The Very Hungry Caterpillar

This set of bibs is for my friend Rabecca's adorable new baby, Samuel.

Rabecca is a librarian, and I knew she loved Eric Carle's classic The Very Hungry Caterpillar. My initial plan was to applique a onesie similar to this one I've seen around. But when I stopped to buy a pack of onesies, I couldn't find any plain ones. I'd already exhausted my 2-year-old's patience with errands that day, so I decided to just make do with whatever I had at home. As it turned out, I ended up completing this project 100% from the stash. In fact, some of those scraps have been in my pile for over a decade! There's something really satisfying in that.

Throughout the process of making these bibs, I fell in and out of love with them several times. There are many flaws. I spent way too much time fighting with the snaps. I should have done ties. And I'm not sure how I feel about the the zig zag borders. But I love how the appliques themselves turned out. I do wish I'd been able to do a full set of seven bibs for each of the hungry caterpillar's hungry days. But abundant as my stash is, I didn't have any purple fabric for plums. And I'll admit it was laziness that kept me from tackling the day when the caterpillar eats chocolate cake, a cupcake, sausage, a pickle, cheese, salami, and a whole watermelon. (Among other things.) Maybe next time.

I used a bib template I found here, and based the apples, pears and leaves on some clip art from here.


***
Edited to correct my spelling of "caterpillar" every single time I typed it. And to join Kimba's DIY party. Go see some seriously cool stuff right here. Go. Go!

The Amber Collection

My friend Amber had a birthday several weeks ago. She tried to keep it a secret, but I have my ways of collecting information. (That is, I overheard someone else telling her "happy birthday.") But even if I'd know about her birthday months ago, her gift would probably still be several weeks late, cause that's how I roll.

Anyway, I'm all about interchangeable jewels these days, so I wanted to make an amber-themed set of mix and match earrings and pendants. I think I pushed the bounds of Amber's style with the long green dangles, but I bet she'll wear them anyway just to humor me. She's great that way. (For example, I photographed these in Amber's own back yard while she was inside making me dinner.) I do like the bicone cluster set especially though, and I think that suits Amber's personality. Plus, I bought the beads for the baby bracelets for her sweet little girls a couple months ago, but didn't end up using them. It seems fitting that they end up in Amber's jewelry box somehow.

I want it

I'm not really blog stalking, because I know her and she knows me and all that. But she doesn't necessarily know that I read her blog every single day even though it means I have to wipe up puddles of envious drool afterward. She's just so freaking fabulous, funny, and creative.

That's Cally.

And this is the bag I want.
What's that? You want it too? Then maybe you should go over there and tell her so. (Even though for my sake I'd prefer you don't. Because I want it.)

Rozannah

It's an earring wardrobe! Rozannah's new to the world of pierced earrings, so I thought she might appreciate a variety pack.

I only had ear wires in one size, so I had to do some creative bending to give the set more variety. Again, my wire work is not perfect, but good enough. But it's the dangles that are the most fun. I really had a good time coming up with baubles to dangle, and ran out of time before I ran out of ideas. Expect more interchangeable sets to come.

(Also, for some reason this photo looks out of focus when it's small, but is just fine full size. Why is that? I have no idea.)

Orion

It's one thing to declare a moratorium on gift buying when your gift list includes mostly trendy young moms and their soon-to-be born babies. Five-year-old boys are a little trickier, however, as they don't have quite the same appreciation for buttons, ruffles and beads. Which is why I almost took Sam to the store and let him pick out a toy to take to Orion's fifth birthday party. But I just couldn't do it. Moratorium or not, as a mom, I'm sick of toys toys toys everywhere, just lying around waiting to get stepped on and broken. And I didn't think Orion needed one more piece of flimsy plastic any more than Sam does.

So I enlarged the pattern for the tie applique I found here, sewed it to an inexpensive kids' undershirt, and added a pair of matching pj pants. This set will never make Amazon's "Ultimate Gift List for a Five-Year-Old Boy," and I'm sure a Shrek 2 Rotten Root Canal Play-Doh Play Set would have been more fun to open. But Orion's mom was happy. So I am too.

Abygail

Stephanie II

Another attempt at bending my own earwires. They're not perfect, but I think Steph likes them anyway. And I resisted the urge to slip in a note reminding her "it's the thought that counts." It's true, of course. It is the thought that counts. (The thought I was going for: You'll be missed.)

