Challenge necklace

During a trip to Midwest Beads a few months ago, Steve decided to pick out a few pieces for me as a challenge.  I got nervous that he'd pick yellow or orange or gold or something else I would have difficulties working with, but he's a good husband and would never do that to me.  He picked a large, dark blue stone bead and a pack of mixed beads.  He also included a magnetic clasp:

Because I've been on a bezelling kick lately, I chose these seed beads to go with the large bead:

Due to having a number of other projects I wanted to get done first, these pieces sat, waiting, looking at me questioningly every time I opened the case.  I knew I wanted to bezel the large bead, but I didn't know what to do for the rest of the necklace.

As you may have picked up from the rest of my projects, I'm more comfortable with symmetry and solid colors than with mixed sets.  That was part of the hesitation.  Another hesitation was that I've been really into stitching lately and haven't done much stringing.

But this week I sat down with the beads and stared at them.  I had thought to have the bead hang vertically with some dangly bits off of the bottom.  But then I turned it 90 degrees and the ideas started popping.

I bezelled the crap out of that bead on Sunday and Monday.  No, I don't know what "bezelled the crap out of that bead" means, but it sounds good, doesn't it?  I did have to fight with it some, especially after the bead went sailing out of the half-finished bezel at Alterra coffee shop Monday night.  I had difficulties getting it back into the bezel, which did not make any sense to me.  It slipped out easily enough, so it should slip back in easily, right?  Yeah.  Not really.

But the bezel finally contained the bead, which is its purpose.  Then I realized that I had to thread 2 wires through the holes which were now all covered up by the bezel.  With a long flexible needle and my trusty needle-nosed pliers, I was successful!  There was one casualty, however.  The needle did not survive.  The pliers snapped it in two while I was forcing the second wire through.  It was able to finish the job, and I gave it a little mental salute as I threw it into my empty Chamomile Lavender tea paper cup.

Tuesday night I sat down to string.  A normal person would have just grabbed beads and strung, but I am not a normal person.  If you haven't figured that out by now, you don't know me at all!  When I was looking at the mixed bead collection, I noticed some dangly kind of beads.  I thought it would be neat to have some dangling off of the bottom strand of the necklace.

I set to work separating all of the beads in the mix.  I decided that some of them were too shiny for this project and set them aside.  After I got partway through, I determined that I wouldn't have enough beads to continue both strands all the way to the back, so I joined them after 4 inches to have a single strand to finish the necklace off.  I still didn't have enough, and I didn't want to put the shiny beads in, so Steve and I raided my stash and found something that "would do".  None of the pictures show these beads, though - they're okay, but not spectacular.  My hair covers them, anyway, and they'll remain hidden unless one of you comes up to me and lifts my hair to check them out.

Here's a close up of the finished necklace, sans the hidden stash beads:

And here I am with it on:

I think it turned out well, and I look forward to future challenges!  I encourage you to challenge your friends, whether it be with jewelry or scrapbooking or any craft.  Trade some pieces from your own stash with a friend and see what each of you can come up with!  Take some pictures and send them to me (traciotte@att.net) and I'll post them here.

Ummm... oops?

I don't know what happened, but the summer has flown by, and it's already September 1st!  I have heard from a few people about the "100 happy things" and that they're not finished yet.  They still want to do it, but they couldn't get it done by the deadline (which is today).

Well.... I'm not done yet, either!  I had completely forgotten about it until my Mom mentioned it on Monday.

So, instead of canning the contest completely, I'm going to extend it.  I still think that it's a worthwhile thing for each of us to do, and I definitely intend on finishing it.

While we're at it, why don't we make it a bit easier?  If you think 100 is too large of a number, and you can't squeeze any more things onto your list, just make what you have pretty and send a picture over to me (traciotte@att.net).  Anything over 50 things, I think.  Mom has come up with 70, so if she can get that many, anyone can!

Remember, these don't have to be earth-shattering revelations here.  It can be as simple as hearing your cat purr (as my Simoon is doing right now while she's resting a back leg on my keyboard and left arm) or a chocolate bar with caramel in it.  Your husband cleaning the litter without being asked is a good one, too!  Yes, I'm pretty much working on my own list here.

New deadline?  November 1st.  That way we can procrastinate for a bit more then get to work.  Who's in?

Charm bracelet

We had a lovely visit with my in-laws last week.  They arrived on Thursday and stayed one night at our house.  I took Mama to the Milwaukee Art Museum for a quilt exhibit on Friday, then on Saturday we joined them farther up in Wisconsin for a family reunion for Steve's father's mother's side of the family (do I have that right?  There are so many connections it gets confusing!).  On the way home Steve and I stopped at the National Railroad Museum while Mama and Papa continued their visit with Steve's Aunt Charlotte and family in Wauconda, Illinois.  The long weekend was really nice, and we have enough pictures for 4 double-page layouts, I think!

