Hot Summer Fun Pennant Necklace

This fabulous necklace from ThePolkaDotMagPie is just a little hint for what the next tutorial coming your way may be...

Square Pink Drusy Handmade Sterling Silver Ring

Square Pink Drusy Ring - luckyduct makes some fabulous jewels!

Sterling Silver Necklaces With Character

ANORIGINALJEWERLY is a shop that I stumbled upon and simply fell in love with - this Just Married piece is adorable and a must have! As I kept looking I ran into this next piece...

...and the love solidified. Seriously, wiener dog people are, in my opinion, the best kind of people!

CRATE & BARREL CONTEST UPDATE:
Hunky calculated last night and we are in 273rd Place! Thanks to all of you who have voted for us - we truly appreciate it! If you haven't yet, please take 2 seconds to vote for us by clicking the button below!

My Bead Soup Arrived!

If you pay attention to the side bar you will have seen the bead soup logo:

The fabulous Lori Anderson, author of the blog Pretty Things is hosting one huge Bead Soup Blog Party. Lori spent so much of her time pairing up hundreds of people who signed up to be involved in the swap. Her goal: to get jewelry makers out of their comfort zones, pairing people with seemingly opposite styles together to see what will happen.

I am super excited - my Bead Soup arrived in the mail over the weekend!
I was paired with Haley who makes fabulous hemp jewelry that she sells in her Etsy shop!

This is what arrived in the mail - I have been brainstorming for a few days and am planning on making this project my reward! Only 3 more projects for class to make my way through before I'll let myself touch these gorgeous notions. Isn't that note-card really cute?

Stay tune for something excellent!

Fluffy Little Sheep

I am in love with this cute Fluffy Sheep necklace from marmar!

Stunning Valentine Button Earring Giveaway

Today after work I put together my Valentines!
Honestly, I've been wearing my covered button earrings ALL WEEK!
They are so very light and super cute, pretty much my favorite new thing.

Seriously, I wish I could give you each a pair - but I would probably be covering buttons for the next 8 years.

I guess you'll all just have to enter this fabulous giveaway!

Now through 2/10 you can enter to win a Stunning Valentine!

Oh yeah, just in case you love the button earrings as much as I do, you can purchase a pair for the discounted price of $5 - mention Valentine11 in Etsy notes to seller and I will adjust the price before you pay through Paypal!

Here are ways you can enter to win your very own Stunning Valentine!

• MANDATORY ENTRY: Follow the Stunning Blog
  Sample comment: I am a blog follower of Stunning on Blog Lovin

• Go to Stunning on Etsy & pick your favorite item.
  Sample comment: I LOVE the Excitement Sequin Headband!
  

• "Like" Stunning on Facebook
  Sample comment: I am a Stunning Facebook fan under the name Chelsea Smith
  

• Heart Stunning on Etsy
  Sample comment: I hearted Stunning under the name stunningannak
  

• Tweet about this giveaway
  Sample comment: I tweeted about this giveaway http://twitter.com/#!/StunningAnnaK/status/29556954032508929

• Blog about this giveaway
  Sample comment: I blogged about this fabulous giveaway: http://stunningannak.blogspot.com/
  

• Add the Stunning Button to your blog
  Sample comment: I added the Stunning button to my blog www.chelseasmitherocks.blogspot.com
  

*Please leave each entry in a separate comment*

**This giveaway will begin at 2:45 Eastern 2/4/2011 and will end on 2/10/2011 at noon Eastern. The winner will chosen from a random number generator and will be announced in a post Thursday evening.**

Calico Necklace No. 3

tamar was on the front page of Etsy yesterday - this definitely promotes my covered button addiction - such a great looking necklace!

Fabric Covered Button Earring Tutorial

I feel like this is the best picture I've taken in a while - therefore I put it up here for you all to see!

My friend Ashleigh and I got together over the weekend and had a craft day!
Our Mission: Fabric Covered Button Earrings
We were hoping to make them for Valentine's Day gifts.
I'd say it was a rather successful venture - here's a tutorial so that you too can master the art of these fabulous little earrings!

