Two for Tuesday - Bird's Nest Jewelry

Today's Two for Tuesday is not about Chinese Food Jewelry! LOL! You see, I kept seeing different pieces of jewelry that had a bird's nest on them and I thought I should try to make one. So here goes..

For my first project, I attempted to make a ring. I took three 8" lengths of 20 gauge wire and I started to braid them together. I used my nylon jaw pliers to help hold the wires together on one end while I braided.

Next, I used the pliers to squish the braid and make it a little thinner.

Then, I wrapped it around a mandrel to form the ring loop and twisted the ends to hold in place.

I spread apart the 6 wire ends, I'll call them spokes.Next, I took  24" of 20 gauge wire and wrapped one end to the center to secure.

Then, I started to weave the wire in and out of the spokes, like a basket. Eventually, I took each spoke and wove it into the nest as well. For this, I used my chain nose pliers to grasp the ends of the wire as I wove it through the nest.There was no rhyme or reason to the weaves, but that's what  makes it look more like twigs in a nest.

 I used the pliers to help shape the wires into a nest.

For this nest, I wanted to use 3 small cream colored pearls for the eggs. Since the bead holes were smaller, I took a length of 24 gauge wire and wrapped it into the nest to secure. Then, I added the pearls, one at a time. It was like sewing on  buttons.

Here is the ring!

Since it is Two for Tuesday, I made another nest for another piece of jewelry. Because it is not a ring, I took the 20 gauge wire and started to coil it into the nest shape.

Again, I wove it around and through the wires to create a nest. Used the pliers to shape the nest. And added the eggs in.

For this nest, I wanted to make it into a necklace, so I used some Vintaj jewelry pieces. I took the branch and used a jewelry/leather punch to make a hole on each end.

I attached the branch to some chain with some matching jumprings and I even added a soaring bird to one side of the necklace. I hung the nest from the branch with another jumpring. Lastly, a wire wrapped a couple of rose colored glass leaves. I think I may add more birds, flowers and leaves, this necklace is still not done, I think I want to experiment some more.

Here is the necklace and ring set.

Here's another ring I made using a turquoise colored bead for a robin's egg. I also added a tiny set of Vintaj leaves.

Making a nest from wire is actually a great project for beginner's to play with wire. There's no rules to making a nest!LOL!Another fun part is I can adjust the size of the ring, just by twisting the ring.

Thank you for being patient with this post. So sorry some of the photos are a little blurry, I'm still learning how to take one handed photos while holding things in the other hand! And I wasn't a happy camper with Blogger! I tried twice to post this and got booted off Blogger while I was writing. And yes, not all of my writing got saved, so I had to re-write it! I seem to be having all kinds of problems involving computers lately, I think I may have to make me a Computer Angel!

Anyway, thanks for stopping by and Have a Great Fourth of July Weekend!

Makeover Monday - Soda Bottle Mailers

Hope your week is off to a great start! For this week's Makeover Monday, I decide to use a 2 liter soda bottle to mail a RAK to someone.

First, I would advise that you get some help drinking up your beverage, 2 liters is a LOT! Next, rinse the bottle out and make sure it's dry on the inside, too.

Remove the label. Take a craft knife and make a slice, about 5" or so long, your bottle design is a good guide.

Stick your hand into the slice and start filling your bottle up. I like to use colorful shreds to add color and help cushion the stuff I put inside.

You can get quite  few things in there!

Here's some roses! Add more shreds to keep them from getting squished.

I spy Hello Kitty!

When you're done stuffing, use some clear packing tape to seal the slice.

Screw the bottle cap on tightly and tape it up so it won't come off.

Cover the bottle cap with some foil to dress it up and tape this up, too.

Wrap some pretty paper around the bottle. Make a label and place over the area where the slice is. Tape it up securely. Hmmm..who should I send this to?

Take to the Post Office to add on the postage and mail your bottle off!

Sorry, this post is late, I didn't get to the post office until today, and I wanted to make sure they still accept these. Thanks for stopping by today and don't forget you have until Wednesday 12 noon HST to leave a carnival memory comment on last week's Aloha Friday post. Have a great night!

