Spring-y Summer-y Beach-y Bracelet!

Cheesy title again, I know but I couldn’t help it…since this week was quite boring and dull for me, and I wanted to shake it off through the title!

CAUTION: An extra lengthy post ahead..move at your own risk!

This week we spotted our little jungle friends in our library upstairs..’termites’! The Pest Control people were immediately intimidated, and as a result our home was turned totally upside down. We packed, unpacked and now are packing our stuff again, ‘coz the husband and I are going out on a holiday! Yay, finally! More on that later!

The house was in shambles, but I so badly wanted to make something crafty, that I came up with this cutie li’l thingy!

Those are glass gems, yes! It looked so springy, summer-y and beach-y, that I had to name it the same! I love the messy, tangled look, and thought some others might like it, too!

To stretch a short story long, I was busy packing, yet just had to make something, when I confronted some strings with glass gems stuck to them in tangled mess. Now if you have seen my older post where I made a butterfly and glass gem mobile, then you will know where those strings came from. First time readers don’t panic, I’ll ramble about it from the start!

You will need: Glass Gems, Yarn thread, Tacky Glue, and the ability to tangle the threads finally! (that comes naturally to me!)

Now follow these simple instructions to make your glass gem strings:

Cut the yarn threads in the desired length and number. If you want a fuller and heavier bracelet, use 4 strings. 2 strings should do for a simpler one. I used 4 strings, each 15 inch long.

Now, the glass gems obviously wouldn’t be fully secure onto the thread if you simply stick them to the strands. So you need to make a ‘seat’ for them so that you can safely glue them onto the threads, forever secure. The ‘seat’ is made as follows:

Easy- peasy, isn’t that? Let them dry for few hours. The pics are borrowed from a previous post, since I had my strings readily made for me from the previous project.

The next step is mighty easy, and even if I do not have the picture for this step, you will be able to do it easily! Simply hold the glass gem strings and give them a good shake. Yarn tangles easily, yours will, too! Don’t bother to keep the loops straight and let them tangle. When you’re satisfied with your ‘tangled mess’, start wrapping them around your wrist. Do it in such a way that the ends are knotted and tangled as well.

Now wear it on a sunny day to the beach, like I’m going to, soon!

I love how it sparkles in my hand!

And I love it in sepia colors as well (don’t know if I can get glass gems in these colors!)

Make yourself one, too!

Now about my vacation – I’m going to visit these fab places:

It’s a good combination of ancient heritage places, and gorgeous beaches…I’m gonna have fun!                                                     Goa ...Oh, I love beaches!

Now  I'm off to meet my dear friends now before leaving, see you next week!
Linked to these fab parties..do 'attend'!
Tutorial Tuesday @Hope Studios
Get Your Crafts On @Today's Creative Blog
Tip Me Tuesday @Tip Junkie
DIY Day @ A Soft Place To Land
Weekend Wrap Up Party @Tatertots And Jello
Creative Cats @ Poppies At Play
Show Off Your Stuff @Fireflies And Jellybeans
Whatever Goes Wednesday @Someday Crafts

A unique Valentine Vase!

This is my first V-day related post, as I spent lot of time thinking of a unique idea for expressing my love to the hubby for this V-day, for it marked our third year together. I wanted something unusual and not very mushy, so came up with the idea of making a Valentine special vase from a glass bottle, and an old novel or book.  

Here is what I made

I wanted to use less of red and classic heart shape to make it a little different from other V-day Crafts..but couldn't quite keep off the red color. If you want to make something like this, all you need is a glass bottle, few pages off an old book(mine was a stupid novel), some red paint, and silver colored branches to glam it up! You can use any plain branches too, though..I colored them because my hands cannot be still when I see paints!!

It starts this way: Paint a glass bottle (or any vase, for that matter!) red. Keep it aside for drying.

