Finally I manage to make a craft update.

I don't have much followers, but I'll explain why I haven't been updating or anything for ages anyway! I've just finished some major exams (which naturally, involved major studying) so crafts had to go on hold for a while. But now I've finished my exams and don't really have that much to do... Perfect conditions for updating my blog :D Another thing is, I GOT A NEW COMPUTER!!!!! Finally, a computer that works :D (Only problem is, I have no idea how to use Windows 8...)

My Deco-notebook-thing!

So I remember I said a while ago that I'd made a decoden notebook (And now I realise how little sense that makes, as the 'den' part of decoden is a shorter form of the Japanese word for 'phone'). And here it is! After about four months since I did the decoden on it! 

close up of the deco part

Sorry you can't see it very well (the battery on my camera was running out), but it has one blue macaron in the corner and two rhinestone/pearl thing hearts at either side. 

WARNING: before you try doing decoden on notebook, try to do this on one you don't use very often/is full. It's near enough impossible to write inside your book after you do this! Trust me, I learnt the hard way!

Memory wire earrings!

I really love the way these turned out! 

Sorry I took it on my bad ear...

I really like these earrings and can honestly see myself selling ones like these in the future because they look almost like shop bought earrings (well to me, anyway). I think these are definitely one of the best pairs I've made so far. They aren't too hard to wear either, as they feel very light, which is really important because since I have such thin earlobes, I often can't wear earrings like this as they tug and pull on my ears too much and are really uncomfortable. But as you can see, they hardly tug on my ears at all!

Sorry the picture is so bright, I need to install Photoshop again...

Here's a better picture of one not being worn. As you can see, It's basically just memory wire pulled in to the shape of a tear drop/egg, and a head pin with matching beads attached to the jump rings that pull the ends of the memory wire together. It's a very basic design, but it works really well.

A dress for my little sister's birthday! (Not finished yet)

I just need to finish sewing the lace at the bottom. My sister loves lace.

So, a few weeks ago I acquired a very old sewing machine from my Grandma (thanks, Grandma! Even though you don't have connection to the internet and so will probably never see this!). The tension messes up a lot, but still, It's much easier than having to sew the whole thing by hand. I only have one picture of it at the moment, but I'll take more when it's finished as my sister wants to have a picnic for her birthday party. I know that sounds a little strange for a 9 year old these days, but she really wants to have one, and hey, it's HER birthday! (starting to go off topic, are we?)

I also managed to make macarons! For my first try, they don't look that bad. They're strawberries and cream flavour, but the shells are just plain. We tried to make them pink, but they came out more of an orangey colour. They tasted really good though! It's the first time I ever ate macarons too, but they were great :D I bet I'll have to make some more for my sister's birthday!

Ear Cuffs method 2

Hey, I bet you thought I was never going to make another ear cuff tutorial! Well, today we're going to learn how to make the really cool ones that connect to earrings! I'd just like to warn everybody and say: please make sure your piercing is 100% healed. New piercings rip easily, even after the initial 6 weeks. I guess it's especially easy to tear your earlobe with something like this! So please be careful, ok?

This is what it looks like so
far on my ear

We're going to start off by making a basic ear cuff, using the first method. I'm using a slightly different design and I'm using 16 gauge wire. You can use any design or thickness, as long as it starts with a loop and ends with a loop. If you like my design though, I don't mind if you use mine. Just try not to do it EXACTLY like mine please...









If you have some jewellery making earring studs like the ones in the picture to the right, congratulations! You've just made life LOADS easier, and can skip the first 3 steps! Tip: if you don't have pierced ears, you can use clip on earring findings!



1. We need to make the studs! As already mentioned, you can buy studs like these. I took some waste polymer clay and rolled it in to a ball. Then I actually took a clean, nickel free head pin and used it to make the post. I don't recommend doing this unless you're really sure you know what you're doing is safe, and won't cause you an infection (not all head pins are nickel free, the same thickness as normal earrings, etc). If you have some flat, jewellery making studs, use them.

2. Now you need to take a piece of wire and use it to make a short eye pin. Then you push it in to the clay and you're done!

3. Bake. You don't have to take the metal post or eye pin out.
4. While your stud is baking, you can do the next step! (of course, if it's not baking/you don't need to bake it, you still have to do this step lol!) We're going to put a jump ring through the lowest loop on the cuff. I'm using one of my larger jump rings. Now attach your chain. You need to make sure you have a good amount of chain, as this will connect to the stud. But not too much, or else you're going to just make it heavier and it just won't look as nice!

Now your cuff should look like this:

5. Oh, look! The stud part has finished cooking now! (I assume I will have startled at least one person by saying that lol) Now we're going to finish it up by attaching the stud! This part is simple: just use a jump ring to attach it to the chain.

Tip: If you have more than one piercing in your ear lobe, you can make a cuff with multiple studs connected to it. 

