Tween Earings 101

I have been experimenting with Jewelry making lately and have found it pretty inexpensive to make my own.  I thought I'd let you all in on this one:)  First I found the flat ear wires, then I got a bag of small rings (it looks just like the one above only for rings) They were about $1.50 for like 30.  You will only need two small sets of needle nose pliers to pull the small metal rings open & closed. They make it really simple to make jewelry.

 Then I found some "charms" at Hobby lobby like these ones, the things in the middle are actually tiny fake candy for a mini Christmas tree but I thought they could be cute candy earrings for my girls to give out this holiday season, I also found tiny bells that worked well.  Of course being at my favorite store "Hobby Lobby" I waited until these products were all 50% off.  Which is almost every other week.

So all you do is open one of the tiny rings with your pliers (one in each hand pulling opposite directions) put on your charm and your earring, close it back up and whalla you have a new pair of earrings. They would of cost you at least $5 a pair at Claire's. 

HB even had these professional earring holders 10 for $2.99 (not on sale)

When I did the math - with the sales, it only cost me less than $1.25 per pair of earrings.  Wow! Please don't tell anyone, I want this to be our little secret:) Now go out and make some gifts!

Scrapbook Paper Decor

I needed to come up with something unique for my sister-in-laws baby shower. She's having a boy after having three girls and she's such a cute girl  couldn't stand the thought of regular party store decorations. So after scouring the internet I found some cute ideas made of scrapbook paper. 

It's fabulous because you can totally personalize the color/pattern scheme and it's relatively inexpensive.

Here's the LINK to the place I found the idea, then here's the LINK to the instructions per Mrs. Martha Stewart.

I started out with this banner. 

The key is to find two-sided scrapbook paper. 

Then I moved onto this wreath.

The banner: I punched holes in the top corners and strung it up on kite string.

The wreath: I followed the instructions on Martha Stewart's website  but found it a little hard to handle so I hot glued it to a thick piece of cardboard. Then I felt it looked unfinished so I cut out an L for the center. I printed it out on the largest font possible then cut that out, traced it to the back of the paper and used an X-acto knife to cut it out.

I really liked the results.