Experimentation: Metal Stamping

A friend of mine found an old set of letter stamps in his garage. Apparently these were used by sheet metal workers to mark parts for correct assembly. I found this very interesting and exciting because my uncle and late father used to own a sheet metal company and may have done this same thing! This particular set used to belong to my friend's grandfather and is about 50 years old! I'm very grateful he decided to share and I promised to put them to good use.

And here is my first metal stamped charm made into a necklace! I think my daddy would be very proud :)

{Tutorial Love} Spring Time

Six Fabulous Spring Time Tutorials!

A collection of my favorite instructional craft projects for spring time.

All photos belong to the tutorial author.

Bird's Nests DIY Spring Art

DIY Ordinary to Extraordinary Flip Flops!

Toy Animal Planter Tutorial

 

Create this cute Cinch Tee for spring time!

You'll never guess what these cool charms are made from.

So cute and fun! Happy Spring Garland!

Upcycled Copper Flower Earrings

About a year ago I started the 'Upcycled Jewelry Project' with the idea of collecting old and unwanted jewelry as donations. Then, I rework the jewelry into new and sellable designs and donate proceeds from these sales  to local organizations that help women in need. Although I don't get to spend as much time as I'd like on this project of mine, there has been such a supporting from people and it is so fun that I try to make a couple pieces a month.

These earrings were made from old clip-on flower earrings, vintage glass pearls and metal spacers from a donated necklace and scrap wire.

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(Tip: Don't be afraid really dirty jewelry. Warm, soapy water will make them look like new!)

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Finished Earrings!

Bead Table

The last few days I have spent in bed because of back pain. Thankfully, with the help of my chiropractor, I'm on the mend. There isn't a lot in the works on my bead table, but I've still got a couple photos for you.

I received these fantastic jewels as a donation for the Upcycled Jewelry Project.

A recent project as made me outside my comfort zone and working with copper wire. Here I twisted two wires together, made my links and hammered them.

 

{Tutorial Love} DIY Leather Bracelets

A collection of great D.I.Y. tutorials for leather bracelets!

Painted Leather Bracelets

by A Beautiful Mess

Leather Bracelets decorated with ribbon and buttons

by Jolijou

Stitched Leather Bracelets

by Crafty Nest

Leather Bow Cuff

by Melissa of ISLY

 Woven Leather and Chain Bracelet

by Runway DIY

Leather Layered Bracelet with Rhinestone buttons

by Wobisobi

Upcycled Belt Bracelets

 by The May Fly

by Delighted Momma

The goods...

I hope everyone enjoyed their holidays! I know Milo did...

Yesterday, Hubby and I went out to spend some of our gift card cash and had a delicious sushi dinner. Today, I got ALL of the wrapping paper and bows out of my studio and have been putting away the beautiful beads I received from Santa Clause! Here's a quick look at some of the new things I have to work with:

Jade drops

Crystal, Ceramic and Acrylic bead mix

 

Charms! 

Winter finally got the memo...

Brr! It's starting to feel more like winter in my area! I spent the weekend setting up the tree and decorating the house for Christmas, as well as some quality girl time with fellow jewelry maker and my good friend, Kate. Here is a picture of the pair of earrings she made while I was working on some custom orders.

Earrings designed and created by Kate Dufour. Photo by me.

I absolutely love these earrings; hence the feature on my blog.  I could just see myself wearing these beauties. This morning, while sipping my coffee and browsing Pinterest, I saw this great tutorial for a cute diy ruffle shirt. And then suddenly, I had the perfect outfit planned in my head ;)

Photo and Tutorial by Tea Rose Home

Along the streets of Paris

I have only 3 more days until the open house show, so I have been working very hard to make lots of jewelry. Here are some Bead Table shots from this week.

Beautiful pearls and an Eiffel Tower charm.

Working on more chandelier earrings!

Some amazing Red Creek Jasper beads I recently picked up.

{Tutorial Love} Handmade Gifts for the Holidays

My top 5 favorite handmade gifts for Christmas!

1.  Vintage Bookmarks

Marci from The Vintage Lemon has a great tutorial on how to make vintage styled bookmarks. These are easy, fast and inexpensive to make. Great stocking stuffers!


2. Infinity Scarves

Sweet Verbena featured this Single Loop Lace Infinity Scarf Tutorial on her blog. This looks like something even I could sew! The single loop scarf is cute and easy to wear.


3. Hex Nut Jewelry

Whether it's a bracelet for your man or a chic necklace for a friend, these hex nut jewelry designs are easy and inexpensive to make! Bracelet tutorial is from Honestly WTF. Necklace tutorial is from Infarrantly Creative.


4. Gifts in a Jar

 

These gifts are really neat. Choose a theme, choose a jar and fill it with small objects fitting your theme. The options are endless! For tutorials and ideas: Ashley Ann Photography | Frugalicious Me | The Gunny Sack


5. Gift Cards

Kinda seems like a cop out but, honestly, who doesn't love gift cards?  So give them what they want and a little extra surprise too with this is cute Gift Card Box. Heather even includes a free downloadable template!

Feeling the itch

Looking for this?
Bead Soup Blog Party - The reveal (Part I)
Bead Soup Blog Party - A second helping (Part II)


For a while now, I have been wanting to do more. I used to paint. I do know how to sew. Why not incorporate polymer clay into my jewelry designs? But of course, I always have some excuse about time or what not. The other day I decided I was going to start an art journal. It's a lot less intimidating then taking on a large project and I believe it could be beneficial to me in a therapeutic way right now.

An art journal is basically a visual diary. In it you record your thoughts, as well as, draw, paint or add embellishments to the pages. I want this blog to be about more than just my jewelry. I want it to represent all of me. So I'm going to be sharing my art journal pages here. I hope that anyone with a passion for art can enjoy them.

Art Journal: Page 1

This is my first page of my first art journal. The lower right corner is kinda a mess up. But that's one thing I want to learn from this: to accept the imperfections. That may be harder than I thought!