Bird's Nest Earrings and Necklaces

I really love the beautiful bird's nest necklaces that have been floating around blogland. So I thought I would try making some bird's nest earrings.

I've seen a few dangly bird's nest earrings, but nothing on studs. And when I'm around the kids all day, studs are much more practical. Plus, I had a bunch of posts from previous projects here and here to use!

Of course I did try making the necklace as well.

 See these greenish-blue beads? They were bronze and, feeling daring and desperate, I used some nail polish to make them more of a robin's egg color. Not sure if it really turned out so well! So then I just used pearls again for another necklace. I used two pearls to represent my two kids. I debated a third pearl for daddy, but my son said, "Daddy's not a kid."'Nuff said.

To make the bird's nest, I followed this awesome tutorial here.

Fun. Easy. Just my style.

Linking up with these parties today:

Sugar Bee Crafts
Funky Polka Dot Giraffe
Mommy By Day...Crafter By Night

Baby Shirt Necklace Tutorial

 I am probably one of the most sentimental people you'd ever meet. I have a hard time deleting sweet emails from my hubby; I have made several baby photo albums (out of the 1,000s of pics I've taken); and I can't bare to part with many of my kids' baby clothes. 'Cuz they just hold so many memories! I'm a sucker for nostalgia.

So, just because I couldn't throw away a sweet shirt of my daughter's (even though it had some terrible, yucky stains on the chest), I decided to make it into The Baby Shirt Necklace!

 I loved the pretty embroidery and knew it had potential. 

Look, it's so easy. 

Snip, snip. Dab some glue on the pendant backing, adjust the fabric, assemble the frame. Add a necklace. Simple.

Now go enjoy your pretty piece of new jewelry!

Linking up here:
Somewhat Simple
Tatertots & Jello 
Mommy By Day...Crafter By Night
Sugar Bee Crafts 

Necklaces, Earrings, and Hair Ties to Donate

 So these were the "mom items" that I donated to the community fundraiser along with the little girl hair clips. I made a new grey necklace (the other one I was planning on keeping, but---long story short---I gave it away on the spot to a sweet grandmothery person who admired it and had just given me a bunch of cute clothes for my daughter through Freecycle.org. Anyway, I had to make another necklace and ended up doing two new gray ones -- one for me and one for the fundraiser. (I haven't photographed the one for myself yet, but it has 5 pom poms that are on the larger side like the poms below!)

 I did two hair ties. (Made a third one for myself and I have to say, they really do dress up a ponytail!).

 And some earrings.

 (These pictures are so dark because I took them in the early morning before packing them up in my bag to head out. Got done too late at night for anything to look half-way good. ;-)
 


Good-bye new gray necklace! I hope your new owner likes you!

Linking up here today:
Our Creative Spaces

Braided Fabric Fun!

Got some extra strips of fabric lying around? Here's an easy way to use them up and make them into beautiful accessories!

 First, take three long strips of fabric about an inch or so wide. (To get the frayed look, you'll want to rip the scrap off a wider scrap!) Then, knot the three strips at one end. I found a big safety pin useful to secure the knot somewhere before braiding (like on a couch cushion or something that won't move when you're tugging and braiding.

 You can do multiple braided strips at varying lengths to create interest! Tie the necklace tighter (top photo) for one look, or a little looser for something different (second photo).

 Or you can stick with one strip. Use it as a hair band one day...

...and a necklace the next.

 Inspiration for this post was found on Cakies, a beautiful blog with gorgeous pictures and lots of great ideas.

**If you make a braided necklace or hairband, please be sure to link up your pics in my FLICKR Group! Thanks!**

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Yellow & Gray Rosette Necklace

If you happened to have seen my post a few days ago about my yellow rosettes, you might've known that I had another rosette project in the works. Well, here it is!

 I like the yellow-gray combo and my idea was to have the rosettes worn a little off-center for a slightly more dressed-up look. Here's another view of my first-version of the necklace.

 After wearing it around a little bit, I found that the rosettes did not stay too well where I wanted them on my neck. There were two solutions I could see: 1) tie the ribbon tighter (which I did and thought it worked ok, but not exactly how I wanted it) or 2) add another rosette and beads to see what happened.

 So I added another rosette that would be a little higher on my neck, as well as a few more beads. Here's version two with the extras added on.

 I think this looks so much better! And it sits more comfortably too, being a little off-center which was what I wanted. It instantly dresses up a plain t-shirt! And it was very easy to do. :)

Yay for a new piece of jewelry!

Linking up here today:

Two Yellow Rosettes

I've been playing around with rosettes some more, having some fun putting them to use in different ways. I made two yellow rosettes the other night while hanging out with my husband and started to see what I could do with them today.

A double-rosette necklace?

 A hair clip?

 A single rosette on a chain?

I have one more idea for these babies, but it involves a little more work, so I'll have to come back and post again when I get it done! What other ideas do YOU have for rosettes? I would love to know!

Linking up here today:

Our Creative Spaces