Make it Monday: Braided Necklace

Welcome to this week's Make-it-Monday where we'll make an necklace thats easy to make and economical!

    

      Happy Monday! Hopefully you had a pleasant weekend. I went on my first wine bus wit my boyfriend and a large group of friends. We started out in Novato, Ca and then headed out to Wilson Winery, Kokomo Winery, and my favorite Papapietro Perry Winery on our wine bus! Despite the rainy weather it was quite lovely and the wines quite delicious. I'm no wine connoisseur by any means, but I can definitely enjoy a good wine.

I saw a cute necklace at Target last week and didn't particularly feel like spending $20 on something I could make for significantly less. Sorry, I made this and completely forgot to take pics, but the directions are relatively straightforward. So here we go!

What will need:

• Metal Jewelry Chain and jewelry wire cutters
• Michael's Crafts has a wide variety of metal chains that range from $2.99-$3.99 ($1.80-$2.40 with a 40% off coupon)
• Jump rings 
•  Various sizes can be purchased in one package $2.99
• Beads, string and needle -- make string of beads
• I literally have a box full of beads that I am willing to sell for ridiculously cheap. If you're interested please shoot over an email
• Clasps - some are on sale at my Etsy shoppe
• Embroidery thread - 35cents
• Other alternatives if you want something a little different
• Yarn, ribbon, string of pearls, string
  
  
  Cost= 3.99 (chain) + 2.99 (jump rings) + 0.35 (thread)  + 1.80 (beads) = $9.13 not counting coupon discounts. Not too shabby!
• Making it is pretty straightforward-->
• Measure the length of chain, thread to desired length - add an additional 2-3inches for braiding
• Attach jump rings to each end of:
• Bead string
• Chain
• Tie embroidery thread in a knot and slide jump ring in the middle
• Attach smaller jump rings onto a larger one 
• braid
• After braiding attach smaller jump rings onto a larger one - this should keep the braid intact. 

There you go! I was able to make 2 necklaces with one package of chain (one part in the dark blue necklace, and 2 parts in the necklace above). If you have any questions feel free to comment/email me. Also, please post/email me pics of your make-it Monday projects and I'll post them on the blog!

Thanks for checking in, and have a great day!!

-Lani

Make it Monday: Upcycled Plastic Earings

Good Monday! I've been trying a few new things lately. One of them being creating jewelry from non-shrink plastic containers (vegetable containers from Trader Joe's, soda bottles, etc.)

This week's tutorial.

• New green gift boxes for the shoppe
• Decorating envelopes with junk mailers
•  gluing Chilli's scrumptious shimps and steak dinner pics on the bubble mailer. It seems to be more interesting than simply mailing out a plain white package.
• Starcraft 2  ^_^ My boyfriend got the game a couple of weeks ago and we have been addicted!
• Banana's Foster for dessert <3 Boy, do I love me some ice cream with bananas bathed in caramelized sugar. If you haven't tried it, please do! It is an absolutely delectable treat!
• Plastic Jewelery -Let's get to it!

What you'll need:

• Plastic - Trader Joe's vegetables are sold on plastic trays and I've been using that. They're good because they don't shrink in the oven. I suppose you can use plastic bottles, too.
• Scissors
• Something to trace circles with - I used a paint bottle. The circumference of the object will depend on how large you want your flowers to be. Remember you can make rings, earrings, and/or broaches. 
• Permanent marker and rubbing alcohol
• Hole punch
• Jewelry wire
• large beads

This is how I did it:

1. Use the permanent marker to trace circles onto the plastic. To get circles that varied in circumference I traced the paint bottle' top and the bottom.
   

2. Cut 5 slits into the circles - these will become petals - and hole punch the center. Then dab rubbing alcohol onto a napkin and rub off the permanent marker.

3. Slide the large bead onto the wire. If you have a strip of wire bent the end so the bead doesn't slide off, and then bend the top into a U shape.

1. Turn on the over to 250-275 degrees Fahrenheit.  
2. Hook and slide the disks onto the wire, and when the oven is ready  hook these bad boys on the oven rack. They should be hanging from the racks.

1. Leave them for about a minute, or until the plastic begins to wilt.
2. The wire wasn't very hot and I was able to use my bare hands to remove them from the oven.
3. Gently bend the petals with your finger tips around the bead, slide off, and let cool
4. Make sure that the smaller pieces fit into the larger ones. Like in the picture below

Find a bead larger than the hole punch, slide onto wire, thru the petals and bend wire to set the petals in place. Create a wire loop, and wrap remaining wire around.

And there you have it. You can add jump rings, extra beads, and anything else you want to embellish these beauties. If you want to manipulate the plastic just pop them in the oven to melt the plastic a bit.

Let me know how it works for you, and I hope you have a great Monday!