Charmed, I'm Sure!

The day finally came - I received my charm bracelet kit and charms in the mail from Saucy. You remember that I was participating in her Halloween Charm Bracelet Swap don't you?

I was soooo excited, and even more so when I opened the package and was WOW-d by the goodies that poured out...


I spent forever opening all of the little packages and ooh-ing and aah-ing over the charms that had been created all over the US and Canada. So neat! Every single one was joyful, but here are a few of my faves...

Super original design based on Edgar Allen Poe's "The Raven"

Clever clay creations... I love the half eaten bar of chocolate!

Scrabble tile anything's are neat-o...

And you know I love me some kitty cats... : )

Then it was time to assemble the bracelet, so I unpackaged everything and laid my charms out...


I was a little intimidated but I forged ahead anyway and it didn't take long before... ta da!


(Yup I have little wrists...)




(I swear my arms aren't as hairy as these pictures make them look! Ha!)

Ridiculously cute, no? I can't wait to show this off on Halloween! Thanks to Saucy and ALL of the ladies who participated in the swap! Happy Halloween!

Third Time's a Charm!

When Saucy announced her Halloween Charm Bracelet Swap I knew I wanted to participate right away! Halloween is one of my FAVORITE holidays, and this is the first time I've ever participated in a swap - what a great way to start!

Essentially, there are about two dozen of us making a set of 12 charms each. We mail them all to Saucy who divvies them up and sends us back a charm bracelet kit complete with twelve charms from the aformentioned bloggers. NEAT-O!

I knew right away that I wanted to do something with Shrinky Dinks to make my charms. This is funny, because I've never used Shrinky Dinks before. But in true Joanne fashion I figured I'd just work it out as I went along and it would be easy as pie!

Well... it WAS easy, in theory....

I just made some SILLY mistakes along the way...

Learning curve?

After two failed batches (trial and error folks, trial and error!) I finally had a finished product I was proud of.

To make my pumpkin charms, I used a pumpkin stamp stamped in black ink on paper, and with the Shrinky Dink plastic over the top I traced my pumpkins in black Sharpie marker.



Once dry, I flipped the plastic over and colored the pumpkins with an orange Sharpie marker.


I then cut them all out, and punched a hole in each with a regular sized hole punch.


After that they went into the oven for some shrinking magic!



I sealed the colored side of the charms with a coat of clear nail polish, which gave the charms a nice sheen, and then added 6mm rings to each.


Then it was time to package them individually for the swappers...



And wrap them up (just for fun - check out the ribbon!) and mail off to Miss Saucy!


I can't wait to get my charms back and assemble my bracelet - don't worry, I'll be sure to share pics!

So reader, what Halloween-y projects are you working on right now? Do share! And expect to see more SPOOKY things on Ready, Set, Craft very soon!

Beaded Wrap Bracelet Tutorial

This is an easy beginning jewelry project for all ages. We just taught it to 6-8 year olds in our Jewelry & Fashion Art class. It's perfect because you can make it as long or short as you want to, and it can be worn as either a necklace or bracelet because of the clasp.


1. Thread two crimping beads on to flexible jewelry wire

2. Thread your clasp on after the crimping beads

3. Push short end of wire back through the crimping beads to form a loop and shorten

4. Use needle pliers to crimp beads and secure loop/clasp

5. Bead away! With this wire you don't need a needle and thread. For this example I just used seed beads but you could use whatever you want. Work with a pattern, or be completely random in your bead selection!

6. Once finished, thread two more crimping beads onto the end

7. Attach other end of clasp in the same way as you did in the beginning, be sure to keep your loop as short as possible

8. Crimp beads

9. Snip wire, and thread any remaining back through the beads

Wear, and enjoy!

Haven't entered my contest yet? Enter HERE to win 200 CUSTOM POSTCARDS. I'll also throw in a little extra handmade something to the winners as well! WHAT ARE YO WAITING FOR? Head over and enter! Good Luck!

Thrifty Finds: Beads & Oil Cloth

While spending time on Lake Michigan in South Haven this weekend, I had the opportunity to do a little shopping in the many local boutiques and antique shops. The shopping is one of many things I luuuuuuuuurve about South Haven - you never know what you are going to find!

On this excursion, I picked up a yard of this beautiful oil cloth. There's a little store that sells it be the yard in over twenty different retro floral prints. It was so hard to choose!

And then, at an antiques store, I stumbled across this...


Completely random, right? A box jam packed full of glass beads - for $5.00! PLUS - the booth I found it in was having a 20% off sale! Talk about a thrifty find! Time to channel my inner jewelry maker and get going on some summer accessories!

