kattitudes

Sachets are pretty simple really. My number one trick I have found is to sew my innards (lavender is a favorite, along with rose petals, but really, any botanical works) in a sturdy no-fuss smaller bag, then insert that bag in the outer sachet container). Yes, it is a cheat method, and it will not work if the sachet is transparent enough (think chiffon or the like) to see through, but in a opaque material like this, I wouldn’t fuss with fighting containment. I would mush all my materials into a quick and dirty easy bag, then sew that bag into a nicely made up bag.

The other benefit I have found to doing it my way is that if my sachet gets dirty, I can take out the innards and clean the sachet (or even replace the sachet altogether if the smell fades or I weary of it).

Now this particular sachet is just gorgeous to me because it fits one of my great loves in life; lace. Lace lace and more lace. All types. Battenburg is not my ultimate. In fact, it ranks pretty low on the list, frankly, but it will do in a pinch. It has been overdone in the sickly sweet stage, if you know what I mean. I prefer my lace along the needle lace lines. Something complex and ornate rather than just cut work.

Anyway, I love the way this heart embellishment has been tacked down, not just on the edges, but also has had the pearl trim beading tacked along the interior to really set off and echo the heart shape. A tassel was added at top to mirror the red of the felt material, and I just love the white running stitching that was used to put the whole thing together.

This is just a really visually captivating sachet. It really grabs you and draws you in and I like that about it. It needs a good scent to go along with it. I would go with lemon personally. Lemon verbena (which is my personal favorite).

Starting today, you will find a very handy page over there on the right hand side of the blog (it is listed under the pages). I have created a page that lists pretty quick and dirty some of my favorite shopping places online.

It is a first draft, so not all my bookmarks are up there by any means. However, some of the multitudinous places I wander online are up there so that you too can wander in and find some of the remarkable bargains I’m finding.

If you have places that you love, please - by all that is holy - let me know. I am always looking for a new place to shop. Send me a note, leave a comment, and I would love to check it out. I live to comparison shop (must. comparison. shop. It is in my blood).

Keep in mind, these are not places to purchase finished products. These are stores for you to purchase supplies for you to make your own gifts and wonders. This is for you to get your own crafty on.

I saw this favor box on BHG and loved it. I adored it. But most of all, I thought that it was perfect for Christmas. I give so many jewelry pieces that I am always looking for creative ways to wrap.

And knowing that I can run out and pick up bags and bags of faux pearls and use my glue gun to pile them up on the lid of all the spare boxes I have sitting around made this picture all the better.

This idea wouldn’t be limited to faux pearls. You could cruise through the dollar store and see what is available to use in the same manner. Little ornaments, tiny toys, all sorts of items might just spring out at you.

And if you wanted to do this for Valentine’s Day, you could use those horrible conversation hearts that no one should ever be eating. The concept is just fantastic and it really lends itself so well to so many things.

I’m actually looking forward to using this for Christmas this year. I was thinking about doing one with dog bones for the kennel owner, but realized that the dogs would never leave that alone. I guess I’ll stick with pearls.

I cannot for the life of me remember where I found this, but I loved the idea of rescuing old linens to make such a gorgeous ring pillow. I have an exact match to this linen from a pillowcase that has been worked to death. The fabric is so old and worn that it literally cannot be used any longer, but it can be reworked and saved as a cherished memento of your wedding day.

A heart shaped ring pillow needs no formal pattern. Simply cut a heart shape and sew the two together. That part is simple.

The rosette is not much more complex honestly; just a bit of a gather at the bottom of a ribbon of fabric that is then sewn together. Plus, in this example, the entire rosette has been made infinitesimally easier by hiding the entire gathering and attaching point behind a gorgeous sparkling embellishment.

Two ribbons for the rings were sewn on with the rosette and tacked down well so there is never any worry about losing the rings (but I don’t know if anyone ever puts the real life rings on the pillow as a just in case situation. Our ring bearer was our six month old toy fox terrier and she carried them extremely well….until she got to the two guests that had a zillion dogs of their own and wanted to stop and smell for a bit. Then she noticed us and finally came running. Thank goodness the minister had the foresight to suggest to us to put our extremely valuable rings in her pocket and tie the adorable fake rings onto our ring bearer’s collar as an insurance policy).

Hopefully, that will be enough information to get you underway. A ring pillow is a wonderful gift to give during a shower, especially a handmade pillow. Make something beautiful for your engagement - you will appreciate the lasting reminder to have and to hold.

Materials Needed:

Foam wreath form
Silk craft roses or dried rose heads in sufficient quantity to fill chosen wreath form
Glue gun and sticks

Prepare roses by clipping off stems, leaving approximately one inch of stem with which to work.

Starting on the inside top of the wreath form, glue roses to form. Place a spot of hot glue to the end of the stem to keep it firmly fixed to the wreath form.

Work around the wreath in a circle, slowly filling the wreath shape with roses, taking care to fill as tightly as possible.

• Medium-size rose petals (you will need about 20 petals per votive candle holder)
• Glass votive candle holders
• Rubber bands
• Glue gun with glue sticks
• Scissors

Secure a row of rose petals to the outside of the glass votive candle holder with a rubber band. Make sure the tops of the petals stick slightly above the rim of the candle holder (see photo for clarification).