Once Coach wrote me a love essay. He quoted R.W. Emerson, who said: "Jewels are not gifts, but apologies for gifts. The only gift is a portion of thyself... it is a cold, lifeless business when you go to the shops to buy me something, which does not represent your life and talent, but a goldsmith’s."*

I'll admit I kind of like the irony of turning Emerson's statement on its head by giving jewels that are a portion of myself. But more than that, I like the underlying sentiment, that something from me is better than something from a store, even though that something from me is not ever perfect. It's fitting, really, because neither am I.





*From Essays and English Traits, XIII Gifts, quoted here.

Applique

Due to recent crafty indulgences at a Jo Ann fabric store that went out of business, I'm not allowed to buy any gifts for a while. I have to make them all.

But don't worry! My pockets are shallow, but my stash is deep.

So anyway, this is probably cheating, but after I made this little baby shower gift for my friend Sheena, I stumbled upon the Five Dollar Challenge, sponsored by the craftabulous Lindsay. And although this is not decorative item for the home, per se, I totally followed all the other rules. Accidentally, of course.

I found a stack of heavyweight Hanes sweats and t-shirts at my local Dollar Tree a couple weeks ago. I could tell the batch was full of "irregulars," and a lot of the clothing had visible flaws. But I parked myself on the floor like any persistent dollar shopper does, and sorted through that stack until I'd found a couple baby t-shirts and a pair of baby sweatpants that looked perfect.

I brought them home, dug out some fabric, buttons and embroidery floss from my stash, and got to it. (My inspiration for the dragonfly design came from a project featured in this book.) I can point out lots of flaws (puckered stitching, messy seams), but I still like the end result. And with any luck, so will Sheena's baby.

Total spent: $2.00

And as long as you're still here, I might as well show you the little shirt I made for Stephanie's baby boy. (I also made matching pajama pants and a burp cloth in the firetruck flannel, but I didn't include those in the photo. Why? Because I'm an idiot.)

This one only cost $1.00, because I made the (invisible) pants myself.

You can't tell this from the photo, but my favorite part is that the dog's ear is fuzzy. Like a dog's ear. Here look.

Yeah, there's some genuine dog hair stuck to that shirt too. I didn't include that in my cost breakdown, cause my dog gives it away for free.

Mom

I made this necklace for my mom last summer, and only got around to photographing it last weekend. She wears it often, and says she gets lots of compliments. I'm still a little bothered by the way it hangs -- the links get twisted and keep it from laying flat. But I really like the colors and the concept, and I have to admit it really does look great in the sunlight.

Maybe that's all I need: more sunlight around here.

Kashann

When I'm making gifts for friends, I always try to think of that woman's personal style and make something that fits. Sometimes, though, when I like a piece a lot, it's hard to tell if I've hit her style, or just my style. These blue dangles, for example. I love them. They remind me of the smooth glass pebbles my sisters and I used to pick up on the shores of Lake Erie. I remember being disappointed when I discovered the pebbles lost their shine when dry. We experimented with ways to keep them shiny, but mostly we ended up with jars of wet, stinky rocks, which were eventually discarded. But wet or dry, these stones don't lose their luster.

Anyway, I want to make a set for myself. But would that be cheating -- to give a one-of-a-kind made-just-for-you gift and then copy it? I can't decide.

It is always interesting to see what people prefer. I happened to give these to Kashann when she was at my house for a jewelry party last week. The brown disks (left over from Kristie's necklace) seemed to be a group favorite. Angela gushed over the clear glass. And I love the blue set (as previously mentioned). Individual taste seems surprising and predictable all at the same time. It's like, it's hard to say ahead of time "that's exactly her style" (although I try to do just that), but when she says herself "that's exactly my style" I can say, "you're absolutely right."

So anyway, I hope I've captured Kashann's style here. Or close enough anyway. I loved this project because it went together so quickly (yay earrings!), but still looks so pretty.

Stephanie

This set arrived in two installments. I gave Stephanie the necklace and earrings as a thank you gift several months ago, and then added the bracelet for her birthday just recently. Although I made them separately, I do like how it all goes together.



I think if I were to make the necklace today, I'd put the tassels at the end of chain (like I did on the bracelet) instead of on beaded headpins. It'd have more free movement that way.