Now for the flowers! I love books and though it was painful for me to tear pages from it, it was a good way to use an old stupid novel which I'd have thrown otherwise! Take an old book with yellowed pages, and rip a few pages from it. Draw flowers of desired shape and size (I made a 4-hearts shaped one and another shape at random) on the page on the top. Hold the pages together and cut according to the shape on the top page. This way, you can cut more flowers at once.

See, they are pretty! And bring in the classic look so well!

Now stick these flowers onto the painted vase with glue. These flowers would be very delicate so be careful while handling! I stuck them when the paint was still wet, so I saved glue, but the flowers absorbed some of the red paint too.

Here's the vase

Now for the decoration. I painted some branches metallic silver, and glued small paper flowers to them at random.

Easy Peasy! There, its a unique V-day craft that is out of the blue, and quite different. On the Valentine's I'll inscribe messages like 'love' and 'Be Mine' on the flowers and hang them again. 

Its almost screaming out 'Be Mine',  hope hubby likes it!
This was featured at

   
I linked this to

Pebbles Vase

I always saw these glass pebbles sold on the beach, and loved them..but had no ideas regarding their use..

…until I found an empty whisky bottle!! I know some of you will say: “a bottle, again?..sigh!! But I love to decorate these bottles, somehow can’t keep my hands off them. So here I was, facing my pebbles, and an empty whisky bottle (you can use any other round or flat glass surface, really). 


So here is what I made...

My, isn’t that classy?

This particular project is more about imagination really, than a particular set of steps to be followed, but I’ll narrate my story anyway.You will need:

Sea pebbles (lots n lots) in your choice of colors and shapes

Glass bottle or any surface you want to decorate, really

Acrylic paints , black glass liner for stems

Paint brush

Hot glue gun, or any tough glue

You are ready now. Clean the surfaces of the bottle, wipe it dry. I painted the bottle with thick layers of olive green and sea blue, to remind me of sea and sands…I then let it dry as the coats were too thick.

After it had all dried, I proceeded to stick the pebbles with glue on to the bottle in decorative shapes. I did it in flower shapes..you can do it in the form of any shape you fancy. However, be careful not to overdo to make everything messy. Learnt that the harder way J

Here it is up close..



I tied a golden ribbon on to the neck of the bottle, coz it had gotten little messy there, so I had to cover it up that way! It does not look bad though.

There it is – I put in a twig and added a fabric flower I made with a white cloth. Doesn’t it look all dressed up and vintage!!

I hart my pebbles vase!!
I linked this beauty to a fun blog party

Fall inspired candle holder

Hmm..you’ll be thinking, more candle holders?? Well, I love them so much that I cant seem to keep my hands off making them. So here goes another. I found a lovely green colored empty wine bottle at my cousin’s place. She was too generous to give it to me and my mind started racing as to what should be done to make it a fabulous candle holder. Here is what I did to a plain green bottle:

I was always in love with how beautiful and magnificent the maple and oak leaves look in the fall season. In India however, we do not have maple trees. I really missed the magic of red, orange and gold leaves. All those who live in the countries abroad must be having such fun with these fall leaves. Now, I wasn’t the one to just imagine; I had to make a fall inspired candle holder somehow.

So I set to cut out paper maple, oak and other fall leaves to make my own fall collection, even if out of paper, lol! Find out how:

 

I cut them up, then painted them (or tried to!!) paint them in the colors of fall: tan, red, burgundy, orange.

Okay, you may find these funny as fall leaves, but they are MY fall leaves all rite!

I went ahead and stuck them in a random fashion onto my glass bottle with some fast glue. Remember that there is no specific pattern to be followed here, its all random.

After it was all dry, I outlined each leaf with the help of a gold glass liner and let it dry for another 2 hours. I know you must be thinking, drying? Again? Lol!

Tada! I captured the fall season alrite, and the memory will glow proudly as I light the candle up….

Here are all three of my glass candle holders together…oh my, they are pretty!!

I've linked these beauties to:

and at