Altered Drawstring Bag

Mar 30, 2015

Altered Drawstring Bag

I found this cute can­vas linen draw­string bag in the dol­lar spot at Tar­get. I loved it so much that I grabbed all they had know­ing I could alter them through­out the year. This design was super easy to make and is per­fect to fill with East­er can­dy. Sup­plies Used: East­er Ele­ments Tim Holtz/Sizzix Die, Burlap, Trim, Seam Bind­ing, Fab­ri Tac, Pearl Beads, Sil­ver Blank Disk, Jump Rings, Head Pin Tools Need­ed: Die Cut­ting Machine, Scis­sors, Bench Block, Brass Ham­mer, Long Nose Pli­ers, Met­al Stamps Met­al Stamp­ing Sup­plies can be found HERE at PJ Tool Jew­el­ry & Craft Instruc­tions:  Using the East­er Ele­ments die and burlap, die cut the bun­ny. Using Fab­ri Tac attach the bun­ny to the front of the bag Using Fab­ri Tac attach trims all around the top sec­tion of the bag as...

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NEW Handmade Penny Candy Dolls

Jan 29, 2015

NEW Handmade Penny Candy Dolls

I’ve added two new doll designs to my Etsy Shop. These Hand­made Pen­ny Can­dy Dolls are cre­at­ed by me from vin­tage dolls in my col­lec­tion. They are per­fect to alter for art projects or jew­el­ry designs. Each set includes 3 dolls per pack and mea­sure approx­i­mate­ly 2.25″ tall. Since these are all hand­made each doll will be unique and have its own vin­tage charm. I ship Flat Rate so please email me if you wish to pur­chase more than one item as I can get sev­er­al pur­chas­es in the same box. My email address is...

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Making Your Own Headpin

Aug 15, 2014

Making Your Own Headpin

This is one of my favorite head­pins to make and add to my Boho chic style jew­el­ry. It’s super easy and real­ly unique. All you need are wire cut­ters, 20 gauge wire, a ham­mer and a steel block. Using wire cut­ters, cut a piece of 20 gauge wire to 2″ in length. The angle of this pho­to makes it look as though it’s less but believe me the wire is 2″. Using a ham­mer, flat­ten one end of the wire as shown. You want the end to be flat­tened wide enough so the bead you will be using does not fall off. Next, thread the bead onto the wire then wire wrap the bead onto the wire as shown in this pre­vi­ous wire wrap­ping tuto­r­i­al. Here is an exam­ple of how the beads look...

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Charm Bracelets and Bangles

Aug 13, 2014

Charm Bracelets and Bangles

I love the sweet sound of charm bracelets and I’m so lucky to have my grand­moth­er’s charm bracelet. I still remem­ber the sound her bracelet made as she wore it. I LOVED being able to find the engraved charm with my name and birth­date, it hung nes­tled among all her grand­chil­dren and oth­er spe­cial charms she had been giv­en. These two charm bracelets are craft­ed from hand cut vin­tage tin, that I cut, sand­ed and turned into charms. Each charm cre­ates a soft sweet sound that reminds me of a wind chime far off in the dis­tance on a Texas farm. I accent­ed each charm bracelet with a strand of pearl like beads and the bot­tom charm bracelet has vin­tage clear glass beads wire wrapped and attach between the tin charms. Each bracelet is a one of a...

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Handmade Gifts are Best

Jul 25, 2014

Handmade Gifts are Best

I tru­ly believe a hand­made gift is one of the best gifts one can receive. I know I love to receive any­thing hand­made. The thought that some­one took the time to make some­thing spe­cial just for me, means more than I can describe. If you are just start­ing out in hand stamp­ing jew­el­ry charms or are think­ing about start­ing this charm is some­thing you can cre­ate fast and eas­i­ly. One tip I have for begin­ners is to start out with Impres­sArt Soft Strike Met­al Stamp­ing Blanks. These are amaz­ing!!! The stamp­ing blank used in my exam­ple is the Pewter, Square, 15/16″ Item # IAD13102. I secured the blank onto a stamp­ing block using stamp straight tape. Don’t even try to stamp your met­al with­out using this awe­some tape. I promise you stamp straight tape saves you loads...

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Tin Necklaces

Jul 15, 2014

Tin Necklaces

Not only have I been mak­ing cuff style bracelets but I’ve also been mak­ing some cute sim­ply stat­ed 24″ neck­laces. This neck­lace is what I call a dressed up ver­sion of a dog tag. Since I like my items to have a dis­tressed feel before stamp­ing my word I gave the met­al tag sev­er­al whacks with my brass ham­mer. Once I the sil­ver met­al tag was banged up a bit I met­al stamped the word smile onto the sil­ver met­al tag using what is now my favorite let­ter stamp set 3mm Newsprint low­er­case by Impres­sArt.  I applied some Mus­tard Seed Dis­tress Paint with my fin­ger into the stamped let­ters then instant­ly wiped away the excess with a paper tow­el. Next I wire wrapped some beads to cre­ate a charm and BAM just like that I was done....

