Hen Do Wristbands

For my friend Laura's hen do my friend Lizzi and I made these wristbands for everyone to wear. We made 16 all together. When Laura was younger she loved 101 Dalmatians so we wanted to reference that in the design. 

The first thing we had to do was find dalmatian print fabric. We looked in Hobbycraft and online but could not find what we were looking for so I offered to paint the fabric myself. To make the task a little easier I made a stamp with the print design on from an old rubber. 

The wristbands are made of a section of a plastic bottle with a strip of card stuck on which is then wrapped in the printed fabric. I image-transferred the text on to plain white fabric which was cut out glued to the wristband.

We bought some metal bottle caps to hang from the wristband, sort of like the tag on a dog collar. These said 'if lost' on one side, and 'please buy me a drink' on the other. Miraculously my circle paper punch was the exact size of the bottle caps which made cutting out the circles a lot quicker.

We made small holes in the ends of the bands and threaded black elastic through.  

For the bride-to-be's wristband we added gemstones and her tag read 'I'm tying the knot' 'so buy me a shot.' A phrase courtesy of the hen party I passed when on holiday in Nashville a few years ago.

Ribbon and Gold Ball Bracelet

Coral and Gold Ball Bracelet Stack from New Look 

When I was shopping with my friends the other day I noticed these bracelets in New Look, the bottom one in particular.

One of my friends asked me if I look around at this stuff and think, 'I could make that'.

Well yes, I do.

I remembered these gold balls on wire that I've kept for ages.

They came off some Christmas crackers and I've held on to them thinking they might be useful.

The gold balls on the original bracelet are beads but since these gold balls are already attached to wire I used that to wrap them around a plastic hoop.

Then I wrapped ribbon around the hoop in between the balls.

I also tried using thinner ribbon around a thin bangle

They sort of look like they should be little bells that jingle, but I'm sure that would get annoying.

The best thing about this quick project is that it allowed me to use some of the things I've had for ages but never done anything with.

Secret Santa bracelet

This bracelet was one of the presents I gave my friend Lizzi as part of our Secret Santa this Christmas.

I picked out all the charms from a bead shop in New York called the Bead Center and it's also where I bought my E6000 glue.

The shop had tables full of different charms (and beads and findings and stones and strings) and I was given a tray and some small plastic bags to put my chosen charms in.

Lizzi had spent Christmas 2011 in New York so I made sure to pick out some related charms, like this I heart NY one, and the Statue of Liberty. Then I picked some charms relating to her other interests, like the shoe and cupcake. And I also picked out some I thought were cute, like the star and the umbrella.

I think she liked it.

And it turned out that Lizzi had me for Secret Santa!

I got socks.

Ha.

And an ArtPass which looks pretty cool.

Flea market find

I recently picked this up at a flea market in Norwich.

It's a key cupboard.

Except I don't have enough keys to have a cupboard devoted to them.

No, I need a bracelet cupboard.

The first thing I did was change the picture on the front. Nothing against those flowers but this shell image is much brighter.

I've just slipped it in the frame so I can change it out when I feel like something different.

I also changed the paper on the inside to liven it up a bit and fit the decor of my bedroom. Which is basically any kind of pink.

I hardly ever wear bracelets because I keep them in a box and forget about them, but having them on display here means I can't help but remember them.

I stuck some photos on the inside of the door and instead of just blu-tac ing them on I used some lace trim and double sided tape for a cute play on washi tape.

Re-purposing stuff is fun.

Have any of you done it recently?

New skillz

I have learnt a new skill.

Macramé knots.

I learnt it here. 

This is the first bracelet I made using the technique.

For the centre cord I used a piece of black elastic so I wouldn't have to bother with working closures.

This is the set up I use.

The laptop playing 4od is very important.

And you see the green bead? I move it left to right so I don't forget which order I'm knotting, because when I'm watching 4od, it's easy to lose track.

I also tried knotting around a thin metal bangle with beads on the edges, which turned out well.

I think it looks like Christmas.

And I knotted around an elastic hair band which is pretty cool.

Now I have to stop myself from looking at things and wonderful if I could Macramé knot around them.

Friends, I will be cutting back to 2 posts a week for the next for weeks because with my degree show piece being one long project I have less new things to blog about.

Keeping crafty

I made this bracelet having seen the one below from Oh So Crafty. She actually has a tutorial for how to make it and it kind of looks easier than the way I went about making mine, but I didn't see the tutorial until just now. Live and learn, right.

It's pretty simple. All you need is ribbon, thread and pearly beads. The perfect craft for sitting in front of a movie. Though I wouldn't recommend picking a french movie that has subtitles, cos you can't read them and look at what you're sewing at the same time. My bad.

Ribbon wrap bracelet

You can make this bracelet using just a plastic bangle and ribbon, and then add more to embellish it.

I started with this plastic ring that I found in my house, but you could of course use an actual bangle

Wrap a piece of ribbon around the ring. Wide ribbon is best to initially cover the plastic. You can stick the start of the ribbon to the plastic with glue or tape, or just hold it in place until the ribbon comes around again to secure it. 

You can sew the end of the ribbon in place with thread, or use glue or double sided tape. The stitching can be covered with more ribbon and embellishments so it doesn't have to be neat.

I then wrapped a thinner piece of white ribbon around the bracelet...

...and some silver ric-rac for decoration.

I then made a matching yo-yo (learn how here) using white fabric, the silver ric-rac and a pink button.

I then attached the yo-yo to the bracelet. You can do this by sewing it or maybe with hot glue.

And here's an alternative design using thick shiny ribbon where the ends were tied in a bow with a crotcheted butterfly that my mum made attached.

Armful of bracelets

I find myself wearing more bracelets after seeing Taylor Swift's armful of them in May last year. And the easiest way to fill your arms up is to make them yourself.

I used cheap, plastic beads on thin elastic and the pink bracelet and the one with the hearts were made simply by threading the beads onto the elastic and tying a knot.

With this bracelet I used two pieces of thicker elastic and threaded both of them in and out of the beads so they were side by side instead of end to end.

I threaded this bracelet the same way using a random combination of different sized and shaped clear, silver and black beads.

Most of these blue beads were double threaded side to side, but then I threaded each piece of elastic through one of the holes in this flat bead.