It’s So Fluffy, I’m Gonna DIE!!

I’ve been sitting around fighting these winter blues, creative itch driving me nuts, trying to decide what to do with my time. I thought about mod podging my TV stand, but I promised the hubs that I wouldn’t decoupage any more furniture until we sell our house (so here’s hoping for a quick sell), and I think he’ll be looking at some new LCD TV stands to go with his new TV. So instead I ordered

feathers-

lots of them too. And they are so cool! Purples, teals, browns, stripes. Oh man, I’m obsessed! I will be purchasing more very soon. Like, probably as soon as I’m done writing this. I did buy them with an intention in mind, and it’s this…

fFeather Earringse

Yes please!! And can I tell you that I am so in love with how they turned out! They have a little fun sexy thing going on and they make me feel dressed up and effortless, which is perfect for me and my life right now. Two little rascals, the less work I have to put into me, the better.

So here is a quick little tute if you want to make some yourself.

Supplies Needed:

2 dozen feathers, thread, leather cording, kidney wire earrings, 4 jump rings, 2 thin chains- one 4” the other 4 1/2”, with charms on the ends

To start off take a dozen of your feathers and bunch them together, making sure that the tops are even.

Take the thread and double it so it’s stronger, then tie a tight knot around the tops of the feather bunch.

Grab a length of the leather cording and thread on 2 of the jump rings.

Now take one of the jump rings and make a loop pointing down and hold it onto the end of the feather bunch.

And make another large loop with the other end of the cording, about 1 1/2 to 2 ft, making sure to leave the 2nd jump ring in that loop, but don’t cut the cording!

Then take one end of the large loop (not the end connected to the spool) and start tightly wrapping the cording from about and inch down the bunch, up to the top of the earring.

When you get to the top of the bunch take the cut end of the cord and the end still attached to the spool and pull them as tight as you can and cut off the excess. I took some hot glue and put some on the top and bottom and then smeared it down to keep all of the cording in place.

I didn’t get a picture of this step, but all you need to do is attach the 2 chains to the bottom jump ring and then slide the entire thing onto the kidney wire earring. These seriously took me about 25 minutes and I am seriously so in love! I was so excited to wear them that my special occasion ended up being at my mom’s for dinner after conference. But that’s what I love about these. I can wear them anytime. They’re just

so fun!

So, are you going to give them a try?

I hope you do!

Sammy

Prairie Chunk Necklace

So we find out today if we made it into Crafting with the Stars! My fingers and all of my toes are crossed, we really want to make it in! So we'll let you know what we find out!

Until then, here is the tutorial for the Prairie Chunky Necklace.

Here is a pic of all of the different fabulous stuff that I used for this necklace. Every item here was purchased at Michaels, but feel free to mix it up, use what you like, find a length that works for you, and what fits your style.

I've got four different styles of chains, 2 different types of beads, some fabric strips, a flower embellishment bead, eyepins, split rings, and some jewelry pliers.

I started with the base of the necklace. I took about 7 inches of a plain chain and attached a split ring onto one end.

I attached the flower to the split ring and then added another split ring to the bottom of the flower. The fabric strip is then threaded through the bottom split ring.

I then tied the fabric strip in a bow and then looped another split ring through the bottom of the bow.

To this split ring, I attached the entire big chain and then connected it back to the small chain at the beginning.

Next I started on the bead chain. The first step is to use the eyepins in all of the beads.

Slide each bead onto the eyepin and then clip with the wire cutters and curl the end with the round pliers.

When they are all done they will look something like this:

(I realize that I am showing the incorrect amount of beads in this picture, so just squint you eyes and pretend that there are 6 round beads and 3 square beads.)

Now start attaching the beads together with the split rings like so

I used my smallest chain on this one. My pattern was chain-circle-circle-square-chain-circle-square-circle-chain-square-circle-circle-chain. HA! Does that make any kind of sense at all? No? Well here's a picture...

Then attach split rings on the ends and attach it to the flower chain at the top of the flower on one side and at the top of the big chain on the other side.

Next I took my medium size chain and measured it so it would fall in-between the two finished chains, and attached it again with split rings.

(That's Ruth trying to get out of the picture in the background. haha!)

And to finish it off I measured one more piece of medium chain to go at the top so it fell the same distance as the middle two and attached it. (Are you confused yet? Don't worry, lots of pictures!)

And that's it! I love it. I love me some bold chunky jewelry that just screams, "LOOK AT ME!". I like to dress simply and embellish with jewels and accessories, and this one is just soooo fun, right?