Making Wreaths!! What Fun!

Kecia and I and Jen all showed up at Jamie's house about 11 on Thursday morning with gobs of red and green ornaments (don't say balls around Jamie!) , red poinsettias, red and green ribbon, plain wreaths of various sizes and also a garland or two. We had four glue guns, and lots of wire too. Mauri and Melinda and Kris we missed all of you.

Of course first of all we got to ooh and aahhhh over the babies - they were sound asleep though - and certainly not the least bit interested in all the craft goings on!


this is a very poor picture of Taylie but I wanted everyone to see the pretty sparklies she has in her ears! so sweet!


Brayden was sawing logs too!



I thought she was going to wake up after the first flash went off - she stretched and opened an eyeball and then promptly went back to sleep.


Kecia found a wreath online at Lowe's that she fell in love with - green wreath with red and lime green ornaments. She put out the suggestion that maybe we could make it for less than it would cost ready made - I don't know if any of us 'saved' much money but we sure had fun copying it.

Okay - this is a the stuff I brought - now four times that with ornaments and ribbons and wreaths from each of us. The table was almost too small and Jamie had the leaf in it!!


My finished product was totally different than what was online - but it is ME - lots sof sparklies!


This is Jen's but of course she hasn't pulled the ribbons up tight yet - so we don't really get to see the finished product here,



This is Jamie's and it turned out really nice - their ribbon was a metallic red and added a whole different look than

Kecia's whose wreath has sparkly green ribbon in it. I apologize for the sideways picture - my new camera has a pretty good program to download the pictures with but the program decided that this was the correct way to 'show' the picture and I didn't realize it until I got it downloaded. Now if I were really a good mom I would delete this picture and put in another picture that was sitting the right direction and pull it down into place....forget that!! turn your computer sideways!
Here is another shot of my wreath. I have it hanging on my front door - and its not even the middle of November!! My poor Thanksgiving wreath is feeling really put out right now!



To finish off this blog I put in the video I took of Emma and her reaction to the babies.
So - we had a great time - I left before Kecia got her garland all decorated but I am sure it is gorgeous too - all of us can give ourselves a good pat on the back!

Newest Necklaces

Tuesday morning - about 12:30 am in fact and I can't sleep so I decided to post some of my newest creations for you to see. The one on the top of my blog is called Leaves of Green and I couldn't believe the number of compliments I received on it the day I wore it. It was fun!!!! It was amazing how it came together too - try this and this and this and this and there it was. It is kind of busy to my mind but that is what the ladies are buying and I had the name for it before it was ever finished.This is a copper illusion with the swarovski crystals and it is more delicate than the goldstone cube illusion just below. I wore it today to the doctors office (where I got a shot in the spine that will hopefully help the burning and itching of my feet) and got compliments on it - even the doctor said he liked it and that it matched my blouse - then he proceeded to laugh at himself , saying he works with too many women!! It was cute.




This is is made up of brown goldstones in cube form with pearls and copper metal daisies.












I really like this set










This is a long copper double chain with a simple pendant on it. The pendant has two lime green sparklies and they are repeated in the earrings. Simple, but pretty. I kind of got in a copper mood for a few days.
















This is a bracelet made on memory wire with green toned shells hanging off the end. There are all tones of green beads -it is prettier than the picture shows







Here are a couple of redand crystal necklaces that I made up with red satin beads. I think they will sell better to an older crowd
































This is a pretty set - bracelet and earrings and necklace all three. The necklace and bracelet are made on memory wire.








This necklace was so fun to make - amazing in fact. It started out as a blue illusion type necklace and as I strung the beads I liked the effect of all of them close together. so i decided to hang them off of a silver chain. then I thought - a second level of chain would be gorgeous...and as I was rummaging through my beads and charms I found this pretty inch and a half long dragon fly. I posted this one to etsy and the next morning I had a lady asking if I could make 15 of them. I finally decided not to because I had bought the charm on clearance and to buy them wholesale they would cost three times as much so the necklace would end up costing more - also I figured I would be bored stiff making 15 of the same thing.

Just thought I would keep you up to date with what I was making.

It is Tuesday night now and I have been working on the same necklace for two days and it just isn't coming together - its amazing sometimes the things just fall into place and other times I feel like I am pulling teeth to get a necklace created.

Tonight though I made other stuff - I am in the process of crocheting around two receiving blankets and four burp pads for my soon to be grandbabies. Plus I bought fabric for 12 more burp pads that I am sewing on the machine - I figure with twins, Kelly and Jamie will need all the burp pads they can get!!

And then a dear friend that is getting married on saturday brought over her excess flowers and I get to make a 'throwaway' bouquet for her. this is her second marriage, she has a 15 year old daughter that she has raised by herself and she has found a wonderful man who is taking her to the temple on saturday. Hurrah for Kathy!!

So I am keeping busy!

