Tutorial Tuesday- Spring time earrings

This post was originally posted over at Mine for the Making. The tutorial I planned for today didn't go according to plan! Hopefully next week I'll finally have a sewing tutorial up for you. Enjoy. :)

Now I don't know about you, but when I think spring, the first thing I think of is flowers. Big, bright, beautiful bouquets of flowers. (Say that five times fast!) So with the theme of Spring Fling, I knew I had to do something with a floral inspiration. Then I threw in a few of my favorite things: jewelry, lace, and pearls! I ended up with....

 These pretty earrings! I think they are just perfect for spring. Light, floral, and romantic. Want to make a pair of your own?

You will need:

• Non fraying lace with a floral design
• Embroidery scissors
• Two eye pins
• Two freshwater pearls
• Two ear wires
• Two jump rings
• Round nose pliers

Got it?

Start by cutting out the flowers from your lace. You'll need four. Use embroidery scissors if there is small detail.

Admire them and think about your springy earrings.

Next, thread a pearl onto an eyepin.

Bend the eye pin over at a 90 degree angle.

Make loop using the round nose pliers. (Need help? Check out my tutorial here.)

Snip off the excess wire. Set it aside.

Open up one of the jump rings by twisting it open, not pulling it apart.

Thread the pretty flower and the ear wire in the open jump ring. Twist it back together.

Remember that pearly piece? Open one end and attach it to the bottom of the flower. Attach another flower to the other end of pearly piece and twist it closed.

Do it all over again and you've got yourself a pair springy earrings!

Dig through your lace stash again and make another pair. Do it again, because this it totally addicting.

In case you missed it- Rose bib Necklace

In case you missed me over at Just Chic, here it is! Enjoy. :)
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When Stefi contacted me to do a tutorial for her "Love is Chic on Valentine's week" I honestly thought "How could I possibly come up with something chic enough for Stefi??" And I kind of freaked out a little! So I took a deep breath, and thought, "Hmmm, well, when I think of love, I think of roses! But what could I do with roses..." My mind wandered to jewelry making, since it IS one of my favorite things to do, and then I thought, "What is the most chic piece of jewelry out there? Duh! Bib necklaces!"

So I came up with the rosey bib necklace! I love it! It's perfect for a fabulous night out with someone you love. To make one, you will need:

• Sheets of felt in the colors of your choice
• Glue gun and extra glue sticks
• Chain
• Pearls or other embellishments
• Clasp with two pieces (not pictured because I hadn't decided on one yet)
• Needle nose pliers (not pictured because I totally blanked!) 
• Scissors (again, totally blanked)

Now, if you've never made jewelry before, don't shy away from this project! You don't need to have any special jewelry making tools or skills to make this! (Though, if it will make you feel better, I did a mini series on jewelry making, click here to read it!) So go gather up the materials and I'll wait.

.....got em?

The first thing you'll need to do is make the roses for your necklace. Take a sheet of felt, and cut a half inch wide strip of felt that's flat on the bottom and has bumps on the top. These do not (and should not!!) be all nice and uniform. Make them different sizes, different shapes, different heights, different lengths. Go crazy! You'll end up with a bumpy strip that looks like the one pictured above.

(Is your glue gun plugged in?) Next, roll up your strip! Start at one end and roll it up like you would a crepe! There really isn't a science to this. Be amazed as the rose takes shape. Add a dab of hot glue at the end so it doesn't unroll and...

You'll end up with little felt roses! Make them all different sizes with different colors. I made some where I cut the strip on the short side of the felt, the long side of the felt, and some with two strips of felt! Go crazy again! This is a fun project!

When you've got enough, start playing with them. Arrange them into a sort of U shape, move some around, take some away, add some in, make it look nice!

When you like the shape, glue your roses onto a large piece of felt. I decided to embellish mine with different colored glass pearls. Make sure every thing is nicely glued down with your BFF the glue gun. Then, cut around the whole shape.

