Purse charms/Key rings/ Lanyard

 G. J. and I were in charge of our April Red Hat event. The chapter  usually has a "lovely parting gift" for each person that attends. I told my  event buddy that I'd been working on these, showed  her a sample and we both decided that they would be fine as a gift.

At first it was going to be a pendant on a gold or silver chain. Then I realized some are sensitive to various metals. I didn't want to use ribbon or cord so I had to rethink the project.

💡

A purse charm would be away from the body and it would be less prone to cause sensitivity.

     I painted one side of wooden circles purple for Red Hatters and pink for Pink Hatters. Let it dry. I drilled a hole at the top of each one.

 I painted the back side some form of gold or silver. A  fellow crafter had given me strands of pearls and strands of gold beads which were perfect for this project.  With the beads being on a strand it was much easier to wrap them around the glass bubble picture of each one and slowly pull the string after the beads were in place. I used E-6000 glue for all adherences. 

Pearls in place, Gold beads in place, names on the back, etc. Let it dry.

Now it was time to  do individual beading to make the dangly, thingies that would hang off of the purse charm.
Yep, you're seeing it right. I used an empty egg crate to separate my beads. 

The danglies were then attached to the blank key chains which I purchased from Amazon. 

SIDEBAR: I noticed that some of the key chains had a straight piece of wire in between the groove where the keys go.  Not knowing what it was, I inquired and discovered that it was there to help separate the clip so that the keys could slide on easier. BTW- A staple remover works well also when separating to add keys. No more ruined manicures.

You'll see the results of the dangly, thingies here and below.

The fronts and backs were all finished with at least three coats of Triple Thick. This product gives a glassy, glossy appearance to projects and helps protect them.

They needed some type of packaging and personalization so  I used card stock and personalized everyone's name on their individual purse charm.

This was a fun project and turned out just the way I wanted it to.

That's it ***

B-Uniq Sophisticated Ladies 7th Anniversary

March 1, 2019 was the Seventh Anniversary of B-Uniq Sophisticated Ladies (BUSL)  The Uniq is intentionally spelled that way to make it Unique.
BUSL Queen, Queen T.  assigned pairs of us to decorate a table. Regalia colors of red and purple for Red Hatters and pink and lavender for Pink Hatters were to be used. Gold, silver, pearls, rhinestones and any other bling could be used at will. That's a large part of being a Hatter- blinging it up.

The tables would be judged by visiting Queens who'd be attending the anniversary. There would be a first, second and third place winner.  Below are the tables. A wide array of items were used making each table unique.

I can't remember who won, but whoever it was deserved it. All of the ladies worked hard.

In addition to this stand out feature, there was a program which included, impersonators of The Supremes, Ike & Tina Turner,  an illusionist and a true singer of an Aretha Franklin song. Each year we have Mr. M. our fantastic DJ  jamming out the tunes. There was a silent auction, door prizes, vendors, lunch, dancing, and all sorts of gaiety. 

Several of the BUSL hatters husbands are always champs in helping out with the heavy lifting, driving and just wherever they can help out. I've jokingly said that we should call them Red Cappers and get them red caps since most men seem to prefer a cap to a hat.

There were about 140 ladies who attended the Seventh Anniversary.  It was great seeing many who'd come in from out of town and who I'd made friends with at other hoots.

 After such a grand and joyous affair, I slept like a log that night.  ZZZZ

END ***

Dyed shoes that died (5 photos)

Not all projects turn out the way you want them to as I have shown before. Unlike some, I'm willing to own up to the good and the bad. I rarely become upset because they're all experiments I enjoy undertaking and I don't spend a lot of money on them.

I found these white leather shoes

in a thrift shop. I tried them on and found them comfortable. I disinfected the shoes by wiping them inside with Mr. Clean, drying outside in the sun and spraying with Lysol. 

I thought they'd be great in purple. Why purple?
I'm a member of a Red Hat Society

chapter and the colors are red and purple.

I don't want to spend a lot of money on red and purple, nor wear the same thing all of the time, being that there are numerous "hoots" to attend. 

These are the dyes and colors I tried with no pleasing success.














1. Dye-na-flow- watery and runny.Not really made for this project, but what the heck.

2. Craft Smart acrylic paint-too light and not a smooth cover

A waste of painters tape

3. Folk Art multisurface metallic- 

4. Craft Smart black-

thinking maybe if I prime it with black, it'll cover the white spots and accept the purple metallic better.-

DOUBLE 

5. Rit dye full strength- Another ugh, ugh. watery.

In the end...

  >>>>>>>> 

 

That's it ***

Upcycling a favored, too tight dress into something else

5 photos for those who just want to see the pictures

There’s recycling, repurposing, upcycling (rru). Each has a little bit to do with the other. Without being so technical and precise, my own definition is;

    “To take something that was one thing and do something else with it.” 

 That definition will cover it all.

I’m not new to  rru. I’ve tried it before. (Take a look at the 7th picture in that post) If you’ve read any of my other posts, you know that I’m into the recycling thing and not being wasteful.

I’m also a fan of the boho   style. I had a purple dress that had always been a favorite of mine. I purchased it from a street vendor during a Juneteenth celebration held outside of the Civil Rights Institute here in Birmingham, Alabama.  I tried it on right over my street clothes and it fit.  I altered the yoke of the dress since I claim 5’4 as my height. Otherwise, it would drag the ground.

