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 Crochet Rope Bead Bracelet 2

I had an obsession about these rope beads as you can see. I bought lots and lots of seed beads hoping to make one for every girlfriend I have or just to make them to satisfy my need to craft. Threading them though is a tad fiddly. My cats thought it was playtime every time I thread them. What with all those shiny things and strings! 😊

I used size 11 seed beads. I have pinned a few inspirations and patterns in Pinterest. I want to make them all!

This particular one is very girly and made for Ashley. Pink, pearls, pink quartz and a shiny shamballa and it's done! I sometimes make 2 slightly different but fairly identical so Ashley and I can do an  arm candy tandem. 😉

I hope you all like it! Let me know what you think!

May xx

DIY Crochet Rope Bead Bracelet

DIY Crochet Rope Bead Bracelet

I love crochet. I tried crocheting a rope bead and it took a while to get to this length. Fiddly is an understatement! But i finally did it! They are size 11 seed beads in a pattern of 8. I think I ran out of beads to crochet when I made this piece, either that or my fingers were already hurting and I was giddy to make something finished!

I'm pleased with how it turned out. The beads has a silver lining so it's slightly shiny.

Silver wire, matching spacer bead and ta-da!

I have made a few rope beads but not made them into anything yet.. Pinterest has some fascinating inspirations. My ropes aren't long enough for necklaces though. If only I have a few extra hours to do them ;-)

Let me know what you think! 

May xx

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 ;-)

DIY J Crew Inspired Statement Necklace

First and foremost, I'd like to start by making excuses by saying how sorry I am for not being able to post for awhile!

I like sharing new things with people, new ideas, different outlooks, genius designs.

I saw this DIY at Owls Wake Up and thought it's pretty cool.

This one's J Crew's necklace.

This one is Beth's at Owls Wake Up.

And this is mine!

 There are lots of photos to instruct you to put it together at Owlswakeup. I tried to look for the exact size of the bead but couldn't so I played a bit with how small or tight I made my jump rings and pins.

Mine is at least a third smaller than hers but I like how it turned out. :-)

It took me not too long either once I got all my things together.

So, give it a go!

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?