Measure the chain to whatever length you'd like and cut/open up the links to remove it from the rest of the chain. Turn your bib piece over and go crazy with the glue gun! (Wow, how many times can I say "go crazy" in one tutorial?) Glue the heck outta it, and make sure your chain is laid down at least an inch into the bib, we don't want it falling off!

While the glue is still hot, quickly flip over your piece and stick it onto another piece of felt. Cut around the second piece.

You're almost done! Find the middle of your chain and open one of the links (by TWISTING the link open, not pulling it apart! Click here for help if you need it.) Slid your clasp into the open link. Twist the link shut, and then repeat with the other side of the chain with the second half of your clasp. I went with this cute heart toggle clasp to go with the theme.

Once you've added your clasp you are DONE my friend! Take that baby out, point it out to your friends, and proudly say, "Yeah, I made that."

I can attest that it looks quite lovely with a little black dress. :)

Guest Post- Southern Fairy Designs!

You're in for a treat today! I've got Steph from Southern Fairy Designs posting for me! She's got a great blog full of lots of jewelry tutorials (and you know how much I love making jewelry!) Take it away Steph!
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Hi I'm Steph. I'm a mechanic for British Airways here in the UK, I spend my days at work fixing aircraft and in my spare time I also fly gliders, so I guess that makes me an all round airhead. Crafting is my escape from the blokey work scene, it gives me the chance to make some fab bits and pieces for our new house, jewellery to go with the many shoes and dresses I seem to own and cards for all our family and friends. Quite a contrast I know, grubby overalls during the work week then evenings and weekends all girly and dressed up!

Here we have yet another piece of Anthropologie jewellery that I've been lusting for, 'Power Of 3', but immensely disliked the £38 price tag that came attached to it. So I decided to raid my stash again and make my own take on the piece.. If you want to give it a try to then you'll need:

• 21 beads ( 7 each of 3 different colours)
• 2m of a coordinating colour ribbon (i used 2 different colours 1m of each)
• 1m of tulle fabric
• Handful of jumprings
• Necklace clasp
• Scissors
• Pliers
• Needle (not pictured)
• Coordinating colour thread (not pictured)
• Fraystop (not pictured - optional)

1. Firstly cut the lenght of fabric in half. Don't worry if the edges are raggy like mine, they can always be trimmed and fraystopped later. (I just fancied a bit of a raw look to it)

2. Feed one length of fabric through a jumpring and tie a knot. Repeat for the other piece of fabric.
3. Attach several jumprings to one of the jumpring/fabric knots and a necklace clasp to the other.

Now for the main piece of the necklace
4. Fold the ribbon in half and cut it to make 1m lengths.
5. Fold the ribbon lengths in half again and tie them together, forming a loop.
6. Decide which colour of your beads will be each bead type on the original necklace so you can follow the pattern.

7.Thread the first bead onto a ribbon length, use a needle to thread the ribbon through the bead if need be, then tie a knot after the bead.

8. Thread the second bead onto the same ribbon as the first bead, don't tie a knot yet.
9. Thread the third bead onto the other ribbon length.

10. Take both lengths of ribbon and tie a knot below the second bead.

11. Repeat the beading process, using the original as a template for the order to thread the beads on, till you've used all 21 beads.

12. Leave a couple of cms of ribbon after the final set of beads then tie a double knot to form a loop to end the bead section of the necklace. Trim the ribbon down.

Now to attach the 2 necklace sections together.. well at first I tried putting the fabric through the ribbon loop and making a knot.. This looked awful as the picture below shows, but maybe some of you could make it a beautiful knot if you wanted to.. so I tried a tidier method..

13. Take a fabric section and feed the loose fabric through the ribbon loop about 3cm or so.

14. Fold it back on itself and sew it together. (I used quite heavy stitches on the parts that won't be seen when I'm wearing it, the beads are quite heavy so I wanted the stitches to hold).

