Copper and Brass jewelery

So I recently ordered a jewelers saw so I could try my hand at some metal jewelry. I find cutting out the shapes are a fairly easy task – but soldering…that is going to take some practice! You can see in the bottom right (inside of the frame) there is a little solder peeking out. I don’t want that. This is actually the second piece I made just like this. On the first piece I really had solder leakage. (BTW – hate that word…leakage…ewwwww) So I scrubbed at it with some wire brushes and ended up copper-plating my brass! Oh – and the black part is patina’d copper and the gold part is brass. So…I now have two almost good enough pendants…one I’ll wear and this one I’ll keep scrubbing at and then dontate to the Cuyuna Range Whitetails banquet next year. (My hubbie is the VP and I’m the Secretary – lot’s of meetings…but FUN!) I have a couple more designs planned  but haven’t gotten to them yet. This may seem like a total random craft for me to try but it isn’t. I actually bought a coping saw about ten years ago to give this a whirl and it didn’t work very well – lol. Now I was gifted with some large pieces of copper and brass and decided it was time to tackle it again. I had an old work bench in the shed and I begged and bugged my 16 year old to get some friends together and get it to the basement – they did – yay! It’s ugly as all get-out but STURDY and it has a VICE and DRAWERS! And I can leave my mess down there – and start and stop whenever I want.

Here’s another one I did finish. I made the heart out of polymer clay – I have to take pictures of the backs of these don’t I. After I cut out the wings I realized they were very pointy and dangerous. I mean, if I fell wrong while wearing it I could puncture my jugular! But – they made a perfect way to hang it. I used thin copper wire to attach them to the chain. The copper should patina as time goes on. Next step in these projects is to etch the copper. I have all the supplies but now need the time…

I went to a garage sale yesterday and picked up a couple things. Just a couple. I got a pizza pizzazz for $5.00 and a couple skeins of yarn. I crocheted up the yarn last night into a scarf -

It’s a rather short scarf so I’ll have to figure out some kind of closure/toggle/thingy – I think. I’ll probably just wear it as it is for now. (Well, next winter…unless we get more snow!) The scarf is the background for the necklace pictures if you want to relook and see close-ups. I can’t donate this project cause I totally forgot how to single crochet and my edges are all wonky – I figured it out in the end – but this yarn does NOT unravel. It’ll break before it will come undone. So darn…I have to keep a wonky soffffttttt alpaca and mohair and acrylic scarf for myself. lol. (I’m so proud of myself – the yarn didn’t get put into the “someday” pile!)

And guess what – I won a give-a-way! That is RARE! I won this awesome tote from Nestle and Soar.

It’s a great tote – I used it yesterday :) Thank you!!!

In other news I’ve reorganized the back entry and still have to repaint. Grrrr. I took down all the old mismatched racks and added one longer rack. It took me about THREE HOURS to hang it! I don’t know why. It just did. It was a pain. It took two trips to the hardware store to get the correct wall anchors. The back entry is full of clean hanging laundry right now because it was supposed to rain yesterday – so everything had to be dried inside. Maybe…maybe I’ll paint today. I moved down and started cleaning the basement yesterday instead. Why and HOW does it get to be such a mess! Well, I know one way it gets so messy…KIDS! They had arranged all my totes into a pen for a puppy last summer…after I’d just sorted them out…and I lost heart for the project after that. This time there will be blood-shed and tears if anyone so much as moves a tote an inch! (Probably my blood and tears – cause I’ll probably throw myself onto the concrete floor and have a world-class tantrum!) And yes, my crafts are messy. But it’s a moving mess…it’s changing all the time – that’s gotta count for something right?

Happy Crafting!!!

Rug redo! (Crochet circle rug)

Here is the finished – or almost finished – rug. I’ve been using it at the kitchen sink for a couple of weeks so it has flattened out quite a bit. It is really nice to stand on and holds a ton of dirt! It didn’t start out as a circle though…

It started out like this. I’ve been researching patterns all over the internet trying to find one that made sense to me. The one I referred to for this one said “increase when you think you need to” – what! A newbie like me doesn’t have the know-how to “increase when needed”. I needed a PATTERN…but not too hard cause I can barely read a pattern. Here is a tutorial that made sense to me. So I ripped this all out and started over. The “yarn” is a vintage sheet that I ripped into about 1-1.5” strips. I haven’t decided if it’s finished yet. To keep it from unraveling I put a pin in the last crochet hole and tucked the end under the rug. I’m liking the size but I can make it bigger later on if I want. I goofed up a few times but this is a perfect practice project…cost = next to nothing. I had the sheet in my stash and had the crochet hook in my stash. smile. Gotta keep using up that stash!