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Solitude Leather Bracelet

Jun 6, 2014

Solitude Leather Bracelet

I made this bracelet the oth­er night and love it so much I thought I would share a quick tuto­r­i­al so you too can make one. Just a lit­tle note… the crys­tal and pearl beads are from old neck­laces I’ve found in thrift shops or flea mar­kets and the gold heart charm and red and gold glass bead are some mom and dad found. You can find sim­i­lar items I’m sure but if you real­ly want that vin­tage charm you need to dig around thrift shops and flea mar­kets for items you can take apart. Cut a piece of 15m Suede leather cord that is dou­ble the length you wish your bracelet to be. Fold the cord in half, at the bent end about .5″ down from the bent area wrap tight­ly a piece of...

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The Newfangled Neo Chain Blog Hop

Mar 18, 2014

The Newfangled Neo Chain Blog Hop

It goes with­out say­ing that there are so many dif­fer­ent types of chain to choose from for string­ing and sewing projects. Daz­zle-it NEO is a new col­lec­tion of chain and find­ings fea­tur­ing clas­sic col­ors with a new age twist! The vivid col­ors are quite eye catch­ing and make a great accent to your jew­el­ry designs. Mix these col­ors togeth­er for an extrav­a­gant look or sim­ply add them togeth­er with black or white beads to pop the indi­vid­ual col­ors. The pos­si­bil­i­ties are end­less. For this fun blog hop I was sent the black and white chain and find­ings to use to cre­ate what ever items I want­ed. I decid­ed on cre­at­ing a match­ing neck­lace, bracelet and ear­ring set. The NEO chain glit­ters because the cut in the chain expos­es the brass beneath, which worked per­fect­ly...

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Hammered Metal Heart Charms

Mar 13, 2014

Hammered Metal Heart Charms

Each of these hearts lit­er­al­ly took me 10 min­utes to cre­ate. If you want to make some for your­self you will need a Steel Block, Met­al Stamp­ing Ham­mer, 16 Gauge Wire (I used Per­ma­nent­ly Col­or Cop­per Sil­ver Wire and Cop­per Wire) and Wire Cut­ters. To begin cre­at­ing your heart charm using wire cut­ters, cut a piece of wire to about 6 inch­es in length. Form a heart shape then twist the ends of the wire togeth­er sev­er­al times. Place the heart onto the steel block and ham­mer the wire until flat. You can cre­ate tex­ture by using the ball end of your met­al stamp­ing ham­mer. Once you have the heart charm as you like, using wire cut­ters, cut off the twist­ed end of wire at the base. If you have a rough edge just...

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Stamped Penny Charm

Feb 20, 2014

Stamped Penny Charm

The oth­er day, I was search­ing on Pin­ter­est for a charm bracelet I saw months ago made from squished sou­venir pen­nies. I have so many of these from places we took the girls when they were young as well as from my trav­els. I love charm bracelets so I am absolute­ly going to make this bracelet. I’m one of these crazy peo­ple who can­not pass up one of these pen­ny machines. While search­ing for the charm bracelet I stum­bled upon some charms made from ham­mered pen­nies with met­al stamped words. After see­ing these it got me to think­ing about the cute “Cof­fee Break Ring” I saw on the Resin Crafts Envi­ro­Tex blog cre­ate by Car­mi Cim­i­ca­ta and in no time I made this charm for my daugh­ter, Ans­ley. She loves the sto­ry “Alice in...

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Mini Shadow Box

Feb 19, 2014

Mini Shadow Box

Here is anoth­er exam­ple of cre­at­ing a faux sol­dered bor­der using met­al foil tape and zig zag dec­o­ra­tive scis­sors. I think this type of edge real­ly com­pletes a project beau­ti­ful­ly. The mini shad­ow box is filled with one of my hand­made Frozen Char­lotte dolls that I altered with paint, some Maya Road Paper Posies, an Altered Maya Road Wood­en But­ton and a punched but­ter­fly accent­ed with a Maya Road Rhine­stone Trim piece. I cut a piece of Wendy Vec­chi Stu­dio 490 Clear­ly For Art Mod­el­ing Film and cov­ered the shad­ow box front to keep every­thing in place, just anoth­er awe­some use for this fun prod­uct. The pat­terned papers used are by Pink Paislee. Yes I do hoard this paper line. I love every­thing Rebec­ca designs. This shad­ow box hangs by beau­ti­ful rosary type beads and has...

