A New Bag - Because I have expensive taste!

I made a new bag a few weeks ago. As it turned out, I think it's more of a fall/winter bag, so I probably won't carry it for a few more months. I was inspired by one I saw on the web that retails for over $1,000. Who would pay that for a bag? Here's my version.

I made it using fabrics that I picked up at thrift stores, and I'm rather pleased with how the pretty paisley lining peaks out along the edge.

Here's my inspiration. It's the Joplin bag by Thakoon. I've never heard of that maker, I just liked the look of the bag when I saw a picture of it and then was really shocked when I saw the price.

I buy purse handles at JoAnns when they have sales and had this chunky chain handle in my stash. 

I really love the way the lining fabric looks. It doesn't photograph very well, but it's a really pretty paisley of browns and coppery metalics.

The handle clips on with oversized lobster claw clasps, so I can take it off too and carry it as a clutch.

I think I might make a second one from a more summery fabric. I could use the same handle and just switch it from one to the other. It might be cute with bright floral, or maybe with some of that Amy Butler fabric that I won.... hmmm, the sewing to-do list just never really gets any shorter, does it? Does yours?

Thanks for stopping by!

Dream Catcher Jewelry

I've been on a jewelry making kick lately. My latest adventures in jewelry making have been with dream catchers.

This is a bracelet that I made. I bought some vintage drapery panels at an estate sale some time back for the fabric and they still had hardware attached to them. Here's a side by side of the bracelet piece with one of the rings... sort of a before and after.

The rings are very light weight, some sort of metal. I wrapped one with aqua embroidery floss, tied it off, and placed a small drop of glue on the knot to secure it. Then using beige colored embroidery floss I did the dream catcher weaving within the ring. 
I wanted small silver feather charms to use with them, but of course, when you want to find something specific like that, you never can! (Do you experience that too, or is it just me?) I settled for small silver leaf charms and hung one from the webbing with a tiny jump ring.
The thickness of the ring itself, made attaching a jump ring an issue. I didn't have any in my jewelry finding stash the right size, but I did have a small bag of these tension clips. They were just right to clip over the ring on each side.
I dressed up the clips with two silver beads on each, attached a length of chain to each clip, and a lobster clasp to finish it off.

After making a bracelet I wanted to try a necklace, so I used the same method with a large ring sold as purse hardware. I changed up the colors a bit on it and worked some beads into the webbing since I was working with a larger ring. Here's how it turned out.

I used one of the same leaf charms. This one is quite heavy, but fine for a necklace. I used a large jump ring and a long chain on it, about 28".
Here's a picture of both for size reference. The small ones are light enough that they could be earrings, but I'm on a bit of bracelet kick these days.

My inspiration for dream catcher jewelry came from something I saw at Pinterest, but it's one of those pins that doesn't get me back to  an active website, so I'm not able to give proper credit... other than the shout out for Pinterest. But here's proof that Pinterest isn't just for pinning!


Thanks for stopping by! Have a wonderful week :o)

Elegant Paper Beads

I got an entire roll of wall paper from my sweet mother-in-law a couple of weekends ago. I just love it when she cleans out her basement!

I've been playing experimenting with it. I have some ideas and am trying a few different things. I finished one project. I wanted to share the jewelry that I made with you.


Because the paper is so thick, I used strips just 4 inches long, by 1 inch wide. I cut a coat hanger and used the wire from it to wrap the strips around. After gluing the ends I put them each in a binder clip overnight to dry. The next day I put each on a toothpick and painted them all over with Mod Podge to just give them a good seal. 

Don't you just love my high tech drying rack?
Here's a close up of one of them.

Once the Mod Podge was dry I strung them each onto a head pin with a glass bead from my stash at the bottom and tiny gold bead on each end.

I really had just planned to use them on a necklace, but I found some hoop earring wires in my findings stash and I really like the way the look as earrings.

I hung the rest of them from a thrifted necklace that I had.

I'm happy with the results. Sorry for not modeling them. It's Super Bowl Sunday, so I never got out of my sweats today! 


Have you made paper beads lately? Do you have any favorite crafts using paper? Mom says she has a second roll of the same paper that I can have when she finds it, so I'm open to suggestions on what to do with it.


I hope you had a good weekend. Thanks for stopping by! Have a wonderful week :)

Wrap Strap Watch Tutorial

Happy New Year!

I'm not much for resolutions, I tend to not keep them and then just end up beating myself up over them. So while these aren't "official" resolutions, I do plan on trying really hard to accomplish a few things this year. First off to lose the extra pounds that I gained last year when I quit smoking, and also to be better about blogging more often.


In that spirit I thought I'd start the New Year off with my first tutorial. I've certainly followed plenty of tutorials that the other bloggers have posted. I thought it was time I offer one of my own. Bev over at Flamingo Toes wrote a tutorial for this same project. Here's my version.

It's a knock off of this La Mer Wrap watch that I fell in love with! That is to say that I fell in love with the watch, but not the $175 price tag!

 As Bev recommended I found a skinny belt at Target on clearance. I had been checking the thrift stores for one, but couldn't find one that was "just right". I bought the watch at JoAnn's with a 50% off coupon and found the rivets at Michaels. I had to buy a package of 60 rivets, but I'm sure I'll use the extras on something else. Everything else that I used on the project were things I already had, so it cost me about $18 in all. I like that much better than $175!!

I didn't want there to be so many holes in the strap, so I cut the end of the belt off between the 3rd and 4th holes. I rounded the end and burned it with a lighter to "seal".

I then measured and made two cuts, 14 inches from each end. This gave me the two watch strap pieces.

I figured out how far I'd have to fold over the end piece through the bracket on the watch and punched holes in belt ends accordingly.

With the holes punched we put the end piece through the bracket on the watch and set the rivet. I say "we" because Mr. ShowMe had to do that for me because I'm a weakling, so I don't have a picture of the rivet setting action, but the tool and instructions came in the pack of rivets.

At this point I had a watch with a really long strap.

Now for the fun part! I got out the chains I had to work with. Thrift store necklaces and some pieces of crafting chains. I decided on which chains to use and cut each the length of the buckle end of the strap plus one inch.

I gathered the charms that I had. As it turned out, I have a lot of beads, but am a little short on charms.

I like the Eiffel Tower and the heart.. but I didn't think I wanted the lady bug on this piece. So I went through my silver beads and picked out a few that I liked. I put them on headpins and used my round nose pliers to make loops to hang them with.

Once I got the charms all figured out, I attached them to one of the chain pieces. 

See that top chain in the picture? It wasn't quite long enough, so I lengthened it by using an eye pin in two pearl beads and then inserting them into the chain to make it long enough.
I put a fairly large jump ring at the ends of the chains joining them all together and attaching one end to the buckle and the other to the watch. I wasn't able to use that third chain in the picture with the tiny pearls. The links of the chain were just too small to get the jump ring through, so I'll have to save it for another project. 

Here's the end with the chain attachment.

And here's a picture with her wrapped and buckled as I'll be wearing her. 

I'm happy with how she turned out. The strap is a bit bulky and I may trim more off of the end, but I'm going to wear it awhile and see if it relaxes some before I make any further alterations. 


Thanks for visiting my first tutorial! 
Have a fabulous week!