I bought the blue & brown rectangle beads at Big Lots for next to nothing. There was a big closeout on Blue Moon art glass apparently, and I'm glad I stocked up when I did. These beads in particular have been a favorite -- I think each time I've hauled out my stash for jewelry parties, someone has snatched these up to make something pretty. I have friends and family all over the country wearing these beads. I love that.

Carol

This angel is for Carol. I knew her birthday was coming up, but I couldn't come up with any ideas for her. Being a jewelry person, I usually notice what people wear, but I couldn't think of a single idea to capture Carol's style. Finally, I just asked her if she'd like to pick some beads out for me to make into something, and she told me she doesn't wear jewelry. Any. Ever. Her skin is too sensitive.

So I made her some jewelry for her Christmas tree. Or her wall. Or whatever.

This design is stolen from a pin my sister gave me for Christmas several years ago. My friend Melissa also makes amazing wire-wrapped angels. Like a fool, I didn't take the opportunity to have her teach me while we lived in the same state, so now I just drool over her stuff from 250 miles away. But I have been wanting to try my hand at wire wrapping for a while. Because I was not making this to be worn, I supersized it. I used ordinary craft wire, not a great choice because it is prone to kinking. But it is inexpensive, so good for learning and practicing. I'm not completely happy with the shape of the wings or the skirt, but it got to the point that the more I played with the strands, the more distorted they got. These techniques definitely require some more practice. I don't think I love it enough to put in the time, but it was fun to give it a try. And overall, I'm pretty pleased with the result.

Ebonnie

This is another birthday gift, this time for my friend Ebonnie. I love looking at my bead stash with a particular person in mind. It's a creative challenge not just to make something pretty, but to come up with something that suits that individual's personal style. I've been wanting to make some kind of tangly, multistrand piece for a while, but this is the first to make it to completion. I'm pretty happy with it. As usual, Grace likes it too. Let's just hope Ebonnie does also.

It did take longer than I expected to knot the strands. I thought I'd be saving time by not having to string so many beads, but I was mistaken. By the end I got into the rhythm though, and I think I could churn out a second one much more quickly. Attaching the clasp also posed some challenges. In the end, I knotted the five strands together and then used one of the longer tails to sew the whole thing on to each side of the clasp. I then tried to conceal the knot by wrapping it in the cord. The connection is a little bulkier than I'd like it to be, but I'm OK with that.

Materials: The waxed cotton cord is from the craft section at Wal-Mart. The wooden beads are from a friend who was clearing out her stash (thank you very much, Amy!). The (fake) coral nuggets and metal disks are from a thrift store necklace I purchased for 75 cents just so I could tear it apart. The clasp is antiqued goldtone toggle clasp, which I got at super discount from a JoAnn store that was going out of business. All totaled, this project cost less than $1.50, and probably took me about three or four hours (with some fumbling at first).

For me

There are a lot of things I love about this necklace, but I'm not yet sure it's in its final form. I love the contrast between the shiny glass and the fuzzy spheres. I love the liquid look of the seed beads. I like the length.

I'm not sure exactly what I don't like about it -- I guess it'd be nice if it were a little longer. To double it up I have to use a twister clasp because it's too short to loop twice around my head. (And because I'm too cheap to buy an actual twister clasp, I fake it with a piece of wire, which is a little awkward and uncomfortable.) But I guess the main thing is that I've worn this piece several times and haven't received a single compliment. When I asked Sweetie what he thought of it, instead of answering he asked, "Do you like it?"

I have also seen people notice it and say nothing, which is a little awkward. I'm honestly OK with the knowledge that it's not everybody's style. This is my style, and I like it. What pricks my vanity a bit is wondering if my style is bad style.

Stylish or not, this was easy on the pocketbook. The fuzzy blue beads were a clearance rack find -- $1.00 for the strand. The red glass beads are vintage hand-me-downs from my husband's grandmother*. I used pricey 49 strand beading wire, but even with that my total cost was probably around $2.00.

