DIY Earrings

I pulled out my jewelry supplies this week and got busy!  My goal was to make some earring for some new shirts I got for our upcoming cruise, and once I got started and just couldn’t stop!  Making jewelry is really fun and I want to make a whole lot more.

Here’s what I made this week:

{sorry about the distracting background, I didn’t realize it would look so busy until I was editing them!}

These are so cute and I love the way they look, but seed beads are of the devil!   

These were actually pendants for necklaces that I got when Robert’s Craft closed.  I thought they would make cute earrings…and they do!

And everyone’s favorite flower earrings…I’ve made these before and they are super easy.  I made 25 pairs in about 10-15 minutes! 

I have a lot more beads to make into fantastic creations, I’m just waiting on more jump rings and ear hooks, etc from china ;)  If you are looking for cheap supplies, there are lots of Etsy stores that sell from outside the US that sell bulk jewelry supplies for cheap {it just takes a few weeks to get to you, usually!} 

If you are looking for a good start to jewelry making, I found a really good series about learning the techniques at My Girlish Whims.

Before Smashbook-ing was Cool

Have you heard of Smashbook?  It’s a pretty fun concept and the funny thing is the books in the beginning of the video i linked {here} are just like the one I’m about to show you!

I started this book in high school.  I always had a bazillion cut-outs and ripped out pages from Magazines laying around my room.  I also had a whole drawer full of little scribbled notes, quotes, poems, and ideas.  I started compiling the two into a giant sketchbook as a way to clear away the clutter from my room.  And this fun collage-book was born.  

Of course, now Smash-booking is like a “thing” and gaining some real popularity in the crafting world.  I haven’t really done much with it since college, but here are some of my favorite pages from my “smash” book from way back. 

 If you're looking for some current and truly awesome Smash book inspiration just type in "smash book" into a Pinterest or Google Image Search and you will find some pretty inspiring stuff. 

Scrappin' Sunday

Did a couple more pages this week...only a bazillion more to go ;) 

 

Birdhouse Village and other Spring Decor

I always feel kinda cheated out of celebrating Spring when Easter is in March.  April is still all Spring to me, so I am leaving up this stuff all month! {ok, I might take down the bunnies…}

I’ve been working on a very cute project that really stretched my creativity! I haven’t done something like this in a long time.  It is not as easy as it looks to coordinate 8 different birdhouses using different patterned papers, and several different paint colors and have them look like they all belong together!  I had to re-do a few houses along the process when I made some dumb choices, but they turned out super cute! 

I used some small candle holders and a bowl {from the thrift store} to help give my houses some different heights.  

I LOVE how it turned out!  Such a happy thing to look at when I go into my living room! 

I’ve also had the mantle done for a couple weeks, and we recently put up some new bamboo shades on the windows to help with our overbearing sunlight situation. 

Here’s the mantle:

Mantles are not my strong suit, but I think this one turned out cute enough. I used paper doilies from hobby lobby for the garland. My mom crocheted those bunnies for the boys the last two Easters.

And here are the new shades! I can’t even begin to tell you how much I love these! Our living room gets SO MUCH LIGHT and we were in dire need of a way to block out light on super sunny days! Now we can pull these babies down and watch TV or play the XBOX without getting a headache from all the glare and brightness!

Combine all these things together and I’m loving the living room right now! It’s so fresh and happy! Now I just wish I could figure out the furniture {blah} and fix the gallery wall behind the couch {not pictured for a reason!} Happy Spring!!