New Jewelry!

OK so I got to making jewelry this weekend, using some of the paper beads I'd made.

First, my "Miami Fiesta" earrings:

I also have a Miami Fiesta bracelet:

This bracelet also happens to match a pair of earrings I made from a Fanta soda can:

These are my AZ Heat earrings:

And there's my Mermaid Dream bracelet:

I do have earrings to go with it but I haven't photos of them just yet.

I also made some music note earrings, and I have an idea for a matching bracelet:

I think I'm having entirely too much fun with this.

Paper Bead Jewelry

Well, I made some more paper bead jewelry over the weekend. It's fairly simple but nice. Have a look....

First is the bracelet with the "bacon beads." LOL! My friend Shannon thought the hand painted paper beads looked like bacon.

Then there's this blue one...I kinda like the colors on it, and I have to admit I was a bit hesitant about including the little white howlite beads...but maybe it actually works...

Then I took these beads and made cluster earrings with them...I was going to try and do a ladder bracelet with them but I haven't yet worked out how to do that...

And there's this fairly simple monochromatic bracelet...

And of course there's my nice pastel bracelet:

I rather like doing jewelry with paper beads. Especially when you paint your own paper and can choose whatever color you want on the beads.

One thing I learned when putting these together - USE WHAT YOU HAVE. I'm not wealthy and buying things like Beadalon and toggle clasps is a rare thing for me, so I have to improvise and use whatever materials I have on hand to put it all together. And sometimes it works out quite well! Don't be afraid to improvise. As Mike Sellick of the Crochet Crowd put it: "It's YOUR art!" Make it your own - your own look, your own style. There is no other style in the world like it, so let it shine!

Flower Power Valance

I just found THIS and I think I might try to make it. :)

Scrappy Steps Afghan

I'm stealing an idea from Beth in TX again and making a Scrappy Steps afghan. I got the pattern from her site. Here's pics of my afghan so far:

I hope it washes up soft. Some of the yarn I'm using is a bit scratchy so we'll see how that goes. Otherwise, how interesting and odd this will look! Like an explosion in a yarn factory!

CLICK HERE for the pattern.

HAPPY Afghan

OK this is my first attempt at a corner to corner (c2c) afghan. I'm loving these colors and it's making me sing that Happy song in my head as I stitch. I know I'm going to have to get more pink and red yarn for this, but that's ok. It's part of my effort to burn up stash and only buy yarns for projects I've already started, rather than buying random yarn and not knowing what to do with it when I get it home because I had no project in mind for it when I bought it. LOL! I do that entirely too often.

So it's my HAPPY afghan!

Paper Bead Madness, Part Deux

OK I've gone completely paper bead happy.

First, I think I got a better photo of this bracelet here:

Here's some unglazed paper beads I made yesterday, hand-painted in watercolors.

This first batch seems very Arizona or desert to me so I think of them as Arizona Heat:

These look very aquatic to me so I think of them as Mermaid Garden:

These colors remind me of the bright, festive colors of Miami, so I call them Miami Fiesta:

All 3 groups of unglazed beads:

Now, I think I've learned something. It's all well and good to hand paint the paper before cutting and rolling it into beads, but (at least with the watercolors I'm using) the dry paint rubs off onto my fingers. This creates a slight smear when I apply the white glue to fix the wrapped bead in place. 

So I have some plans to avoid this problem. :)

I did make some other aquatic-looking beads and I glazed them last night. I don't have a photo of them yet but I must say this: I was pleasantly surprised to see that when the Mod Podge was applied, the paint didn't blend. The colors remained crisp, exactly as they appeared when I had completed painting the paper and it had dried. I just have to remember not to cut and roll the painted paper. 

I Have...

...an Etsy page!

It's Gingercrafts407. I'm putting some scarves and jewelry and a few other things up there to sell.

I'm a bit nervous about this but I hope this works out. I've run into some real-life situations that are going to cost money, and I need to start selling things I make to get ahead with these things. For example - flat tire on my car this morning! Joe is going to help me with getting the new tire and possibly an alignment, etc, so that's good, but I'll need to pay him back. Plus - my computer is about 10 or 12 years old, can't quite remember, and it's running on a very old OS and upgrades on this computer are just not going to work. So, it's new computer time for me.

So fingers crossed. I hope this works out. I know a lot of my crafts are very simple but maybe someone will like it and want to buy it.

Bracelets!

This is why I've been making paper beads...

Earrings

Still doing jewelry for now...here are two pairs of earrings I made today.

These used an Arizona Iced Tea can:

These used a Pepsi bottle and some scrap fabric:

Believe me, there's more where this came from.... :)

A Lesson....

...in chemistry. I have discovered how various inks hold up in the face of Mod Podge.

In the center of this picture is a blue and white striped bead:

When I took this picture, the bead was simply rolled and ready for glazing. I used a blue magic marker to add color to the paper before rolling it up. Note how crisp the blue and the white is on the bead.

Last night I added some Mod Podge to this bead. Given that magic marker is water soluble, it ended up with a rather watercolor looking wash to the bead, like so:

Which does look nice, so I might very well continue to use this technique, it's just that I'll have to be aware of how this ink responds under Mod Podge.

I also noticed that highlighter ink doesn't seem to do this. I wonder if using Sharpies, which are not water-soluble, will also remain colorfast when Podge'd. Hmmmmmmmmmmm.......