Upcycled Jewelry Tutorial - Christmas Countdown Week lll - let's make jewelry!

For week 3 of this year's recycled holiday gift countdown let's make some easy, peasy jewelry!

If you are like me you probably have a drawer full of buttons and another drawer filled with those hard non-recyclable (until now) plastic bottle caps.

With some black cording from the craft store and a few metal pipe clamps from the hardware store (my favorite place) you can create some amazing interchangeable (that doing more with less thing again) necklaces you will be proud to give and your friends will be happy to get!

what you need:

some buttons of various sizes
a couple plastic bottle caps
power drill
screwdriver
metal hose clamps
thin black cording or chain


1. drill hole in center of bottle cap 2. thread stack of buttons backward from smallest to largest 3. push both ends of cording into bottle cap and tie off 4. cut off any loose ends (good life lesson here) 5. loosen clamp with screwdriver, insert bottle cap and tighten 6. add cording or thin chain to slot on back of clamp



See more of my recycled tutorials here

GIVEAWAY - Kylie Parry Handmade Ceramic Christmas Ornaments CLOSED!

AND THE WINNER IS Hedgehog and Rabbit!

True Random Number Generator (random.org)

Min: 1
Max: 267
Result:
47

Kylie Parry is an amazingly talented Wisconsin potter and illustrator!

She creates ceramic jewelry and wheel thrown functional pottery. Kylie enjoys creating work that celebrates the natural world.

I love her warm and wonderful pieces!

Her work is formed out of stoneware clay, hand-carved/stamped, stained and glazed. She uses rich, earthy glazes that are all food safe.

We are so lucky to have one of Kylie's amazing pieces for this week's giveaway!

WHAT YOU GET:

One lucky winner will receive this gorgeous ceramic reindeer ornament set!






HOW TO WIN:

Visit Kylie Parry and check out her amazing work - then come back here and leave a comment letting Kylie know which piece is your favorite!

For additional entries:

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

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, Sunday, November 21st! Good Luck!

Weekly Wrap Up or wrapping everyone in our loving arms today

This was supposed to be a video post, but my voice was scary bad.

I just couldn't bring myself to post it.

(seriously, it has me thinking that if I could have just gone through life with one of those little cartoon bubbles over my head and people could read what I was saying instead of hearing me speak, I would have gotten alot farther in life -

like finished college, had a 401K, corner office and stock options kind of farther)

but I decided to go ahead and post the ending pic ala Jessica Doyle - she always posts with a pic and it feels like she is talking right to you ...

plus it looks like I just ate that salad and the stack of slice-n-bake chocolate chip cookies I polished off afterwards are out of screenshot

To wrap up this stressful, insane week I will say that my daughter's surgeries went perfectly and she is feeling better everyday,

my sister finally booked her flight to New Jersey after 2 flippin' years,

(she did book it for the busiest week of the year for me, but since I've been looking for potential delegation candidates for the holiday season, this could be a good thing ... for me)

my friend Laura (creativelytangled and the inspiration for TeamEPE) got her new boobs,

my camera possibly needs a new, very expensive, shutter - ugh,

my hubby got his hair cut so short I almost cried when I saw it

Check out my trends post at the Artisans Collective team blog for some 2011 trends

Team EcoEtsy's 2nd Green Giveaway is up and HERE - it features an eco spa package valued at almost $75.00- you gotta be in it to win it folks!


And today, November 12th is To Write Love on Her Arms Day which my friend Rachel of the amazing GetReadySetGo has been spreading the word about for weeks.

TWLOHA is a non-profit organization dedicated to offering hope and finding help for people struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury and suicide.


So write a little LOVE on your arms today and have an amazing weekend everyone!

Upcycled Tutorial - Wine Cork Dog Leash (yes, I am totally serious) Recycled Holiday Gift Countdown - Week ll

If there is a special pooch in your life and you have collected a few wine corks for yourself

(and if you haven't maybe you should get working on that one)

you can easily make an adorable leash that special pooch will be proud to walk the neighborhood with!

Now, I should add that this is probably not a good leash for your rottie or any pup that needs more than a small amount of control

(although this is surprisingly strong and I cannot pull it apart - your rottie is probably stronger than I am though)

Someone incredibly wonderful sent me these corks not realizing they were not made from actual cork, but I knew I would eventually find a great use for them (these are synthetic corks, but your wood corks will work equally well).

You will need:

some corks
slip rings
eyehook and washers
spring hook
key fob for the hand grip
(these were puchased on Etsy from loveyduds)
super glue



Easy peasy instructions - Make a starter hole in the center of the cork with your eyehook, remove hook, add a couple drops of super glue to the hole, screw in eyehook and a small washer, add slipring, repeat, add a fabric key fob handle to one end and a latch hook to the other which will attach to your pup's collar.

Just be prepared to deal with a big-headed pooch from all the attention she/he will receive - Olive has become impossible to live with and is even demanding breakfast in bed ...

There are also lots of amazing doggie goodies on Etsy for your holiday shopping like these amazing finds here:


1. leashes from hollywoofstyles
2. leather dog collar from thecoolpuppy
3. mosaic dog leash holder by Raquel Stanack
4. Molly collar and leash from murphyandgert
5. turquoise dog collar by ChloesCollars
6. love to fart dog tag by hugapug studios
7. striped dog sweater by beantownhandmade