Mahalo Hawaii!

Mahalo Nui Loa, Hawaii! Thank you very very much for voting Ben Franklin Crafts Hawaii's Best Craft Store! We really appreciate your support and promise to continue to do our Best to provide you with great values for all of your crafting needs as well as lots of Ideas and Inspirations!

This year, our company is celebrating our 60th Anniversary as a locally owned and operated small business here in Hawaii. We're very proud to have had our company for 60 years and we know we wouldn't be here without all of your loyal support! We look forward to serving you for another 60 years and more!

Thank you again and Happy Crafting!

Tech Thursday - Freezer Paper revisited

Originally posted on the Ideas and Inspirations blog, decided to re-post here.

The other month, we had Brandon from our Enchanted Lake BFC on the show explaining how to do freezer paper stencilling. For those of you who missed it, that's today's technique!

First you need to find a design, I decided to just draw mine. You can use coloring books or even your Cricut or eclips machine to find designs!

Next, you need the freezer paper. Place a sheet of freezer paper over your design, shiny side down and trace.

Think about what part of the designs you want painted. This will help you decide where you need to cut out.

You need to cut where you want the paint to go. Cut your traced design out. A swivel blade craft knife is great for doing this, especially if you have curves.

After I cut everything out, I always turn it over to the other side and inspect the cut edges. I want to make sure that the edges are nice and clean with no little paper "hangnails" on it.

For my design, I also needed to cut out the eyes, nose and mouth to keep those areas unpainted during the first layer of paint.

Place the cut-out freezer paper on your shirt and place the smaller pieces back in place.

Iron the freezer paper to the shirt. Make sure all the edges are ironed down and are sticking to the shirt, otherwise paint may seep under the design and your stencil design will not come out clean.

Place a plastic covered cardboard inside the shirt before painting to protect the other side of the shirt just in case the paint goes through.

As Brandon mentioned on the show, you can use regular acrylic paint mixed with textile medium to paint on your shirt. This gives you a whole array of colors to work with! I decide to try out the new So Soft fabric paints. They are perfect for this type of project.

I just used a foam brush to paint the large areas of the design in. Along the edges, my paint strokes go from the edge inwards, so that I don't push up the edges and get paint under the design.

Let the paint dry. Then, carefully lift off the freezer paper, revealing your painted design.

I removed the eyes, nose and mouth pieces so that I could paint these areas with the black paint.

For this, I use a liner brush and a what I call my bottle cap painting. I shake the bottle of paint to get some paint in the cap area. Unscrew the cap, and just dip my brush tip into the cap of paint. Lastly, I wrote in my words using the liner brush.

I made this shirt for Saturday's Crafting Carnival at the Mapunapuna Ben Franklin Crafts this past Saturday. We had a great time doing all kinds of make and take projects and people were winning awesome door prizes!

It was a fun weekend! Thanks for stopping by today and check back later for my Monday Makeover project!

Weekend Getaway! - Crafting Carnival

For this weekend getaway... I'll be hanging out at the Mapunapuna Crafting Carnival this Saturday from 10 am to 3 pm. I'll be doing two make 'n take projects, the first from 11 -12 then from 1 - 2.

There'll be all kinds of different crafts going on and of course, lots of door prize giveaways! Hope to see you there!

Thanks for stopping by here today and hope you have a SUPER Weekend!

P.S. - check out the contest for the Aloha Friday post below!

Aloha Friday - Freaky Friday!

OK, this Aloha Friday started out to be more of a Freaky Friday. First, my Tech Thursday post goes on the wrong blog! Thanks for all of you who checked it out.Then, I had a JoC show to tape.

Boy, all I can say is, I sure had a lot of bloopers in my segment!

Anyway, as you saw for Tech Thursday, we are having a Crafting Carnival at the Mapunapuna Ben Franklin Craft store on Saturday from 10 am to 3pm. I'm doing 2 make n takes, first from 11 - 12 then from 1-2, hope to see you there!