*This deserves more than a footnote, but who knows when I'll get back to mentioning this? When my husband's grandmother died, my husband's brother saved her stash of costume jewelry (much of it broken) from the junk heap. He had no idea what to do with any of it, but he couldn't let such pretty things be tossed. Lucky for me, at some point he heard about my bead obsession, and I became the happy recipient of the whole stash. Eventually, I will use the parts to make pieces for all of the daughters and grand daughters on my husband's side. I like the idea of them all having a part of grandma's jewelry box.

m girls

This set was a gift for a dear friend Amber, who just gave birth to an adorable set of twins, Caitlyn and Madelyn. Because the girls are identical twins, I wanted to make some kind of name bracelets. I'm not a huge fan of names spelled out in alphabet beads -- I wanted something more delicate. I looked at engraving, but the options there were way out of my price range. So I settled for a dangling first initial. I really like the look, especially with the butterfly charm on Amber's bracelet. During her pregnancy, Amber mentioned a particular piece of artwork that portrayed a pregnant woman as a butterfly. The idea of transformation, of growing life really spoke to her. So I wanted to capture that imagery in her bracelet.

I actually looked all over for a suitable butterfly bead. I found a lot that wouldn't work, and finally resigned myself to go without the butterfly. But then in my very own scrap pile, I found a dainty butterfly earring. I was able to trim and bend the post into a loop, and what do you know? It was just right.

Materials: I used glass pearls, swarski bicones, and sterling silver beads. I used green and pink crystals on one baby bracelet, and brown and pink on the other. Amber's combines pink, green and brown crystals. For once, I didn't scavenge thrift stores and junk piles, so I spent a little more on these than I normally do. But I think the results were totally worth it.

Kalisa

I don't have much to say about this set except that I like it. I'd had the blue glass beads in my stash for a while. I'd never thought of combining them with the turquoise before this experimentation, but I really like how it all turned out. I also like the packaging. The patterned card stock really makes it fun.

Amy

Amy's got sort of a punky hippy style about her. She's also a high school teacher and a mom of four, so she doesn't have time to be all high-maintenance. My plan was to make her something teacherish, but every time I opened my bead box, this fish kept (figuratively) jumping out at me. I finally realized why; Amy is the quintessential fisher of men. She gathers souls for God.

I wanted the focal piece to look like a line of fish just pulled from the river, lures and bobbers and lines still attached. It's easily removable (for days when she doesn't feel like hefting a line full of dead fish), and the beaded necklace is substantial enough to stand on its own. I used a ribbon closure again, which I think works well here. (One trick I discovered with Kristie's necklace was knotting the ends of the ribbon and then closing crimp covers around the knots. That was much easier than threading beads onto the ribbon!)

The earrings are simple, but they really capture Amy's style. I think that's what I like most about them.

Party Lariat

Kristie

Grace cannot stand the idea of a picture being taken without her in it. So I only got in a few shots of this necklace before she jumped in to help. And I can't complain, cause with those big blue eyes, she makes everything look better.

This is actually one of my favorite custom pieces so far. I bought these stone disks from Fire Mountain Gems for next to nothing. (They were in the clearance section, and I needed just a few more items to get my order into the lower pricing category, so buying them actually saved me money.) From the time they arrived they seemed to whisper "Kristie." I was happy to discover she had a birthday coming up so I had a good excuse to listen to the beads. (Always listen to the beads!)

One of the things I like most about this is that I think I really captured Kristie's style. I often see her wearing this, and that makes me really glad.

This was the first time I tried a ribbon closure. I really like the look and the versatility, but after a few months of wear I've noticed the ribbon is looking a little tired. A sturdier cotton or grosgrain might work better. But on the other hand, this ribbon is just cheap by-the-spool stuff (50 cents for like a million feet), so I could replace the ribbon a bunch of times for less than the pricier by-the-yard stuff. Always that balancing act between durability and economy!

I can't take credit for this pink piece because Kristie made it at a jewelry party at my house a few months back. I love it though, and every time she wears it I'm jealous that I didn't think of making it myself. She used beads I'd had in my stash for ages but hadn't figured out how to use.

Abby

I did a couple new things with this set. The earrings are made from from 3 inch headpins. I slid the beads into place and then shaped it into an ear wire. I like the streamlined look a lot, but it was hard to get two matching ear wires, with just the same curves and angles. (A jig would solve that problem, but I'm cheap. Have I mentioned that?)

This clasp caught my eye several months ago, and I'd been looking for a way to use it for some time. I like the way the loop is beaded and incorporated into the rest of the bracelet. I haven't tried this before (or since), so I'm not sure how well it will hold up to wear. But Abby says so far so good.

These turquoise beads were another clearance deal from Fire Mountain Gems. I'd say materials probably cost me about $2.00 for the set. Everything went together pretty quickly, except for the clasp, which took some finagling. I probably spent 2 or 3 hours all together.