like to win one of the lasered bracelets, click here.

Wasn’t that easy? Click the download button below to download a printable version of the instructions, supplies & the pattern.

This tutorial/freebie is free for personal use and should not be distributed/republished without my consent. Altering the file NOT ALLOWED. If you would like to use this tutorial for commercial purposes, please email me. Thanks!

PR: Anya-Inspired Earrings

October 21st, 2011
3 Comments

I’m loving this season of Project Runway. We don’t have cable so I anxiously await Saturdays when the new episodes go live online. My two season favorites are Viktor & Anya. They both have great taste & have been incredibly consistent through each challenge. In addition to the challenges I look forward to seeing Anya’s earrings each episode! She has the most fantastic earrings. I need to build up the courage to make some giant disc earrings. My absolute favorite, though, is her winged pair of earrings. They’re so cool. I can’t seem to find any pictures online, but if you watch last week’s episode (where she pairs up with Burt). You’ll see them. They’re gorgeous.

I haven’t been on an actual search to find those specific earrings, but when I saw Nikki post about Yozo Craft & their adorable charms, I thought I’d see what they had. Sure enough, they had a really cool fern charm & thought it’d be adorable paired with a little rose. I don’t typically wear dangle earrings, so I glued a regular post back to the rose & joined the rose & fern leaf together with a jump ring. Altogether costing about $3.50 for the pair of earrings. Now that I’m looking around, these wing charms would’ve worked nicely, too.

Here’s how I wore the earrings on Wednesday. Reader Tamara found some earrings similar to Anya’s at Forever 21, They’re probably the closest I’ve seen to what she wears.

A Wedding!

August 18th, 2011
4 Comments

My brother-in-law is getting married today! We’re all really excited about it. So nothing new around here today. Although, I did manage to whip this up this morning while getting ready. I’ve had these beads forever (I’ll be sharing the petina technique soon). Took about 10 minutes.

I’ll be back tomorrow sharing the invitations I designed for Scott & Rebecca.

Click here for outfit details.

Fun Things to do with Leather Feathers

June 8th, 2011
4 Comments

Last week, in preparation for my little TV debut, I made a leather feather headband using the pattern pieces from the Fringed Feather necklace tutorial. It took about 10 minutes to make & practically cost nothing. I had all of the supplies on hand – but if I had to price it out, I believe it cost somewhere around 25¢. TOTAL.

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I love this leather! It’s so smooth & soft and the tips of the feathers curl out, which I love. All I did was cut out the little pattern pieces & glue them onto a headband & glued felt underneath the leather for sturdiness. Simple!

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photo by Michael Ann

Michael Ann, whipped up some adorable little earrings using two-toned leather she found at JoAnn’s. She didn’t even have all the right tools on hand, but she was able to make do, no sweat! Don’t you love the heart rivets? To see how she wore them & read the details of her experience, check out her blog.

 

Obviously a lot of the tutorials I’ve published are for a specific project, but I love it when people get creative & expand on the tutorial!

Magic Braided Leather Tutorial

June 2nd, 2011
74 Comments

Seriously this tutorial is magic. I’ve been wanting to share it with you for about a year now, but it’s taken me so long to sit down & figure out the best way to explain myself. See, I discovered how to do this while mindlessly watching an episode of House.

My mother-in-law has a rad purse from the ’70s or so; it’s leather with a very cool handle. Parts of the handle are braided & parts are smooth. I thought it was just insanely cool how the handle was braided with closed ends!! What the . . . So I figured it out. Turns out it’s not as hard as you might think!

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I’ll be sharing this today on KSL’s Studio 5! I’ll link to the video later today for further clarification. So click the link below to read the tutorial!

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