Lots of earrings! Who knew a Pop Can could be so cool?

This is just going to be mostly an "eye candy" post, because dang. I am pooped. I'll do another post with more earrings (they're coming!) and describe more technique.

I finally got the motivation to whip out my Vintaj Bigkick machine, which I bought months and months ago. It's been hiding in my closet, inside the box... quietly weeping. "Useeee meee! I was expennnsiveee!" Well, I took a much needed Etsy vacation from Wicked Witch bookmarks, and I finally took out the danged machine. And guess what. It's pretty freaking awesome. 

Because you can turn pop cans and soup cans into pretty things. 

More later. Much love, Kira :)

Crocheted Bead Necklace with Birds

Thank goodness, the last two days have been so much better... I got a migraine on Wednesday and it was ridiculous! But I have been feeling not-so-sick and in a better mood. I had to perpetuate the good-vibes by going sticker shopping on Ebay. Stickers make me happy. Learning new things also makes me happy! Today I made my first crocheted bead necklace.

The whole concept was much simpler than I originally thought. I have seen necklaces like this and have always thought, how the heck do you get a crochet hook through a bead?! How it's done: string on all of the beads FIRST and let them  chill out on your cord! (For this 24'' necklace, I strung on about 50 mixed beads and that was about right.) Then you just crochet the cord like you're chaining stitches at the beginning of a crochet project, slipping a bead in every 2 stitches (chain, chain, bead, chain, chain, bead, etc.). It's kind of awkward because you've got to keep letting go of your cord to slide a bead into your path. Maybe there's a tip for that. If there is, I don't know it yet.

Once I was done with these two strands, I tied on the clasp and added these little shell bird beads using some short headpins. I bought these at the gem & mineral show last year for probably too much money, but I can't resist birds sometimes. At least I finally used them for something.

I'll wear this necklace tomorrow, I think. If you want to take a crack at it, and my silly instructions weren't enough to create an "aha!" moment, here is a helpful youtube video: Bead Crochet Multi-Strand Necklace

I wanted to say thanks and give virtual hugs to everybody who left me such nice comments and words of encouragement earlier this week. They really meant a lot, kind words can really do so much to lift during struggly-times... I told my friend this, "I'm still a wreck, but I'm an optimistic wreck."

Still keep me in your prayers and thoughts, if you would, as Bobby and I keep riding this loco rollercoaster. Countdown to surgery has begun, countdown to finally having a baby or two should commence shortly thereafter :)

Who Else Wants Shrinky Dink Earrings?

Little Honey Bee Earrings - $12 on Etsy

 I made a bunch of pairs of shrinky dink earrings today! I was struck with the idea to make some for my shop this afternoon when I was attempting to take a nap. The nap wasn't very successful, but I did get some earrings made and listed today :)

Marilyn Monroe Pink Earrings - $12 on Etsy

 I have this Marilyn stamp and I have been wanting to use it, so I made these ones, inspired by her pink "Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend" dress in my favorite movie!

Blue Nature Earrings - $10 on Etsy

 Truth: I made these ones a long time ago and they've been sitting around my craft room... So, they're discounted, just for you.

Celestial Sun Dangle Earrings - $12 on Etsy

Spooky Pumpkin Halloween Earrings - $12 on Etsy

Aaaaand, I had to make some Halloween ones. Honestly, I think Halloween is the funnest holiday to craft for. Pumpkins, witches, gargoyles, ghosts, black cats! I could go on...

Anyhoo, I hope you all don't mind the blatant Etsy linkage, but a crafty lady's gotta make some sweet moolah to spend on craft supplies and chocolate bonbons. I went to Michaels on Wednesday, and I bought ALL. THE. CLAY. Well, all the white polyclay...that was good quality...and on sale. I'm trying to sculpt up an inventory of Wicked Witch Bookmarks (buy!) so I'll be ready for the Christmas rush. I hope you all have a lovely weekend!

How to travel with jewelry without the stupid jumbled mess

Hey guys! I'm back on this episode of iVillage's "My Best Idea" telling you how I pack my necklaces when I'm out and about. Check it out, and check out my huge earrings :)

Groovy Silver Beaded Ring

Another groovy project to share :) I custom made this sterling silver ring in beachy ocean colors and stamped "groovy" on the silver just for my crafting buddy! Crystal and pearls... It reminded me a little of beach glass.

I used some buffing compound and my Dremel to polish the band up to a high shine. My other rings have been a sort of hammered finish which is cool, but it was also neat to see the silver get so dang shiny. I kinda missed a bit on the inside of the ring, you can see it in the picture. Oops. Oh well, still pretty.

