Lucky Green Necklace - Epiphany Crafts

I told you I had more St. Patrick's Day crafts coming! I was challenged by Epiphany Crafts to make something along the lines of green and/or lucky. I haven't made any jewelry with my Epiphany Crafts supplies lately, so I decided to make an accessory to wear on St. Patrick's Day. I wanted to be able to wear it for other occasions, too, so I designed this necklace with versatility in mind:

First, I spray painted the silver-toned charm gold. I made an epoxy with the Round 25 tool and a patterned paper by Websters Pages. I loved the yellow rose and deep green leaves! Right up my alley :).

I attached beads to a gold chain, graduating in size and switching up the colors, finishes, and shapes.

I know this necklace is going to get a lot of wear, on St. Patrick's Day and beyond. What will you be wearing to avoid pinches on St.Patrick's Day?

Have a good one! Tessa

Velvet Bow Bracelet - SEI

As part of the 12 Days of Christmas Gift Ideas at SEI, I created an easy, but oh-so-cute bracelet:

You can find the entire tutorial at the SEI blog, but long story short, I basically turned a long oval of SEI's gorgeous velvet paper into a bow and added snaps:

This red color is perfect for the holidays, but SEI offers velvet paper in almost two dozen beautiful colors. There's a color that each of your girlfriends will love, I'm sure! For the tutorial and step-by-step photos, click here. Be sure to check out all the other fabulous gift ideas from the DT, too.

Have a wonderful Friday and great weekend! Tessa

Wedding, Part 1 (and a winner!)

After pulling together my photos from my sister's wedding, I decided to write up two separate posts for sharing. Today's installment is what I made for wearing - corsages, boutonnieres, etc. Tomorrow's will be all about the wedding decor. Elizabeth's colors were orange, aqua and ivory with a touch of brown. The theme was vintage - handmade - outdoors. Inspired by Martha Stewart boutonnieres that I had seen online awhile back, I created these boutonnieres for the groomsmen and fathers:

Made of sticks from a tree on my parents' property, feathers, and beaded sprays from hydrangeahippo, everyone thought these were the coolest boutonnieres they had seen in a long time. One groomsman with an attitude thought they were weird, but hey - what does he know? Obviously nothing ;).

I simply attached two twigs together, added a feather, then added the sprays. I wrapped them all together at the bottom with a satin aqua and brown polka dot ribbon by American Crafts. I've had this ribbon for years and am so glad that I held onto it!

The leaves are made from pages of Elizabeth's favorite book (an another theme in the wedding decor), Pride and Prejudice. I glued them to the back of the boutonnieres and then added a gold jewelry safety-pin. A corsage pin would not have held these.

The groom's boutonniere was a bit different. Karl's had a larger feather, as well as a special touch to his leaves. See it? Sorry for the poor photo - I had to get him his boutonniere as soon as it was made and didn't have time to photograph it properly.

I managed to find a part of the book that read "Elizabeth accepted..." How perfect is that?! For the bridesmaids, I made these necklaces:

Not only did I make the flower (a ruffle blossom that you can find in my shop here), but I also made the beaded part - holy moly, making four of these was good practice! I am not a beader, but I think they came out pretty well. Just don't look too closely ;).

I made similar flowers for the mothers to wear as corsages:

And then petite little hair clips for the two little nieces (their dresses were aqua):

It was so much fun to make things I don't ordinarily make, especially for my sister. Tomorrow I'll share more Pride and Prejudice-inspired things and a handy way to hang muslin from the ceiling. See you then!

***

WINNER: For those of you who played along with my 500 Facebook likes giveaway, I am sorry for the delay in posting a winner. We had yet another wedding last weekend (other side of the family). The randomly selected winner of a $10.00 credit to the shop is...

DEBBIE SUSEE!

Debbie, email me at precociouspaper (at) yahoo (dot) com and I will let you know how to redeem your prize.

Teachers and Moms

Like many of you, I got crafty for my sons' teachers and for special moms in my life this past week. I copied myself and remade my Teacher Tubes from last year for Teacher Appreciation gifts:

This time around, I went with a slightly vintage flair. I added the ruler washi tape to the SRM Stickers tubes and used a striped ribbon instead of a gingham one.

I used those cute little chalkboards again, as well as my white SRM thanks stickers. The apple embellishments were still easy to find this year, too (Jolee's brand at Michaels).

Carson has had a long-term substitute for the past few months because his teacher had a baby. We've loved having Mrs. Addison here and are sad that today is her last day with the kids. Carson really, really liked her :(. I always make paper bag albums for the boys' teachers at the end of the school year, but since this was Mrs. Addison's last day, we were sure to bring hers in today:

Sorry for the fuzzy photo! I finished it last night as the sun was going down and didn't have time to retake photos this morning.

I used the Off to School line by Fancy Pants (my most favorite school line EVER!), SRM Stickers, and lots of flowers and Sweet Spots from my shop. Oh! And those Studio Calico wooden people - love those!

You can find many more photos in my flickr photostream. Now on to the moms!

I have a tutorial for this bracelet up on the GCD Studios blog. I made this for my sister for Mother's Day (sorry to ruin the surprise, Nae!) out of paper that I turned into beads. It was super easy and fast, so if you need a last-minute gift, give this one a try :).

Thanks for stopping by today! I hope you enjoy your weekend. Tessa

Paper Jewelry

Before I share some scrappy things, I just want to say thank you for all your sweet words regarding my last post.  I'm gaining a new perspective, finding confidence in the future, and seeing things more as an opportunity to grow.  Thank you :).

Now on to the scrappy stuff :).  We have a really fun challenge for you today at The Studio!  What is it?  Take some of your excess stash and create something you can wear.  Amanda suggests a paper ball gown, but in all seriousness, the DT has created some really fun, easy, and beautiful things.

I decided to make a bracelet.  I had recently seen some paper beads and thought this challenge was the perfect time to have a go at it.  I took scrap paper and cut it into several long, traingular strips.  I rolled the paper (fat end to skinny end) as tightly as I could and secured the end with glue.  I treated my beads with several layers of decoupage varnish.  Tip:  To spray the varnish easily, I put headpins through my beads and stabbed the pointy ends into a spare piece of cardboard.  The beads would easily spin around the pins and made spraying simple do to.  No sticky fingers!

Don't look too carefully at my lopsided loops - I'm such a beginner with jewelry making!  But I do love the way the bracelet turned out and I get compliments every time I wear it.

You have to see what the DT made - I think I'm going to lift a hair accessory idea this very morning to wear to church today.  You can find the challenge here.  I'm going to start highlighting players' entries on The Studio facebook page, so follow there and you may just see your work featured!

Have a good day! Tessa