Beads Everywhere!

Beads! Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!

Until recently I had a big box of old jewelry sitting in my closet. I really didn't want to give the box to Goodwill, but I certainly didn't want to wear the jewelry.

Then, one day, I had a revelation... I realized I could take apart all of the old necklaces and increase my bead stash! So I did! I now have several boxes of beads at my disposal, and they look a lot better the way I use them!

And now enter - the "Not Very Attractive Purse"... This was given to me by a family member I shall not name....

Okay, the fabric alone was actually quite pretty. And the interior was perfect. But the trim left a lot to be desired. The ribbon and beads were glued in place under whatever that fluffy stuff is...


So I decided to cut off the beads - aren't they interesting? And not only the ones that look like coins, but the regular beads are pretty nice, as well...


And I added them to my bead boxes. Next I'll need to separate them by color and shape... By the way, in the picture I'm showing here, every bead was from previously from a necklace.

Finally, I also wanted to suggest that you not only keep the beads from old necklaces and purses, but save the clasps and connectors. You can reuse them when you make your own creations using the beads.

OO! OO! Wait, I also wanted to tell you that I used my seam ripper and pulled the purse apart so that I could use both the interior fabric and the exterior fabric for sewing projects!! I am using everything except the lovely blue ribbon stuck to the fluffy "stuff"... :-)

I hope you get the chance to be creative today!

...from Lori @ Kitchenfunk

"I Spy" Toy

This is a very simple tutorial

to make a fun toy for elementary school aged children...

Let me apologize in advance for the poor photo quality!

Start with a "View-tainer" - I bought mine at K-mart for less than $3

These containers are made to bounce when they fall, without
losing any of the items inside. However, I didn't want to
take the chance that a small piece would fall out of it.
Even if a child is older, there is always the chance
that a smaller child will pick up any pieces that
might fall out of it.

So I bought duct tape and this adhesive:

I don't know why I didn't take any pictures of this next part, but here is what I did...

I first took one end-cap off of the Viewtainer, and covered it with 2 crisscrossed pieces of duct tape. Then I spread the glue around the cylinder, and affixed the lid.

I then filled it with beads, and found objects that were small enough to mix in, but not too small. Most of the beads I used were similar in shape, but I made sure to throw in a heart and a star bead in, and some other shapes.

Next I duct taped and glued the top on, just as I had done with the other end.

Ta-Da!

This is a fun game to take in the car.

I hope you get the chance to be creative today!

...from Lori @ Kitchenfunk

Wine Bottle Decorations

One of the things I was busy with this week was creating wire decorations for some non-alcoholic cider bottles to be used as door prizes for a youth group dinner.

The kids are raising money for a missions trip,
and my daughter and I volunteered to make these.

It didn't take that long and it was fun to work together to make them.

The beads on this one were from an old necklace we actually took apart.

You might recognize this flower (above) from this tutorial...

This is one wire shape we did NOT make. We bought it for $1 at the grocery store and thought it looked cute just the way it is. This was a fun, simple project that didn't really cost much, because the non-alcoholic cider bottles were $2.00 each at Costco.

I hope you get the chance to be creative today!

A little note about silk flowers.
The tutorial from the other day can be found here.

See the difference between these two? The one on the left is flat and not as frilly and curled. You might like that look, but you might want to know how to avoid that flat look, and I don't think I addressed that in my tutorial.

When you hold the silk over the flame, hold it fairly high over it. You just need the heat. If you like a singed edge (which in this color seems to add more depth) then sure, go lower, but BE CAREFUL, of course!

Now, while you hold it higher over the flame you also need to NOT place the edges above the flame. Make sure the fabric, at about a half inch or more, is over the heat. This creates the curls.

I hope this helps as you make your flowers!


I hope you get the chance to be creative today!