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Handmade Eclectic Jewelry

Jan 29, 2014

Handmade Eclectic Jewelry

Late­ly, I’ve been cre­at­ing unique pieces of jew­el­ry in my stu­dio using bits & pieces of vin­tage jew­el­ry I’ve been col­lect­ing. The heart shaped pen­dant in the pho­to above is one I cut from cop­per sheet­ing, sol­dered and accent­ed with a vin­tage post­card image, red rhine­stone trim and Ger­man sil­ver glass glit­ter. The front and back of this pen­dant is cov­ered with a lay­er of clear resin. Then I cre­at­ed the neck­lace from pearl, iri­des­cent pink and red beads. This bracelet is cre­at­ed from a vin­tage ear­ring that I could not pass up at a flea mar­ket. I LOVE the coral col­or and all the detail. The scal­lop lace around the out­er edge and flower cen­ter is so intri­cate. The ear­ring is attached to a bracelet that has a spring type hinge. This type...

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DIY Valentine’s Day Charm Bracelet

Jan 23, 2014

DIY Valentine’s Day Charm Bracelet

This bracelet came to mind as I was strolling the aisles of Hob­by Lob­by. I love just roam­ing around look­ing at things and real­ly love it when inspi­ra­tion hits. I’ve cre­at­ed this tuto­r­i­al so you too can cre­ate this super cute charm bracelet to wear for Valen­tine’s Day. To make your bracelet you will need to head to the Valen­tine’s day aisle to get these cute minia­ture cook­ie orna­ments (on sale right now for 30% off) then head to the jew­el­ry aisle to get this chain bracelet, some sil­ver 2″ head pins, sil­ver jump rings to make wire wrapped bead charms and some sil­ver ear­ring hooks. I already had pink and red rasp­ber­ry beads as well as iri­des­cent (large & medi­um) and pink (small) glass beads to make the triple bead charms. If you...

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Resin Charms

Jan 6, 2014

Resin Charms

This week­end, I had fun mak­ing this bracelet and an assort­ment of charms using glass shards. I have a seri­ous love for glass of any kind so it only makes sense for me to wear it as well. Soon I’m going to be list­ing some of these charms in my Etsy shop. I have two fin­ish­es ~ Clas­sic and Boho Chic. The bracelet seen here has a Clas­sic smooth fin­ish. The Boho Chic fin­ish has a tex­tured sur­face that can be seen on some charms below. These charms have a Boho Chic fin­ish. They have a slight rus­tic feel to them. I think these will look nice strung onto a leather cord­ing or Hemp style neck­lace. They will look per­fect with jeans or any casu­al attire. These charms have the Clas­sic fin­ish. I think...

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Mini Snow Globe Charm

Dec 19, 2013

Mini Snow Globe Charm

As soon as I saw the adorable snow globe charm cre­at­ed by Mar­got Pot­ter I knew I had to make one of these lit­tle cuties. Although, I cre­at­ed some­what of a Texas sized ver­sion. I love wear­ing big chunky charms and thought this would make for an adorable hol­i­day piece to wear on a sim­ple sil­ver or ball chain style neck­lace. I pret­ty much cre­at­ed my charm exact­ly as Mar­got,  although I did­n’t have to trim off the top of a bot­tle brush tree as I had one that was super small and fit inside my bot­tle per­fect­ly. All I need­ed to do was snip off the wood­en base of the tree using wire cut­ters. Sup­plies Used: 2″ Glass Bot­tle with Cork (Tim Holtz), .75″ Mini Glass Bot­tle with Cork (Maya Road), Tin­sel Trim,...

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3rd Annual Creative Retreat ~ Bellagio ~ Class 2

Nov 22, 2013

3rd Annual Creative Retreat ~ Bellagio ~ Class 2

I shared a sneak peek of my “Tex­tile Col­lage Sam­pler” a few days ago and today I’m shar­ing a sneak peek of my sec­ond class “Charmed Memen­to”. In this class I’ll show you how to take a sim­ple wood­en spool and turn it into a beau­ti­ful piece of wear­able art. You’ll use pieces of linen burlap and scal­lop trim to cov­er the spool then add accents of iri­des­cent rhine­stone trim and vin­tage but­tons. You will cre­ate a unique charm hold­er from cop­per wire that will attach to the base of the spool to dis­play charms like a minia­ture hand­made cro­cheted doily lov­ing­ly cre­at­ed by my mom, a vin­tage but­ton, a glass bot­tle you fill with a bit of sand from Lake Como and a chan­de­lier bead ready for you to add words to from a...

