flat marble necklaces

I watched some videos on making fried marbles (or baked marbles, since that's a common way to do it now) and did some image searching for project ideas.  there's some pretty cool stuff out there that people have done that looks super simple.  I love this one - on the lookout for small round marbles now!

 

I have really been wanting to make some for a while so I finally picked up some flat marbles at the Dollar Tree and E6000 from Michael's to try this little number out.

I made some wire bails while I baked my marbles and whipped up a few quick pendants during nap time.

 

it might be that I'm more sensitive right now, but it took about a week or so for the adhesive stink to go away - something to keep in mind next time I need to use that glue!

I noticed that the darker ones didn't shatter as much on the inside.  I don't know if they should be heated longer or what.  I did mine at 500°F for 30 minutes.  they sizzled and popped when they went into the ice water like it said they should in the tutorial, and I could see the light colored ones had small fractures throughout immediately.  I left them in the water for 15 minutes waiting for the darker ones to finish up, but they pretty much had just a few larger cracks through them and that was it.  I tried re-baking some, and that didn't really do anything except make some of them break apart.

I might try alcohol inks someday if I revisit this type of project so I can just use the clear ones that crack really nice and make them whatever color I want.

simple necklace

I found some bezels with sticky epoxy domes at Michael's - pack of two for $4 - and thought it'd work great for putting Jack's sonogram profile picture in :)

it came to me that I could use sticker paper and not have to mess with glue and worrying about it soaking through the back of the paper and mucking up the ink when I tried to put it into the bezel, so I pulled out my folder of crap that I save to see if I had any sticker paper.

I had a couple of packing slips from old diaper deliveries that had a mostly blank adhesive label on them, so I measured out where that spot was on the paper and how big it was, and sized two of my pictures of Jack in to that area and printed them out.

 

I pressed the epoxy sticker onto the sticker paper and cut around it.

 then all I had to do was peel the back off the sticker paper, press it into the bezel, and put it on a chain.

 

I love how it came out and I can't wait to see his little button nose in person :)

for a wee Scot

I made a kilt for my friend's baby, Jude.  I did one for her husband years ago when they got married, so I thought their son should have a cute matching one :)

I've made 4 in the past 8 years so I figured I'd just wing it... but after looking at photos of the first one I did it came back to me how much was involved and I decided to look for a little help online.  I basically needed a picture to see the inside and refresh me a little, so I scanned through this site to jog my memory.  I looked at a lot of pictures of baby kilts, too, to get an idea of length and inspire me.  I used one of Leo's little onesies and took some measurements and sorta just guessed at the size since not all babies come in the same size and shape!

 

I put velcro at the waist, so it should be adjustable for a little while.

I figured it'd be easy enough to find a white collared shirt onesie, but I feel like that was the hardest part of the outfit to acquire!  I finally found a little suit at Burlington Coat Factory that came with a regular dress shirt, so I just grabbed a white onesie from the sale rack at Kohl's and attached it to the bottom using this tutorial.

I found these cute shoes at Payless that I paired with some longer white socks from Carters - also another hard find!

 

I used some leather scraps and rabbit fur I had to make a tiny little sporran that I attached to small pieces of double sided velcro to sandwich in the waist overlap, which I think really finished it off nicely :) 

pretty beans

I've been watching OneVeryHappyBird on youtube recently while eating lunch.  she has some simple and cute ideas, and her voice is soothing to listen to!  I loved the doily gift bag she made and was able to try it out finally on a bag of Boston Baked Beans for my Nana's birthday basket.

I got the candy that comes in a box since it's already in a clear bag, and I glued a small doily on top and added the tag I cut from the end of the box so she knew what they were.

I think it looks a little more special and it was quick and fun to make :)