Can't. Stop. With the Halloween/DdlM Links!

Even though it's really too late to make much more stuff for this year, my excuse this time is that I want to remember this one for future reference:
HUGE round up of H'ween and Dia de los Muertos links!

Also, I love Cathie Filian's bat necklace
Cool DdlM dolls!
knitted pumpkins!!

Man, I realllly want to get in on this order of Alexander Henry Loteria fabric. Have I even mentioned here that I used to be a quilter?* I have not even been tempted by quilting fabric lately - except for this one. (I have a fair little collection of those AH DdlM-related fabrics. I was intending to make a quilt out of them someday, although the quilting has been on indefinite hiatus lately.)


*I ended up talking about that in the entry below this one, so look there if you're interested in hearing more about that!

NaBloPoMo (not NaNoWriMo)

Some of you will know what that word salad up there in the title means immediately - I suspect that many people won't have a clue. It's something you tend to know about if you've been blogging or journaling (the old-school word for it) for a long time; if you're new to this, not so much. But anyway, I have signed up for NaBloPoMo, which means National Blog Posting Month - which just means that you attempt to post daily for the month of November. I most definitely did not sign up for NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, which means you are going to attempt to write an entire novel during the month of November. The latter is obviously a much bigger time commitment.

Well, anyway, I am not an aspiring novelist, so I don't have much interest in that, but I am a fairly long-time blogger, so I am doing the much-simpler "post daily" one. In years past I have done it for more than one of my blogs, but things are chaotic again this year so I'm limiting it to just this one. In December I will probably do Holidailies, which is a sort-of-similar thing that focuses on the holiday season and is run by some friends of mine - but I will probably do that on my Livejournal like I usually do, unless I do go crazy and decide to try to do both places.

I mentioned having had multiple blogs, so maybe I should expand on that. (This may involve some back history on this corner of the web in general. I hope I don't bore you to death!) Sometime around 2000 or 2001 I discovered somehow that there were all these people writing online journals - some of them had already been doing it for several years, by then. Now you have to remember that back in the day these things were hand-coded - you largely had to write the html for it yourself, or have somebody do it for you. There was no Blogger, no Typepad... although there were starting to be some things, somewhere in this period, called Diaryland and Diary-X and Livejournal, all of which would more or less function like Blogger does today, in a very rudimentary way, and Livejournal, which was even more forward-thinking, also had some sort of proto-social-media functions - you formed communities, and that kind of thing. But all of that was in the future for me. All I knew, in the beginning, was that there were these people writing about their lives, and they were pretty interesting, and I kept going back to a couple of them. This one was one of my favorites: Bad Hair Days, written by a young lawyer in Sacramento. She had a live-in boyfriend and a couple of dogs and several cats, and her journal then actually looked an awful lot like it does now, except now she is married to the boyfriend and has a young daughter, and some of the pets are sadly not with them any more. She had that same logo at the time, though - and when I met her in person a couple of years later I realized that I subconsciously expected her to look like the girl in the logo, which she doesn't.

Well, anyway, it turned out eventually that Bad Hair Days had a forum/bulletin board thingamajig attached to it. I nosed around it once or twice, and was a bit intimidated - and then right about that time they changed over to another format that was much more user-friendly, and I joined and immediately was hooked. This was in August 2001 - I remember that because while I had been talking a bit before September 11th, there were people on the board with more immediate connections to it then mine and I shut up completely for a solid two weeks. Eventually I started talking again, and one thing I quickly learned was that since it was Beth's board, and Beth was a journaller, a whole lot of the other people who hung around there were too. And a lot of them had known each other for a number of years. But I fit in tolerably well, and it became my favorite way to waste time: go find out what they were talking about today and, well, express an opinion. I think it tells you something about the closeness of the group there that in 2002 (I think it was) the whole board crashed and the members immediately chipped in several thousand dollars to buy a new server, which was christened Belinda (after Belinda Carlisle - it was some sort of running joke which I can't remember the details of right now). Belinda is still running the board from Beth and Jeremy's basement today.

So the next thing that happened was that I decided I wanted a journal too, since, y'know, all the cool kids had one. Plus there was a journaling convention in Austin later that year that I wanted to go to, that was definitely a factor. This was in 2003, and I think I fiddled around with diaryland a bit before I decided that it seemed to mostly be populated by 15-year-old girls with pictures of fairies on their front pages. (It wasn't really true but it seemed that way.) So I settled on Diary-X instead. And that went just fine until Diary-X crashed and burned a couple of years later and it turned out that there were no backups and everything was lost. So that kind of sucked. But I had a Livejournal account by that time so I just switched to blogging over there about general things.