And here's the packaging I used. The box is made from kraft cardstock and I folded it up with my scoring board. That thing sure does come in handy when I need to make boxes or little gift bags. 

Anyhoo, I'm home from my vacation in Texas at my sister's house and I had SO MUCH FUN :) I didn't blog as much as I had planned, but who can spend time on the computer when there are super things to be done? It made me wish that there's an Alamo Drafthouse Theater near where I live. We went three times. And I went to Sea World four times. And Corpus Christi once. And shopping a million times. Shopping with my sister is the best shopping there is... The only thing that would have made it better would be if my mom was there, too! She's going to Texas at the end of this month, though. I'm a little jealous, but oh well, I had my good times. It's nice to be home! Happy Monday, friends!

Toco Toucan Altered Altoids Tin

This month's challenge over at the Unique Crafters Challenge Blog is GLITTER AND SHINE! 

I made this altered Altoids tin lid with all sorts of sparkly, shiny fun stuff. The clouds in the background are cut out of American Crafts glitter paper, which is unlike any other glitter paper I've used. It's so smooth and totally not the normal glitter texture. Nothing falls off of it, and I think I'd describe it as more glowy and reflective. Seriously, it's awesome. I have to find some more of it.

I also slapped on a border of beads, along with glitter glue on the inside rim and some rhinestones.

Here's a shot of the polyclay toucan I sculpted before the acrylic paint job. 

"My favorite color is shiny." 

The bottom has a dangling pendant with lovely, sparkly glass stones :) I couldn't resist adding just another glitter and shine element.

So, if you've got the hankerin' to create something shiny this month, don't hesitate to enter it in the Unique Crafters Challenge! You can win some radical supplies. 

Happy August 1, folks!

Silver Ring with beads! I'm soldering, folks, and it feels fine.

My new jewelry desk is finished, and I've finally made my first piece of silver jewelry from scratch. I'm pretty dang pleased with how it turned out. I couldn't bring myself to leave the house for church today. All of the babies and pregnant women make me too sad, and I just needed a break today. So I sat at home listening to church stuff and making some pretty things. I'll go back next week.

So yes, indeed, I made this from sterling wire and sheet silver. I had the idea to combine soldering with that wirework I was having fun with, so I made this simple shape. Mixing up all my chemicals and using my torch to solder for the first time was interesting, and a little teensy bit challenging, but I am going to enjoy it. I'm stoked to add this to my list of skills that I have a compulsive need to constantly add to. There are worse compulsions than needing to learn to make stuff, right?

Here's the ring after I put the beads on with wire. It took me ages to choose which beads I wanted to use, for this, my most epic momentous first ring. I'm satisfied with my choice. It's summery and it'll go well with most of my outfits.

 The band is a hammered texture, which is a happy accident. I accidentally cut the band too small and had to hammer it out a bit to make it bigger. Oops. Still looks cute, though, and definitely more handmade-looking :)

My hands look wrinkly in these photos. I hope you all have been having a great weekend! Here's to feeling better.

You go, Glen Coco! Hammered Penny

Quickie project today! I'm experimenting with hammering coins, and then using metal stamping letters. For this little piece, all I did was use a ball-peen hammer and beat the heck out of a penny. Pennies made before 1982 are 95% copper, so they pound out pretty nicely, if not incredibly LOUDLY. Definitely use ear protection if you want to attempt this. The copper also gets really hard after a fair amount of beating, and then you can't get it any flatter... I've been learning a little bit about metalworking, and you can anneal the metal (make it soft again) by heating it with a torch until it's red hot, then letting it air-cool. Worked like a charm, and I was able to hammer this out to about the size of a quarter! Then, I had to stamp something on it, and I couldn't think of anything else except "You go Glen Coco!"

I need to put this on a necklace! But I also thought it would make an excellent dog tag, cell phone charm, or key chain. Happy Friday!

Owl Felt Badge and Others

I just got back from Girl's camp today, and I am one tired lady. Little women and little sleep sure can tucker a person out... But I had a good time, and I'm not too tired to share some crafts with you :) I made these felt badges for round 2 of the Craftster.org felt badge swap.

This beaded birdie felt badge will make a superb hair clip. I was sorely tempted to keep it, but I ended up making another similar one. It didn't end up as good-looking as this one, however. Still cute, though. The felt I used for this one was a nice thick felted sweater, The pink wing is the same material as my rotund cannonball monster. I had an itty bitty scrap of it in my felt scrap bin, and that gave me a little happy.