Ok, the next ear cuff tutorial I'll be making will be a little different! I'm going to be showing you guys how to make ear wraps, they're extremely similar to ear cuffs, but they sit behind your ear.

Christmas Lollipop jewellery :)

It's that time of the year now where everywhere you go is all Christmas-y and it takes about five hours to go shopping because there's so much people!

I know it's been done like a million times, but I decided to make some polymer clay lollipops :D

They're in Christmas colours :) Red, green, gold and translucent clay. I'm going to wear them on Christmas Eve, lol!

I haven't got round to making anything else yet, I've been a good girl and done lots of revising :)

I've decided to change the layout of the Blog, too :) I'm in a Christmas mood haha XD

Shamballa style hoop earrings

In my Millefiori Shamballa Bracelet post, I mentioned that I wanted to make earrings like this. Since then, I've noticed that there aren't really a lot of tutorials like this at all... I haven't seen any at least (so I'm sorry if there are!). So I've decided to make this tutorial.

You can buy earrings like this on the internet. But it's so much nicer to make them :) (Plus it can be cheaper and you don't have to wait as long!) The only problem is, they're VERY heavy... But I suppose that would also be the case if you bought sterling silver genuine Shamballa beaded earrings off the internet.

Anyway, all you need to make these awesome earrings is memory wire (preferably bracelet sized), round nose pliers, wire cutters, Shamballa cord, jump rings and beads. I used left over cord from Shamballa bracelets.

You can enlarge the pictures if they're too small (which they probably will be!)

First you need the 'base' for the hoop earrings. Cut one hoop off of the memory wire and use your pliers to curl one of the ends of the wire inwards, so it makes a hoop shape like on the picture above.

Now for the fun/hard/artistic part - the square knots :)

Click to enlarge!

If you can't read what my writing says, basically what you have to do is thread your cord underneath the wire, bring the right side over the wire and under the cord on the other side. After that, you need to bring the thread on the other side under the wire and over the thread on the side we started with. It should make a sort of upside down pretzel shape, like in my picture. If you don't get it the first time, don't worry and DON'T give up. Once you learn how, it'll be super easy XD

Pull on each side of the thread until it makes this tight knot :)

Now we have to go in the opposite direction. Don't worry, it's loads easier than it sounds :)

Click to enlarge

I think you'll probably be able to understand it from this picture. It's the same, only in the opposite way. So rather than going over the cord, you go under the cord etc. 

Now you have to repeat these knots in the order I taught you them. Keep going until you think it's ready for the beads to go on :) (If your knots are twisting around like mine are, see the tips below. It's nothing to worry  about, it just makes the earrings look a little different)

You can either put all the beads on at once, or one at a time. 

As you can hopefully see in the pictures, I add each bead then tie a square knot. I don't pull too tightly, just enough so it looks like the bead is in a pink cage. If you want, you can add a bead, then make several knots, then add another etc. It would look good :) but I don't have enough cord...

When you come to the point where you don't want to add any more beads, tie several more square knots and cut off the excess cord. I find it's better to leave a tiny bit of cord at the end so you can glue it down and it won't come undone.

I hope you can see what I mean in this picture :)

OK, now we need to make it so we can attach a fish hook :)

use your pliers to curl the other end in to a hoop shape. Now open a jump ring and thread it through both 'hoops'. Close it, and it should look like the picture at the end.

Now all you have to do is add another jump ring and an earring hook.

And now finally... You're done :D Well, after you make one for your other ear, of course lol!

Tips

I'm not exactly sure why the knots tend to twist around when I make them... It seems to look nice to me, but I think most people would make it so it doesn't twist around. As I said, I don't exactly know why it does that, I'll definitely make a post about it if I find out :D

Remember, you can use whatever colours you want :) Try out different colours to find out what combinations  look the best. You can use as much cord as you want, too. You don't have to make it exactly how I made mine...

Origami inspired earrings

I said a while ago that I wanted to use different things other that polymer clay, so I've moved on to Origami :D

You can see my sister's toys in the
background! XD

I made tiny little cranes :) (Don't try this if you don't have patience!) If cranes are to hard for you, try making tiny flapping birds. They work too.
There is a flap of paper between the bird's wings. You use a needle to push a hole through this, and slide through a small jump ring. Close the ring then you can attach another and add on your earring hook.

This is only one pair of the lucky star earrings I've made, I've also made them with wire wrapped around them. This one, however, if probably the most complex one...

You need to put a piece of wire through each individual star, then attach it all together...






If you don't know any origami and this makes no sense whatsoever to you, here is how to make the origami I used on this post: origami crane, lucky star

If you're really good at origami, you could try making flower earrings. If you're so perfect at origami you've mastered the Kawasaki rose, well done because that is kind of impossible to me! Anyway, you could use that  rose to make jewellery.