Some of the finished product!

Supplies:

• Fabric covered button KIT
  Buying the kit is important - this should include 2 little pieces that we will refer to as the "mold" (usually white) and "pusher" (usually blue.) It also comes in many sizes - Ashleigh prefers smaller earrings so she went with 1/2" while I went with the slightly larger 5/8"
• An extra pack or 2 of buttons to cover
  The kits only come with a enough to make about 3 pairs of earrings. Mine came with 8 while Ashleigh's came with 7 - we still can't figure that one out. We each bought an extra pack or two of the buttons just in case we fell in love - which we most certainly did!
• Earring Posts
  The posts with a flat side - I noticed that some came with earring backs and others did not something to pay attention to. Also, make sure that your the flat part will fit inside the button back - we ran into a bit of a problem with this.
  
• Fabric
  After circling JoAnn's for quite a long time we ended up in the fat quarter section where we each picked up a few pieces we liked - this was not the intention as we could have used fabric I already had at home. It was just too difficult to pass up the prints! Be brave in your choices - the smaller the print the more detail you'll be able to capture in the earring.
  
• Ribbon/Lace/Overlay Fabric (Optional)
  We actually had a lot of fun layering ribbon and lace from the dollar section - although I would suggest trying to make a pair without layering first just to make sure you know what you're doing. :D
• Pliers
  To modify the earring back in order to accommodate the post.
• Glue Gun or Jewelry Glue
  Pick you poison - hot glue dries faster. :)
  
• Pen
  To trace the circle pattern onto the fabric.
  
• Paper Scissors
  To cut out the pattern on the back of the button packaging.
  
• Fabric Scissors
  To cut out the circles and trim bulk as necessary

Cut out the circle pattern on the back of the covered button kit packaging. BONUS - each refill you buy also has the pattern, so don't worry about losing the tiny circle!

This chart is on the back of the button and kit package - which means it's important! This is how to make a fabric covered button - lucky for you I've broken it down below...

Once you are satisfied with the placement of your traced circle use your fabric scissors to cut it out from the fabric.

If you are going to try to create a layered look cut a piece of ribbon/lace/overlay fabric that is about a wide as your circle. Ashleigh preferred to eyeball this while I used the circle template.

Try to match the two fabrics - cut the ribbon/lace/overlay fabric to be relatively the same shape - or - use the template.

Place your fabric in the mold (1) ribbon/lace/overlay fabric then (2) main fabric.

Use your finger or the end of a pen to push the fabric down into the mold.

Insert the button shell into the well - this may take more force than you realize. The fabric will gather around the shell and may need to be trimmed if it begins to get too bulky - Remember- we still need to place to button back on top of all of this material. This is a good time to pop the button and fabric out to see if you are satisfied with the placement of the fabric as well as a great time to notice and fix any bunches or folds.

Use the pliers to wiggle the metal loop out from the button's back - this surface needs to be smooth in order to attach the earring back. Some of these backs gave us a more difficult time than others - and yes - we did mangle a few of them.

Tuck the fabric into the space on the back of the button shell and place the button back on top the side that you removed the metal loop from should be facing outward.

Using the plunger and your fingers secure the button back to the shell by pressing with all of your might - some of the bulkier buttons took more might than others. BEWARE - Once you complete this step there is really no going back, make sure that your fabric is placed just as you want it to be. Don't worry - Ashleigh and I did have a pile of "reject" buttons by the end...

Now it's time to glue the earring back to the back of the button. I noticed in my bag of earring backs some of the pieces didn't fit together - if at first you don't succeed try another!

Use a few dots of hot glue or jewelry glue to attach the post to the button back. Watch you fingers - we did get burnt a few times!

TA-DA! You now have a fabulous pair of covered button earrings!

Wear them with your bulky bulky sweater if you live in blizzard country!

Ashleigh looks super cute in her FAVORITE pair - It took her about an hour to decide which pair that was -- ha ha ha!

Get ready to impress your Valentine! These are easy to send through the mail too - wrap them in a little bubble wrap and stick them in a pretty envelope with a happy little note!