This little sequined fish badge was pretty fun to make. The little sequins are iridescent pink/white, but it's hard to see that in the pic.

Favorite of the bunch. I have had Totoro on the brain since I made those cardboard cutouts last week, so you may be able to see this owl channeling some of that bug-eyed Japan flair.

And finally a little house scene! I used a double blanket stitch to finish the outer edge, and it ended up a little lumpy, but I liked the effect anyway.

I came home to lots of goodies in the mail today, too. So expect some projects! After a week away from my craft room, I am so ready to make some serious THINGS! Happy Friday! Have a wonderful weekend.

Tin Can Flower and Feather Fascinator (With Pattern!)

 So I ordered some new tools... Because I'm wanting to start doing some more metalwork in my jewelry making! I bought some gemstones while we were up in North Carolina, and I really want to learn how to create silver pieces and set stones and whatnot. While I wait for my silver sheets to come in the mail, I'm itching to use some of my new tools! So after making some tasty dip for lunch today, I saved the can from the diced tomatoes and green chiles and used some of my new things to make this fascinator hair clip :) I'm really excited with how it turned out!

 I wore my hair with a french braid in front yesterday, and surprisingly, it made it through the night intact, without hair frizzing up crazy everywhere. Otherwise, I don't think you'd be seeing any action shots.

These are rooster feathers. My best pal picked up a giant bag of them at a yard sale for me, so thoughtful, she knows what I like. 

Here are the tools I used. You can't tell, but the inside of that tomato can is GOLD! Well, not real gold, just in color. I only used the top and bottom circular parts of the can, which I removed with a regular ol' can opener. Then I cut out 4 layers of flower shape with my new german metal shears . They're made specifically to cut metal. I've used my regular scissors on tin can before, and it sucks. These shears make it SOOOO much easier. 

Once the pieces were cut and filed a little on the edges (can be sharp!) I pounded a hole through the center of each piece with the hammer and nail. 

See that wood block and other wood thingie? That's a tamping block, and you put the pieces in the round dimples and hammer them so they round out a bit, and aren't so flat. 

Next, I connected them with a jewel brad through the center holes and then shaped the petals with the pliers. I think I should have riveted them together, but I'm not at that point yet! 

See the ridges on the biggest petals? That's just the ridges that already come on the top of the can, so I didn't even need to shape those. Score!

The next step was the easiest part, arranging feathers and hot gluing them to the back, then gluing the whole shebang to a hair clip.

So here is a pattern for the metal flower pieces if you have a tin can lying around and you feel like making a pretty flower fascinator for yourself! If you run into any problems, go ahead and comment and I'll get back to you.

On a side note, my hand-eye coordination has been stupid lately and I've accidentally deleted a couple of comments :( They put the "reject comment" directly below the "approve comment" link, and it immediately deletes the comment when the reject link is hit. I'm trying to be eeeeextra careful now, so I apologize if your comment is missing! I appreciate each one and I literally bellowed with frustration when I deleted them, especially when I did it the second time. Sorry! 

Well, Happy Thursday! Until next time!

Wirework Rings

I've been playing with beads and wire again! I found a GORGEOUS ring via Ffrogg's Pinterest, and just had to play around with the technique. After making 3 fail rings, I got the hang of it and made a ton more, because it's new, challenging, and darn fun. 

 All of these rings are very, very heavily inspired by Moss and Mist (go check it out, amazing beautiful things lie in store) and I take no credit for the style/technique. I'm just making these for fun and to learn a bit more about wirework. Wirework was actually one of my very first crafts that I began to learn at the age of 9 or 10, whenever kids are in the 5th grade.

 So, truth be told, I love making these... And I kind of got excited and went overboard and ordered 4 multipacks of different colored wire. Don't judge me! You can tell from my blog, I have a crafting obsession. For some women it's shoes. Me? Supplies.

 This one is my favorite and I've been wearing it when I go out :) I'm into those tacky, delightful aurora borealis crystals (when used in a classy way, of course!), so the main bead on this is right up my alley.

For this one, I used a shiny iridescent fish bead. I have been keeping four of these for years and years, bringing them with me every new place I've moved. I think I got them on a family vacation back when I was in high school. I finally used...one.

This is the one I sent to Ffrogg :) One of her favorite colors is purple, and I had to use an aurora crystal bead, because I love them.

 This last one is a little different style, I was just experimenting. When all my new wire gets here, I'm going to go nuts and have so much fun thinking up all sorts of crazy stuff! Anyhoo, I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and a great Easter Sunday! Mine was pretty much candy, church, TV and feeding baby bird. So it was good.

Until next time!