Saturday, November 17, 2007

New Hobby?

Okay, my holiday plan has been scrapped. Is anyone really surprised? Oh, I'm still making tons of gifts. I just happened to start something new, and now everyone may be getting...jewelry.




I found a tutorial in Craft magazine about rolling beads from scrap paper and after a rocky start, began making bracelets. Initially I was rolling the beads on wooden skewers and using tacky glue which only made the whole process lenghty and sticky and causing me to think I would rather have a bracelet made just from safety pins. I tried again using a glue stick and before long was in bead euphoria.

Apparently, Victorian babes rolled these beads and made whole curtains from them. You go, girls. A bracelet is the extent of my patience with stringing anything. My beads are fairly primitive, made from magazine pages and sealed with clear nail polish, but I have since learned that they can be much more sophisticated.

Getting into the whole jewelry thing, I started thinking about what else I had around that I could use for bracelets and came up with this.




I bought a couple of Scrabble games at yard sales last summer and had a jar full of tiles sitting on a shelf just because I liked the way they looked. Using a tiny drill bit and a template so that the holes match up, I drilled through from each side and then strung them on elastic cord. Viola!




Scrabble bracelets rock! The possibilities are endless. You can make one for everyone you know and love.

5 comments:

Elvis Drinkmo said...

Gifts people make are the greatest gifts of all!- at least as far as I' concerned. You have a very lucky family and group of friends, Scarlett.

Me and my wife are pretty much flat broke right now (thanks to a month and half of me being unemployed) so she's making afghans and sweaters for some of my family.

I have no real talent myself aside from consuming massive quantities of alcohol while maintaining the ability to stand, but I can make nice bluebird houses. Too bad I'm the only one in family geeky enough to get into bird watching.

Heather said...

Scrabble bracelets do rock! Love these!

Scarlet Tanager said...

Elvis- thanks, I tend to think so, but then again, my family has been on the receiving end of my crafty and baking endevors for years.

Does your wife knit or crochet?

Also, I have two people on my Christmas list who would very much like a bluebird house. Sooooo, if you have anyone on your list who would enjoy some potholders, an apron, or bracelets, etc...shoot me an email.

Heather-thanks!

Elvis Drinkmo said...

Ms. Priscilla Drinkmo crochets. I think you two would have alot in common.

The email I tried to send you from elvisdrinkmo@hotmail bounced (possibly because the Legion of Doom is trying sabotage my attempts at getting the good word of Batgirl out).

I'm going to try from another email address so if you get something in your inbox from some no good pinko-commie named "cmedwards" don't delete it.

natasha said...

your beads came out great! i made sooooo many and still never really got it down to a science. of course, i insisted on using the heated embossing powder which is similar to molten lava. but it looks pretty and that is really all that counts!

i looooove your tissue holders and the birdie pin cushion!