Using a dot of glue behind each new petal, secure a second row of petals slightly below the first row (used to cover the rubber band).

Attach a third row slightly below the second row, so that it overhangs at the bottom edge of the candle holder.

Trim the petals at the bottom of the votive, so the candle holder will sit flat on the table.

We love the execution but we think everyone is a little over the hearty heart theme. The dangles are well attached and all in all, it is a nicely put together set of earrings.

If you look close, you can see where the dangles have been attached, which makes it so easy to admire. The wire wrapping is close and tight and the ends have been nicely wrapped so that the cut ends don’t scratch against the ear (you would be surprised how often we test drive pieces to discover that the wire wrapped pieces dig and scratch. The cheap made clasps are the worst offenders).

If the hearts had been replaced with a drilled gemstone, we would be all over these earrings. We have seen this particular type of earrings made (and very successfully) with beach glass. Phenomenal. So gorgeous. And with everyone and their uncle doing their best to reproduce beach glass in their garage tumbler, at least fake beach glass is being reproduced fairly well and definitely within everyone’s budget abilities.

Where to find good beach glass? Again, eBay. As much as we hate to admit it, we are still getting our best deals on eBay. (Hey, at least we are admitting to it.)

Another entry into the super simple to put together; just takes a little concentration and review of your bead storage to make sure that you have all the pieces you will need. If you are not familiar with the style, the detailed silver bead in this particular necklace is called a bali style silver bead. Run a quick search on eBay for bali style beads if you are short any and if you like this particular look and we guarantee you will fill your quota, and then some.

Again with the wire wrapping. As you can see, if you are going to make jewelry, you are going to be twisting metal. Make sure you have some good pliers. And based on experience, good tools are really tools that feel comfortable in your hands and with which you feel familiar working. That is what makes a good tool.

One of the hardest parts (please note the tongue inserted firmly in cheek right now) of being a bench jeweler is that we have to build a stock of jewelry pieces and jewelry components to play with. If you want to make jewelry pieces as gifts, you need to be doing the same thing. Keep a small stock of chains available. Make sure that you have some nice classic pearls around all the time. In other words, basic jewelry pieces that you know you are going to be able to use in pretty much any circumstance.

Other pieces that you might wish to consider keeping an eye out for include the semi precious stones like the blue topaz here. We have found that if we keep an eye on eBay, there are times that we can find strands of briolette stones (which still seems to be going strong in popularity) for a song when sellers get tired and throw caution to the wind. However, it is a matter of being in the right place at the right time. Keep your eyes open and comparison shop all the time.

We will say that it is not worth overstocking on your jewelry supplies if you are not going to be making a significant number of pieces. In other words, do not use up your hard earned paycheck on lots and lots of high priced stones or tools if you only ends up making one or two pieces. Not a great return on investment that we are looking for here. But we are looking for a great balance - if you happen to see some good jewelry items, inexpensively priced and they fall inside your budget that week, do not be afraid to snap them up and plan ahead for some utterly fantastic pieces for the holiday season. Jewelry is such a personal gift that your recipient is sure to thank you!

If you are already making jewelry, you know what pliers you are using to wire wrap. When we saw this particular earring, we recognized the basic heart design we had been taught previously and loved how the beads were incorporated into the heart.

Once you get the heart down, you can reproduce the heart over and over into chains. And once you create chains, you have necklaces, belts, bracelets, straps for purses, adornments for shoes, decorations for books, highlights for scrapbooks, ways to attach tags to wine bottles, hair decorations, electronic charms, Christmas tree ornaments, interior decoration highlights and the list goes on.

Imagination. Limited only by your imagination.

When we saw this bracelet, oh we wanted to purchase it so much, but the price tag of forty odd dollars made us literally laugh out loud. Literally. Forty odd dollars for a few pearls, less than a yard of pink ribbon and a set of bracelet findings? Nope. No. No way. We have those supplies in our craft armoire and can make one of these bracelets without much effort. And certainly without forty dollars worth of effort.

Again as with so many of the jewelry items on Kattitudes, the trick is finding the right finding (oh we love the word play this week). As a reminder, the findings are just the official jewelry terms for the metal pieces that are used to put jewelry together. In this particular case, the findings are the metal pieces that are used at the ends to grab the ribbons and crimp them together. You are looking for crimp end findings. Fortunately, as more and more people get into making their own jewelry, these findings are getting easier to locate, but they used to be quite the challenge. As always, even with our super secret jewelry source houses (because we are in training to be a bench jeweler outside the computer) we still get our best deals and usually our wildest pieces off eBay. Ooh, we hate to admit that, but it is true.

OK, so on this piece, the pearls have been strung onto the ribbon (and that is going to be a bit tricky if your pearls have not been drilled with a larger hole than normal jewelry pearls. You will need to check to see if the diameter of your hole is large enough to fit a ribbon and you might need to use a bead reamer to give yourself a little space in there). Once the pearls are where you like them, the ribbon has simply been braided, then the crimp ends have been mushed into place and voila. You have yourself a forty dollar bracelet for about twenty minutes worth of work. We would say that is a pretty decent pay off, wouldn’t you?