DIY

So I have been working on making and creating my own pieces of jewelry. I have made bracelets, earrings, necklaces, and rings. Most of these pieces are pretty easy to make.

You just need the basic tools and materials. You can get most of the items at Walmart. They are also available at Michael's and Jo-Ann's, but it tends to be more expensive. Here are some pics of what I've done so far.

 

To make the rings you need some really strong and sturdy glue like e6000. This glue really holds anything together. You have to be very careful or else you'll glue your hands together and you don't want that to happen, right? The ring backs I ordered on ebay.

All of my rings were made using buttons and earrings. I used  some pliers to remove the backing. Some were easy but a couple were hard. I did some research and I need to purchase some jewelry nippers to better remove the back part from certain types of buttons. But overall, it turned out cute I think. Most of the buttons and earring were under $2. Yeah, I'm cheap.

I made a couple of matching earring and necklace sets. The Jordan earring I made from the shoe tag that comes with some pairs of Jordans. It's a tiny bit heavy but I have size 00 gauges so my holes are hanging anyway. It's a pretty different look. The key earring was made from a pin. It's only one because I lost the other half while out partying. I got it from Walmart on clearance for 90 cents. Most of the bracelets are made from beads. I purchased them from Walmart and Jo-Ann's. They have all sorts of beads like wood, stone, pearl, etc. I used the stretchy jewelry cord. The chain came already linked but in a longer length. I had to use pliers to shorten it and remove individual links. You really need to have some strength. Maybe eat some spinach beforehand. I then added the earring hooks and twist clasps. You can start off with a basic jewelry making kit. I purchased mine from Walmart. I still have enough supplies to make a few more pieces.

 These are my Nine West suede wedge booties. One evening after returning from a night out on the town, I noticed a gash on the back of my right shoe. Part of the material was ripped off. I was like WTF! How did I do that? So what had happened was, I think the back of my foot got caught on the escalator while at the bart station. I'm like so not supposed to wear heels of any sort. SMH. I was not about to throw these away so I had to come up with a way to fix my little problem.

This is what I came up with. Pretty neat huh?

 Guess what I used? Stickers!! Yes, you read that right. I found some metal looking stud stickers from Jo-Ann's. It's located in the scrap booking section and it comes in a pack of both round and square studs. It's about 108 per pack and it costs about $2.70. It also comes in gold and bronze stickers. I bought 2 packs for this project. I probably shouldn't wear these on a rainy day or even a windy day. The studs may fall off or fly away. Its been on for almost a month now and its still holding up. Awesome!

These are some tote bags that I made from extra fabric scraps. I made a small one for my leftover craft pieces such as felt and ribbons. The large one holds my excess fabric from sewing projects that I've done. My son helped me out with the writing.  I love my little helper.

 Here's a pic of my bins and baskets to hold all of my craft and sewing tools and supplies. It looks like a lot but I've found that I always need something that I don't have when I find a new project to do.                                                              

This is my sewing corner. I have a both a sewing machine and a serger. The serger helps to make the raw edges look neater. I ordered them both from Walmart.com. The other objects are a cutting board and a large see through ruler. The cutting board is very handy for cutting out anything. The ruler in my opinion is too wide. I have to find a way to make it useful. In the meantime, I plan on buying a yard stick or a simple ruler.

       

This is a red Talbots blazer that I found at Buffalo Exchange for half off $7(that's what the tag said). It has some ink stains under the collar and on the left shoulder area. The jacket was too cute to pass up and I knew I'll figure out a way to cover up the stains. You can't see the stains under the collar unless you flip it up, which I won't so I just used some iron on diamonds to cover up the ink on the shoulder. This is the pattern I came up with.

Pretty simple but it got the job done.

 This is a collar necklace I made using black felt, black ribbon and iron on diamonds. It was easy to make. I downloaded a collar template from the web. I think it turned out alright. It reminds me of a paper necklace some little girl made in her kindergarten art class. I am going to try again and hopefully that will look much better. The mask I made for Halloween and used black felt and black ribbon. I also downloaded a mask template from the web. My plan was to be a cat burglar and wear all black so that way I wouldn't have to buy anything (did I mention that I was cheap?), but ended up not even going to the Halloween party.  Eh, whatever, next time (shrugs shoulders).

So that's what I have made so far. I have a few that I am working on now and one project that I'm excited about and can't wait to share with you guys. I'm just waiting for the supplies to arrive. 

Which projects do you like? Are you inspired to try one on your own? Do you have any thing that you would like to see me make? Let me know!