Day 87

I came home tonight and looked around at the supplies I had around, and I came across the extra beads and stars from the Day 68 bookmark I did.  Mom bought me a really pretty topaz necklace for my birthday (yes, a month early, but I can't wait for fun stuff!) and I thought these beads matched it nicely so I gave it a try.

Now I have to apologize for not taking pictures during the earring making process, but I was on the phone while I was doing it and totally forgot to take pictures!  I did however get the finished shots, and I have to say I'm not too happy with them.  They are very pretty, but very long, and they don't really go with the necklace.  I've put shots of the earrings with the necklace below.

Here are the finished earrings:

Another shot of the earrings, a bit closer for more detail:

Here are the earrings with my birthday necklace.  The necklace sort of looks like a sand dollar which is why I thought the starfish charms would look good, but I'm thinking they are too busy:

 

Day 68

I was online this afternoon looking at different crafts and came across this Charming Beaded Book Thong instructional page.  I headed over to Jo-Ann's at lunch and they are having a HUGE sale, like so big that I'm wondering if they are going out of business or something!  Anywhooo, I picked up some beads, starfish charms and some "jelly cord" because I couldn't find the wax thread the site called for.  Overall I followed the directions except for a bit of variations, and I realized I have no clear nail polish to secure the knots, so hopefully it will stay together until I can get some, but other then that, I think it came out great.  I went with a "sea" theme. 

Here is is done:




At the beginning I decided on the bead layout:

 I started the thong with the starfish:

Added the rest of the beads on the one end:

And then the other side:

And here it is all pulled out, so you can see how long it is:

Day 55

Stan helped me with today's craft again.  I don't know what I would do without him.  I had bought a starter jewelry kit a while back and never really messed with it, but Stan got into it and he's made me two really pretty bracelets.  Today he helped me with some earrings!  And they are in my favorite color, blue!

Earring without flash, hard to see the color, but you get the idea of the design:

With flash so you can see the blue better!:

Day 37

I was at Michael's craft store the other day and I saw a blast from my past - Shrinky Dinks!!!  There was no way I could pass up this kind of nostalgia!  I decided on the kind that you can print on using an inkjet printer.  After some online research for projects, I found a cute sunflower bookmark and used that as my inspiration for today's craft!

I went online and found a picture that I liked, in this case it's a Celtic Tree of Life design (one of my favorites, a top contender if I ever get another tattoo) and printed it on the Shrinky Dink paper.  After it printed, I cut it out, used a hole punch at the bottom for the bookmark and baked.  In three minutes I had a mini version of my original design!!  So fun!!!!  I messed up though, but in my defense, I haven't used Shrinky Dinks since I was like um, SEVEN!  The hole I punched shrunk too (duh!) so it was too small for my thread!  I had to sit there with some small scissors and gouge out the hole to fit the thread, but it worked!  You live, you learn...Once I got the hole big enough, I threaded green embroidery thread threw, knotted it, braided it, had Stan thread a light green bead on (see below, got super annoyed and needed help!) and VOILA,  a super cool Shrinky Dink bookmark!!

I have to give a shout out to me peeps, Stan  (LOL...peeps, whenever I say that I imagine a large marshmallow person) because without him I would have either 1. tossed the computer out the window because I could not find the proper printing settings or 2. thrown the almost finished bookmark out the window because I was having issues with tying the knots!  So as always, he's a life saver...or in this case a computer/bookmark saver!

Here is the big version of the picture I used:

 

And here is what I did with it:

Top view:

 

Bottom view:

 

Full view (you can see that I should have made it longer, but it's still usable!):

 

One more full view:

Day 4

As I was falling asleep last night, I was trying to decide what project to do today. I actually had a few ideas, which surprised me. Even though I'm really tired when I get home from work, I look forward to getting out the craft supplies and doing something creative. I think it's a nice distraction from work and general stress, and it makes me feel productive. Crafting is good for the soul, or so I now believe!

I have a few small glass vases/candle holders (depends on how you look at them) that I had picked up from the dollar store a few months ago. I had been planning on using them for the wedding, but decided they wouldn't work for what I had in mind, so they needed a new purpose. I also have tons of red and black buttons as well as red and black beads of various sizes for another wedding project that I again decided wouldn't work. This is what happens when you start planning the wedding 17+ months in advance, so many changes! The last piece to this craft puzzle...storage, or much needed storage anyway. My mind went to work and I came up with a useful project, one that will be used for years to come. Somewhere to put our craft pens! So without further ado, here is what I came up with!

BEFORE & AFTER:

Not only did I come out of today's experience with a wonderful pen holder, I also had my first 365 day craft challenge injury. I blame Stan. Usually when I start wielding the glue gun he gives me the very short but stern "be careful, don't make me take the glue gun away from you like I used to do with my mother". This time, no lecture...no stern warning, not even a second glance at the potential torture device. This is what happens when he doesn't warn me of impending doom...

That is a hot glue blister on my left ring finger in case you can't tell what your looking at.

Though I am in horrible, horrible pain, and feeling faint with every tap of the keystrokes, I believe I will live to craft another day...sigh...one can only hope! Sympathy cards are welcome. :)