DIY Les Bonbons Earrings

December 31, 2016

I love homemade gifts and for Christmas 2015 I made candles and pins. This year I took on the overly ambitious project of making earrings, similar to Les Bonbons by Rebecca De Ravenel that are available for purchase here: https://rebeccaderavenel.com/. It was harder than it looked, so unfortunately I did not finish in time for Christmas, but alas - I am now complete and here are the results!

For this project the supply list is incredible, because it is cheap and basic. You will need:
1) Styrofoam balls (4 / pair): I used 1" smoothfoam balls found here, http://www.smoothfoam.com/product/balls/10010.html
2) Styrofoam half balls (2 / pair): I used 1" half smoothfoam balls found here, http://www.smoothfoam.com/product/10612.html
3) Gold acrylic paint, or color to match silk thread
4) Gold silk thread, or color to match paint
5) Clip-on earring flat back findings: I used something like these, http://www.firemountaingems.com/itemdetails/h20b4401fn
6) Gold wire, jump rings or chain: can also find at Fire Mountain Gems
7) Needle-nosed pliers, wire cutter (for jewelry), Glue, Toothpicks.... scissors, and, that's it!

The first step is to drive a hole through your smoothfoam balls with a toothpick and paint them gold. You can use the toothpick to hold the ball in place as you paint.

Painting the smoothfoam ball gold with acrylic paint.

I ended up painting a few different sizes to experiment. The larger balls, 1" diam., were my fave.

Smearing on glue with a free toothpick and tucking the tail of the silk cord in place - glue and wrap.

Keep gluing, keep wrapping and watch out for dirty fingers!

Once you reach the end, tuck in the string with some glue and let dry.

If you are still with me, you are golden. The hard part is done!

Repeat steps above with your half smoothballs.

Time to assemble. Using a headpin or gold wire (as pictured), use a needle nosed plier to loop the end. This is to keep the bottom bead in place.

Using the needle-nosed pliers, make a loop.

Attach a short length of chain. I ended up only using one single loop.

Put it all together! Yes, it is possible. :)

Apply glue to your half smoothball and cover with felt circle backing.

Glue on the clip-on with tacky glue and assemble. These earrings weigh almost nothing!

So I appreciate that this project is probably too hard for most to want to take on. If you love these earrings, but don't love the crafting component - you can always splurge for the original that is available for sale here: https://rebeccaderavenel.com/

If anyone decides to give it a go - please post your comments below! Would love to hear how it worked out!

Holiday Decor Cont...

November 20, 2016

I have been chipping away at our holiday decorating moving towards Thanksgiving - I am early! This weekend the magnolia garland, ornaments and wreath arrived. They look beautiful! I ordered everything shown here from One Kings Lane (www.onekingslane.com) and purchased their shipping pass for $19.95 to get free shipping through 12/31.

First project - dip-dyed silver magnolia garland

I loved the idea of creating a dip-dyed silver garland to lay across the cabinet that my dad made for me. I store china in this cabinet and since we do not have a proper mantle it was a good place for some holiday dressing!

First, I draped the garland and marked off the tail for spray paint. This garland is 10' long and was $79 from One Kings Lane.

I used silver spray-paint, but you could use any color in the metallic family.

With the paper barrier in place, bring the garland to a well-ventilated area and give it a few good coats of metallic spray-paint!

I love how this garland turned out, but I also love how everything in these last pictures were made by me or my family! My mom made the sweater I am wearing, my dad made the cabinet, James and I made the woven leather chair (previous post) and I painted the monkey (previous post). Everyone including James has gotten into the crafting spirit! :)

Broken Dishes

October 9, 2016

I love the Lynn Chase Jungle Jubilee hand painted plates. I ordered a set of four off of Ebay for $30. Unfortunately, two arrived broken in half, so I am left with two for this post. :/ (USPS claim is in the works!). Today I am going to show you how to fix a plate with a chip. Note: this method should only be used to fix chips along the edge of a plate and not where food is served.

Love these plates. If you look closely, you can see some chips along the edges.

To fix the chips, you need: 1) 2-Part Epoxy: I used Devcon from Amazon, 2) Oil pastels, 3) Toothpicks

To fix the chips, color the oil pastel directly into the chip, mix the 2-part epoxy with a toothpick (equal parts) and spread the epoxy over your pastel work. I've seen an alternative method where the oil pastel is mixed directly into the epoxy and then applied. Coloring directly onto the chip worked best for me.

Complete! Three chips basically disappeared..

My color matching was not perfect because I was short on pastels.

Jasper Necklace

July 27, 2016

A trip to the bead store landed me with a strand of blue Jasper stones and a project on my hands! I turned it around quick so I could wear this necklace to work this week. There are so many beautiful pieces of jewelry that you can buy in the store or make yourself for so much more fun!
To make this project at home you will need: 1) strand of beads (mine are blue jasper), 2) beading wire, 3) small silver spacer beads (if preferred), 4) 2 crimp beads, 5) a clasp, 6) needle nosed pliers (to crimp the crimp beads, and finish the necklace)

Jasper beads unfinished and fresh from the bead store

I chose a fun snake shaped clasp with silver spacer beads.

To begin the necklace, thread the tail of the beading wire up through the spacer bead, the crimp bead (very small), around the clasp and back down through the crimp and spacer bead. Using your needle nosed pliers, squeeze the crimp bead shut. This will hold the clasp in place and allow you to move forward stringing the beads.

I used some extra small silver spacers to fill in gaps that were caused by angled stones. This is optional and they are not evenly spaced, but they fill the gap where wire would otherwise show.

To finish the necklace repeat the same steps from how you began; string large spacer bead, crimp, clasp and back down through crimp and spacer bead. Use your needle nosed pliers to pinch the crimp shut and weave the remaining beading wire back through the strand, clipping when you are a few inches away from the clasp.

Beach Chic Leather Folding Chair - Woven Leather v2

June 20, 2016

This will likely be my last chair post, but I wanted to add this variation since it is slightly different than the first (see, Woven Leather Chair) and has a summer spin! I purchased this aluminum Telescope folding chair on Ebay for $44 and re-covered it in leather for an additional $100. I purchased the natural strap leather (4 oz / 5 oz) from Weaver and had them cut 2" strips.

Here is the Telescope aluminum chair from Ebay that I bought for $44

First step is to disassemble the chair by unscrewing the canvas strips. Discard all but one from each direction to use as a template.

We found it was easier to cut the strips down the middle and just turn the strip, vs. using the screwdriver.

Using a strip as a template, cut your leather strips - give an inch of extra room just in case.

Prep the leather strips with a coat of oil to make them easier to work with and kick-start the patina process.

After washing the chair down with soap and water, it looks much cleaner.

Assembly in process - attach the leather strips just like the fabric was attached before.

Weave the straps across and secure to the frame, just like the chair was assembled initially.

Finished product! Super comfy and beach chic - although, for sunny days only - do not get wet! — Finished product! Super comfy and beach chic - although, for sunny days only - do not get wet!

Please let me know if you have any questions by posting in the comments section below!