Green & Blue Dragonfly Necklace and Charm Bracelet

A couple days ago, I posted this picture in a few communities I'm in, asking for ideas and how to use the beads.  

My boyfriend picked them out, and I love the colors. I got some great ideas and decided to try a 4-layer necklace (since I'm still practicing making them). 

Minjae-Lee

Minjae-Lee is a young, self-taught artist from South Korea. I was drawn in by his powerful colors, and the dramatic story behind each image. Taking basic materials such as markers, pens, and acrylics to a whole new level, he is a one-of-a-kind artist. 

"I have loved color since I was 7 year old. Not many people accepted me using colors this way,
including a few teachers.. so. I’ve always drawn by myself. One day, I found markers, and loved them because of the vivid colors they produce. So I always use markers now.

I find inspiration in human face. and abstract movement and COLOR!
so. When I draw people, it’s on the spur of the moment, very spontaneous.
I’m always experimenting with new materials, and ways to do things." 

-Minjae-Lee

To learn more about Minjae Lee or purchase prints, visit his website here.

My First Necklace

Brandon pointed out the fact that I never make necklaces, always bracelets. He was right. I haven't made a necklace since I was around 10 years old. So today, I changed that. I took some black beads I bought from Hobby Lobby, and some black and red beads I found at a garage sale years ago, and put this little creation together.

I have to trim the wires in the back. I was so ready to be done, as soon as I could wear it for a picture, I did.  The beads fell off twice while I was making it! Turned out pretty good for my first piece. I'm also going to make earrings or a bracelet to match.

DIY Hair Bows

I really need to start cracking down on going through my pinterest pins and learning how to make some of the projects I keep telling myself I'll make someday. I've been wanting to start using my ribbon for projects, and came across this gorgeous New Twist on Pretty Ribbon Hair Bows post at TheFrugalGirls. I tried recreating it, and the first one didn't turn out right. I don't know if it's because I used ribbon scraps that were all bunched up and misshapen, or if they were too short.

If you press it flat, it looks a lot better, so I have books on top of it weighing it down right now. Then I used the lengths that were recommended, ribbon on a spool, and got much better results.I wrapped an alligator clip in ribbon, and glued it to the back.

I still think I need to expand my ribbon collection. I'm not used to working with anything outside of the jewelry department, so I need to get practice.

Learning to Crochet

I love that my boyfriend thinks it's so cool that I'm crafy. At my age, most guys think it's dorky, and just want to party. I've been telling him for months that I wanted to learn to crochet, but I never got around to it. He's been bugging me about getting yarn and learning. He saw a book at B&N and kept pushing me to buy it, so I did. It's Carol Meldrum's Simple Stiches: Crochet: 25 Projects for the New Stitcher. It's listed for $17.95, on Amazon for 7.99, but I got it for 4.98. I love this book, it has great ideas, that I will use eventually, but right now, I'm still just practicing. I have never crocheted before, but I somehow had 4 different hooks in my possession. All I needed was the yarn, so I bought some.  I looked through the book, but I didn't really understand the basics of the techniques. I think I just wasn't focusing, because after learning from a video on YouTube, I looked at the instructions again, read through them, and realized it explained it clearly. I don't know why I didn't get it the first time. It's a great book, with great projects. I'm excited. I'm still just practicing, working on getting consistent stitches (some are looser or tighter than others), and making it flow nicely. I sent some pictures to my little sister... She says I'm getting old. 

When I first started, I was so excited, I took it everywhere, in the car, mall, and even guitar center! I put it in a drawstring bag, so I could carry it on my back, with the yarn coming out the top. I also noticed that when I'm crocheting, I don't worry about my boyfriends dangerous driving as much as usual. 

I wasn't able to do much over the weekend, I worked all day Saturday, hurt my knee, worked half a day Sunday, and went home to nurse it back to health. I love the colors and I can't wait to learn different techniques and start making Afghans!

French-Inspired Jewelry

I was walking through Barnes & Noble and came across Kaari Meng's French-Inspired Jewelry, Creating with vintage beads, buttons, & baubles. As soon as I saw it, I knew I had to have it, and for just $4.98 there was nothing stopping me. This book features 50 adorable projects to choose from, and she encourages substituting beads to create something uniquely yours. The first thing that caught my eye was a quote by William Morris, "Not on one strand are all life's jewels strung." A perfect quote for this book.

The layout is wonderful, and the pictures are amazing. Even if you aren't interested in following the instructions, you can find inspiration on every page. I'm in love with this book! The chapters are organized by theme, the titles are in French, and there is an amazing quote in the beginning of each chapter.

Kaari also shares information on vintage hues, creating palettes, types of vintage glass beads, materials, techniques, metric equivalency charts, and even a list of suppliers! 

Beads & Bracelets

After buying about 10 packages of beads from Hobby Lobby, I decided I had way too many seed beads, and needed a quick way to use them. I saw this amazing tutorial for a gorgeous bracelet, but I don't have everything I need, so I can't do it right now. Instead I started making hemp bracelets to help use up my beads. They are so quick and easy, I've been making them pretty much all week.

Hopefully I'll get the beads for the other bracelet I want to make soon. Does anybody have any tutorials to share that use up a lot of beads? I have 8, 20-compartment containers FULL of beads. I have even more in season jars, and more containers of beads still unpacked!