And sometime before that (in the fall of 2004, this was - what I'm not entirely sure about is when Diary-X did its swan dive) I started a quilt blog here on Blogspot. And I did that pretty regularly for about four years. I never had a huge, huge readership (this was mostly before "followers" and such on Blogger so it's hard to have any concrete idea) but I definitely had some regular readers, anyway. It's sort of heartbreaking for me to read back over the entries there because I started that up just before my mother was diagnosed with brain cancer, and since my mother was also a quilter, I talk about her a whole lot there. And after she died in 2007 I never really quilted too much. I did do some but my life has been chaos since then - first I was busy being an executor, and then later that year we moved, and then there was the storm, as previously chronicled, and another move, and then my unexpected new life as a student. I haven't even set up the sewing machine! (I really need to do that one of these days.)

I started this blog last year - I think I partly named it thinking I would just use it to point to pretty things I found - and somehow at the time that never happened. Livejournal is getting pretty quiet - its future is sort of a subject of ongoing debate, really - but it's not dead yet and hopefully will keep limping along for a while, at the very least. Still, I think that's a factor in why I decided to pick this up again. I need a conversation! (So if you read this far, let me know, please!!)

Crafty Halloween linkage

Now that Halloween's getting close, I keep nosing around and finding adorable craft things I hadn't noticed before (or had noticed ages ago and forgotten about):
Panoplie's tiny little pumpkin earrings (So cute - makes me want to run out and buy orange druk beads!)*
Smilin' Jack cuff (found on Bead Art Originals)
Alexa's painted mini-pumpkins
ilovetocreate's necklaces made entirely of paint!

Kathy Cano-Murillo is the goddess (or something) of Day of the Dead. Her Crafty Chica blog is awash with it - go check it out!

I could keep going all day, but I will stop or Halloween will be over by the time I post this!


Oops, one more: notmartha's meatloaf hand. (My husband wants me to make him one of these!)

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*No, no, no. No shopping allowed for me right now!

Terrorific Tuesday the Last (aw)

Terrorific Tuesday was so much fun, I wish I'd gotten in on it from the beginning! Maybe next year...



Trick or Treat!
Frame and post it note holder dressed for Halloween

Costumed Kokeshi Dolls
Try out a Halloween idea for a traditional Japanese doll with Crafterella

Halloween Mask
Phyllis Dobbs created a fun and easy Halloween mask - great for adults and kids!

Fun Halloween Lanterns
Stephenie Hamen accessorizes plain paper lanterns with her paper punches.

Black Widow & Bloody Necklaces
Pattie Wack uses 3-D paint to create chokers that will creep out your party guests!

Tutu Cute Halloween Wreath
Vanessa creates an inspired wreath made of tulle!

Mad Scientist Party
Amy of Living Locurto shares a slew of fun ideas to host your own Mad Scientist Party.

Halloween Zombie Dolls
Crafty Chica shows how to add some zombie love to your decor!

Halloweenies!
Boopsie Daisy shares some of the wonderful Halloween dollies that she dreams up!

Crafty Chica's Ghost Story!
Kathy Cano-Murillo shares a haunted crafty tale!

Halloween Cone Witches
Make these cute little paper cone witches for Halloween!

Halloween Leftovers
Mel takes the leftovers from last week's project and makes a cool Goth choker!

Brenda Pinnick Halloween Owls
Seasonal Owls for Scaring or Delighting Trick or Treaters

The Impatient Crafter
Margot creates another spooktacular mixed media necklace with a bite.

Halloween Batty Windchime
Heidi Borchers creates a super cute windchime with personality!

Kitschy Kitschy BOO
Add some Halloween flair to your day with this cute kitschy bracelet and earring combo!

Simple Halloween Gift Tags
Studio Mama makes a strong impact with these quick and easy tags!

Strands of Beads
Melissa once again gives some pretty flower beads a Gothic makeover with this simple earring design

Costume Fun
Sharron Westerfield shares her passion for costume-making and the joy it brings her grandchildren.

Return of the Birthday Zombie
Candace is cracking herself up with this ghoulish gift box idea

Doodle Pumpkin
Swelldesigner a.k.a. Alexa Westerfield shows you how to make a fun pumpkin on the fly!

Halloween leftovers

It's not even Halloween yet, so how can I have leftovers? (you may be thinking) -- well, this is leftovers from my necklace that I posted last Tuesday - I took a bead that I removed from that necklace, and a chandelier finding that I didn't use, and some chain that I had on hand, and made something new.

