Tuesday, May 17, 2011

some new things I whipped up


I have almost used up all the beads from this little package! There is still alot of pastel seed beads, though. I put some effort into finding a way to arrange these so that the crimp bead that connects the nylon string would be hidden or blend in better with the bead designs.

I used an assortment of other beads I had on my stash, and the package from the DollarRama.
 from the Dollar-Rama ( Canada )

 I used that black nylon plastic stuff, some thicker plastic 'string' and crimp beads.

These are 1 continuous piece of the black nylon string ~ I used 3 crimp bead to create two circles

 
above & below w/ silver plastic beads & clear seed beads


I don't really like the ones on the right........



...and a few more styles

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Charm bracelets


Here is a few charm and button bracelets I have made over the last month or so. I used silver toggle clasps and chain from a necklace. The buttons came from the thrift store or from the fabric-land, and many of the charms came form re-fashions from Necklaces that I picked up at a 5 for $10 deal at a mall jewelery store.


so here is what I started out with. My goal was to make 4 bracelets in 2 weeks.....

These gold buttons were purchased from a thrift store, I think I got them all for 75 cents. I used a short piece of gold chain from a necklace

these crosses were from a necklace I picked up at a 5 for $10 sale. The chain came from the same necklace.

these charms were also part of a necklace that I picked up at a 5 for $10 sale at a mall jewelry store.
These black and silver beads were part of a necklace that I had from 2 or 3 years ago that was ridiculously bulky...... I re-fashioned them into a bracelet.


I found these pretty buttons at a thrift store, and some came off of a jacket that I changed the buttons on. I painted the small silver ones with holographic nail polish because the center area looked weird and murky/tarnished silver

Friday, May 6, 2011

Dollar Rama seed-bead earrings



Here are a few pairs of earrings I made with seed-beads from the DollarRama and some clear jewelery string. It is not shiny - it is matte which is what I was looking for. I found this at a thrift store and am not sure what it is exactly. Because fishing line is shiny, and I havent seen a matte silver-ish nylon string type product at micheals before..... maybe it is from the future.

First the purple earrings in the top left hand are beads from the DollarRama as well. I used black Nylon string from the .99 cent store in my town, and some small silver beads that I had from way back.

that black nylon string stuff which is seriously awesome and going to last forever.....


and beads from the Dollar Rama, there are 4 different colour sets available at my DollarRama, Purple, Pink, Blue and Clear..... Really I should own one of each by now but I am trying to pace myself with my acquirement of jewelery products. Plus I could not make anything for a few weeks ( boooooooo )


here are the seed beads from the DollarRama, I have made a few pairs of earrings and barely put a dent in these tubes.

...............and another angle..... I have already made quite a few pairs of the tear-drop shaped earrings and wanted to try circles. those are two circles strung with beads and closed with a crimp bead, and held together with a jump ring, so they move independent of each other.... I still want to add a small crystal in a corresponding colour to each of these earrings.... so they are not really finished yet.

The large teal tear drop earrings and the very bottom circle earrings were made with beads from this necklace below.

( from a haul last summer at Ardene stores - 5 for $10 )

I thought it would be economical to buy bargain beads on a necklace that was discounted at a store, but you actually get waaaaaaaaay more of a quantity of beads in these types of vials, or baggies. For the teal chain above, I needed that  EXACT silver chain for another project - i utilized the silver charms for a charm bracelet, and used the small glass beads for the above earrings. I was looking for teal beads in the lightest colour from that necklace forever and could not purchase any in stores.

a recent charm bracelet

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Michelas and other haul'n

haul from Micheal's over the last few months.


This is a post of some things I have acquired in the last few moths..... I haven't been making as  much stuff as i wanted because I cut my finger and could not hold anything with that hand ( waaaah! ) I am slowly changing all my favirote jewelery to have toggle clasps. I constantly break nails with those ridiculous claw clasps. I would say 1/3 of the time, anything with a claw clasp that I have bought from Icing or Claire's jewelery stores, the claw clasp was either stuck or broken or very difficult to get open and I generally break my nails trying to open them.

On another note all 3 pieces of Jewelery I have purchased at Le Chateau stores in my life-time have fallen apart or were defective. So I never buy stuff from there.....

All The red tags were an additional 50 % off, so I found some good bargains here. I am waiting for these to be on sale for .50 cents each, usually Micheal's has a ridiculous clear out where there is a bin filled with stuff for 50 cents.  I have purchased a few finding and tools that I otherwise would not have, and figured out how to make a tonne of neat stuff this way.

Toggle-Clasps! Yeeeeeeeeah! love these things

Finally - I bought something with a 50% off coupon at Micheal's! 
and there was actually 63 in here, not 60!!!! Bonus!

yippee- I bought some of these last summer ( NOT on sale ) I like this finish and have found some chain that matches this perfectly, as well as some beads to go with this 'look'

I dont really like the deconstructed copper and gold finish, but I thought I should try some out. 

 BARGAINS!!!!!

I am leery about black powder coated jewelery fixings.... when I start working with these i hope the finish doesn't come off, but if it does I have my handy-dandy Wet n Wild black nail polish to fix these up.

These 3 things were from another purchase and even though they are on clearance for a good price, they were also supposed to be and extra 50% off! So they need to be taken back for a re-fund.

and some stickers... these are for some jewelery experiments and for my nail art. I need flat rhinestones for a few projects in the works.  I don't know why these were on sale?

whoops! This is upside down

this is supposed to be for knitting, but I saw this on an end-cap at walmart on sale and grabbed it so that I am not always jabbing pins, pliers and other sharp objects where I accidentally cut myself a few months ago.  I always end up hurting the pad of my finger on my left index finger....

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

new sequin earrings & Painted filigree pieces


  a few sequin earrings I have made last week. I cut my finger badly in late February, and could not do much detailed crafty things. I never realized how important that small area of MY LEFT HAND and index finger was. I regret that I take things like this for granted.

I found some very beautiful opalescent and duo-chrome-ey sequins at an awesome dollar store in Grant Park mall in Winnipeg, Manitoba, as well as some new ear wires. There is photos below, some are also holographic= what an awesome find.

For the sequin earrings above I made some black jump rings with wire and painted my filgree earring bases with Wet n Wild Black nail polish. ( I let that dry overnight ) I also made some black ear-wires. I have tried to make ear-wires several times and they never turn out - but these I can live with. I used 20 gauge black wire for and painted the exposed copper area with Wet n Wild Black nail polish. This nail polish is a perfect match for the black wire found at Micheal's craft store.






 These were part of a pair of earrings I bought at The DollarRama, I cut them apart using a pair of tin snipers, and  FILED THE EDGES with an old metal nail file. Be careful - these were sharp after cutting. Also be sure to not breathe in any dust from filing them, who knows what these are made of.

I left a few packages at the store for someone else- believe me I wanted to purchase them all!!!!!

... and the Sequins


The silver chain earrings below were made from the cross necklace; I de-constructed parts of it, made a charm bracelet wit the crosses, and used some of the chain to make these earrings. I lost almost 2 months of fiddling around with jewelry because of my injury, but I have whipped up some awesome things in the last 2 1/2 weeks. Now I just have to photograph them, take photos and post!