Enter to win this Necklace!

I made this necklace for you!  I hope you like it.  It's black beads on black chain with silver accents.  It will go with everything!  I showed it to my daughter and she wants it (that's always a good sign!).

I made one for myself too, here it is:

If you would like to enter my drawing for this necklace and earring giveaway here's how:

To enter the drawing, leave a comment letting me know that you want to enter with your contact information.

And.....

If you share my giveaway on your blog, your name will be entered to win 2 extra times! Just leave me a comment after you announce my giveaway on your blog and I will put your name in the drawing once for the comment and twice for sharing....that's THREE entries!  And, I look forward to coming to your blog to visit!

The drawing will be held on my birthday, March 19th at noon PST.

Good Luck!

Let's make a new necklace (out of an old one!)

Are you ready to make some new jewelry?  If you have been following my blog, you already know that I LOVE to make new things out of old things.  

I found two necklaces at a yard sale,  I took them apart to get the beads.

Here are my instructions on how to make the necklace using chain, beads and O rings.

I took a pin (this pin is made for jewelry making), placed a small bead, large bead, small bead on it.

Then I bent the pin with my pliers and snipped off the excess.  Next I curled the pin to make a loop.

I repeated that process until all the beads were done.

Next, I took an 0 ring and I opened it and used it to attach the bead to a chain.

I alternated large and small beads. For a little extra bling, I added some small silver beads close to the chain. 

I made a necklace for ME and.....I made another one for YOU! I also made a bracelet for myself out of the left over beads.  I can't wait to wear it!  It will go with everything. 

Yes, that's right!  I'm giving this away.   I will write a separate post letting you know how you can enter to win this necklace and earrings set.

Did you like the instruction to go along with the necklace?  I really want to try my hand at making a video.  Check back soon.

Skull necklace

I wanted to make a special necklace for a friend for her birthday.  We are not really close and so I don't know a lot about her. I do know that she is a writer.  I couldn't think of anything that would reflect that.  A quill pen charm would have been nice.  I also know that she likes penguins, but I couldn't find any of those either.  And, I think she writes about ghosts.  That is what gave me the inspiration.

My idea was to make a necklace with skulls.  I was hoping to find some crystal skulls or something "steampunk", I'm not even sure I understand steampunk!  But, finding skulls was proving impossible.  I was about to give up and just make a generic necklace, when after visiting all my favorite bead supply stores, I found THEM!  SKULLS!  Not crystal, but very pretty silver.

My hope was that the skulls would be a secret surprise that you would have to look close to even notice.  I think it turned out.  

In fact, I like it so much, I think I will try to find some more skulls and make one for myself!  I don't know if this was her thing after all, but I enjoyed making it for her.  

Spider Necklace for Halloween

I wanted a really great necklace to wear with my Halloween costume.  We had 3 Halloween gigs with our band and I had an Elvira costume.  I searched around the internet and decided that I could make a spider necklace.

I chose a few things out of my stash....mostly clear, crystal, black, silver and red.

This spider was my first attempt.  I love the way it turned out.  

And, so I made earrings to match.  My daughter had to fly (as a flight attendant) on Halloween and so I gave this set to her.  She said she got lots of compliments.  

None of my beads were big enough for what I had in mind.  So.....I went through my stash of old jewelry.

I had loads of earrings from the 80's and I picked an earring from this pile and took it apart.  This spider necklace has 2 parts of one earring.  How did I ever wear them that big?  I actually made this twice.  I felt that the wire gauge wasn't strong enough to hold the shape in the legs.  And, that's so important. 

It turned out just the way I wanted it.  It was HUGE!!  And, it kept it's shape the whole weekend!

I made some little spiders to match.

Here's the final result...hubby and me in our costumes.  We had a terrific weekend of FUN.  You can read all about it on my other blog:  http://www.stephaniesbandblog.blogspot.com

Oh...one more thing...I must point out the fabulous spider ring that my dear daughter bought for me on one of her trips!  It was perfect!