I didn't want to blog some of the projects I was hurriedly working on because I wanted Mama to see them "live" before seeing pictures here.  Now that they're back home, the floodgates are opening!

Today's project is a charm bracelet I made for Mama.  She had sent me a few charms that she's had forever but didn't know what to do with.  I told her I'd make a bracelet for her.

I got a foot of chain and a few charms from the local bead store, and they told me that each link was cut, so they could be used like jump rings.  That was perfect!  I bought a number of charms at a bead store in Cedarburg, Wisconsin to go with those that she had sent.  I chose "meaningful" items based on where they live, what she likes to do, etc...

Since I had a foot of chain but only needed 7 inches for a loose bracelet, I decided to make the middle a double layer so I would have no leftovers!  I took off the links needed for the charms, attached the chain, then organized the charms:

The charms are:  a telephone for how far apart we live, a sun for Florida (where they live), a charm she sent with "Tim" (Papa) on one side and "Elaine" (Mama) on the other - I put a flower on Mama's side to make it more feminine, a sewing machine, Papa's Coast Guard charm he received when he retired, a needle and thimble, a cat, a boy's head with Steve's name and date of birth, and a "Made with love" and heart charm to represent me.  I alternated the charms on each of the chains to keep it balanced.

Here's how it looks all put together:

I gave the bracelet to her shortly after she arrived last Thursday, and she loved it!  She put it on right away and kept commenting on how nice it was.

However........

I used a magnetic clasp, thinking it would be much easier for her to put on.  It was difficult to attach because the clasp kept sticking to the charms, the links, my tool, etc...  Yes, it was easy for Mama to put the bracelet on, but it also came off easily, and she almost lost it twice.  So now it's back in my possession, and I need to put another clasp on it.  Magnetic clasps seem to be good for necklaces, but for bracelets... not so much.

This is a great idea for those of you who don't really make jewelry but would like to give a special, custom gift to a loved one.  All you really need are a few pairs of pliers (I use needle-nosed pliers for this sort of thing), the chain, a clasp (I suggest a toggle or snap clasp after the magnetic debacle), and some charms!  This bracelet took me well under an hour to make, and it's so cute!

Guest blogger: My husband!

Sorry for yet another delay, but it's been very busy around here! Steve's parents are coming in a few days, and we've been doing all kinds of things to prepare - painting the kitchen, scrapping, cleaning, etc... Steve offered to write a blog post about a few pages he's recently done. Thanks, honey!

Since my parents are coming from Florida to visit this week, and Traci and I are coming up on our second year of marriage, we figured it was about time we finished the scrapbook for our first year. And by "we" I mean "I", since the only two pages left to be done in that book were pages I told Traci I'd do.

One of those pages is our annual movie page. Every time we go to the theater, we save our ticket stubs and later use them to scrap the movies we've seen that year. I scrapped our first movie page, using pictures I cut out of a couple movie preview magazines I'd saved. I used some popcorn paper Traci had, and used a star-shaped paper punch to make "star" ratings for each of the movies (completely subjective, and Traci disagreed on some of the ratings, but hey, it was my page). It came out pretty good. See for yourself:

This year, I put off doing the 2009 movie page because I didn't have any convenient source of pictures. Actually, part of it was because I didn't know how I'd top last year's page -- I mean, come on, Wall-E pulling his ticket out of the row on the bottom of the page was a stroke of genius! Anyway, when I couldn't put it off any longer, Traci reminded me I could always get the pictures I needed off the Internet. So a-downloading I went, grabbing screen shots and promotional stills from fan pages and movie-review sites. We'd seen 10 movies last year, so I'd need to fit 10 pictures on a two-page spread.

I decided to use a filmstrip motif. I went into Adobe Photoshop Elements and used the marquee (rectangular selection) tool to select two long, skinny rectangles the full length of an 8.5 x 11-inch page. I then held down the "alt" key to un-select smaller rectangles inside them, the approximate proportions of the photos I'd downloaded (4" wide by 2.5" deep). I then used the paint bucket to fill in the remaining film "frame" black. Next, I used the marquee tool again to select a row of small squares along the border and delete them, making the "sprocket holes." Turning on the page grid and selecting Snap To Grid was a big help in getting all these holes the same size and lined up nicely. Even so, I accidentally spaced one set too close together, as Traci saw immediately -- after we printed. Oops.

I then made the black film frames into their own layer so I could paste the pictures behind them, visible through the openings. I opened each of the pictures and used the Crop tool to make them the right size and shape, in some cases trimming off the edges a bit, depending on the proportions of the original. I then copied and pasted them behind the frames. To fill the partial frames on the ends of the filmstrips, I used the same pictures; as long as they weren't next to the same picture, the small sliver that would be left wouldn't be identifiable, I decided. Traci then printed them out for me on glossy photo paper. I cut them out, then tore the ends to make them look more interesting.

