Down the Rabbit Hole

Alice in Wonderland has inspired many creations from art to jewelry to fashion. I decided to try my hand at something inspired from that crazy story.

It helped that in my last box of beads, I found cute little chair charms! 

The first thing I had to do was think of the essence of Alice in Wonderland. I figured that the movie was made of locks and keys and "drink me" drinks and "eat me" cookies, flowers and cards!

So, I searched through my stash and looked for items that would match these elements.

FALLING



             DOWN



                               THE

                             
                                               RABBIT


                                                                   HOLE!

I came up with red beads for the Red Queen, mushrooms (because lets face it, this story was made by someone who was obviously on these), a lock, a chair, flowers and some pearls for the innocence of Alice.
All of these items come from the awesome Blue Moon Bead line!

A little taste of Industrial

If you've been following my blog, you'll know that I absolutely love Steampunk! It's the coolest style of jewelry in my opinion. Industrial jewelry is so unique and nothing comes out looking the same, I think that is why I like it so much.

Whenever I'm at craft fairs, it always amazes me who buys my Steampunk items. It's usually not who I thought would buy it. I even have cute little old ladies say they absolutely have to have it!

In July of 2014 I plan on having a booth at the Steamfest in Ogden and I'm so excited! I've been making tons of Steampunk items.

But just because it's industrial doesn't mean that it had to be huge and chunky and weigh a million pounds. In fact, I am on a mission to prove that stereotype wrong. I want to create a line where you can wear a little bit of steampunk with your outfit daily! 

Here is one of my newest earrings. I made these with fun Blue Moon Beads from a bead tin. All I added was silver gears and Viola, a perfect Steampunk creation that doesn't weigh a ton and will not kill your ears by the end of the day.

I like them because they are simple enough to wear with any outfit, but still make a statement.

Layer those Bracelets!

If you haven't noticed, layered bracelets are in style right now. I've tried my hand at a few different styles of them, but I've found that by far, the easiest ones to make are the stretchy kind. 

If you're a lazy person like me, than this project is for you!

Grab a bunch of fun beads that coordinate well and some stretch cord.

 

I set them up on my bracelet pallet, which has three rows, and I moved the beads around until I had three fun bracelets to string together. (Honestly, choosing them takes longer than actually putting all three bracelets together)

     

                          

String them. Then layer them. I made a few bracelets with the same basic color scheme so I could mix and match.

The cool thing about this, is you could just wear one, or all three, or even four! Let your imagination run wild.

The Gift of Creativity!

Like a lot of people now-a-days, money is tight in my household as well.

With Christmas less than a month away, it's time to search the couch, inside out all pockets and scrounge for money to buy Christmas gifts.

But what happens when all of that searching comes up empty? That just means it's time to get creative!

I don't know about you, but for me, everyone kind of expects jewelry from me now...I mean, it is my hobby. So, this year, I'm throwing them a fast one. I won't be making jewelry, but instead, gifting creativity!

I've seen jar gifts all over Pinterest and I always thought that was a good idea. People can use Jars for so much, so it's like two gifts in one!

With a $3 jar from Walmart, I began to weed through my stash of beads (and a crazy stash it is) and other artsy things to put in this "Creative Jar".

I tried to add in a little bit of everything. For example: Buttons, Beads (glass, ceramic, fabric, wood), pendants (Glass, wood, stone), Charms, Velcro, Glue, Gears, Hair accessory, findings, etc...

Basically, anything that I thought could be used in a project, went into the jar.

It looks like a jumbled mess (it kinda is), the idea is to inspire creativity in the recipient. 

The person that I'm gifting this to, is a craft junkie and so I think that at least a few things in this jar will be used. If anything, it will be fun to look through and discover what is in the jar.

I slapped on some ribbon and a cute tag and there you have it. A perfectly presentable and cost manageable gift.

The great thing about the Creative Jar is that you can make them with pretty much any craft.

If you scrapbook, cut up some fun shapes and strips from your scraps and put them in there. 

If you sew, gather your scraps and make a "Scrap Quilt Kit".

The list goes on and on. 

Side note: Making this jar is a great way to de-clutter some of your craft supplies. It's also a way to give something a second chance at actually being made into something. I don't know about you, but my collection has grown so great that there is no way that I could make all the things I originally planned on making. 

There you have it. I hope that helps some of you who were wondering what to gift someone.

If you make a Creative Jar, I would love to hear about it!