New Blog Location!

Alright, it's official. I'm no longer posting here...
Because I'm starting to post on my new blog!

My first post went up there today. However, I'm waiting to throw a full-blown launch party until Monday next week so that I can work out all the kinks and problems. It still does have some little quirks, so please forgive me while I work those out.

Please, please follow me there! I'll be posting in Facebook and on Twitter as new posts go up, and once I get the RSS feed working and get links to other social media hubs up and running, you ought to be able to follow me as you please.

So go and see my latest post! There's a free printable template for some really cute Valentine candy boxes. I think you'll like them!

My New Favorite Old Earrings

You may have noticed the fabulous star earrings I was wearing in my post about ModestPop.com. Maybe you didn't. Either way, here's the story on them.

I usually don't go to estate sales and yard sales these days. Don't get me wrong--I love going to those. We just currently don't have much space or money to spend on fun or frivolous things at the moment.

But back when we were shopping for a second car, we looked at one that happened to be at an estate sale.

And, of course, I couldn't stay away.
And, of course, I bought a dozen couple of things.

My favorite find:
These fabulous star earrings.

The earrings, of course, are clip-ons (I swear, they were meant for me to own).

They are also silver plated, and even though I prefer sterling silver stuff, I love these no less. They were pretty tarnished and dirty when I got them.

Thank goodness for polishing cloths.

Oh, I'm so in love with these!

Okay, now I have to keep myself away from yard sales and estate sales for a while. If I don't know they're there, then I can't feel sad about missing them. Ignorance is bliss, right?

Wedding Jewelry

When I made Amber her bracelet for her wedding, I actually made two bracelets before making the one I gave to her. I was basically just getting my momentum up to make the perfect one. The third time was a charm. It was perfect for her.

Lucky for everyone else, I now have two new stunning bracelets in my shop for sale.

They're perfect for weddings or any other dressy occasion. If you like any of them enough, I'm even willing to make matching earrings and necklaces for them. And I'll probably do that at some point anyway. But for now, it's just the bracelets.

They're made with freshwater pearls, Swarovsky crystals, and sterling silver. Let me know how you like them!

Amber's Bracelet

I love to make wedding jewelry. I wish I had pictures of all the jewelry I've made for brides and bridesmaids. But I don't. It's probably because I haven't thought of documenting it all until the last year or two. Which is a shame for everything I can't track down and photograph.

Like the tiara I did for one bride. She had her grandmother's old and broken jewelry set of crystals and pearls, brought them into the bed shop I was working at, and the owner directed her to me (which was so flattering to my teenage self). She wanted them made into a tiara for her wedding. So I made them into a tiara. I'd never made one before. But I knew I could do it.

So I did. And it was gorgeous.

I still have my wedding jewelry. Yes, I made my own jewelry, even if I didn't make my own gown like I'd dreamed of doing my whole life (when you find the right dress, you find the right dress... what can I say?) And I have the photos my photographer took of me wearing those pearls. But that'll be another post for another day.

Anyway, when my friend Amber started dating this wonderful-in-every-way, tall, dark, and handsome gentleman, I was expecting the relationship to turn into a marriage. And it did. We all suspected that it would.

One day a couple of weeks before the big day, I asked if she had wedding jewelry. Her eyes got huge and she said, "Wedding jewelry?!" Obviously with all of the moving, planning, working, planning, and smitten daydreaming going on in her life, it had slipped her mind.

I smiled, point to myself and said, "Helllllooo," with a smile.

Of course I'd make her something--whatever she wanted. She did find some earrings she liked from David's Bridal. She asked if I could make them. You know, I probably could have come close, but I told her that she might as well buy them if they're exactly what she wanted. So she did (and it didn't hurt my feelings--it's her wedding, not mine, after all). And then she asked if I'd make a bracelet to match.

So I did. And once again, it was gorgeous.

And it matches the earrings perfectly!!

I love using drop pearls. They have such a unique look when strung together. Add in the playfulness and eye-catching brilliance of crystals and you've got a perfect balance with the elegance and sophistication of pearls.

I found these vintage Swarovsky balls of crystals at a bead shop in La Mesa called The Bouncing Bead.

One of my favorite details to add to any wedding jewelry is to put a heart-shaped clasp on. I found this one at a bead shop in Old Town called Lost Cities. Isn't it a lovely little touch?

And Amber make a beautiful bride. I'm so happy for her!

Girls Camp Craft: Pendant Charm Bracelet

I was planning on posting about this a month ago. Then when I went in to put a final edit on here and schedule it to post, somehow my ancient laptop glitched out and I accidentally deleted the whole thing and couldn't get it back.

*facepalm*

I've finally gotten over the frustration of that and decided to rewrite the post. So here we go again.

..........................................................................................................

You may recall that I was the craft leader at our annual Girls Camp back in July. Here's another crafts the girls made.