Here's the bead I took off of the other necklace:

It wasn't because I didn't like it that I took it off. And in fact it's basically a bead that I made myself (out of a bead and a charm - I'll go into that a bit more below). Here it is on an early version of the Day of the Dead necklace:

I liked the way it looked on the necklace, but the problem was that it was the only stone bead on the necklace, and it wasn't in the center, and I decided the weight of it was making the necklace hang funny. The easiest answer would have been to just move it to the center, but by that time I had already put something I really really liked there, and I didn't want to change it. So off it came, instead. But I didn't want to waste it, so I decided to use it to make something new, and this is what I came up with:

The bottom part is a chandelier finding that I already had, and some little jet-colored glass beads I already had, and the chain is a couple of different gunmetal-colored things that I had bought lately. I'm really pleased with the results of my improvising, actually!

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I'm new at writing tutorials for my jewelry, and I'm already wanting to edit the heck out of what I wrote below (which I mostly wrote at about 5:30 this morning). But it gets the idea across and I really have other things I need to be doing right now, so I'm going to resist the temptation to change it all up. Think of it as a tutorial-lite!

Here's how I came up with that bead in the first place: I had pulled out everything Halloween-ish that I had, plus all black beads - and I happened to notice that this charm echoed the shape of this big stone bead perfectly:

I know where that stone came from - I bought it from FMG in a bag of mixed stones that they don't seem to have any more. Most of them looked more like this but there were a couple in that star shape. The spiderweb charms came from one of my local bead shops but I've seen those charms all over the place lately. I don't know if you're likely to be able to find a similar stone bead but it occurs to me that you could do the same thing with other shapes - I was thinking that if you could find a flat black rectangle, a headstone charm might look good on it! I'm sure there are others that would work as well.

Anyway, what I did was, I snipped the bail off the charm with my regular wire-cutters - it came off pretty cleanly, but you might need to file it a little. Then I cleaned both pieces up really well, and I mixed up some 2-part epoxy. If you haven't used it before, it's easy to use, at least if you have the kind in my link where the two tubes are connected - I got mine from FMG but I'm sure other places sell it. It automatically squeezes the same amount out of both tubes, so that makes it hard to mess up too bad! It's good to use something like an index card to mix it on, and a toothpick works really good for doing the mixing and applying. It just takes a tiny amount, and you put a very thin coat where the parts are going to meet - I don't think I put any at all on the stone side, just on the back of the charm.. And you have at least a few seconds to wiggle things into the right place before it starts drying. There was a little epoxy on the front after it dried and I think I scraped it off with a piece of wire. And voila! A whole new bead to play with. And that stuff sticks like a rock, once it's dry. I tried to pry it off with my fingernail, just to see if I could, and I definitely couldn't.

So there's your charm. For the chandelier, you need to add your little beads underneath - I think I used 4mm jet bicones on the two sides and a 4mm and 3mm jet round in the center. I just put them on with simple loops, although of course wrapped loops would be fine too. And then to connect the two, I had a gunmetal (or maybe just dark-oxidized) headpin that was long enough - 2", I think - to do all the connecting I needed to do - I made a loop at the top and the bottom of the stone bead, connected the bottom end of it to the chandelier and then set it aside.

As far as the chain, I had two kinds of gunmetal chain - big links, about 20mm ovals, and a smallish rollo chain, maybe 2-3mm wide. I cut off about 9" of the big links - the most important thing there is that you have an odd number of links - and then attach each end to the rollo chain to that piece with jump rings. I still haven't cut the rollo chain down from what I started with, so I have several options on the length - but I'm thinking it would look really good at choker length or just a bit longer. Anyway, figure out how long you want the necklace to be and cut it your rollo chain accordingly, and then add a connector at the back with jump rings. I'm partial to S-hooks for necklaces, but other things would work just as well. Then find that center big link in the front, pull it downward, and attach the stone-and-chandelier piece to it, and you're done!

Unintended results

A week or so ago - maybe more, now - I was talking about the classes I've taken this year. I've taken quite a lot of them; it's partly intended to be an occational distraction from my real schooling that I have going on. Let's see, if I'm counting right I've taken 8 jewelry classes so far this year, with a 9th coming up next week. In the late spring and summer I took several from Kay Hand - her classes are a lot of fun and I'd like to take more of them if I can ever get my schedule synched up with hers again. The weird thing is that I never come out with finished pieces that are anything like what she taught in the class, really - but I've used a lot of her ideas in things I've made since then.