The paper we chose for the page was a jumble of scattered tickets. To go along with this graphical motif, I used mono adhesive to stick the filmstrips to the pages at random angles -- two strips on the first page, three on the second. I then labeled the pictures by sticking the ticket stubs next to the appropriate pictures, again at angles as if they'd been scattered randomly. I used the blank back of a duplicate ticket for a small amount of hand-written journaling, and Traci cut out my headline in black using her Gypsy and Expression. She stuck it to the back of another duplicate ticket, I added a cardboard popcorn-box cutout she gave me, and the page was done. Here's the result:

I wanted to headline this one "Movie Date 2: Return of the Sequels," but only half the movies we saw were actually sequels or remakes, so the joke didn't really work. Traci said it was too long for a headline anyway. Just wait till next year's page, "Movie Date 3: Revenge of the 3-D Movies!"

Sorry for the quality of the pictures - I didn't have time to scan and stitch all the pages together, so I just took pictures of them.  Doesn't he do good work?  Puts me to shame, he does.

My "little secret"

Here it is... the "blooper reel" for the video I posted yesterday.  While most of it is mild, there's a big shocker at the end.

I hope you enjoy it!

I still can't believe this...

Last Friday, during the Cricut Circle gathering in Pewaukee, Wisconsin, I reconnected with Cyndy and Fumiyo and a few other women I met the week before at CHA.  Here's a picture of the three of us (Fumiyo is on the left, and Cyndy is on the right):

Shannon from Provo Craft gave away quite a number of items: cartridges, T-shirts, sweatshirts, and machines ("I don't want to take anything back with me!").  Cyndy won a Cricut Cake machine (a Cricut machine that will cut edible materials for cakes, cupcakes, cookies, etc...).  The woman in front of us (I'm sorry - I don't remember your name!) had won a Cricut Expression (a Cricut cutter that will cut up to around 12" x 24" - the original machine that I have cuts up to around 6" x 12").  Cyndy already had a Cake, and the woman in front of us already had an Expression.  They swapped machines.  I won an "October 31st" cartridge, which is all Halloween stuff.  Cyndy loves Halloween, so I gave it to her - I wouldn't use it very often.

Well..... Cyndy gave me her Expression!  I protested, but she insisted.  She said she already had one, and I didn't.  I am completely baffled, but I'm thrilled!  I did have to rearrange my craft room a little so I could leave the Expression set up away from my normal work area, but that gave me more room for another plastic 2-drawer cart.

Now that I know how to edit and upload videos, I recorded my "inaugural cut":



After I very carefully spatula-ed (yes, that's a technical term) the letters and shapes off of the mat, I finished my scrapbook layout on the hotel where Steve and I stayed during our trip to Chicago last October:

I think the page turned out quite well!  I used Stone Script for the title and Heritage for the flourishes.  Since I've been promoting hand-written journaling (see this blog post for my thoughts on this), Steve wrote out our thoughts on our hotel:

Okay, I added my own thought at the end there, and I used a Slick Writer to write on the front of one of the photos:

That's it for today.  I'd like to thank Cyndy profusely for giving me such a generous gift!  I can't wait until I have a chance to cut something really large.

Yes, I promised you a blooper reel.  That will come tomorrow...  I need some more time for editing.

Guest blogger: Debbie from Texas

Hi there!  I know I mentioned yesterday that I'd have a new project to show you today, but I'm not quite done with it yet.  Fortunately an e-mail came in today with someone else's new project!

I met Debbie and her sister, Joy, at the Cricut Circle gathering at CHA about a week and a half ago.  They were both crazy about my charm bracelet, and I saw them a number of times at the CHA Craft SuperShow that afternoon.  Debbie sent me an e-mail with a few projects that she finished recently.  I edited it slightly to take out a question she had about me joining the charm swap that's going on in the Circle.

You so inspired me that I came home and did these (the Texas charm) for the Charm Swap.

and here's what I did with the little buttons they gave us at the CHA meet and greet.  I will be adding those to my bracelet this week.
 

Thanks for your inspiration...your bracelet is just so awesome...you totally inspired me to try this.  I posted a link to your video on the Circle MB a little while ago...hope you get some more followers out of it because you have a great blog.

Wow - thank YOU, Debbie!  Your charm came out so cute, and that's a great idea for those pins!  They'd even make good earrings using that technique.

And thanks for your promotion of my blog!  I have 4 new followers in the last day or so, and I likely have you to thank for it!

I'll try to finish the project I'm working on and post it for you tomorrow.  There's some video editing to be done, and there will be another blooper reel!  I have a feeling that is going to end up being a steady part of my blog, with as many mistakes as I make in my projects.

If you have a project you'd like to share, please e-mail me with some pictures, like Debbie did, and I'll get it posted!  My e-mail address is traciotte@att.net.

Thanks again, Debbie - I was wondering how I'd get a blog post done today.  You're my hero!