15. Repeat for the other end of the necklace.
16. Trim and fraystop the fabric edges if you need/want to.

And that's it all done..here's how mine turned out when it was all finished.

17. Put it on and show your OH, make them take a picture of you wearing it and then have to explain why he's taken a picture of you for no reason and that yes you did actually make the lovely piece of jewellery hanging round your neck...

Or is step 17 just what happens in my house everytime I make something new?

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Isn't it fantastic? She's so talented! Thanks for stopping by Steph! Be sure to check out Southern Fairy Designs for more fantastic tutes!

Jewelry, for Esty or for Amie?

I realize I was rather rude yesterday, showing you what I bought but now what I made with them! If you couldn't tell from the pictures, I'm really into jewelry making right now. I've invested in a lot of supplies and findings and I'm seriously having a blast making jewelry! I'll probably be over it by next week, but right now it's my favorite thing! :)

So allow me to remedy my rudeness from yesterday, I do hope you will forgive me. (drum roll...) Presenting jewelry creations by Amie!

"Cream puffs," a button bracelet made with some vintage, some used, and some new buttons! This is my favorite right now, it was so much fun to make and it makes a little but of a clinking noise when I wear it! I plan on making matching earrings soon too!

 "Tuxedos and champagne," I loved these smooth black glass beads! I paired them with sparkley golden beads to create elegant, little black dress worthy earrings.

"Date Night," made of Tibetan silver and glass pearls, what's more romantic than roses and pearls??

"Boho Chic," Also made with Tibetan silver and glass pearls, these earrings make me feel like a Native American princess on the banks of a river. Srsly, I tried to convince David that we should watch Pocahontas and then realized we didn't have it. Fail.

Yes, you're seeing that right. A kitty cat and airplane necklace. :) The kitty cat is even on a key! (Which, in case you didn't know, is one of my favorite things.) I'm wearing this one now, I  love the antiqued bronze and how cool is it that I have a necklace that coincides with my blog name?? Outlandishly cool, I would say.

So now I am debating with myself to put them up in the shop or keep them. Would you actually want to buy these pieces?

OH! Man, I really am rude. I keep talking about my shop and haven't even told you where to find it. Since Etsy has a limit on characters, my shop's name is kittycatsnairplanes. That's with an "n" NOT an "and!!!" So go find me! You might even see something in it soon...if my nerves don't get the best of me.

Also: Would anyone be interested in some jewelry tutorials in the future? I am far from an expert, but I do know a few tips and tricks that might help out fellow aspiring jewelry makers. :)

Rosette headband, a hubby craft!

As I mentioned in my last post, my SIL's birthday is this weekend. I made her a horse charm bracelet, and since buying the materials was a little pricey, I forced encouraged David to make her something to save money! I've seen rosette headbands everywhere lately and thought it would be a great gift for an almost 12 year old. So we busted out the glue gun and felt and tore apart an old t-shirt.

(Snickers) ok, so it's not perfect (I don't think he's ever used a glue gun before....) but for the hubs, I think he did a great job! It was a fun project to do together, and I only walked him through it and helped him glue everything together! He did the rest, I'm so proud of him!

I didn't use a tutorial for this, I've just seen pictures and winged it from there. I'll probably write up a tutorial for this one later. Stay tuned!

Adventures in jewelry making

I accomplished another crafting goal today! I made my first piece of jewelry! I've always wanted to try but I was scared and kept putting it off. Luckily my sister-in-law's birthday is this Sunday...and she wanted a horse bracelet...and none could be found! So after a little encouragement, I decided to take on the task of making her a bracelet.

Tadah! I'm not 100% pleased with it, but hey, for my first attempt, I think I did an okay job!

Ok, looking at the mess of a bracelet on the picture is pretty bad, but on a wrist it looks pretty good! I'm excited to give it to her, and though I won't be starting a jewelry making business, expect to see more similar projects in the future. :)

Happy hump day!

Also, make sure to check out my "Link Parties" tab to see where I'm partying!