Beaded Necklace Change Up

The turquoise and wooden bead necklace in the foreground is a piece I purchased. I found it on the Macy's sale table and thought that the structure of the piece made it easily copied. Although I thought that the southwestern look was appealing, I wanted a more tropical necklace. It was easy to measure the department store piece and find similar materials at Ben Franklin Crafts. (See bottom photo.) Right now the store has many types of cordings, silver plated findings, and seed beads. Also available (while the supply lasts) are a jumbo packages of silver (or bronze) colored metal beads. Jewelry crafters will appreciate this bargain. The beads I used included prehenite, turquoise, shell, bone, metal, and various glass beads. When time permits I will try to write up a project sheet so you can create your own version of this simple three-strand beaded necklace. Thank you for being a visitor to this site. Please return often and leave a comment if you have the time. I enjoy hearing from you.

Belated Birthday Card

I had planned to make an elaborate !st Birthday card but as usual time moved on but I didn't. I knew I wandted to make a girly girl card and so I purchased one of the Sister Stamps (available now at Ben Franklin Crafts) because I thought it would give the card a local look. The day before I started this card, Cheryl (Life is Sweet - http://pinkydots.blogspot.com/) sent me a 'magic' card. (She will be doing a demo of this type of card at the Pearl City BFC paper party next month.) I've always been intrigued with the mechanics of 'magic color' cards, so I inspected Cheryl's card. It took me awhile, but I figured it out without (LOL) taking Cheryl's card apart. Since I was already late with the card, I kept it simple by just attaching the sliding envelope to a printed cardstock (Best Creation Inc.) card. Copic markers (sold at Ben Franklin Crafts) were used to color the image. The addition of a ribbon, rose, and Martha Stewart cardstock Birthday banner completed the card. For a first time and without instructions, I am fairly pleased with the results. Oh, one thing I would do to improve the card would be to use a stiffer acetate piece so it would be easier to slide the image in and out. Well, that's it for today. Happy Birthday Nykki !

Too Much Basil?

What do you do when your garden produces more basil than you could possibly eat? I make pesto. It's easy and yummy. All you need is about a 1/3 cup of toasted pine nuts, 1 cup of basil leaves, approx. 1/2 cup of good quality olive oil, a couple of slices of parmesan cheese and salt/pepper to taste. I use a Magic Bullet blender but probably any small blender would work. First I grind up the cheese, then add the cooled nuts and basil with the oil (a little at the time) until a thick liquid results. You may have to add more olive oil. Voila! You have homemade pesto to dress up your sandwich or add to salad dressing. This pesto will last for weeks in the refrigerator and make a super hostess gift. When life gives you basil, make pesto! Go Green!

Craft books for Papercrafters

Without a Borders in Hilo, I'm always on the lookout for compendium edition craft books which compile the best of a year's worth of a craft magazine. I found two such treasures and wanted to share them with you. As you can see from all the Post-It tabs I placed in each book to mark the best pages. I refer to both of these books when I just can't think of what to do and need inspiration. The large book of Papercrafts magazine has the added bonus of some very good recipes to go with the paper crafted items. The Cowboy Caviar salsa is to die for and would be a great, simple, no-cook dish for a potluck. Keep reading and crafting this summer. Thanks for stopping by. I appreciate your visits and hope you'll come back again.

Gearing Up for a Steampunk Birthday Card

My son's birthday is coming up so I wanted to make him a special card since he is such a special boy (aw, that's a mom's opinion). He is a thinker and I can always see the gears turning in his head when he is working on a project. When I found these Viva Las Vegastamps, I knew they would make a perfect birthday card in combination with the Tim Holtz small gears die set I purchased from Ben Franklin Crafts. As usual I was in a rush to complete the card on time, so I was relieved to make a guy-card without the multitude of color and embellishments needed for girly cards. I cut the gears out of metallic vellum in three colors and wired them with Vintage wire (available at BFC). The vintage typewriter keys are stickers I found in my really old stash of sticker letters and were used because I wanted to note my son's age. (I had him when I was only 15 LOL! You believe me right!) You could use some other industrial-looking stickers/embellishments to get the same steampunk effect. I'm very pleased with the overall look of this birthday card and hope that it makes my son smile (maybe I should include some green stuff to make that smile bigger) LOL! With all the popularity of the steampunk look in jewelry, papercrafts, and other craft projects, I hope you'll give it a try. Crank up your crafts!

Sea glass necklace

Recently, I came across a collection of sea glass and together with this wire-wrapping book idea (see bottom photo) I was inspired to do more sea glass jewelry. (I had a blog post on a sea glass necklace about a year ago.) Please click on the picture to see the detail of the wire-wrapping in the photo. These necklaces differ from the older version because they use the new silver plated wire sold at Ben Franklin Crafts. I used 24 gauge for this project because it is thin enough to go through pearls and wraps easily. There are many different gauges and brands of silver plate wire at the store now. Also this silver plated wire is inexpensive as compared to sterling silver so you can really experiment with wire-wrapping. For my necklaces I only used one piece of sea glass so that they would be the focal point. The top piece has just a simple chain and the other one has a chain made with wire-wrapped beads and pearls. Well, I hope this has given you some ideas of how you can incorporate found objects into your jewelry pieces. Happy beach combing and crafting this summer!

Vintage Fruit Spoon and Low-Sugar Blueberry Jam

What's a fruit spoon? Well, in this case (sorry the photo doesn't show how beautiful the spoon really is), it is a utensil that has a bowl embossed with fruit shapes. I believe it was once used for jam or was from a set of spoons used for the Victorian fruit course. When I found it in an antique store for only $5, I grabbed it with a smile. It has a maker's mark (on the back of the handle) which indicates that it was made in Sheffield, England so I know it is a high quality heavy silver plate spoon.

Why low-sugar blueberry jam? Because Hawaii has one of the highest (if not the highest) ratio of diabetics per population in the nation, I've begun to recalibrate my recipes to cut back on sugar. I love summer fruits, especially blueberries. In season a big container of blueberries is quite reasonable. Anyway, you'll need about 3 cups of berries and 3/8 cup of Splenda Blend to make a jar of jam. Put the blueberries in a medium size saucepan with the Splenda Blend and some lemon zest (if desired) and cook it on medum heat for about 20 minutes until the jam drips from the spoon in a thick large drop. Pour the jam into a jar and let it cool before refrigerating.
This recipe can even be made with frozen berries. Because blueberries are high in antioxidants, this low-sugar version is healthy when eaten in moderation. Using a pretty vintage plate and eating the jam with high-fiber bread will make this a pleasant and healthy snack. Enjoy! Be healthy!