Pendant Bracelets

These were fun and super easy to make. We already had embroidery floss from the headbands we made, so we used it in this craft as well.

I'd found these fun pendants at various craft stores and had this simple craft easily planned out.

A few tips and tricks with these bracelets:

We used lobster claw clasps so that the girls could take these bracelets off as they wanted/needed to. I put split rings on each clasp and used another as a closure. It made them easy to tie on (we just used square knots).

Put some simple little beads on the ends. It makes for a fun little fringe, plus you can hold the bracelet around your wrist with your fingers while putting it on yourself.

If there are small holes that are tricky to get the embroidery floss through, use a needle threader. Put the threader through the hole, slip the floss through the threader, and then pull the threader with the floss through the tiny hole. Just be sure to plan out if you need a single strand or doubly strand of embroidery floss through the hole and use the needle threader accordingly.

I love planning easy crafts so that no matter what skill set each young woman has, she can participate. I'm also always excited to see how creative some of the girls can get with such a basic idea.

And they did not disappoint this year!

Such a fun and simple craft! And it can be as colorful or monochromatic as you want it to be--completely customize-able to yourself.

Baby Blessing Bracelets

I love baby showers. Well, what I really love is making cute gifts for baby showers. Something unique I love making for baby girls are what I call Blessing Bracelets.

In my religion, we don't baptize infants. We do, however, pronounce a special blessing or prayer over them after they're born. It's something to officially put their names into the church records as well as offer spiritual guidance for their lives from the beginning. I love baby blessings and have always found them quite special.

Traditionally, when a baby is blessed, they're dressed in white. It's not required, and if they're not wearing white it truly doesn't make a difference. It's just something symbolic many people do.

For Graham, I partially made and partially bought a little white suit/tuxedo for him to wear when Bob blessed him. It was a really special day.

Baby Graham at 2 months old. I love that his hair is the same
color as Bob's tie, and also that it's blowing madly in the wind.

It has been a long morning for the poor boy and he was ready for a nap. But this was the first time he'd cried all day! We were proud of how well he'd behaved up until this point. Heck, even here you can see what proud parents we are!
(Also, I was looking dang good for just having a baby two months prior!)

For girls, I like to make these Blessing Bracelets for them to wear when they are blessed. For my friends I tend to make two--one that is just white freshwater pearls and one that has some color in it as well.

So for my friend Michelle, who is having a baby girl this winter, I made her a set of these bracelets. One was all white freshwater pearls, and the other was white freshwater pearls and rose colored Swarovsky crystals.

I love these so much, and they are so sweet and adorable. Little girls are so fun to dress up, and these bracelets are the perfect little accent to many outfits, not only for baby blessings.

If you like these, please go check out the ones I have for sale in my Etsy store!

Paying It Forward

There’s a pay-it-forward crafty plan underway, and lots of bloggers appear to be joining in!

So, here’s how this pay-it-forward thing works:
I will send a surprise gift to the first three commenters on this post (and if there are more I might just send out more). The gift will be a handmade surprise by me and I will send it to you sometime in the next 365 days. All you need to do is the following:

• Leave me a comment and include your email address (if you profile doesn’t link back) so I can get in touch with you about your mailing address and some other information about yourself.
• To complete signing up, you MUST play along too by blogging a similar post and pledging to make a surprise for the first 3 people who comment on it.

So, do you want to play along?
Comment below, and I’ll send a thoughtful gift to the first three people who do.
Let's pay it forward to one another!

Converting to Clip-Ons, Again

I mentioned that I was in two weddings so far this year in an earlier post and that I got earrings for pierced ears from both brides.

For my good friend Stephanie's wedding, she gave each bridesmaid a couple of sets of coordinating earrings and let us choose which ones to wear. One was a set of elegant pearl studs, another was a set of stunning rhinestone and pearl dangles. Since I had just chopped my hair off and it was styled into a fuchsia fauxhawk for her wedding, I decided to go with the dangling earrings to add a little extra femininity to myself for the occasion.

Now, when it comes to earrings, I abhor the cheap, gaudy clips that are sold in bulk from craft stores. They're awful! They're bulky, and HUGE on my dainty little earlobes, and they ruin the look of any earring. If I can't find something nice from a locally owned bead shop, I like to go into stores like Claire's, find a few sets of clip on earrings that are broken, buy them discounted, and use the clips from those. The clips on earrings from stores like those tend to be smaller, shinier, and all-around prettier. They're usually just silver plated (because sterling silver is pricey), but I'm okay with that and so is my skin. 

So I looked at my earrings that I had bought from stores like those for occasions like this, and found a set that worked out nicely. The shape of the rhinestones doesn't exactly match, but it's not that noticeable for how quick of a fix this was (since it was the morning of the wedding when I fixed them--I had only received them the night before!).

Simple and elegant. 

I still like them and wear them on occasion!

Pretty Pastel Pink Pendant Earrings

I've had lots fun beads, wire, chain, and miscellaneous jewelry fixtures hanging around for a few years now. So I made something with them.