Necklaces

All of my family knows that I have been going gung ho on making necklaces since I came back from Arizona. I love it. My creative side has an outlet again. I have made over 38 necklaces and I look forward every day to having an hour or two to work on them -

Most of it I have taught myself - with the help of a few books but mostly by trial and error. I love the illusion necklace and this one is done in pink. The earrings I learned by following the instructions in a book but the bracelet was learned in a class at Ben Franklin. That is a fun way to learn the craft. We took four inch pieces of wire and the pearls and the beads and created the bracelet!!! FUN! It makes a fun set that I will probably price at $24 for the whole set - which is cheap when you realize the bracelet alone took two hours!!!


This looks redder than it really is - the stones are brown with red and green and gray markings in them. The copper accents really add to the necklace - this is a one of a kind - I will not sell it for less than $25 although that will probably include a pair of earrings
This is another of my favorites - copper and crystal and bronze metallic beads - really gorgeous with the matching earrings - it can be reproduced and will sell for $22
This necklace is made with memory wire. It always retains its shape - you cut the wire which is quite heavy and then string the beads on to it. There are silver beads glued on each end to keep the beads from falling back off. I have worn this and gotten many compliments on it. It will probably sell for $22 . This one is done with black beads, white pearls and silver and grey stones.
This is my wild one - wooden beads painted in orange and reds combined with real coral. The earrings are made with the beads and then little red and orange and color colored plastic - it kind of settles the set. This set will sell for about $18
This was just a fun one. In one of the bags of beads I bought there were plastic 'feathers' - so I put together this turquoise illusion necklace - it will sell for $8-10
Ethan really liked this one - he has decided he wants a 'manly necklace with at least one of these stone circles in it! price?? about $22
This was an interesting necklace to create. Each of the little jump rings were individually opened and added to the one nect to it. I realize now that I could buy chain already hooked together and I would be able to make this one in a lot less time.

This style is one of my favorites A single strand illusion necklace. In fact the first several necklaces I made were two or three strands but I like the simple look of one strand. I have made them in lavender, pink, turquoise, cobalt blue, pale blue, copper (really gorgeous) and black. These will be sold for $13-$18 depending on the cost of the materials in the necklace.
This is one I made after I learned how to 'twist' wire...thus I could combine strung beads with necklace links. This one is a long necklace and is gorgeous. I will probably sell it for about $30 or $35.
I bought the stone and bail (that is the silver piece holding the stone in place down in Arizona and have been thinking about how I wanted to design this piece. With a few suggestions from Kecia I have finally finished it.

I have lots more - my 'girls' all have a set they are wearing, except for Kris because she can't decide what she wants - she doesn't wear much jewelry so she is still unsure. I have already told the girls that if they want their double strands turned into single strands I will gladly readjust them.

I sold one necklace to Mauri for a birthday present for one of Adrie's friends, and I 'traded' another necklace to Kecia for some Mary Kay!! And I have one necklace on 'order' from a neighbor so I really have started into business. Jeff has said that I can display the necklaces on his site and I am thinking about having necklace parties. Whatever I can do to support my 'habit'!!!

Crafts - old and new!

NOTE: CORRECTED COPY!!! Most of you that read this blog know how much I love making pretties with silk flowers. So when my daughter in law's mother emailed me asking what she would need to make flower head dresses for her granddaughters (for Sam's wedding on November 16) I jumped at the chance to have some fun and offered to make them for her. She was so glad to let me!! To her it was stress - to me it was enjoyment. So I went over to Michael's and found some ivy that wasn't too big and some sparklies and some small flowers and ribbons in gold and champagne and went to work. I got them delivered to Marilyn today. I hope the girls enjoy them. I wanted them simple and they should look really pretty on the girls. I will tell Dirk to make sure and take some pictures since I won't be able to go to the reception (I will be playing grandma at Glenn and Kecia) . I also made some small boutonnieres for the boys so they wouldn't feel left out (actually I bet they would prefer not to have a flower pinned to their shirt but tough - Its a wedding, they'll just have to suffer!

The new craft that I am learning makes just as much a mess in my workspace!! I bought a scrapbook on my cruise and have been trying to organize my pictures in a fun and cute manner. I sat down in the corner of my living room and had stuff everywhere in no time at all. The filler kit that I also bought on the cruise has lots of cut scrapbook paper, stickers, pictures, ribbons, and even little spongey squares that you put under the cutouts to make them look three dimensional. The kit also came with two glue pens and a black marker with a felt tip and a slim tip. So I went to work. I got about half way through the week and I will take the rest of the stuff to the Orem Hospital to give us something to do tomorrow while we are waiting around for Emma to show up. I don't think I am going to get in too deep into this craft - there are just too many cutsie things to spend your money on REAL fast. I did buy a couple of sticker sets at Wal Mart tonight for Kecia to use in Emma's scrapbook.