Jewelry & Fashion Art

I am absolutely *swimming* in dance recital costumes right now! There are yards of tulle, satin, and bunches of silk flowers all over my house!

I'm spending every evening cutting and pinning tutus in preparation for a big sewing session with Mum this weekend, and my bff Heather is slaving away cutting hundreds and hundreds of flower petals out of fabric during the daytime...

Phew!

I'll provide a dance costume sneak peak over the weekend, but for now I'm thinking ahead to summertime and a super fun class I'll be teaching at the YMCA called "Jewelry and Fashion Art." It's geared towards young ladies in upper elementary school - middle school, and I'm teaching it with another gal.

My co-instructor is handling the jewelry projects, since jewelry-making is certainly not an area of my expertise, and I'm handling the rest. We don't have access to sewing machines, so everything we do that involves sewing will be hand-sewn.

The focus is definitely on accessories and jewelry, we're not really delving into clothes without a machine to use...

I'm thinking things like this (click on photos to link to tutorial / site)

or maybe a TOTE BAG?

So here's where you can help me out! The class is meeting weekly all summer, so I need LOTS or project ideas! So go ahead and channel your inner-pre-teen-diva-self and leave me a comment or link with a project idea - or e-mail me photos - and share the fashion and jewelry art love! THANKS!

Catching Up: MSCE April Days 15-19

So I may be a bit behind on the posting side of things, but I'm certainly not behind with all things MSCE April. I've been doing surprisingly well with the challenge - even though I may not be COMPLETING projects everyday, I'm certainly working on something daily. I'll show you!

(Click on photo to enlarge and see projects a little clearer...)


MSCE April Days 15 & 16: Heather's purple scarf!
Heather's birthday was LAST MONTH - and it's taken me this long to get it even close to being done. Another six inches or so should do it. It's made from really interesting yarn with fuzzies and pieces of fabric woven in. You can hardly see the actual stitches once it's knitted up. Good thing Heather is patient! : )

MSCE April Day 17: Black beaded necklace
All of these beads came from a store bought necklace that broke - months and months ago. I salvaged everything I could, bought some extra seed beads, and have started putting it back together - my way. I'm being ridiculously picky about it, and have started over numerous times already. Plus I know next-to-nothing about jewelry making, so I'm working on he fly. It's less than a quarter of the way finished...

MSCE April Day 18: Sidewalk Chalk Flood!
There was a phenomenal event downtown on Saturday - one in a series of "urban experiments." Essentially, the Sidewalk Chalk Flood was organized by a college guy, promoted by the media but mostly through Facebook. Hundreds upon hundreds of people showed up, received free sidewalk chalk, and went to town! We went with friends and had a blast - it was a BEAUTIFUL day.

The local newspaper did an article on the event the next day and amongst several quotes from participants was this one... "It's both kid friendly and artist driven. In the current economic climate, it's almost as if you're seeing people embrace life and play. It's not about consumerism. It's about people." -- Boy, I just LOVE that. I'm not sure if anyone could have wrapped it up better.

For more about the event click HERE.

MSCE April Day 19: The Pinata
Remember my friend Alison? Remember her wedding? Remember the pinata I was making for her wedding reception? Weeelllll.... her wedding is this coming Saturday! So, after the prototypes earlier this year, it's time to get down to it for real. I got the first two layers done today, and rigged it so it's hanging from the ceiling in my studio to dry. I also cut out and scored the cones to make the points of the pinata - but I forgot to take photos of those. You'll see them in a later post I'm sure, there will be a lot of pinata-ing this week!

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!

Mariah's Get Better Box Update 6 - Thanks, Alison!

I was going to include with this post a text message dialog between Mariah and I (yes, she text messages!) yesterday evening with Mariah asking me questions and talking about her nerves regarding her upcoming surgery... but I am too tired to type it all out (damn flu!) so you'll have to wait for tomorrow's post for that. It was incredibly cute though - the poor thing is all stressed out.

I'll leave you though with Alison's fantastic submissions to Mariah's Get Better Box - bangles and bookmarks. I love everything, but especially the bangles - I'm going to need to make some of those for myself! : )

Mariah's Get Better Box - Update 2

I received one of the items I had ordered from Etsy for Mariah's Get Better Box today.

Etsy seller Delane from It's All About You Too designs jewelry for girls, specializing in pendants made from scrabble tiles like this one. She also has another pendant store for grown-ups, It's All About You.

Check out her Etsy shops today!