Please check out my latest craft blog including a tutorial on my Tree Décor.
Today is busy with finishing reviews and formatting for post. Happy Monday, oh wait it is Tuesday. Better get to work!
Category Archives: Crafts
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Filed under Crafts
No Saturday Steals This Week.
Sorry but I don’t have any steals for you this week. I will be back next week.
I have been busy with my other blog http://somanycraft.blogspot.com/ and preparing for a craft show.
Next week I will have reviews, meme’s, Coming Soon, and some great Saturday Steals. I have a lot of recommended reading for you.
Here is what I have been doing.
And more. I will work on better photos and post on the craft blog with tutorials next week.
Filed under Crafts
Many Monday Plans – Monday Meme 9/30/13
Many Monday Plans. My Monday Meme.
What the heck am I going to do this week? Time for a plan. Oops, I should have done that last night – make a plan I mean.
You can participate in Many Monday Plans – Monday Meme.
- List 7 planning to do items. (It is a seven-day week)
- Share with your friends.
- List one TIP to share.
- Enjoy your week.
- Read a book. Read another book. Read another book. What only 3 books? OK, Read 2 More.
- Blog. Plan to blog 3 times during the week for six posts or more. Schedule the posts. Review blog. Doggie Blog. Craft Blog. – Oh yeah, take pictures for craft tutorials. New Meme coming (and I don’t mean this one). Get With the Craft Blog! So Many Crafts. http://somanycraft.blogspot.com/
- Write a Review. Write another Review. Write still another review.
- Bathe some of the dogs. Hmmm, who is stinkiest?
- Shred paper in the office. This could take a while.
- Pack boxes and move to garage. Pack more boxes. Take a hot bath.
- Take a nap. A girl just wants to have fun.
Book reviews awaiting my brain and fingers:
The Morac
The Starlight Chronicles
Crime Bites – finish reading.
600 Hours of Edward
Edward Adrift
- Craft Projects for So Many Crafts
- Another Easy Peasy Wreath
- Paper Stitching
- Products and coupons
My Tip for the week. To remove odors, for example musty dusty books removed from storage. Place a small container filled with vinegar nearby. Odor gone!
My silly tip. Using embroidery floss instead of dental floss doesn’t work.
I Love these Products!
Some times a product comes to my attention and I wonder how I ever did without.
Behold the 1-step looper.
This tool makes a consistent size wire loop. Better than looping pliers you don’t have to mark the same spot on the pliers. Just place a headpin or wire in the hole on the side and squeeze the plier. The 1 step looper takes some practice to become comfortable using but the reward is the ability to have a round loop made rapidly and easily. Now my connecting loops are identical. Making two loops on either side of a bead is a breeze, Insert the wire, make a loop, slide on a bead and make another loop. Using this tool is so easy, like a daisy the pleasure is in the simplicity.
Another recent find is thread spools or bobbins. I found this product when I decided to make some kumihimo braids to I wanted to use a pattern for a square plate and needed a new one. These bobbins spare irritation by avoiding tangling of threads. Made of flexible plastic and easily opened they come in 3 sizes, 8 bobbins to a bag. I find the 1 7/8″ spools the easiest to work with but other sizes available are 2 1/2″ and 3 1/2″. Again, how was I oblivious to this wonderful tool? I keep buying more because they have made weaving, braiding, kumihimo and macramé more enjoyable.
Extra tip, using a weight when braiding with kumihimo is a great help but the weights are pricey. I have developed an alternative and hope to have available for sale soon.
Have fun and let me know if you have found a great crafting or jewelry making tool.
Filed under Crafts, Handmade, Jewelry Making, Reviews
Tila Beads and Compassion Suede
As a crafter I have found several products recently I absolutely love. Today I review 2 products and highlight a project from the Beadshop.com. FYI the Beadshop has some great tutorials worthy of a look.
One of my crafting tables for jewelry.
Compassion suede. I am an animal rights activist and vegetarian. I do not wear leather and I feed my dogs vegetarian food. WE live is a cruelty free household. Many jewelry projects I like are made with leather. But why must leather be used when we have the technology to create an alternative. Microsuede fabric is a great alternative. Beadsmith is one of several companies that offer compassion with their faux leather and faux suede stringing materials.
Cruelty free and more. So many colors and a variety of textures are available. It is easy to knot. Some colors have a tendency to bleed if wet but since I refuse to use leather I can deal with the issue. I have seen some feedback that the product doesn’t work well with slide knots and the microsuede probably has that issue. I have only used pleather cord for slide knots and had no problems so I cannot confirm the findings.
I used faux leather cord for this wrap bracelet. The cord has held my toggle button with no problem or breaking. I know photo isn’t great, my camera battery is dead so I used my phone. I like to wrap beads and do a herringbone wrap. I have tried Chinese knotting cord for wraps but floss or perle cotton work well also. I also have tried Tuff cord I had on hand for my Kumihimo braiding.
Tila Beads. My first tile bead project was using a Czech bead called a niblette. I liked the outcome but found that the metallic color was not embedded but plated or sprayed on the bead and rubbed off pretty easily. I haven’t seen Tila beads in the craft stores but have found in bead stores and online. Tila beads have 2 holes for stringing and weaving. They come in metallic, opaque, luster and translucent beads. New Tila beads in Picasso style, marbled, are on the market.
Here is a beautiful photo of project for a Tila bead headband project from beadshop.com.
I used Kevlar thread for most of my bead weaving but this bead works with Tuff cord #1. I use Tuff cord, hemp or waxed cotton when I wrap Tila beads on, called laddering. Tila beads offer a different look to wrap bracelets than regular beads. Tila beads give a different dimension to jewelry making and beadwork, better than the niblet or square beads.
http://beadshop.com/projects/projects/mosaic-headband/shewolf-mosaic-headband
Filed under Crafts, Recommended, Reviews
