Me-Made May

As I've seen more and more people post their Me-Made May pledges over the last week or two I've thought, "That sounds like so much fun, I wish I had more me-made clothes to wear. Guess I'll have to wait until next year to participate, when I (hopefully) have a much larger me-made wardrobe." But the more of these posts I kept seeing, the more I started to realize that the pledge doesn't necessarily ONLY apply to clothing, right? How much me-made jewelry do I own that I never wear anymore? Seriously, I have two go-to pairs of earrings and two necklaces, depending whether or not I'm going to the gym after work. It's ridiculous that all that beauty and hard work is sitting in a drawer somewhere and not being used and appreciated. 

[The only one of these that I've worn with any regularity is the turquoise teardrop necklace. The others are due to bust out of purgatory!]

[I have not worn those shoes ONCE. I need to brush the dust off and bring them out. And I'm not really sure where that purse is now...]

That jewelry, plus the few me-made articles of clothing that I have, bring me SUCH a rush in wearing them and showing them off. I was so psyched with my flower culottes that last weekend, the first weekend I've been home and near my sewing machine since I finished them, I made THREE new garments, one of which I'm wearing today! And in spite of locking myself out of my house this morning, I've been so happy today because every time I look down at my outfit, I think about how much I love it. So without further ado, here is my pledge:  

I, Alicia from Project Stash Bust, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May '14. I endeavor to wear at least one me-made item five days per week for the duration of May 2014 with a round-up of outfits/items each week.

Now, if I could just find a trusty photographer...

Anthro knock-off

Another recent Pinterest find: this beautiful Anthropologie original and Jessica’s stunning replica:

[image from: the Morning Letters]

I had just been wondering what to do with these gorgeous turquoise beads I picked up at a bead show a while back when I stumbled across this pin. As much as I loved the original, I didn’t want to buy a bunch of new materials, so I decided to use what I had on hand and drew my inspiration from this design. 

Stash busted: 

• turquoise beads
• silver beads (I have no idea where these came from, but I found them lying around)
• thread and ribbon (I really like the matching ribbon in the original, but in the interest of not buying something new, I chose a neutral ivory. Plus, I'd imagine that might be a hard color to match)
• crimp beads (never used these before, but I'd picked them up at the same bead show a while back

Bought new:

• Nothing! Success! I made a great new necklace and a small dent in my stash.  

 Are you guys fans of knock-offs? What have you knocked off recently? 

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Who else is in love with the Hunger Games?

I don’t know about you guys, but I LOVE to read. I always have and always will. Unfortunately, I don’t have much time to read when school’s in session, but now that summer’s here, I’m trying to make up for some lost time. Along with this love of reading comes a love of collecting books. Books to be read, books to be loaned, books that just look pretty…they’re going to fill the shelves of the library that I am determined to have in my house one day. So when I saw these, I just knew I had to make some of my own.

[Image from: mytwobutterflies.blogspot.ca]

 
As I was pondering which of my favorite books I should honor with some pendants, my thoughts wandered to my recent obsession with the Hunger Games, and how I could not only make some necklaces for me, but for friends and family who are equally enchanted with the stories. As soon as I thought of it, I was so excited to finish them, and am really happy with the way they turned out!

Here’s a better close-up of the covers. And if you want to make them yourself, here’s a Word file of the images I made and used. 

My favorite part is probably the surprise waiting on the inside…

All three books are so quotable that I decided to put my favorites from each one inside.

Other quotes from the first book:

“I want to find a way to show them that they don’t own me. That I’m not just a piece in their Games.”

“Here your dreams are sweet and tomorrow brings them true.
Here is the place where I love you.”

Other Catching Fire quotes I added:

“I just want to spend every possible minute of the rest of my life with you.”

“Stay with me.” “Always.”

And last but not least, Mockingjay:

Best. Quote. Ever. Other good ones: 

“Fire is catching.”

“Strange things did happen here,
No stranger would it be
If we met up at midnight
In the hanging tree.”

I gave some to two of my cousins and they loved them – and I absolutely loved their reactions! :) If I had more time on my hands, I would give handmade gifts more often…

I didn't bust any of my stash on this project (I added to it instead!), but it was so worth it. 

• Mini books: $1.80 at Hobby Lobby
• Spacer Bars: $0.75 at Hobby Lobby

I ended up making seven books, so I think that was a pretty good return on my investment, right?

What do you guys think? What books would you make?

5 weeks?!

Oops. Five whole weeks have gone by without those blog posts I was promising…I had quite a few of them in the works, but postponed taking and posting the pictures for so long that I’m just now finishing them up! I really have been crafting, I promise! Anyway, on to the post…

Lately, I’ve been seeing a lot of talented ladies creating a lot of beautiful things, so my first few posts will be my humble attempts at following (or drawing inspiration from) their tutorials. First up is some jewelry – this seemed to be the easiest thing to tackle first, as it involves taking up the least amount of space with projects-in-progress (unlike when I scrapbook or sew!). 

I’m sure that you’ve seen this image (or something similar) floating around Pinterest a lot lately: 

[image from: ECAB online]

I’ll let you follow Jessica’s tutorial, as she does a great job of explaining the steps. This project presented some firsts for me – first time attaching a chain, first time with bead tips (the things that look like clamshells) – but was really easy to follow. I used seed beads, since I seem to have a multitude of those lying around, rather than going out to buy the same beads she used. 

Here are my versions (forgive the picture quality - the sun just would NOT cooperate the day I took these!).

I started with red beads, since I don’t really have any red accessories (to go with the dresses I plan to make). While I’m probably the only one who would notice, there are a few things I’m not happy with in this necklace. The chain I bought was really fine, and I couldn’t get the jump ring through it, so I came up with the workaround you see below, involving crimp beads and quite possibly a bit of swearing while trying to get the chain through it twice.

(Ugh, looking at these again, it seems the red one just did NOT want to be photographed!)

A few days later, I decided to make the blue one with some brighter, bigger chain I bought for another project.

 
 It looks much better, right? Live and learn!

 Stash busted:

• seed beads 
• thread
• jump rings
• clasp (which I didn’t realize I had, so I did end up buying some more…)
• crimp tubes

Bought new:

• Clamshells ($0.74 on ½ off sale at Hobby Lobby)
• Chain ($2.99 at Michael’s - no sale, oops - I was tired of looking for the right chain, and Hobby Lobby’s selection was lacking…)

Total = About $4

This was a long (and long overdue) first post, but thanks for reading! Do you have any stashes you’re trying to use up? Or any big summer crafting plans? I’d love to hear from you!