31 Days Series: Skull vase

So after a giant break full of road trips, and doctor visits, and general laziness, I made something today! Woo!

Has anyone else seen those Pottery Barn skull vases? They're nice, and I've seen a few different DIY versions of them, but I went in a slightly different direction. Still a skull vase, but more obviously so. And, most importantly, an easy, 5 - 10 minute project.

First I cut a skull out of another scrap of leather.

(Forgive the funky shaped eye sockets. :P)

Then I hot glued a few rhinestones onto the head. (Obviously this is optional; I wanted mine to look kind of classy.) And then I hot glued the whole skull onto an empty and clean Elijah Craig bottle.

Insert a gorgeous, delicious smelling rose and you're done!

Easy, unique, and perfect for Halloween. You could even gift one to the host of a Halloween party! :)

31 Days Series: Leather and rhinestone bracelet

Well, today I decided to scale back and keep it simple...and when my first idea didn't work out like I'd hoped, I made it even simpler.

Being a huge fan of Stevie Nicks I've been wanting to do something with leather and lace pretty much since I started crafting, and haven't managed to get around to it...and after the failure of my first attempt today, I guess it's still going to have to wait just a little bit longer. Instead I settled on leather and rhinestones!

I really wanted this to work, too, but I'll just wait and try another day. I laid out all some of my lace onto a scrap of brown leather to see what I liked best...

And chose this.

And while it was great in theory, it did not work out. I didn't take a picture of the disaster, but basically the lace just would not stay in place while I was trying to sew it down, so it looked stretched in some places, crooked in others, and was just...messy. I didn't like it.

So I moved on, cut a thinner piece of black leather (every time I'm at Michael's, I buy a bag of scrap leather, so I have a ton of it) and cut a piece of rhinestone trim for it. (This stuff is available at basically any place that sells fabric; it's usually in the trim/ribbon section and sells by the yard.) I hand stitched it down straight down the middle, punched a hole in each end, and attached jump beads and a clasp. Simple and cute.

(See a list of the other 30 days in this series here.)

Clearance and crafting and leather OH MY!

Oh man. What an awesome weekend. Friday I had to take Orion to the vet because he had his last heartworm pill last month and he needed more by today. (Yay procrastination!) Actually I kind of waited this long on purpose because he's a growing boy and he needed to get weighed so we'd know what size to get him...and of course he needs two separate sizes. Two pills each month, two boxes every six months...because my 9 month old puppy has passed the 100 pound mark! Anyway, I took him by myself while Josh was working, then we went to Pet-co where he got two new toys and a treat for being a good boy. He (I) picked out a giant rubber gummy bear and a triangular frisbee looking thing. He loves them both.

Once Josh finished up his work we (tried) to take his brother and friend to the card shop but found it no longer exists...so we headed to Michael's where I got some clasps that I needed (since I've been making jewelry non-stop for the past week!) and then, while looking for the leather scraps, I got sucked into the clearance bin. (I think they put it across from the leather just because they saw me coming.) I ended up with all this:

Pretty sure this was the best deal. Not sure what I'm going to use it for, yet, but I couldn't pass it up!

After we came home the guys spent most of the evening outside playing ping-pong on the new table and I managed to pass out early.

Saturday, after Aaron and his friend left, Josh and I went to the floral convention! It was really fun, and I got a lot of awesome pictures but I'm not going to post any until I'm done editing them (which is not something I usually do) and have them uploaded to an album where the florists who invited us can see them first.

Yesterday I spent most of the day lounging around the house, playing ping-pong, and making jewelry for Josh and me...I used the black leather that I got in the scrap bag and made four different bracelets...here are two of them:

And then today I made these for Josh and his friend Riquo:

And now, my desk is a giant mess, with glue and bottle caps and pieces of leather everywhere, but it feels like fall and I couldn't be happier. :)

P.S. Joining:

As promised...

 

pictures of my skeleton hand jewelry piece. I don't know what to call, it really, as it I've never seen anything quite like it. The idea just came to me, so I made it, and it's unique enough that I think I could sell them if I wanted...

Anyway. This is what the prototype looks like. I may or may not improve on it in the future. That really depends on whether I develop any other brilliant ideas in the near future that take my time away from this...if not, then I'll definitely mess with it a little. Either way, I hope you like it!