Simple Butterfly Earrings

Hello everyone!

Yes, yes, I'm alive. Please don't die of surprise or anything. My humble little blog is indeed in your feed again. I apologize for my absence but blogging, while something I really enjoy, isn't something I make money on so I do this for fun. I must answer to the needs of the rest of my life when they beckon and lemme tell ya that they've been screaming lately.

I won't bore you all with the details but suffice it to say that I'm keeping very busy with the work I'm doing for Random Acts (more on that in a moment) as well as my belly dancing! My very first public show is coming up soon and I'm super excited.

Before I bore you with any more talk of my personal life, let me share with you the project I whipped up in my meager free time!

These are my brand spanking new butterfly wing earrings. I don't know about you but I LOVE butterflies. They're such a great reminder of spring and what with me living down here in Georgia, spring is already well on it's way. I decided to whip up something simple to make me smile. This is the kind of thing you can make in an afternoon.

Just take printable shrink plastic (you can get the inkjet kind at Michael's and I always recommend using a 40-50% off coupon that they e-mail out!) and pop it into your printer. Now go out and find yourself some lovely photos of butterfly wings. I found science sites were good for this as they splay the wings out just right. Put your photos into an editing system like Photoshop or Paint. Line up all your wing images so you get maximum use from your shrink paper. You don't need the bodies of the butterflies, just the wings.

Then just print them out, use a hole punch to make holes in both ends (or where ever you like) and bake according to instructions. Once they come out of the oven, I like to flatten them while still hot by using a book. This next step is entirely up to you but I then dusted some pearl powder on my wings in the colors that matched the wings most. It gives them a nice shimmer. To finish, just spray with some kind of sealant. I use Krylon Triple Thick Crystal Clear Glaze. That helps make them a little more water resistant.

Then just attach your earring hooks to the top holes using a simple jumpring. I also attached some cute sparkly crystals at the bottoms too so they shimmer more. You can spice it up by gluing on rhinestones if you like, or you can leave them plain. I liked just a touch of shine to mine.

You can also make them into a necklace like I did here so I have a matching set. :) The center is a dangle with a seed pearl and more crystals. It looks really pretty when the light hits it.

So that's it. Simple, fast, and just cute enough to welcome in spring. :)

Now, if anyone is still reading this, then I assume you're interested in what's going on with Random Acts! If you're wondering right now "What the heck is this nutjob talking about?", then allow me to explain.

I work for a non-profit organization called Random Acts. We do random acts of kindness for people and try to get others to join in on the fun so that all over the world, people are doing nice things for each other. Well we're having an Annual Melee Of Kindness (We're running AMOK) this Sunday and we're inviting everyone around the world to join us. If you're interested in participating (and no, we aren't asking you to donate anything or even affiliate with us) then you can read up on it at our site.

As part of my own silly participation, my friends Jenni, Tina, Jaime, and I are going to wander about a public park giving away flowers, balloons and candy to everyone we meet.

Why, you ask?

Because it's silly. It's fun. It might brighten someone's day when they really need it. It might make the difference for someone who's never been given a flower before. Maybe we'll meet a bunch of people who are too grumpy for flowers or maybe we'll be mobbed by people wanting them. Either way, we're going to wander about till our flowers and such are gone. :)

Hope someone comes along to brighten your day too!

Linked up here:

    

Happy Little Rain Cloud

While poking around in Pintrest, I found this ADORABLE necklace:

Isn't it wonderful? I knew I wanted one but I didn't have the means to buy one and it's sold overseas so I decided to try my hand at reproducing it. Here's the result. 

I decided not to tier the drops like the original but I might change it up next time I make one. I LOVE how it looks and it was fairly easy to make. Here's what you need. 

1. Strong multipurpose glue. I used 7800 All purpose Adhesive. 

2. A necklace bar with three hanging loops. I got mine from Michael's. They were part of a pack for making three strand necklaces. 

3. Three silver bails.

4. Three blue drops. The original used faceted crystal but I couldn't find any so these were part of a multipack of blue beads. I think they still look lovely.

5. Fine chain. 

6. Needle and white thread. 

7. One cotton ball.

8. Six small jump rings and one large one. (Not pictured)

First, attach the bails to your three droplets. 

Next, cut your chain into three lengths. I went with two the same length and one longer one for the middle but you can tier them however you like. 

Next, use three small jumprings to attach your chains to your bar pendant.

Then, using the other three jumprings, attach your droplets to the ends of the chains. 

I'm so sorry for the blurriness of this photo but hopefully you get the idea here. Just take your cotton ball and unravel it or stretch it out. 

Now lay a thin line of your glue along the bar and press your cotton onto it. Repeat on the other side. Now this doesn't look much like a cloud at this point so lets add a little shaping to it. 

Take your needle and thread, knot one end, and then begin weaving in and out of the cotton, shaping the poof to your liking as you go. The end result should have a puffy shape like this:

And that's it! Now go forth and wear your lovely raincloud even on the sunniest of days! 

Linking up here:

                            

  

Treasure Chest necklace

If you hadn't noticed from my last post, I have a weakness for tiny things. I'm the kind of person that runs squealing into a Sanrio store because I just know they'll have itty bitty staplers, tape rolls, pencils, ect that I can coo over. I also have a strange love of secrets and surprises. I've always loved treasure hunts and hidden spots. Some day my home will be filled with secret nooks and crannys where I'll hide cute things just so I can utterly forget they're there and surprise myself later. 

Yes. I know that's weird. Moving along. 

With my love of little hidden treasures, it was no wonder my heart swooned when I found this tiny chest pendant. 

I knew I had to have it so I snapped it up and string together this fast necklace with spacer beads and little gold and silver ammonites. I wanted to create an undersea treasure feel and the tiny sea critter charms just did the trick for me. 

No treasure chest would be complete without a trove inside it though.

I filled the chest with a little nugget of gold, some dice to honor the gambling pirates who lost this chest, and a few silver stars because...well, stars are treasure to me. ^__^ 

It's simple but pretty and I love it dearly. 

Thanks for looking!

Embrace Your Inner Child

Now I know I'm not alone out there in my love of polymer clay, anyone who's searched through blogland can find a billion examples of cute things made with the stuff, but I just can't seem to help myself when it comes to making tiny versions of things with it. 

Whenever I sit down to craft with grand ideas of making something truly impressive with clay, I usually find myself a good hour or so later holding some itty bitty version of a cake and squealing in delight over it. It's a weakness, I know. But look at them!! How can you not like tiny meringue pies?!

Each one is about the size of a quarter. I wind up putting them on phone charms, necklaces, bracelets, you name it. It doesn't stop with pie though. Oh no, this tiny food sickness extends to other foods too. 

Strawberries also wind up with the tiny treatment. I sculpt each one by hand and then, after baking, I lovingly paint them all. They look so happy! 

Cinnabons are not immune either. I had some fun with liquid sculpy here to make the runny syrup look. The bottoms of them reveal that they are all swirled like real cinnamon buns. 

My favorites though are the stars.

I know, I know. You're asking why these are so special. They're cute and all but not as nice as the cinnamon buns, right? But stars have always meant something to me and these hold a secret that I delight in every time I turn out the lights. 

Thanks for visiting!



Linking up here: