Crazy cute Crocs

My mom has opined ugly parents often produce beautiful spawn.
And here's an example and perhaps proof of her hypothesis.

God awful 80's jewelry parts from my jewelry cemetery + plastic Croc shoes. Those giant shiny bits are from Dawn's People Give Me Stuff largesse.


Mix together and imagine the worst but smile at the crazy cute combination.


Yes, as I've said before, almost everything can be helped with a little plaid ribbon.

Enjoy your cute shoes, little girl grown ass lady RikkiTikkiTavi!

Solar powered lamp revamp

Purchased a solar powered lamp typically used for outdoor path illumination and did a revamp. (now on sale, doggone it!)

A too-rusty shelf bracket was lightly covered with flat black spray paint then lightly wiped with dried leaves. Why the wipe? Dunno, I saw the leaves on my work surface in the garage and a voice in my head wondered if they would knock down the too-perfect black. Yep, it worked. Who knew? One of the myriad of craft personalities living in my head, that's who!

With an embellishment of some Rub and Buff stuff,

highlights of gold are added.

The too-perfect and too-black

hanging lamp received the same treatment.

To avoid smearing on the lamp glass,

a cotton swab applied streaky detail.

A sodalite stone pendant

from my people give me stuff jewelry cemetery

with the center dangle removed.

Added a split key ring

for the easy hanging of ~~

a pool gate lamp!

Hunk a Junque necklace

This necklace has been in my head for a year or so but after recently reading Amy Hanna's fabulous book, I pulled out all that People Give Me Stuff bauble and bead bounty, pilfered an antique watch from my crow-like candlelier and made myself a junque necklace from bits and pieces o' stuff. That's iron pyrite hanging from the shorter silver chain, fool's gold, I tell ya!

I wore my junque chains last night and received lots of compliment but kinda wonder if I look like a crazy lady that collects shiny bits, tin foil and cats and lives in a hoarder house?

Junque necklace in silver OR Shiny Stuff of the Week 11

Sister RikkiTikkiTavi lurves silver so my first attempt at the junque necklace is for her. All the "People Give Me Stuff" baubles, pieces and parts and shiny stuff came into play and should you find yourself bored, click on the link and see how many parts you can spy from previous postings.

SHINY STUFF ~~ CAW, CAW!

Pearl grey satin ribbon ties at the back. Broken earrings, unpaired earrings, key, button, charms, beads and keychain dangles = FREE necklace.

Thanks, Amy Hanna, for the inspiration!

Take a look at my bathroom "Candle-lier" that I started 8 years ago - gonna start pilfering from it for shiny bits.

Book review

For a state ranked so low in education levels, my left-handed bottom corner of Louisiana has a great public library system. My local branch recently offered a jewelry making class and for the price of ~~FREE~~ the bead choices were pretty good.
Anywho, the class reinvigorated my interest in crafting my very own baubles. The facilitator had new jewelry books on display and I rushed home to reserve as many as possible on the library online system but had no idea that all would be available in 2 days. WooHoo, a stack of books, full of ideas and inspiration!
(Checking out library copies is a great way to find books not available at your local bookstore and then, if you like it, order the book.)

Here are a few cool books you might want to check out:

• Beadalicious by Sonya Nimri
  

25 projects with good instructions and nice explanation of bead choices.

• Bejeweled: beautiful fashion jewelry to make and wear by Claire Aristides
  

Very detailed, fabulous photography and a nice touch, a variation of each featured project.

• Beading with Pearls: beautiful jewelry, simple techniques by Jean Campbell
  

Simply inspiring.

• Make it in minutes: memory jewelry by Liz Eaton

With any degree of imagination, you can adapt these rather pedestrian ideas to something less scrapbook-y and more artsy.

And my two favorites of the stack,

• Stitched jewels by Marthe LeVan

Lots of ideas to tweak and personalize. LOVE the fabric covered button bracelet! Expect to see one on this site in the future.

• Rejuvenated jewels: gorgeous designs with vintage jewelry and beads by Amy Hanna

Ho-ly Mother of Pearl, this is a dangerous book. Kinda like telling crack heads that there are "rocks" to be found in your neighbor's backyard. You'll want to step up your garage/estate sale activity once you see Amy's creations and stash AND beat up anyone else on the same mission. It's gonna get ugly, people. Any chick with even a smidge of girly girl will be enthralled with the treasure trove of jewelry and baubles parts.

Enjoy book shopping!

Kay's shoes

Kay purchased these cute shoes but alas she lost a few jewels and stones (probably from kicking street urchins) so she visited the SkitzoLeezraStudio to partake of my glue gun and jewelry cemetery bounty.
Some of those shiny bits are from broken stuff and one of those silver pins is from my grandmother's costume jewelry stash. People give me stuff and some of it goes to the glitzy shoe hospital!
Looka how fab her shoes are now!

"Candlelier" OR Really Strange Jewelry Storage

Candlelier (pronounced like "chandelier")

Lots of broken jewelry pieces, bracelets, earrings, watches, plus random beads & crystals.

Do you have broken shiny stuff?
Don't throw that away!
Send it to me and I'll add it to the candlelier!

The window? Kay gave it to me after a failed patio table project. I reverse painted* it for a faux window in the bathroom.

*Reverse painting - painted from back of glass instead of top surface of glass, meaning the white clouds were painted first then the blue sky.

Check out more window tricks at
Country Chic Cottage
on June 14th!