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Delight In The Art of Collage Kit 3 ~ The Playroom

Jun 14, 2013

Delight In The Art of Collage Kit 3 ~ The Playroom

This kit reminds me of all the Moms that have said, “If you kids don’t clean up this play­room right now, I’m throw­ing every­thing away”. It’s filled with so many items you would find scat­tered all around a play­room. Delight In The Art of Col­lage ~ Kit 3 ~ The Play­room is filled with vin­tage and non-vin­tage game pieces, wood­en blocks, bin­go cards, pages from chil­dren’s books and so much more, just look at the long list of con­tents below. Each kit is filled with awe­some items that are per­fect for cre­at­ing three dimen­sion­al col­lages and assem­blage type art. Kit Con­tents ~ 10 Vin­tage 1903 Flinch Play­ing Cards 2 Com­mu­ni­ty Chest Monop­oly Cards 2 Chance Monop­oly Cards 3 Real Estate Monop­oly Cards 9 Play­ing Cards (70’s Design 5 Fuch­sia, 4 Teal) 3 Vin­tage Bin­go...

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Dazzle-It Bracelet & Charm Tutorials

Apr 8, 2013

Dazzle-It Bracelet & Charm Tutorials

One thing I love is being asked to cre­ate items with prod­ucts I have nev­er used before. I’m always up for the chal­lenge and get so excit­ed when the mys­tery prod­uct lands at my front door. I do have some­what of an idea of what prod­uct is com­ing just not the exact items so real­ly it is excit­ing. So when Car­mi Cim­i­ca­ta asked if I would be inter­est­ed in try­ing some Daz­zle-It prod­ucts I was pret­ty hap­py. Any­thing Car­mi is asso­ci­at­ed with I’m all in as Car­mi cre­ates some of the most amaz­ing jew­el­ry. If you’re not famil­iar with her blog Resin Crafts you can check it out here… you will be so amazed and inspired.   Click HERE for all the Links to these amaz­ing jew­el­ry projects When I received my enve­lope from...

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DIY Super Easy Bead Charm

Mar 7, 2013

DIY Super Easy Bead Charm

Mak­ing a charm real­ly can­not get much eas­i­er than this one. I recent­ly pur­chased Mar­got Pot­ter’s 1 Pound Lux­u­ry Bead Soup Mix and as soon as Ans­ley saw the neon beads she instant­ly claimed them as hers. This bead mix is filled with all kinds of awe­some beads. When I poured all the beads onto my work table I was thrilled with the wide assort­ment. Ans­ley decid­ed she want­ed a dou­ble sided charm so I placed the small­er of the neon beads on one side and once the Dia­mond Glaze is ful­ly dried I will fill the back side of this charm with the larg­er neon beads shown above. To cre­ate this charm I used Dia­mond Glaze, Neon Beads, a sprin­kle of Iri­des­cent Glit­ter and a My Jew­el­ry Shoppe 3/4″ Cir­cle Dou­ble Sided Bezel...

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EnviroTex Jewelry Clay

Feb 14, 2013

EnviroTex Jewelry Clay

Oh good­ness do I have an awe­some and amaz­ing prod­uct to tell you about today. As you know I love Envi­ro­Tex Jew­el­ry Resin, well at CHA they released their new Envi­ro­Tex Jew­el­ry Clay. I got to play with it dur­ing a make n take/demo and this stuff is amaz­ing! I cre­at­ed the blinged out charm using this clay and hon­est­ly cre­at­ing can­not get much eas­i­er. You can watch a short video on their web­site HERE. Envi­ro­Tex Jew­el­ry Clay is easy to mix, shape, mold and add tex­ture. It will adhere to stones, crys­tals, glass, met­al, wood etc. and when ful­ly cured it has a smooth porce­lain like sur­face that can be paint­ed, sand­ed and drilled. This prod­uct is AWESOME! To cre­ate the charm shown above all you need are the fol­low­ing sup­plies: Round Bezel,...

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EnviroTex Resin Button Charm

Feb 8, 2013

EnviroTex Resin Button Charm

I love my “Vin­tage But­ton Bracelet” so much I decid­ed to cre­ate a match­ing charm to wear on a neck­lace. Using Nunn Design Glue I attached a piece of vin­tage ledger paper inside the bezel. I only put one coat of glue on top of the ledger paper since just a bit was going to be seen. If the resin pro­duced stain marks on my paper I was not going to wor­ry about it. But I’m hap­py to say one lay­er of glue did the trick. But I’m not going to push my luck with just one coat if I want more of the paper show­ing. I will do 2 or 3 glue appli­ca­tions because you know how Mur­phy’s Law works… Once the glue dried I placed a vin­tage but­ton that was slight­ly small­er than...

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