More DIY Crocheted Bead bracelets!

Hello all!

So, Christmas and Santa has come and gone! Phew! That was a lot of food and family time. Precious times when we all get together and realize how lucky we are to have all the gorgeous family members we have. 

I have been lucky to be off for 6 days over Christmas! That was something I haven't had for months! 

What else can a girl do than take this down time as an opportunity to craft! Ha!

Crafted I did! See!! 

Warning: lots of photos of these beauts :-)  

Also, please forgive the unedited mess. 

If you liked them, let me know! My better half said these beauties can definitely be gifted... 

Now off to work I go tonight for 6 nights in a row. Now that is something to ponder and heave my chest. Like last year, when midnight strikes I will be on the phone with my kids and husband doing the countdown with them armed with my coin purse and a healthy space to be jumping on and screaming "Happy New Year!!!" In the hospital, finding a space to do that is tough and so I found it in the back stairs! No one around to mock me or shush me and far enough from everyone that I can still celebrate new year jumping! Breathless and happy is a good way to start the new year. It could be better by spending it with family but hey, I can come home 8 hours later and find them most probably comfortably asleep and warm which makes me happy.

What's your new year's celebration tradition? As a family, we normally have cheese and biscuits for midnight... Yum!

For the New Year, I wish you all overflowing love and happiness and good health!

May xxx

Crochet Seed Bead Rope Bracelet with my Favorite Stack

On this bracelet, I used a size 8 seed bead in aqua with a silver lining. It's a row of 6 and about 4.5 inches in length.

I added a bead cap, gem and silver tone spacers, crystals and a pearl.

And here it is with my diy pearls and crystal bracelet and Tiffany silver bead bracelet. I have used this stack on literally anything I have worn and got so many lovely comments about them. 

They are so cute and simple to make. Because of the size of the seed beads, you can easily whip the crochet bead rope in an hour or so depending on how quick you are with those hooks! ;-)

Enjoy! 

May xxx

Crochet Flowers Headband Tutorial DIY

I have made lots of headbands for Ashley and this seems to be my favorite. We have gifted them to friends and they seem to like it too! 

I used some vintage cotton yarn and had to use 2 or 5 strings together to achieve the thickness I need. You can use a 4ply for the small flowers and a double knit on the big flower.

Materials:

Cotton yarn (or whichever one you prefer)

Crochet hook 3mm for the big flower

Crochet hook 2mm on the small flowers

18 inches suede strings x3

black ponytail

gluegun or any strong glue you already have

cotton thread to match your flowers

Flower Pattern:

1. Make a magic ring and do 6 sc into the ring. Slip stitch.

2.  *Chain 2 and slip stitch to the next sc* repeat 5 times. You can change color from this point or carry on with the same color.

Added a few flat backed pearls on each of them and placed  the flowers on the suede plaited strings. I sewed them instead of gluing it on but you can for the process to be quicker.
Enjoy!

May xxx

Cross Stitched Family Portrait DIY

My cross stitched family portrait took me longer than expected to do. I was a very keen cross stitcher when I finished university. I used to do it all night! Maybe that's why I thought a teeny tiny one would be a breeze and maybe take me an hour or two to complete. But no. Sadly, drawing it took an hour already. But how it turned out was quite surprisingly pleasing and adorable. Apart from maybe changing the color of the Aida cloth to show that Skips (our white female Maine Coon) is actually present, I think it turned out pretty nice.

Here's the drawing I made of the pattern. A few inspirations from Martha Stewart came in handy. I had to revise the pattern for Ashley and I. She's taller than me now and we both have long hair. The only distinction between her and me in the pattern was that I am on a dress. But anyone can get that mixed up. So to show the true depiction of our family, I made her taller than me in our cross stitched family portrait and gave her a plaited hair! 💁

I added a few seed beads and a lot back stitches later....

Ta dah! What do you think? It looks cute. I placed it in a frame. I still have to figure out how to frame it properly but for now, it's sitting nice and proud in our hallway where everyone can see it.

What do you think?

May xxx

DIY Dangling Seed Bead Earrings

I like these earrings. A lot. They're simple and understated. 

I made them using emerald green size 11 seed beads, open gold tone jump rings and made my own earring hooks using gold wire.

It took maybe up to an hour to make it. Depends how fast you can put on those tiny seed beads in!

My son Ethan will probably not be impressed if he saw me put it on his bear as my model. It just shows off the color better I thought.

Let me know what you think.. a tutorial maybe? I'd be happy to share :-)

May xxx

DIY Arm Candies

I'm sorry I've been AWOL for a while. But I thought you'd like to see my latest hand crafted DIY'ed arm candies! They're pretty much self explanatory. I used pink quartz, sapphire ruby and emerald beads, and swarovski crystals. Sadly, I have lost a few precious gem bracelets I've made before and it's all to do with the closures I used. This time around, I used an elastic thread and just crimped the ends together. I find them slightly more secure than the toggle closures. I also don't have to worry about it tarnishing as I use it all day everyday if I do decide to put them on when I get dressed.

It's nice to be back crafting. I've been busy doing other things like sewing and beading! I'll try and post some of it in the next few days or weeks ;-)

May xx

PS I thought you guys might want to have a look at some pictures of them ;-)

Snowflake Crystal Earring DIY

Now that the snow has started falling in England, I found the crystal snowflake I have been looking for since last December! How weird is that? 

And now that I have found it, I've decided to make something out of it before I misplace it again somewhere where it's going to hide from me all summer!

This is what I made:

Do you like it?

It's very simple to make.

I wire-wrapped the crystal and added it directly to my pre made earring hook.

What inspired you today?