Another Day in Paradise

Another day in paradise to me is when I can craft instead of doing my normal 9-5 job. Thanks to a big hearted boss and the opportunity to donate a tree to Carroll Hospice's Festival of Trees it has been paradise in the office (at least for a few hours each week).

Our beach themed tree is coming along great. It is amazing what can be done with a group of crafty people, shells, some hot glue and lots of glitter. Here are some of the cute ornaments we have made.

These crafty signs were hand painted by Erin, a graphic designer at Devaney & Associates. She used inexpensive pre-cut signs from the craft store as the base. The designs were done on her computer and then she printed and traced them onto the signs to hand paint. Then she added little touches, like the rafia and seashells, to finish off these beachy signs.

A beach theme wouldn't be complete without flip flops! We searched high and low for inexpensive flip flop ornaments but everything was $10 or more. So we ordered these flip flop necklaces from Oriental Trading Company and removed the necklace string, spray painted them gold and added ribbon and raffia to finish them off. At $4.99 a dozen this option was much more economical. Often thinking out of the box and making small changes to an item can give you great results.

These cute holiday balls were put together by Art Director Michele using Design Your Own, Clear Ornaments, sand, miniature shells, raffia and ribbon.

This ornament was a true collaboration. We had left over shells and starfish. By themselves they were too small to put on the tree. I added the beads and the wire to the top, Michele used some E6000 glue to attach the starfish to the front of the shell and our Production Manager Kristen (who has a slight obsession with Martha Stewart glitter) came in and added a bit of holiday sparkle to finish it off.

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Leather Earring Tutorial

Why should leather only be used for jackets, shoes and purses? Medium weight or upholstery leather is easy to craft since it doesn't fray or crinkle. These leather earrings are quick, versatile and easy to make. You can even recycle those old purses or jackets that have damage since you really only need small amounts of good leather. I used 4" square leather samples and had plenty left over to make more earrings. Supplies: Leather Leather punch (I bought mine at Michaels Craft store for around $10 but you can also get the from home stores like Home Depot or Lowes) Sharp scissors 2-Large Jump Rings 2-Earring wires Jewelry pliers Download the pattern below, print and cut out shapes. Cut 2-of each shape in the leather of your choice. I used 3 different types of leather, don't be afraid to mix it up. Pile one set of the three shapes on top of each other and carefully punch a whole on one of the ends. I punched the hole about a quarter of an inch away from the end using the sma...

Leather Earring Pattern Update

In October I posted a tutorial to make leather earrings . Well for Christmas I revisited this craft and made a few other designs for a few people at my work. This is one of my favorite tutorials because they are so easy to make and the earrings are light and easy to wear. I liked the new designs so much I thought I would share the pattern for them. To view the full set of instructions on how to make these leather earrings, click here . To make one of the two pairs shown, download and print the updated pattern below (the bottom row are the new designs):

Washer Necklace Tutorial

Every time I buy furniture that requires assembly I always left over hardware. I take this hardware and put it in a jar thinking that one day I will need that extra nut or bolt. Well today is that day! Below is a tutorial on how to take those extra washers and make them into a cute necklace. Supplies: Scissors X-acto knife or hole punch Pencil Small piece of scrapbooking paper (you can use the left over scraps for this project) Modge Podge (or something similar) Washer Aleene’s Paper Glaze 36” of ribbon or cord Use the washer to trace a circle on the paper, don’t forget to trace the inside circle as well. Using your scissors cut just inside of the traced line on the outer circle. Note: you want to cut inside of the line and not on it so it fits on the washer and does not overlap the edges. If the hole for your center is close to the same size of a hole punch, simply punch out the center circle. If not use the X-acto knife to cut out the center area. Modge Podge the paper to the washer ...

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