2 Necklaces, 4 Brooches from a $1.00 bag of broken jewelry!

As I was wandering around at a craft show one day, I spotted a vendor with all kinds of vintage jewelry. I love vintage jewelry. As I was lusting over the gorgeous necklaces, bracelets and earrings, I saw a box with bags of broken jewelry for a dollar. I love the Etsy shops that sell upcycled vintage jewelry and figured, for a buck, why not give it a shot? If I screw up, I'm only out a  dollar!

I started out with the necklaces. They are your typical rhinestone chokers. I love the ones painted with nail polish in different colors. This one had a broken clasp, which was easy enough to fix. I decided to paint it red (I know, I know, what a surprise). I did all one color because I like red and I wasn't sure how neat I could be painting this small. 

 I wiped the necklace down with a little rubbing alcohol, then painted away. I just dabbed the polish on. I did two coats, just like my toes. The other necklace was actually a broken bracelet I just added jump rings and ribbon to after I painted the rhinestones pink to match the ribbon. They turned out great! I want to find another cheap one and try it in multiple colors!

Next, I tackled the brooches. They all had working pin backs, but they were missing rhinestones and the finish was kinda meh. The first one is a gold arrow pin.

I just pried out the rest of the rhinestones with an X-acto knife, hit it with some silver spray paint, and glued in rhinestones I scavenged from other pieces in my dollar bag. For all these brooches, I used E6000 glue and a toothpick. I love this stuff, but it is strong. Like "don't use this in a closed room or you'll start hallucinating" strong.

Since my camera sucks, I could not get a really good picture of this one. I thought I really wouldn't like this, but now that it's done, I love it! You can't really tell that I used clear, blue and purple rhinestones in it. I really need a new camera, but I need a new car more!

Next up was this "beauty". At one time, I'm sure it was considered gorgeous. Many years ago. But not now.

I pried out the gems, hit it with silver spray paint and glued in black and gray crystals I 
had in my craft stash.

I'm still not 100% loving this. But it looks much better than it did!

This poor thing was badly discolored, but the rhinestone still looked great! Instead of spray painting it, I decided to try nail polish instead. I used OPI Brisbane Bronze. I love the color, but it doesn't do much for my toes.

Looks better on the brooch than on my toes! I think it turned out fantastic! Again, my camera sucks, so you don't get the full awesomeness.

Finally, my favorite piece. The finish still looked great and it only had a few rhinestones missing, but I couldn't find enough rhinestones to fill in. So I pried out those bad boys and went glue happy with some pearls I found in my stash. Yes, I have a lot in my stash. Hopefully, there are no dead bodies in there.

I love it more with the pearls than the rhinestones! 

For the most part, I'm pretty happy with the way these turned out. I'm not all that thrilled about the black brooch or the pink necklace, but I got 3 pieces I really like and I got to try something new. Not bad for a dollar! I can't wait to find more broken jewelry I can upcycle into new pieces!

Until the next project, 
Chris :)

The DIY Hanging Lamp That Almost Wasn't!

I have FINALLY completed my biggest project so far. A hanging lamp. Made with fortune tellers. The origami kind, not the human kind. It was definitely a learning experience. 

This is kinda how the whole thing went:

  

Now that it's done, I love it! But it took a lot of trial and error (and swearing) to finish it and fall in love with it! At one point, I ripped it apart and started over! But I'm glad I stuck with it because now I have a truly unique hanging lamp!

This is my inspiration. I wanted something different, obviously. But I decided to do this as a drum shade.

This is how mine turned out:

I love it! And once I figured out what I was doing, it was easy! I used some rabbit fencing we had left over from our garden, a  lamp kit that I had bought and never used, some wire, scrapbook paper and a glue gun. I bought the scrapbook paper when it was on sale 12/$1.00,  which was great, because at one point I scrapped most of my fortune tellers and started over. The lamp cost me a grand total of $9.00; it would've cost less if I hadn't had to redo part of it!

I started by shaping the wire into a cylinder, then "sewing" the ends closed with some floral wire from the dollar store.

I overlapped the squares to make sure the ends stayed closed and the whole thing stayed round. 

Then I attached the light kit to the wire form. I used two pieces floral wire (also from the dollar store) and made a loop in each one that fit in between the lamp base and the screw ring.

I then attached it to the wire form. This took a bit of finagling to get it to hang level.

Next, I made my fortune tellers. Pretty easy, actually. It just took a bit of time. I took pictures of the fortune teller process, but my camera hates closeups. They came out looking like you need glasses to bring them in focus. And it drives me crazy when they look fine on the camera, but terrible when you download them. I found these directions at Vintage-Toys.co.uk

I used 12x12 sheets of the cardstock scrapbook paper instead of an 8 1/2x11 sheet. I cut each sheet into four 6x6 squares and folded away. Look at how cute they all look! I did not resist the urge to sit and play with them, which took up a few minutes (or so) of my time.

Then I got my form and started hot gluing the fortune tellers on. Let me just say you could use a regular drum shade instead of making one, but I am cheap and I challenge myself to find and recycle what I can. 

I put the tips of the fortune tellers through the squares in the wire and glued them from the back. I used the squares to align the fortune tellers. 

After a bit, I noticed the fortune tellers looked haphazard and squished. This is when I first started to wonder if this would work out. I tore out the fortune tellers and started again, this time aligning them differently. No dice. They still looked squishily haphazard. I tried again. Still no go. I was highly irate. I gave myself a bit (like a few weeks) to calm down and rethink this through.

After a few weeks, I thought it might be that the cardstock was too stiff, so before I went out and bought more scrapbook paper, I tried regular printer paper. And discovered that size DOES matter! Haha! I realized that when I made my fortune tellers out of the printer paper, they were smaller and therefore fit much nicer! Instead of 6x6, I made them 5x5. So I made more and started hot gluing again. Life was once again sunny and happy. 

I had a small gap (two squares of wire) at the end of the row. I glued in a strip of paper and figured I'd turn that side to the wall. I only needed about twenty four more fortune tellers when I ran out of paper. So I traipsed off to the craft store for more, never dreaming my happy little craft bubble was about to burst.

So I bought enough to finish off my lamp. I got home and realized the paper didn't match. At all. I cursed myself for buying the wrong @#%$! paper. Then I noticed the UPC label. The color and SKU code matched! No big deal, I thought. I'd just go find a close match. Easier said than done. After a few trips between my favorite craft stores, I finally picked the one that was the closest. After I got it home and made my fortune tellers, I realized that if I put them on all in one spot, it would be very noticeable. *&^%$#! 

I decided to take out some of the original fortune tellers in strategic spots and replace them with the new ones. You can see the difference if you're looking for it, but it's not as noticeable as one big chunk of them all together. I was finally done and ready to hang it!!

It looks awesome! Until I turn it on. As you can see...

I am going to line it...eventually. It looks great as long as I don't turn it on. And it took sooo long to finish it and then to get it hung up that I 'm just enjoying it. Plus, I am thoroughly sick of dealing with it! After a few new craft projects, I'll feel up to dealing with it again :)

Until the next project,

Chris :)