Owl Bobby Pin

A neat little owl charm. Didn't want it on a necklace so I will make it into a hair pin/

Got these bobby pins at the craft store. Super fun to play with adding things  to them.

Tool of choice.

Used my clippers to snip off the little ring at the top. Didn't require much effort.

Hot glued my two pieces together.

Final piece. took about 2 minutes. Wear it with my other steam punk hair pins.

New Piercing

I have been craving a new piercing for away. Just couldn't decide what I wanted. Luckily I found a awesome example while looking at plugs. Went to a local shop and by chance the piercer had what I wanted. He was such a awesome person. I am no noob when it comes to piercer and I like that I wasn't treated as one. He asked what I knew about after care and when I was done with my list he said that I was good. After talking to him I found out that he is from the same county in Maryland as my husband. Will definitely go back to him in the future. Here it is. Simply called a lower helix.

Helpful Hemp Hints

Softening Hemp

1. Constant wear. The more your wear hemp the softer it will get. It will absorb your oils and the constant rubbing will smooth out any stray fibers.
2. Fire it up. This will smell but it does the job. A lighter or gas stove works very well. Simple take you finished hemp product and put it near a flame. The flame will catch all the small and stray fibers and burn them down. Don't put the flame too close or you will darken your hemp and make it brittle. 
3. Rubbing it off. Less smelly than fire. All you have to do it run your hemp product through your hand to get all the stray fibers off and smooth out the rest. If you don't want to tear up your hands use a wash cloth.
4. Coated Hemp is the way to go if regular hemp is still just to coarse for your skin. Usually coated hemp is smaller in diameter or colored.

Loose your place on a hemp necklace?

 

A easy way to find your place is to find the hump. You start the knot process on the side of the hump in a square knot and the same side of the hump in a spiral knot

Simple Hemp Necklace

Start off making your charm ready for beading.
Mine charm just takes adding a simple jump ring to make it work

Next is to measure out your hemp. Easiest way I have found is to use your arm span. You  need about 130 inches or hemp to make a 8 string choker necklace. Having extra is always better than running short. Hold onto the end with one hand and measure out a arm span and a little more. Loop it around a finger and take the hemp back down to the end you started with.. Repeat the process till you have the number of strings you want.

Take the looped ends and make you a knot. This will give you a end to start with and can be used to secure it to something while you weave.

Separate Your strings. I always like to have two in the middle and then even number of string for the left and right.

 Hold your middle strings tight. It really doesn't matter what side you start on. I just usually start on the left. We will be doing a square knot for this necklace. Take your left hand strings and make a 4. Putting your left string over you middle strings. Your right hand strings will go OVER your left hand strings.

 Once your right string over over the tails of your left hand strings. Take them under the middle strings and up through the pocket in your left hand strings.

 Your end knot will look like this. 

 Once you pull the knot tight up to the end it will make what a call a  hump. Now for a square knot you will reverse what you just did so the hump will be on the other side.

 Make a backwards 4 with your right string and start the process of over and under like you did for the first knot.

 Once your second knot it pulled tight you will see how the humps alternate sides. 

 Proceed with doing the knotting so your pattern starts to emerge. It can take some time to get the hang of it down. Don't rush.

 Keep going till you hit the half way mark. Easiest way to determine this is hold it up to your neck. If you want the charm to hang lower make the middle point a little further from the end.

 Add your charm on the middle string and make sure that the charm is on top of the outside strings. I always like to have the hump on top of the charm.

 You do not need to do anything special to put a charm on the necklace. It is the same knot process.

 Continue the process till you have the other side done. The end result will look like this.

A couple of simple knots make the other end of the necklace. Don't make it too big that it will not fit through the loop at the other end. Trim off the strings after the knot and the necklace is finished.

I make mine a choker. End product looks like this.

Keep the extra string that you cut off the necklace. Your middle string will still have length to them. They cant be used for things like key chains and bracelets.

More Scrap Book Picture Mattes

I can not Scrap book to save my life, but I love using the paper and stickers.

Started off with a simple frame from the dollar store.


I found some Military themed scrap book stuff at Hobby Lobby and was excited by the possibilities.



Added a black section.


I love the finished product. I will most likely make another one of these that hang landscape that way I can have both options for photos.


Black and white options are always fun to play with.

Key Necklace

Simple Necklace. Everything can be bought at Walmart. My chain is about 45 inches. It already has a lobster claw end. Find how long you want you first layer. Keep a hold of that link in the chain and open up the link.







It is easiest to do with two pair of pliers. Whether you want to use craft one or some out of the tool box doesn't matter. I use both. I use the tool one to hold the link and the craft to twist.



Now you have two pieces of chain. You need to join the ends of the chain together. I usaully leave a tail of about 4 links so I can adjust a little. You just put it through the jump ring on the end with the lobster claw. Now you have a stepped necklace.



I took the jump ring off the charm because I want it to hang a different way. you open up the jump ring on the charm on put it around a link so it hangs at the bottom of the chain. Repeat the same process with the charm for the shorter chain. Added two more charms to that layer as well



Earrings are nice things to make with the extra charms. Simple. A jump ring, charm and earring. I use these types because of the holes in my ears.



Then you have the finished product