Thoughtful Thursday – Crafting Blues

I am not going to lie – the end of last year was rough. Lots of sickness, we lost my dad, my uncle, and our family dog, and an all-around transitional period of life kind of melded together to create a big ball of sadness and stress. So, as we make our way into the new year, we’re trying to focus on the business and just being creative again. It’s hard to be inspired when you feel blue, but sometimes just making something, not related to gift giving, or putting up on Etsy, but just about making something that you like for fun, can sometimes lead to more creativity.

Today, it’s eyeball earrings. I’ve been wondering what to do with these round, white, retro, blank canvas earrings since I got them (a couple of years ago …?) They’ve been sitting in one of my many jewelry supply boxes, and I’d pick them up occasionally, turn them over, then put them back. It dawned on me today that they’d make perfect eyeballs, so I decoupaged some pupil/iris printouts on them today just for fun, and I like the way they turned out so much that I think I’ll keep this pair for myself, and list the rest in JuJu Eyeball!

Reason number 4,231 why working from home is awesome is that you don’t have to put on makeup or style your hair all the time. 🙂

So, today I’m wishing you happiness and creativity – get a little messy, and nourish your soul at the same time!

Share the Love,

Chels

Make It Monday – Simple, Elegant Holiday Earrings

A pair of simple, sparkly earrings made using vintage beads.

If you’re looking for a quick, festive holiday accessory or a simple gift or stocking stuffer for female family and friends, a pair of earrings is a pretty safe bet. Provided one of your friends doesn’t have piereced ears (you could always invest in some clip-ons), it’s the one piece of jewelry that women are most likely to accessorize with. Even if they don’t wear necklaces, bracelets or rings, they’re likely to put in (and probably keep in) a simple pair of earrings that go with everything. Start an assembly line of beads and wire for this project, and you’ll be done in no time!

Here’s what you need:

Earring hooks in silver, gold, or steel

Matching headpins or wire

Decorative beads (plastic or glass; clear, silver, and gold are classic choices)

Round nose plyers

Needlenose plyers

How to make the earrings:

Step 1: Once you’ve decided which beads to use, place them in the order you like on a headpin. You can play around with shape – use 3 different size beads (small to large) to creat a teardop, for example. Repeat for the second headpin. If you’re planning on making all of the earrings the same, go ahead and repeat for all of the headpins.

Step 2: Taking a beaded headpin in one hand, use the round nose plyers to grasp the open end and curl it into a loop. Before you’ve closed the circle completely, bend the plyers back in the opposite direction a bit, so that the wire at the bottom of the circle is crimped. This centers the loop above the wire, gives the earrings better balance, and makes them look more professional.

Step 3: Place the earring hook in the circle you’ve made, and close the wire using needlenose plyers to gently push the end in.

That’s it! You can customize the length of the earrings by clipping the headpins to different lengths with wire cutters, or leave them long for a dangly earring with lots of motion, adding as many or as few beads as you like. You can place the earrings in jewelry boxes to giftwrap, or punch holes in cardstock squares to insert the earring hooks and attach to packages (a needle works well; the closer the hole is to the size of the hook, the less likely it will be that the hook slips off the card.) The ladies in your life will appreciate the beautiful jewelry, and you’ll appreciate spending less money and less time searching for the perfect gift!

Share the Love,

Chelsea

Our 50th Item & Wider Etsy Pages

So, we finally built the shop up to 50 items today! It’s been a long time coming, and thanks to some sales, it hasn’t been as easy to do. 🙂 Here are our new autumnal earrings:

Beaded Wire Chandelier Earrings

Also new today – wider Etsy pages:

Wider Is Better?

Not sure what to think yet, and hoping that all of the “tweaking” is done soon!

From a buyer or a seller standpoint, what do you think?

Share the Love,

Chelsea