They are for pierced ears, which if you recall, I do not have.

Know what that means?

They're for sale!

Go see them in my Etsy shop. 

And have a look at the matching necklace that's for sale too.

Favorite them. Pin them. Buy them.

Thanks for looking!

Converting to Clip-Ons

My ears are not pierced. They never have been. And I doubt if they ever will be.

I've been a bridesmaid in two weddings so far this year, and it's funny (although not surprising) to me that I received earrings for pierced ears to wear with my attire for each wedding. Don't get me wrong--I'm not complaining because I LOVE earrings and I do prefer to make them into clip-ons myself if I have the option. And let's face it. As a bride, the last thing they were each thinking about was, "Well, I sure do hope that Janae's ears are pierced..." So I'm really not offended or hurt by this generous, albeit somewhat ironic, gesture.

So, for my cousin Jennie Ray's wedding, one of her accent colors was gold. Each bridesmaid got a set of these gorgeous gold filigree flowers with crystal rhinestones set over the front.

I went to The Bead Fairy and found a small but decent selection of clip-on findings. As I was looking, I had an idea. I looked through the Swarovsky crystals, and it suddenly all came together in my head.

I chose the earring clips that something could be glued into, however I didn't have time for glue to dry and set completely before the wedding (thanks to traveling so last-minute and helping the bride with some last minute wedding needs). I didn't have all of my jewelry tools either (again, thanks to last-minute travel).

But I knew that my brother, whose family my husband and I were staying with for the trip, had lots and lots of tools and had to have something small enough that would work for what I needed. He did, even if it was a some-what unorthodox way of punching a tiny hole through the top part of the clip-on...

Anyway, here's the final outcome.

I was also 8 months pregnant for her wedding. (And for the record, I do not recommend taking a normally 12 hour road trip at 8 months pregnant! It turns into an 18 hour road trip.)

Girls Camp Charm Necklace

Girls Camp was last week and I survived it with my sweet three-month-old in tow. It helped that Bob came along with me. It was good for those young women to see a happily married couple working together in so many ways. It was also wonderful for us to take Graham on his first ever camping trip. That baby is such a wonder to have! He's so happy and well-tempered, and only fussy when he's hungry or tired. We're so incredibly blessed.

Me hiking with my sweet baby boy.

So back to Girls Camp! If you don't know, it's a church camp we do each summer. The girls age 12-17 are all invited to attend, and if they go they learn outdoor survival skills, play fun games, make cute crafts, grow spiritually, and strengthen friendships with all of the other young women in the area who are members of our church. I went each year when I was a young woman and I loved it!

I went as a leader this year (for the fourth time). It's a totally different experience than when I was 14 or 15! Still a very good one, though. My dear friend Vanesa planned nearly all of camp this year on her own. I jumped in to help as much as I could and to take a load off her shoulders. She put me in charge or crafts as well as helping to plan and organize the week.

One of our hopes for this year's camp was that the girls would have a desire to participate in each of the activities we planned. To do that, I had the idea of making a charm necklace for each young woman. As they participated in activities and did various things throughout the week, they would earn a charm to add to their necklace. I spent hours and hours coming up with what exactly they could earn charms for, designing and making the charms, and then putting the necklaces together. But I love making jewelry, so it was like therapy for me. 

Here's the end product if they earned every charm.

After doing some math, I'm happy to say that these necklaces cost under $6 each! 

(That's excluding labor--I charged for the cost of the supplies only.) 

At the end of the week we asked what they did and didn't like about camp this year, and we got some great feedback. A few of them talked about the charm necklaces specifically. They all seemed to love them! It really did motivate them to take part in lots of activities and try things they didn't want to. Oh, how wonderful that made me feel! It was well worth all of the time and energy I put into not just those things, but into everything I did to plan and prepare for Girls Camp this year.

Maybe we'll see more of these in the coming years...

Ear Vines

This morning I woke up to this:

What a treasure. 

<3

On to my post for today...

I used to work at a bead shop in my hometown. I loved it there! Anytime I worked, everyone could count on me to be making something for the store to sell. It was such a dream come true while I lived there.

One item I made was inspired by something the owner had seen in a magazine. They were called "Ear Vines" and instead of dangling off your earlobe, they basically wrap up along your ear. (Google it--you'll see tons of different ones.)

The problem is everyone's ears are different. I made one set that fit me but not another girl who worked with me at the shop. Instead, I made some smaller ones that would fit nearly anyone. I've been meaning to make some more, so I'm planning another post or two showcasing some new ones I'll sell in the near future. [Keep your eyes peeled!]

Here are the ones I made back in the day. I still love and wear them often.

One of the cool features about these is that you don't need pierced ears to wear them. Mine aren't pierced, so I designed these ones specifically for me because of that.

I get compliments on these all the time still, even though they're now 8+ years old. 

I love them!