Ok, so I know that this is a jewelry blog and all, but I just had to share with you what I was up to craft-wise this weekend! Last week I said that I would rather spend the 4th of July cleaning my craft room than doing anything "patriotic." Well - rather than cleaning, I got to craft all weekend long!
First I got a call from a friend in Kentucky saying that she saw a necklace on my Etsy site that she said perfectly matched an outfit she was planning to wear for a wedding this weekend... BUT - she needed a matching bracelet and earrings. No problem, let me whip one up in time to mail it out by Friday morning! I think the end product looked pretty good, considering the short time I had to create the trio. The best part, between you and me, is that all the beads I used for these pieces were given to me by a friend who bought them in hopes of really enjoying jewelry making, only later to discover she was really a quilter instead. Hooray for free supplies!
Next on my list was to re-wire some necklaces for my mom (who is STILL in town, which means I still don't have access to my craft room! More on that later this week!). After that, I was pretty pooped with jewelry making for the weekend (though I still need to finish those necklaces for the wedding in Minnesota I am attending this weekend). The Hubs reminded me that I promised to bring the mid-west game of Cornhole with us to a 4th of July cookout. He had already handmade the cornhole board (if you are reading this thinking that cornhole is a food, I don't think you are alone. Read up on this mid-western/Southern/Great Lakes regional pass time game o'fun here), now all I had to do was to make the beanbags. "Sure, honey, I'll just sew them together really quickly."
While this might sound like a "no biggie," let us not forget that, though I have had a sewing machine for over a year now (thanks to my friend Erin), I have only used it to make the Hub's and my Halloween costumes (Tinkerbell and Peter Pan - only I was the later!). And those were pretty rough. But, I saw this as a good chance to get to know my sewing machine a little better and also use some of the fabric I have recently accumulated in hopes of claiming my inner Project Runway (RIP until next month, dear friend!). So, with 4 bags of pinto beans and a lonely sewing machine ready on my craft table, I got to work.
I first had to decided which fabric to use, especially since I needed two differing shades/designs/prints, etc for each team. After going through my huge storage bin of fabric, I found this awesome upholstery piece I got from the As-Is section at IKEA. I think it's some sort of ottoman cover, but for $5, there seemed to be enough fabric to salvage.
Next I found 4 sections that were large enough to cut from them 2 6"x6" pieces of fabric. I used a totally scientific method - a school ruler and a jelly pen.
I also did the same with some upholstery fabric I got for $5 in the same As-Is bin at IKEA (the rest of it is acting as a valance in my living room).
Next, I approached the project as I would a pillowcase (though I have never actually made a pillowcase...) and began sewing from the inside out.
I only sewed 80% of the exterior so as to leave room to turn the bag inside out and add the beans. First we turned the bags inside out and then the Hubs filled them up with 1/2 a 4 pound bag of Pinto Beans (courtesy of a coned-up piece of paper).
Next I hand-sewed the rest of these bad boys one-by-one. And by the end of it, understood the worth of investing in a thimble (upholstery fabric, people!).
But the end result was worth it. Hello, designer bean bags!
The Hubs pointed out that the contrast in our projects - he was proud of his rustic, simple, utilitarian cornhole board, while I was proud of my designer-like bean bags! That's why we make a great team!
I am totally not going to let that board stay plain wood - as soon as I get a chance, I am painting it in my beloved
Marimekko print! It's going to look SO GREAT with those black and white beanbags!
No sooner was I done with my beanbags did the Hubs remind me that I promised to make cupcakes for the party. No creative rest for a gal who has lots of jewelry to make! I figured if I had to make cupcakes for my ::ahem:: favorite holiday, I would at least make them in my
preferred 4th of July color scheme (hint: red, white, dark and light blue).
(I added 2 packets of Crystal Light instant flavoring to the Funfetti mix to add some color and flavor, in addition to using XXL cupcake tins. The whole box only yielded 12 cupcakes! My kind of dessert!)
Whew! Now, on to a jewelry making frenzy of a week!
Let's start with the bridesmaids necklaces. Kelly sent me this picture of what her sisters will be wearing and literally said to go to town and create whatever I wanted. I loved the color of the dress and it's strapless quality, and immediately thought that something like this necklace 
I made for my own rehearsal dinner outfit would be a good match, only in blue and pearls. When shopping in Chicago for beads, I stumbled across a ton of blue crystals and Czech glass beads. Then when shopping at my new favorite store in Chinatown, I found some SUPER cute (and affordable) teeny tiny pearls, which I figured would go GREAT with the ensemble (I'll be talking about them next week when I blog about the bride's necklace).
A few things were going to be different with this necklace compared to it's inspiration piece. First, the components were much smaller than the red and black crystals (I am pretty sure these bridesmaids aren't as into funky chunky as I am). On the first piece, I used crimp beads to space the crystals out on a silver wire stringing thread (crimp beads are little silver beads that, when smashed on a wire, stick to it and can thus sandwich beads into place and give them a "floating" appearance). Since the beads I would be using for the bridesmaids necklaces were so small, I feared that the crimp beads, being around the same size as the beads themselves, would be a distraction. I thus invested in some illusion cord, 
which is essentially teeny tiny fishing wire (my first beading medium before I discovered Artbeads!). And since crimp beads were not an option, I invested in some jewelry glue, which I had never used before. (Thus the waiting until the last minute to make the necklaces - I was a little nervous about how they would turn out since I have never tried this technique before!)
So, my materials included:
First step was getting these bad boys glued on the super clear and super small string. This wouldn't have been so hard if 1.) the glue didn't come oozing out at an unstoppable force and 2.) if it didn't take a whole hour for the glue to dry! I put a drop of glue (well, that which I could contain) onto the string and then slid the bead over it. This made measuring the distance between the beads an additional challenge, but after awhile I was able to do 4-5 beads at a time before setting the strand down and repeating the process on another.
After letting them sit overnight, I then crimped the ends of each strand so as to have a way of hanging them from the end clasp. To crimp, you simply place the crimp bead near the end of the stringing material (give yourself at least 2 inches), loop the string in the crimp bead, close the loop to measure about 4-6mm, and, with the crimping tool, smash the bead down. You then have a nice little and permanent loop (there is a way to make the crimp bead smaller and not as flat looking by folding it over on itself and re-smashing, but I have had terrible experience with that and only end up breaking the bead and losing the whole strand). Make sure the strand measures to your desired length before crimping - in this case, I made the necklaces 15" each, which means they will fall right on the collarbone.
At first I had planned on doing many layers of these strands of pearls and crystals for each necklace, like the inspiration piece. However, the combination of the crazy amount of time it took for these things to dry and their delicate nature made me kind of fall in love with the simpler 2-strand look. So I took the two strands, looped them onto a spring ring, also looped a sterling silver clasp on a spring ring, and closed them off. Next thing you know - I had a necklace on my hands!
I like the way they came out, even if it wasn't what I originally had envisioned. I think they will be subtle enough yet lovely enough to add just a touch of adornment to what the bridesmaids (who are both very slender gals) are wearing. I will of course take TONS of pictures this weekend and show you how they turned out! I posted this item on Etsy, too - though next time I will be better prepared to work with the crazy glue and it's delayed drying habits!
