Lots of Jewelry and a Handbag!!!

I have been very busy making jewelry and experimented with a jean handbag and having so much fun!!!

I've been asked to teach a craft workshop at a belly dance event so I thought I would teach how to make magnets out of bottle caps, dominos and puzzle pieces along with a bottle cap pendant using vintage belly dance graphics.  I started flatting the bottle caps and since I'm vending my crafts at the 2nd Friday Night Out in downtown Mesa I branched out and used other vintage graphics for the bottle cap jewelry and magnets. 

Using the bottle caps I created earrings, pendants and some charm bracelets.  I'm having a very difficult time figuring out what I'm going to keep and what I will sell and at this point I'm keeping more than selling; yikes!!! :-)

I have also started creating bracelets with buttons and made up several last night using plastic buttons and metal buttons.  I need to purchase some jump rings larger than what I have to create my next button bracelet. 

While I was in the book purse making mode I created a purse out of a pair of my husband's old jeans and I'm shocked it turned out!!!  I didn't have a pattern I saw a video on YouTube were this woman cut off the legs of the jeans and hand sewed across the bottom, put a handle on it and called it a purse.  I took it a bit further and put a bottom in the purse along with lining and finished it by putting a scarf I had and two of my Grandmother's pins on the handle.  I'm really pleased how it turned out and will be making more of these purses.  I also created a t-shirt tote bag and will be making more of these also. These are great for a dance bag or taking to the grocery store.

Below are photos of some of my new creations.

Back to creating cards for this weekend's workshop...

Book Purse

Finally a sample of this weekend's project is done!!!   I made this book purse using a plain book cover so I could embellish it a little. 

After several attempts I finally found fabric that was easy to work with.  The first book I did you will see at the workshop I used material that was a cotton blend and it's too heavy.  I started this book with another cotton blend fabric and ripped it out due to it being too bulky and heavy and went with this pattern fabric of a nice light weight cotton so much easier to work with.

I found this fabric at Jo Ann's in the quilting section called a "fat quarter".  I had enough for the lining, sides and center piece but not enough for a pocket.  The "fat quarter" is 18" X 21" piece of fabric and my book is 8 1/2" X 5 1/2".

I purchased a purse handle from Jo Ann's and made the flower out of scraps from the lining and a piece of lace.  I used two metal buttons, one the the purse clasp and the other for the center of the flower.

I finally found glue that would hold, Tacky Glue.  I tried other fabric blue and I didn't like the results.  I'm not a fan of a hot glue gun although I was getting pretty close to trying one :-)

All and all it turned out pretty cute and I'm sure the more I make these the easier and better I'm going to get at it.

Below of photos of this cute little purse.

Enjoy your week I'm off to make more jewelry for 2nd Friday Night Out on May 13th.

April Card Class

I'm so far behind this month posting this month's card class.  In tomorrow's class we will be making an easel card and the following techniques: black magic, distressed glue and faux title.

Below are the cards we will be making.

group shot

Black magic

close up

distressed glue

easel card

side view

faux title

On April 30th is the book purse making class.  My goal is to have 3 purses made and posted soon.

Tonight is 2nd Friday Night Out in downtown Mesa and I will be selling some of my craft items along with some of my students will be performing.  It's going to be a fun weekend with crafting and dancing!!!

Strawberry Box Flowers

I'm making strawberry boxes for my friend Kyla who's trying to raise money for her dog Durango's medical bills.

I taught how to make these cute little boxes in one of my box classes and Kyla called me with her idea of selling the strawberries to raise funds for people who have large medical bills for their pets.  She is calling it "Strawberry Sweets Forever". 

Kyla owns Kyla's Keepsakes and makes beautiful hair pieces, jewelry and more and will be selling these strawberries when she is vending.  Here next event in town will be at Downtown Mesa's 2nd Friday Night Out on April 8, 2011.  Stop by her booth and pick up some strawberries.

Today I created something new and I call them strawberry flowers.  It's the strawberry box with a candy kiss inside that I put on a bamboo skewer with paper leaves to be placed in a vase.  A great little gift to give to that someone special for a birthday, anniversary, a thank you or just because.

Below is a photo of my new creation.  I will be giving Kyla lots of these flowers for her to sell.  If you would like some of these flowers you can contact me and I'll get them to you.

Have a great weekend...

Buttons, buttons who's got the buttons!

I've been having so much fun creating jewelry and other goodies with buttons and I have more items to make still to create.  I can't stop it's so addicting!!!

Below are photos of some of the items we will be making on June 18th for the button class.

Using some of my Grandmothers buttons to create this necklace pendant

I used new buttons to create this cute flower pendant

Love this button from my Grandmothers collection.  I added a silver button at the bottom

Button bracelets

Buttons on large paper clips

Button key chain in the center surrounded by flower pins

I need to order more buttons so I can make the button flowers on stems, button rings, more bracelets and whatever else I can think of :0)

Have a great weekend...

Mini Album March Workshop

Tomorrow's class we will be making albums to show case those special moments in life. 

We will be creating 4 albums using every day items.  The first one is a pair of dominoes as the covers of the mini album.  The theme I used for this cute little album was dance.  I used alcohol inks for the background on the covers and applied cut outs of vintage dancers.  Inside is accordion fold designer paper that I put dance quotes both front and back with more vintage dancers and stamped images throughout. 

The next mini album I used playing cards.  For the outside covers I used dies cuts or punches to create a design.  I created 3 different inside pages for these albums.  I stabled pages together and used clear tape to bind the cover to the pages.  I punched holes and used ribbon to bind the pages and covers together and the last design was accordion fold album.

The square around album was fun to create it's all in the folding.  I used 8" square designer paper to create these albums.  Each section has a pocket to put your tags with photos or whatever you like. 

The last album is using an old album!  Behind each photo is a pull out page to journal on.  My album is of my two puppies Nitro and Blue.  Loved creating this one and it was pretty quick ones I decided on the photos
:-)

Below are photos of all the projects.

In two weeks I will be teaching a workshop using buttons.  We will be making jewelry, magnets and more.  I'll post photos once I get everything made.

February Box Class

I love making boxes!  They are so easy to make they just take forever to decorate :-)

I'm ahead of schedule and have made all the boxes for my two craft classes in February.  The first class is on February 12th at my home studio and the class is almost full already.  The box classes are so popular and so much fun.
The second class is at the Mesa Art Center (MAC) on Monday February 28th.  The only box that will not be included in the MAC class will be the heart box since Valentine's Day will be over with.

The boxes we will be create are the cake box, scallop box, bon bon box, icicle box, button box, take out box and a surprise for both classes the strawberry boxes.

Below are pictures of all the projects for both classes plus photos of the cute heart boxes.

Photo of all the boxes

Bon bon boxes

Button boxes (I still need to finish the red one)

Cake box (love how these turned out)

Side view of the cake box.  We will be making the paper roses also, bonus!

Showing the embossing on the top part of the box

Cute heart shape boxes using Nestabilities heart die cuts both plan and scallop

Boxes can hold several Ghirardelli squares; yum!

Icicle treat box

Top of icicle treat box showing the felt flowers

Scallop box with flowers made from pages of a book

Strawberry boxes, perfect to hold a candy Kiss 

Take out box, sorry no decoration yet

For registration information for both classes please see my website with all the details.

Take care and hope to see you in class...