Posts Tagged ‘jewelry’

Galentines Presents

February 13th, 2012
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Last Saturday I went to a sweet Galentine’s party with a bunch of girlfriends, put on by my new friend Stephanie. She knows how to throw an amazing party. The highlights from the party were: chatting with old friends, making new friends, being without the kiddos, exchanging and receiving fun Valentine’s gifts, and devilishly good chocolate cookies.

I spent all Saturday morning working on my exchange. I sort of knew what I was going to do, but I did wing it a bit. I quickly sewed 12 bags from my stash of vintage fabric, made leather-covered hair pins and stuffed the bag. I put candies, hairpins and a “love you” sticker in each bag.

I couldn’t think of anything clever to put on my bag, so I hand-wrote “Be mine” on little slips of paper and used a safety pin to attach the tag and close the bag. I felt like it was nothing too terribly clever, but I did have a great time putting them all together. Are you passing out little Valentines this year? I’d love to see what you’ve done.

Penelope and I will be working on her class Valentines together tonight. I love that she’s getting old enough to enjoy and work on projects with me.

Handmade: Pendant Necklace

January 31st, 2012
7 Comments

Last Saturday night I had a few friends over for a low-key crafty night. It’s been quite some time since I’ve gotten together with gal pals to just sit around & chat.

We made pendant necklaces, worked on projects, chatted about babies & husbands and ate delicious food.

I had a great time getting together with my friends. There was no schedule, no twitter and no instagram to distract us from the good time we shared. I love moments like that.

What fun projects have you made lately? I’d love to see!

Leather Friendship Bracelet Tutorial

January 10th, 2012
9 Comments

With the new year already here in full-swing, I’ve been thinking a lot of what I want this year to be like. I want it to be full of family, blogging, friends, parties, organization (I’m really going at it at our house!) and health. While all of these things are nice, they’re keeping me really busy. So busy, in fact, I don’t have time to do them all. This brings me to the words I want to live by this year: Be Still. While I want to do a million things all at the same time, sometimes I need to be okay with not getting it all done. I need to take in all of the smiles & giggles Felix & Penelope throw my way, take in the small stuff, take in how fleeting these little moments are.

When I had Penelope, the biggest shock to my system was that I couldn’t just get up & do things quite like I used to. I was tethered. It caused a lot of frustration for me, but it was (and still is) a good learning experience that I can slow down, do what I can & enjoy the small stuff.

I made this little “friendship” bracelet to serve as my reminder this year. It took about 5 minutes to make. I whipped one up for Penelope, too. Hers says: Love You. I told her that it should remind her that I love her very much (even when I put her in time out). What word or words do you want to live by this year?

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Last Minute Gift: Double Wrap Bracelet

December 20th, 2011
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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.

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