Being my definition of a shapeshifter*, the dress became a little snug in the bosom area and I had to put it to the side. 

 Visiting Pinterest, I came upon various pictures of clothing that had been upcycled.  My plan was to cut off the top, keep the bottom, sew the bottom to a purple tee shirt, thereby making a new dress, then DYE the whole garment purple. 

First off, the tee shirt was too big. But it was only 99 cents. $1.09 with tax. I bought it big because I wanted to make sure I had enough fabric to work with. I didn't overlook that there were stains on the sleeves when I bought it. I'd cut that part off and rework it.

 I sewed the top and bottom together, had a gap, SOOOO then I chose to put elastic in the waist. Fit just fine. BUT…

The tee shirt sleeves and side were fuller than I wanted them.

 I put numerous darts in the front and back of the tee shirt. THEN

The sleeves were too full. I adjusted them and didn’t like the outcome.

Finally, I cut off the tee shirt, removed the ¼ inch elastic from the waist, and saved it. (The elastic was brand new) , made a casing in the skirt and fitted it with ½ elastic.

Now I have a perfectly good skirt that fits comfortably. The dye job will have to wait.

You want to know what happened to the tee shirt?

*My definition of shapeshifter - gain weight, lose weight. Gain weight, lose weight…

HOWEVER! To be fair, the original dress DID shrink even more after I washed it and put it in the dryer. (Not wise)

END***

Dyeing PantyHose With Kool-Aid

At some time during your youth  I'm sure you've been chided by an elder saying;

" So if Sally jumps off of a roof, you'll jump off too?"

Just another way of saying, "Don't do everything you see someone else doing."

Some of us listen and some of us...tread carefully.
I got the idea of dyeing pantyhose from If You Give A Girl A Needle.  Her instructions were great and I did not follow them to the letter. 

• She urged getting pantyhose that don't have a lot of different fibers. Hers had nylon.

• Slowly stir the mixture  (hose and  Kool Aid) the entire time.

Another site encouraged wetting the hose thoroughly before putting into the color bath so that the color would be evenly distributed. I decided to take that advice.

Here's a brand new pair of unopened pantyhose. I have no idea of what the fiber content is.I wanted purple hose so I bought one packet of grape Kool Aid.

It was difficult to see the purple liquid due to the steam rising.

Red + blue= purple. I see blue.

Something is amiss.

Close up of the results. Do you see purple? I don't. Splotches of red and some unknown color.

There you have it. The results of dyeing pantyhose with Kool Aid.
 Let's Review
1.One good thing about this is that I used an old pair of pantyhose. The package you saw at the top was not opened, harmed or maimed in any way.
2. I used only one packet of Kool Aid . Two or three might have helped making it more concentrated.
3.I did not stir continuously as instructed in If You Give A Girl A Needle's (IYGAGAN) instructions. I sat down and watched The Price Is Right. Then I remembered the panty hose, went back to the stove and began to stir.
4. I saturated the pantyhose before putting them in the grape bath. This was not a part of IYGAGAN instructions.

Though this was a FAIL, I will be trying this again.

THAT'S IT***

Thank You Card Earrings

I've just made my first pair of earrings. At one time I was only doing necklaces but then I decided to branch out now that I'm on a FACEBOOK fast until March 24th.

It started with me getting a thank you card that I really had not expected. It was beautiful and the sentiments expressed were the same.

1. I had balsa wood ovals in 3 sizes. After tracing around the paper, I cut them out and put them to the side.
2. I painted the largest ovals on both sides with the pea green acrylic paint you see in the picture. Since the medium and small ovals would only be seen on one side, I only painted one side.
3. After the paint dried, I glued the paper on top of the painted wood.
While I was at it, I took a map pin and pressed holes in the tops of the larger ovals prepping them for earring backs later.

I wanted a rough edging of metallic gold around the edges. I mixed the paint with glue to insure that the paper would stay down.

After the glue dried, I gave them 2 coats of  decoupage clear coating on the front and back.

 I have to admit that I used a gold nail polish on top of the green acrylic paint and then a gold metallic acrylic paint on top of that. I didn't know how it would turn out but I like the texture when it was dry.

 I had a few rhinestones left over from another project and used those to give it a little more bling.
I'm pleased with the way they turned out. I may make a pendant for a necklace.

BUT WAIT, THAT'S NOT ALL !

I just couldn't leave well enough alone.

Seeing the purplish water color stain, I ventured into making a cylindrical pair of earrings out of the paper.

It began with painting one of my business cards with purple metallic polish on both sides. I wanted a two tone look. You can see where I've cut the purple and green paper from the thank you card.

I  glued the card stock over the painted purple card sandwich style and let it dry. Then I cut it into two slender pieces just as you see in the picture.

I wanted beads at the stop of the earring and something  dangling at the bottom.
I went overboard and this is what I got.

 It was resting on my shoulders in a bent formation. It was more than I wanted to wear. I had to decide what I'd do. 
In the end I kept the top purple part and fit it with earring backs.

 

The pear and leaf dangles, I put back in my stash to use for future projects.

 WHAT HAPPENED TO THE PAPER ?
I'd spent a lot of  time on the paper, painting, measuring, cutting, top coating.  It was hard letting go and I couldn't think of anything else I could use it for. After much hesitation, it ended up in the trash.  Sometimes you just have to let go and learn from your mistakes.
THAT'S IT***