Holiday Upcycled Gift Countdown Week # 7 - STEAMPUNK - Faucet Necklaces

This week's handmade gift ideas are total awesomeness for those lovers of clunky and recycled jewelry on your gift list!

These beauties are made with 2" faucet knobs (one old and one not so old that I sanded to distress) and lots of cool doodads I picked up in the discontinued bins.

you will need: faucet knobs (valves? handles? whatever these things are actually called), heavy chain and jump rings (I just used some of the heavy chain for the jump rings), doodads, pliers, glue


These will vary depending on your aesthetic and supplies, but the basic idea is to glue a doodad into the center - for both of these I had to do a little damage breaking off the attachments on the ends of the center doodads (one is girly bling and the other is tomboy blang just like the girls I am giving these babies to), add some heavy chain that has big rings (you need to be able to open the rings over the faucet knob ends to attach - maybe bring the faucet knob to the store with you) and some extra doodad dangles.

(and yes, the words "doodad dangles" just needed to be said by someone somewhere sometime ... seriously)


The results are some serious faucet awesomeness I am calling "the farrah".

(DISCLAIMER 11/9/11 - in a little twist of synchronicity I walked into a Barnes and Noble to waste a few minutes waiting for a take-out order at the Chili's next-door and discovered that GreenCraft magazine has a very similar tutorial this month to this one - so even though I searched google images and Etsy for anything too similar prior to posting this and truly did not see this magazine first - I just wanted to add this disclaimer because if the tutorial is in a magazine it is almost for certain some artist is making this for sale somewhere so I just wanted to be extra sure to mention that this tutorial - as almost all tutorials you will ever come across - is for personal use only and not intended to make items for sale)

GIVEAWAY - Charlotte's Web Book and GreenCycleDesigns Book Paper Flowers! CLOSED

WINNER
WILL BE
DRAWN
THIS WEEK!

This week's giveaway is a special one!

We have one of my all-time favorite books

(hint - that's some pig!)

Charlotte's Web and a GORGEOUS paper flower bouquet created from the pages of another copy of Charlotte's Web by the amazing paper artist and recycler Tara Ackerman of Green Cycle Designs!

(her name is Tara and she is a green-aholic)

Tara says, "Anything that can be saved and used again, MUST! Green Cycle Designs is the manifestation of my childhood dream. Based in Plantation Florida, GCD is quality eco-friendly home decor and jewelry done right. We are focused on promoting a green yet fashionable lifestyle, without breaking the bank in the process."

(I love that and am sure Charlotte and Wilbur would approve)

WHAT YOU GET:

One lucky winner will receive the Charlotte's Web book bouquet from Green Cycle Designs and the actual book!






HOW TO WIN:
It's easy, peasy - just leave your contact information below!

For additional entries:

(5) Twitter this post
(5) Blog about this contest; linking to this post
(5) Follow my blog
(5) Facebook this post

Let me know if you have done these things so I can give you additional entries. This contest is open to everyone.

DRAWING:

Enter by midnight on Sunday November 20th! Good Luck!

some pics and purchases from last month's asheville trip - aren't olive and her best friend ruby the cutest sweater wearing boggles evah!

Make an Upcycled Ruler Frame - Holiday Gift Countdown - Week # 6


By now you can see that I am using alot of vintage pieces for holiday gifts this year

(this makes a great reason for flea marketing in the summer - you can only hoard so much stuff personally if you do not want to end up on one of those tv shows fighting to hold on to your collection of somebody else's bowling trophies and climbing over piles of old magazines to eat a slice of frozen pizza in bed with your cats)

you can make this gorgeous yardstick frame/mat from new rulers, too, but the old yardsticks make it a totally one of a kind piece for your lucky recipient!

you will need: 3 colorful yardsticks (enough to mat 2 11X11 Ikea frames), saw, adhesive, sandpaper


I decided after playing around with the rulers a bit that I wanted to keep the glass under the rulers and leave them with the framed black edge of the Ikea frame.

1. lay out your rulers
2. saw rulers to size (be patient and careful with this if you are using a little wobbly handsaw like I did)
3. lay out the pieces and then glue them into place.

I was originally thinking I would glue the ruler pieces to the glass, but decided in the end it would be better to glue them to each other and to the inner frame.

* onion print by f2images

To get your own yardsticks - check out the Etsy listings HERE