Brad Charm Necklace {Tutorial}

I stumbled upon a fabulous post from Ashley at Lil Blue Boo on her mini brad charms tutorial. It is beyond simple and you can truly make almost ANY type of charm from this idea. Her tutorial is amazing and perfectly detailed, so I'll just give you a brief run down. :)

:Supplies:

Metal brads--any size or shape

Mod Podge Dimensional Magic (or Embossing Powder)

Jump rings

Embellishments

The idea for these charms is very similar to that of my mod podge dimensional magic bracelet but you first have to "make" your charm. To create your charm out of the metal brad, remove the two prongs from the back by wiggling them back and forth until they fall off. To make the hole for the jump ring, simply use a hammer and nail to "poke" through the brad. It's MUCH easier and quicker than it sounds--just give it a few small taps! Trim and smooth any sharp edges with your nearby nail tools. :) You then decorate the inside of your brad--use paper, fabric, stickers, jewels, photos, embellishments...anything! Once it is all glued in and secured, add your jump ring. The next step is when Ashley used embossing powder, but I went with Dimensional Magic since I already had some on hand. It gave me great results! Keep the charms as level as possible when drying. Every now and then give the jump ring a wiggle so that it doesn't dry into the Dimensional Magic.

For my first charm I used a paper sunflower scrapbooking embellishment. I also wanted to do a summery charm, so I cut the word 'tan' from a summer themed scrapbook page and added a sticker jewel for my second. For my third charm I stuck on a glitter-gold sticker with the letter 'a.' I was a little concerned about the paper flower curling or the glitter from the 'a' spreading but they all turned out perfect once they dried! The hummingbird design was cut from a piece of scrapbook paper. This was made from a bezel-set charm that I found at Michaels on clearance forever ago--I finally found the perfect project to pair it with!

As I first applied the Dimensional Magic

The Dimensional Magic will get more clear as it dries

Once they are dry you are all done! Add them to a bracelet or necklace and show her off.

I got lots of compliments the first day wearing her--people are always so impressed (but not surprised) that I made the charms myself!

They really do look store-bought...but little do they know how simple it is to make!

Happy charm making!

Thank you Kelly from Running With Glitter and

Ginger from Support Blog for Moms of Boys for featuring my charms!

Spring has Sprung Bib Necklace

They're being sold everywhere from Old Navy, to Anthropologie, to Etsy...these beauties are super popular right now and I have been itching to make one for months. I finally scrounged up some scrap fabric and a few jewelry supplies to make one for myself--finally, my first bib necklace!

Here are some details of the various flowers...I thought it would be perfect for spring and summertime to do a variety of different styles and sizes. I made the majority of the flowers into rosettes and had two additional burnt petal flowers. I also added a few pearls, lace, some other floral embellishments, pearl trim and some ribbon for that extra detail. I used contrasting (but complimentary) colors for all the different flowers so that I could be sure to wear it with multiple outfits.

 

And here she is...

I know she seems pretty big and has a lot going on--but that's the point, right? I wore her for Easter with a simple blue linen dress and yellow cardigan. She also looks fab with any solid color shirt or tank. The key is to wear something low-key so that the necklace will really liven up the outfit!

I love her and all her glory...each little flower handmade with love <3

Thank you Tammy from She Wears Flowers
Krista from Thar She Sews 
Chiara from Calico and Cupcakes 
and Katie from Sew Woodsy
for featuring my necklace!

 

Easter Fun :)

Has anyone seen the Easter Rice Krispies commercial? The one with the mom and her two kids making Easter egg shaped rice krispies with the M&M's on the inside as their surprise treat? Well, thinking that these 'Hidden Surprise Easter Egg Treats' would be somewhat as simple to make as the commercial made it seem, Larry's mother and grandmother wanted to attempt this...warning: this is not as simple as it looks!

Here are all the goodies we started off with...the essentials: Rice Krispies, marshmallows and butter...along with our fun "hidden treasure" candy as well as icing, dipping chocolate and sprinkles!

First step, melting down the marshmallows...After this it gets nothing but messy!

Though we were having fun, mom, grandma and I weren't having too much luck with molding these krispie eggs, so Larry stepped in... 

 Larry was apparently the professional as he had the idea that seemed to work the best!

The trick is to try and let them cool/dry IN the plastic eggs for as long as you can to keep the shape, NOT to remove them like the directions call for. The only problem with this is that it takes up a LOT of your plastic eggs!

 All the different size eggs we used!

 

 

  The krispies seemed to be holding well at first when we took them out of the eggs...then as they slowly dried some of them slowly fell apart haha

This is one of the few that managed to keep shape! :)

 This is one of the eggs that DIDN'T keep shape...mom turned it into a Peep home.:)

 Eventually we just made cupcake krispies! Yum!

 

 Beware: you will have lots of plastic eggs to clean!!

 The following evening once they were completely cooled and dried we got to decorating. 

Make sure your pup doesn't help like Bailey tried to do!  

 Melted chocolate, icing, sprinkles, Reeses minis, jellybeans, skittles, M&M's, Peeps and more!

 These are some sweet treats!

 Though they were a task, they were fun to make and turned out super cute!

 

Once we got home EARLY Easter morning we were greeted with our Easter goodies on our bed from Larry's mom, as she puts a basket together for us every year. Instead of baskets this year, she used what she had on hand--butter containers! We had a little note waiting for us when we got home that night--it was so sweet. I proceeded to eat a few candies at 1:30am. :)



John and Ashley with their Easter baskets

 

Larry and I's Easter baskets



For lunch on Easter we went to my grandmothers and ate on the back porch. It was a gorgeous day and it was so nice to spend quality time with my family for a few hours.

For dinner we ate with Larry's family. That meant round 2 of amazing food as well as taste testing our krispie treats which were YUMMY! This was an amazing Easter and I'm so grateful to have two amazing families.

Easy Ribbon Headband {Mini Tutorial}

I am a huge fan of headbands and DIY-ing hair accessories, so when my friend Ashley told me about a headband project she wanted to attempt and asked if I wanted to join, I jumped on board. We went shopping together (at Hobby Lobby as well as through grandma's craft supply goodness, which is always the best!) and picked up all the necessities. We made our headbands on our own time but each had success and they turned out super cute! This is such an easy and quick project and for some people, all the supplies may already be on hand! The basic supplies you need are:

Ribbon (at least an inch wide)

Velvet ribbon (same width as your original ribbon or thinner)

Thin elastic

Sewing machine and essentials



Ashley already did a post on her headband with a simple to follow tutorial so no need to repeat--go here to check it out. Another good friend of mine, Katie from Sew Woodsy, did a similar take on this headband last month--she made hers out of a towel to be used as a "sweatband" when working out--how cool! 



Ashley's headband for running and Katie's "sweatband" for working out

Here was my first headband.

Pink, ruffly, girly...so me. :)

My second headband I made was for Christmas time.

Plaid...red, green and gold...and I attached a bow. :)

Get creative! There are oodles of ribbon options out there--you could also add a flower,
bow or brooch to spice it up! :)