accessory – Page 3 – A Smith of All Trades

Green mesh-like pendant

March 28, 2013March 28, 2013 Jessica Smith

I don’t really know what to call this necklace I made this past weekend, so let’s call it a mesh-like pendant. All in all, it was a little tricky to make, but I think it is pretty and very unique, so here goes!

For this project you’ll need elongated beads (pearls are optional), eye pins (a loop on one side, a pin on the other), and some chain.

To begin, stack one of your beads and a pearl on an eye pin, and close the other end into a loop. Make a second eye pin in the same way and connect the two where the pearls meet. I suggest using a jump ring in the middle (not seen in the photo below because I realize this a few eye pins into the pendant).

Now, make an eye pin with one bead and no pearl — take this and connect it to the two green ends of the two eye pins that connect to the jump ring in the center.

Continue this process (eye pin + jump ring + connect eye pins) until the pendant cannot go anymore.

With the beads that I used, I couldn’t go in a full circle, so at that point I stopped.

At this point, I connected the three ends with chain, then added the entire pendant onto a silver necklace.

Pretty, huh?

And, it doesn’t look half bad on either. Sorry… this was the best picture I could get of it haha. I’m not super used to my honkin’ camera yet!

And a crappy iPhone one for good measure.

Christmas, Craft Projects, Holiday, Quick and Easy Crafts

Mistletoe Headband

December 18, 2012December 18, 2012 Jessica Smith

On Saturday we went to an ugly sweater party to bring in the holiday season (and celebrate Dana’s birthday) the right way. Emily and I sat down to make some fun outfits – she made a sweatshirt with Animal from The Muppets on it and I made a T-shirt inspired by Mean Girls. Check us out.

Her sweatshirt in the works…

And my tee ready to go…

Only one thing left to make for the party, and that was the Mistletoe Headband. I made this headband in ten minutes or less. Here’s what you need: 1 headband, green felt, red felt, 3 silver pipe cleaners, and rhinestones.

To start the headband, I cut out three mistletoe leaves from the green felt.

Then I cut out red berries, until I realized that was holly. Oops.

I braided the three pipe cleaners together, leaving about two inches unbraided at the very end. Then, I glued the green leaves to the green backing (pictured above), sandwiching the finished end of the pipe cleaner braid in between.

Once that dried, I glued the third leaf behind so it dangled in the middle.

With all of the leaves dried in place, I embellished with rhinestones and a red ribbon, hot glueing each piece onto the existing felt leaves.

Next, I wrapped the three strands of unbraided pipe cleaners around the headband and secured with hot glue. As a final step, I took a piece of red felt and cut it into a long strip, then hot glued it around the base of the deally bopper so the pipe cleaners wouldn’t stab me in the head. Good choice for sure!

Depending on how long your pipe cleaners are, you might need to spiral or bend your stem so your mistletoe doesn’t hit you straight in the eye. That would probably hurt.

Check out this masterpiece.

I love this headband so much. I should add that it was inspired by a store-bought headband a coworker wore to our holiday party last week. So awesome. Like I said, this took ten minutes tops and was a great addition to my festive tee.

Aren’t we the cutest sisters!? We are practically twins.

And I of course had to try it on Remmy….

… Who promptly took it off.

If you are going to a holiday party you should definitely make one. This headband is pretty much essential to any holiday shindig. I might even wear it on Christmas 🙂

Craft Projects

Feather headbands

November 5, 2012November 6, 2012 Jessica Smith

The Trash to Treasure Fair is this upcoming weekend and I am making a few final goodies to bring with me. I had a few feathers left over from my pin and barrette project, so I decided to make feather headbands. They turned out really well and I’m pretty excited about them. They will be a big seller for sure — too bad I only had supplies to make four!

To start out, I grabbed a headband I had sitting around in my craft room, some felt and some cardboard. I trimmed the cardboard and felt down to the same size.

To start, I glued my cardboard onto the headband, holding it at the ends so the hot glue would dry and the cardboard would hold its rounded shape.

When the cardboard was set in place, I hot glued the felt onto to opposite side (the side that touches your hair).

With everything dry and ready to go, I trimmed any excess cardboard and felt. Then, I added the feathers (the best part, duh!). To add the feathers, I put lots of hot glue onto the cardboard and added feathers in rows. I started at the top part of the headband and worked my way down.

Then, I added buttons!