Purply Flower earrings

When it comes to crafting, sometimes you feel creative, and sometimes you don't. For some odd reason, as I was cleaning up my craft area, I decided to put some vintage German lucite calla lilies and pressed Czech glass bell flowers together with some Swarovski crystals. It's a little eclectic in that you generally don't put frosted lucite (which is an early plastic) with crystal, and the crystals themselves are an odd combination (one is a shape that's been discontinued for decades... the other is a brand new, whimsical shape in a trendy color). The end result is a cute pair of really unusual earrings.

I don't wear a lot of earrings. It's actually an old habit, since you don't exactly get a choice in the matter when you're in the military. Well, that and when you're as organized as I am, you tend to only be able to find one earring at a time, or only the pairs you aren't interested in wearing. So anyway, the latest trend in beading these days is the cluster. In fact, my best selling piece in the Etsy shop is a pearl and shell cluster ring. Shells are fun to work with because they're natural and come in all shapes and sizes, but that also makes it a bit tricky to make things like earrings which are generally expected to be in matched pairs. Ironically, it's harder to make them to look like they match when you have fewer elements. So, if you're like me and prefer lightweight earrings, it's much simpler to use manufactured components.

Yard project

And here are some photos of the yard project. Since these photos were taken, the old tree stumps and root systems rotted out and created sink holes in our yard... so I need to get more dirt, regrade, and plant more grass. The question, however, is whether or not I should take this opportunity to install a sprinkler system. Very little digging involved since I have to fill quite a bit.

What do you think?

Cherry Blossoms and a Red Panda

Since I haven't been crafting a lot lately, I thought I'd throw in some photos that I took on a trip to Washington DC last spring. (Yes, photography is another hobby of mine. Is it any wonder I'm always running late?)

Labor Day supply sales

Don't ask me when Labor Day weekend turned into such a shopping occasion, but hey... if I can get something on sale, why not?

As always, here are the favorite online crafting supply sources:
Artbeads.com (20% off most of their beading supplies- free shipping in US!!)
Fire Mountain Gems (bulk discounts, check out their $3 bead-a-rama)
Wazoodle (fabrics, patterns, notions, etc. with tons of new additions to their "Flash Sale")

For those in Hawaii, I hear Bead It might have some good deals going. And Ben Franklin is, of course, offering extra savings to their craft club members.

Bibs for the Baby

It turns out that the baby has her dad's sensitive skin. When she was born last summer, it seemed that everything gave her heat rash. I got this bright idea to make a bunch of baby blankies, wrap style carriers, and other baby things out of bamboo jersey that I ordered on Wazoodle. Since they were having a sale, I rationalized that it cost less to buy 6 yards than it would've cost to buy 4. And then it occurred to me that someone may have already thought of the idea of using bamboo jersey to make a baby swaddler and onesies.

On several occasions, I've also been inspired to try quilting. Or rather, I've pieced quilt patterns and bought materials.

Ummm, I have a lot of fabric.

So anyway, I got motivated and stitched up 6 bibs, two in each of the patterns shown here. The cute prints are from fat quarters, the back side is bamboo jersey, and I recycled some of those small flannel receiving blankets for use as an absorbitive liner. All they need are snaps. Since I don't have one of those snap fastening tools, I bought some snaps at Walmart that came with a little plastic contraption to hold the snaps while you hammer them through the material. It's late and the kids are asleep, so the snaps can wait until tomorrow morning. :)

More Beading for Bloggers

A few months back, I signed on to Beading for Bloggers with Artbeads.com. Since then, I've undergone some beader's block and got a little side tracked with more "instant gratification" type projects like those clippies and bibs. However, there is that rather large tackle box full of beads and other beading supplies...

Changing the topic slightly, I took the kids to the mall over the weekend, to check out a new (plastic interlocking block toy, starts with L) store and return some trousers that I bought last week. (They were on sale, but I found an even better deal online!) Well, this week's killer sale was on accessories. The prices appeared to be good, compared to their regular ones... but as it turns out, the "instant gratification" project in the beading world tends to be a pair of earrings... so I opted to take these cosmic Swarovski crystal components in olivine, and made myself a new set of earrings to wear to work!

:)

Baby/Toddler Hair Clip How-To

Here are some of the hair clippies I've been making for the baby:



Part of the fun is that it's a great way to use those scraps of ribbon and left over flowers, etc. from other projects. They're great for keeping her baby comb over in place while playing and super cute for pictures, but definitely require close supervision when in use.

Here's the tutorial I used when getting started. I did not make this tutorial. Note that the fabric glue being used in the video is fairly expensive, relative to other types of fabric glues. Spend the money for the good glue. I cheaped out on the glue and it "dries wet." (Look at the pink clip with the rhinestone flower and you'll see exactly what I mean.)

Multi-Tasking

Although I haven't done a lot of beading this summer, I did try my hand at making ribbon lined alligator hair clippies for my daughter. (We've been using the baby comb over to try and make her head look less bald.) Ribbon is significantly less expensive than beads, so for about $20 worth of supplies, I made about 3 dozen different clips. Ordinarily, each hair clip would run anywhere between $2-5 each, so I'm pleased with myself for being crafty and saving some cash.

Naturally, I had to embellish a few of those clips with flatbacked rhinestones, however, I decided not to try and peddle clips in my Etsy store. Quite frankly, I have too many different styles of jewelry in there and adding hair accessories would only make things harder to manage. The other thing is that these tiny little clips are choking hazards. I put those things in the baby's hair only when she is directly supervised. I don't send her to day care with clips in her hair, and I sure as heck won't leave her in the car seat with one of those things on! The last thing I need is for some less conscientious parent to let their baby chomp on something I made for use by babies... They are super cute, though. I'll get additional pictures and post them at some point.

The other thing I've been making this summer are bibs. Once upon a time, I got this bright idea about trying my hand at quilting (which obviously didn't work out). So, rather than let the fat quarters sit around, I traced out a bib pattern and started cranking out bibs out of way cute materials... for the liner, I recycled some "tiny" flannel receiving blankets. (You know, the cheap ones that come 5 to a pack and are only good for swaddling newborns and use as burp cloths?) One of these days I'll remember to get some photos of those, too.

Less is more....

Believe it or not, I actually have been crafting this summer, just not a whole lot of beading. In fact, although I did intend to make up a super glizty set or earrings for my wedding, I ended up with very simple briolettes on coil and ball ear wires. (Shown here, in progress.) In retrospect, I'm glad that I went with an understated look. What do you think?

Swarovski Obsession

Did I ever mention that my sister in law is the one to blame for starting my obsession with Swarovski crystal beads. She started making a bunch of simple stretchy bracelets and earrings, which were totally darling. The thing about starting out with Swarovski, though is that you get spoiled. No kidding, you get what you pay for. Cheap crystal beads are not all uniform in appearance or color, the facets are not as brilliant, and sometimes the beads aren't even all the same size. The other thing is that once you become interested in doing more than stringing beads, there are a LOT of other Swarovski components to experiment with.

Since I also sew, I love flatback Swarovski crystal rhinestones. Haha, it's not like having a Bedazzler, I swear! Well, I guess if you got carried away it could look like that, but I digress.

Coincidentally, I got an email from the Artbeads Blogging for Beads folks on my birthday, saying that their latest promo involves Swarovski crystal beads and components. They're sending me a goodie bag of stuff I got to pick out, including some of these super cool shaped 12mm Cosmic beads, pictured here. (I can't get over the really neat asymmetrical shape!) Pretty nifty, huh?