In other news I’m now on Instagram. I just haven’t been taking pictures of the kids or our life like I should. Mostly it’s because the camera is never with me…but my phone is! That is what that new little camera icon is at the top right hand side of the screen is. That will take you to me…you may have to set up an Instagram account to view – I don’t know – but that is easy! You’ll mostly see craft projects (of course) but I also want to post some vacation photos next week…we’ll see. My husband recently found a picture of us taken last year in Las Vegas and I gasped…the photo is awful! I can see that getting some Photoshop skills is going on my list ASAP! Another reason I picked Instagram is because I’ve seen many cute photo books made with the photos…you just pick out your favorite photos and upload them to your company of choice and poof – you’ve just ordered a hardcover photo album! I don’t know if I’ll ever get back to scrapbooking with real paper and glue like I used to…it’s so expensive…and the digital options are so reasonable…

Happy Crafting!!!!

Crochet iPod case…

Well, my crochet skills are getting better. I was messing around and made this iPod case, then stitched a needle felted heart onto it. This is not good enough for resale, but good enough for me. :) No pattern used – just made it up as I went along. I have quite a bit of crochet thread to use up (gifted to me from Grannie) but not much yarn and I’m having a REALLY hard time not BUYING yarn! But I won’t…I want to use what I have in my stash. I’ve been spending time cleaning. I’ve spent about 8 hours cleaning in the basement and I’ve probably cleaned about 5 square feet. Not. Even. Kidding. I’m going through everything and putting it in it’s proper place. I had boxes of misc stuff and nothing made sense. It makes me not want to buy anything for a while. lol. During the Super Bowl yesterday I organized my beads. It took the whole game to get through the mess and I was thoroughly sick of beads by the end. But I’ve seen some good ideas lately and really needed to see what I have. Julie and I haven’t started on our shirts yet…kind of a bummer. I hope we can start this week!

In other news if you follow the Monster’s of Rock Cruise Facebook page you probably saw our picture. If you don’t here it is -

They post pictures of “days left until cruise” – we were at the ice-fishing contest on our local lake and came across these characters and had our picture taken with them lol. Grant and I are holding the sign. The caption was “Do you have enough ice on the ship or should we bring our own?” ha ha. I really can’t wait!!! Well, it’s back to dishes, laundry, and cleaning and organizing for me now…until this evening when I can sit down and CRAFT!!!

Happy Crafting!!

Crochet-edge pillowcases…

Honestly, could I get any worse at taking a picture! Sheesh. This is what I’ve been working on for the past few days. I’m really trying to use up my stash of stuff. The top three pillowcases were made from men’s shirts that I’ve been collecting and hoarding for the past several years. The bottom pillow was made from some cheap fabric I had in my stash. I got the ecru crochet thread for free from my favorite thrift-store lady. The red thread on the blue pillow was purchased at a thrift store for about ten cents and the red thread on the gingham pillow was from my Grannie. Bottom-line these pillow case covers cost virtually nothing. I bought most of the men’s shirts when I’d hit a “bag for a dollar” sale. I haven’t crocheted in about 20 years and my skills are RUSTY!

First I had to remember how to do a blanket stitch, which I did around the entire case, then crochet. I ended up doing five double crochets in each bridge of the blanket stitch on this case.

Sorry for the fuzz…it was crocheted in. On this case I did five triple crochets on each bridge with a single crochet at each end…so seven on each bridge. Made it almost look like pom-poms. This case took me two days to finish. I don’t know how many hours but it’s cold here and we had a lazy weekend at home. I like that it makes the cases special without being too frilly. I want to make several more so I can change them out whenever. Can you imagine…having extra cases…not having to wait for them to dry after laundering them to put them back on…the luxury! Then I think I’ll make a couple for the Bazaar. Hopefully by then I’ll be good enough at the whole thing that I won’t embarrass myself. I’m still trying to figure out how to cover our square pillows…we have a lot of pillows…but we have a lot of people and a couch that needs the extra support from the pillows…

Happy Crafting!!!

PS: Julie and I are going to cut out our shirts this week I hope, might just get the pattern traced…we’ll see…fingers crossed!!!