Carnivals...I went to McKinley High School and we used to have a carnival every February. I was in band and it was our job to work the booths that collected the scripts for the rides. Carnival weekend was so much fun because we worked and played all weekend long. Each class had their own game booth and that was fun, too. Gee, I miss those days...

So, why don't you tell me your favorite carnival memories! Leave a comment by Wednesday 12 noon HST and you may win a prize!

Thanks for stopping by today and have a great weekend!

Tech Thursday - Freezer paper Stencilling

OOOPS! Please visit our Ideas and Inspirations blog for this week's Tech Thursday. Uhmm..correct post , wrong blog..it's all good!LOL!

http://ideasandinspirationsfrombfchawaii.blogspot.com/2011/06/tech-thursday-freezer-paper-revisited.html

Have a great weekend!

Wednesday's Winnah!

Thank You to all 12 of you who left a comment on last week's Aloha Friday post. I love the stories you shared and I am so amazed that so many people used to go bowling! No golfers? Yeah, me, too, golfing is just too hot for me and the ball is so small I cannot see!At least with bowling, the ball comes back to you and get air-con!LOL!

So, today, I had our summer intern, Amy, help me pick the winnah from my trusty all purpose recycled DVD Cover (you can tell I use it for everything!) Amy is a really cool college student who is studying animation, and she is REALLY GOOD. Another tidbit, she also won a web contest and her prize was...1000 Pop Tarts!Can you imagine?!

OK, kept you in suspense long enough, and the winnah is...

Congratulations, 1LuvnMama! Glad you liked the Two for Tuesday project because it is coming your way with your $25 BFC gift card!

Thanks again everyone for playing and sharing. Enjoy the rest of the week and check back tomorrow for the Tech Thursday!

Two for Tuesday - Stella and Rose

Today's Two for Tuesday features two projects made from our Exclusive Stella and Rose paper pack by My Mind's Eye.

This 6 x 6 paper pack has 48 sheets of double sided cardstock, you get two sheets each of 24 double sided designs that were picked from MME's Stella and Rose paper collection, one of their most popular collections to date.

There's a great assortment of color themes throughout.

I'm glad there's two sheets of each because I love both sides!

For today's two projects, I decided to go with a little darker color scheme since I always choose brights.

First, I made a simple candy stick bag.

Punched out a scalloped circle from coordinating brown cardstock and stamped a sentiment from the Pebbles Inc. "Ever After" collection, it fit perfectly in the Stella and Rose paper circle!

Next, I made a simple gift card holder and used a decorated band to hold it closed.

Here's a project sheet for the gift card holder.

These 6 x 6 paper pads are great for card and tag making as well as small die cuts. I would love to use some of the floral prints for a Hello Kitty dress side cut.

Thanks for stopping by today and hope your week is going well! Don't forget you have until tomorow 12 noon HST to leave a comment on last Friday's Aloha Friday post. A winner will be be randomly picked to win a $25 Ben Farnklin Crafts Gift Card!

Makeover Monday - Nori Containers

I'll eat sushi, it's OK. But, I LOVE Musubis!That's why I wish okazuyas were open for dinner, too. But, for me, the next best thing is the seasoned nori, or as some people call it, Korean nori.

Break open a pack, grab a pinch of rice in a sheet of nori and you have the means to make mini mouthfuls of musubi!

So, I was looking at the containers they come in, really sturdy stuff, such a waste to throw away! I thought, hmmm, why not fill it with more rice stuff, like arare!Or party mix or some other kind of snack!

So, I made a little box from cardstock, 3 3/4" x 2 3/4" and 1 3/4" tall.

Looked a little plain, so I added a strip of this cute ladybug print. You could add more embellishments to match your theme.

Really simple idea that you can fill with packaged treats to make as a favor or just use as a fancy "nut cup".

Thanks for stopping today! Don't forget you have until Wednesday 12 noon HST to leave a comment on last week's Aloha Friday post, you could win  $25 Ben Franklin crafts gift card!

Have a great week and go eat some musubis!