Vintage Christmas?

[neuromance.livejournal.com]

I know, I know it's early. But I'm slow and if I don't get a jump now this just will never happen.

My random, awesome mother sent me a 60's aluminum Christmas tree as a July present and now that I actually get to use it I'm kind of excited. I would love-love-love to do some vintage DIY decorations for it but I'm having a hard time finding good resources for this. So far the only thing I've found is this vintage decoration guide but all the ornaments require foil wrapping paper and I don't know how easily I'll be able to procure it (I live in Japan).

any ideas ladies and gents? I don't have a colour wheel, but I figure blue spotlighting will work fine and match the other mini tree which will be covered in punk pin badges and beer bottle caps.

Quality Materials for Jewelry Making

[blonnie.livejournal.com]

I have a question that I hope someone out there can help me with. I made a few pairs of earrings out of feathers. You can see them in the following links (sorry for the bad quality pics, I just used my Macbook.) Earring 1, Earring 2, Earring 3.

My problem is that, as much as I loved them, the crimp ends I used were such poor quality that they actually broke off. They broke in the way that metal does when you bend it back and forth, except this was simply from regular use. I would like to eventually start selling these, but I would never do it with such poor quality materials.

The problem I have is that I wouldn't know what isn't "poor" quality until I tried it out! That worries me, because I don't want to waste a lot of money trying to find the right thing.

I was hoping that someone here might have a suggestion for a replacement crimp end that I could use. If not, maybe the suggestion of a jewelry supply business that you've always felt sold nice quality materials.

Thanks in advance for your help!

(no subject)

[luckypineapple.livejournal.com]

Crochet boots...am I insane for even considering this?

( HELP! )

Necklace

[pamelalabella.livejournal.com]

I made this necklace from pretty glass beads and chain :)

what do ya think?

i think my photos are getting better haha.




( plus two pictures :) )

New beady and jewellery things

[melligator.livejournal.com]

Been trying to use up those beads I'm keeping for something special... don't know what. Had some of them years :D I also caved and started giving the pieces names, to differentiate "green necklace" from the myriad other green necklaces in my picture folder!

( Images are quite big! )

A refurbished Laptop bag

[mscrafty.livejournal.com]

I picked up an old school laptop bag in a bargain store awhile ago for like $3 bucks.  :)
I thought I could do something to make it prettier.



So with a pretty fabric in tow, I proceed to cut and paste!

( Transformed! )

New girl in the neighborhood...

[rat12.livejournal.com]

 I thought that I would post a few of my latest projects as a nice hello to the community... and maybe get a little feedback along the way.
( A few pretty things. )

Protective on shrinky dinks.

[igotpi.livejournal.com]

I've been trying to make shrinky dink jewelry and I keep having problems on finding a sealer to go over Sharpie Marker. Nail polish and clear spray stuff makes the marker bleed and if I don't do something about it the image rubs off over time. Any suggestions?