The first class I took was the Gypsy Diva Necklace - which is essentially the necklace on Kay's home page, if you follow that link above. That was an all-day class and it sort of had several "modules" - one was making painted beads out of Tyvek, which was a lot of fun and I have a whole bunch of them lying around, and I've sure they'll get used in something - or several somethings - sooner or later. The second module was making stamped tags out of sheet metal - those are still lying around too - and then you learned to put the whole thing together and make charms and a wirework clasp and so on. And I was adding charms and such like everybody else, but somewhere along the line I went astray! Basically, what happened was that the Gypsy Diva necklace eventually got turned into the Day of the Dead necklace, for me - at least, I think that was the class where she said something to the effect of, "Just cut into the chain anyplace you want and add a bead, and then do the same thing again and again until you get something you like." And that was essentially what I did with the Day of the Dead necklace. And I suspect that there will be more things forthcoming using that basic technique. The Gypsy Diva necklace got utterly sidetracked for me after I added the skull bead early on. I didn't want charms, I wanted more skulls!

This is pretty much the only existing picture of what was supposed to be my Gypsy Diva necklace:

 

I think that greenish long bead is still floating around my workspace, still attached to that same chain. I really should find it and start over. But the skull was long ago removed and is on the other necklace now. I think part of the problem, actually, was that I felt from the beginning like that wanted to be two different necklaces, but I was too stubborn to admit it at the time!

The second class was called something like Hammered Metal Pendants, and this is what I came home with:

and a second pendant:

They were intended to have lots of charms and things - typically for Kay's classes! - and while I am not at all against charms, I agonized over the first one for a long time and finally decided it was essentially finished. I like it like it is. (And I haven't gotten inspired about what to do with the other one yet. I figure it'll come, eventually.) But anyway, I almost took up metalwork on the spot, it was so much fun playing with these pieces.

And the third class was the Funky Charm Bracelet, which I think is going to have to be a separate post!

A family affair

My sister is experimenting with treating wooden beads with a sort of modified decoupage technique - these are early samples but I think they have promise!

She is going to give me some to play around with; if this goes well, you may be seeing jewelry using her beads in my Etsy store before long!

(Incidentally, the Etsy store is live, although there's only one item in it right now - the pink wire-wrapped piece I showed off yesterday. I am working on getting pictures of more items so I can add more listings.)

Classwork

Here's the piece I made in class last week - this was Annette Kinslow's intermediate wire class at Bead Boutique. This is probably the most labor-intensive thing I've done yet, but I have to say the results were worth it.

Necklace details

I realized I didn't have detail pictures of the skull necklace, so here are a couple. This one shows the rusty bead at the bottom, which I adore, and also features the matching earrings I whipped up Saturday afternoon:

And here's more:

I wish I knew where that bone bead at the bottom right came from. I really like it.

Terrorific Tuesday

My skull necklace is part of Terrorific Tuesday this week! I'm so excited!

Spooky Spider House
Silvia creates a miniature haunted house that is spooky and oh-so fun!

Witchy Embroidered Postcard
Sharron Westerfield brews up a whimsical witch postcard

The Impatient Crafter
Vintage plastic owls become the focal point of a charming necklace you can wear for Halloween and all year round!

Pumpkin and cat felt treat bag
Felt bag that can also be made as a wall hanging or door hanger

Cheryl Ball's Halloween Door Hangers
Create these door hangers from inexpensive gloves for Trick of Treaters

My Big Mouth
Make a creepy wire tree just in time for Halloween!

Mel's Day of the Dead Necklace
Linked chain, skulls and spiderwebs for Dia de los Muertos.

Crafty Chica's Matchbook Shrines
Adorable little folding shrines that fit in your pocket!

Paper Pumpkin
Make a plump paper pumpkin from some strips of paper plus a little Halloween craftiness!

Polymer Clay Zombie
Candace's diabolical plan to populate the world with zombies continues!

The Impatient Crafter for iLoveToCreate
Make a retro style styrofoam ornament into a fab Halloween Party centerpiece! Madge shows you how using iLoveToCreate products!

How to Make a Spooky Spice Rack
Come make a spooky spice rack with Crafterella, she's sharing her unique labels with everyone!

Halloween Treat Tote
Conjure up a quick Halloween cupcake basket using new ScoreBoard dies!

Brenda Pinnick's Halloween Banner
A little scary, a little fun, this delightful banner celebrates all things Halloween. Made using Brenda Pinnick Sizzix dies, glitter and ribbon.

Creepy Candlesticks
Pattie Wack turns mini pumpkins into a boo-tiful Halloween lighting idea!

Strands of Beads
Melissa explores the holiday possibilities in a black and white checkered bead

Glow in the Dork Wall Hanging
Turn off the lights and have a laugh with this goofy wall hanging from Alexa Westerfield!

Picture Perfect Pumpkin
Vanessa Coppola turns a traditional pumpkin into a decopauged masterpiece!

If you would like to join in the fun next week, e-mail Alexa at swelldesigner@yahoo.com and put in your subject line "Terrorific Tuesday". She'll get you added to the group!