Beaded Watch band KITS

Watchband kits for our Open house.

Beaded Watch band Tutorial

Before starting you need to decide on the length, If you have a watchband measure it. If not measure a bracelet that fits nicely and subtract the length of the watchband.
Step one: Cut about 14 inches of stretchy bead/Jewelry cord.
After you have designed how you want your beads to be you will start with an end bead, slide it all the way to the middle, and put a lobster clasp on each side of the bead.


Step two: start beading - by putting a bead on each side, you want the beads to equal the same length when it is time to add the spacer bar. you will add one when you get 1/3 the bracelet done and again at the 2/3 length.
Step three: I add a few extra small beads to each kit so you can make them longer or add them to make the sides match up. Below I added a small bead on the left to make it match the right side.
Step Four: Here is the second space bar at 2/3 the way through the band.
Step Five: I add the final beads putting most of them on one side, lobster clasps and all.
below will help make sense of why I do this.
Step Six: The knot will be on the side now, and will be hard to notice. Put a drop of superglue on the knot. Also if your knot is right next to the clasp the superglue might seep into the clasp and ruin it.


I hope I explained it clearly, If you have any questions please just ask in my comments.

I also have plenty of watchbands, and Watchband kits in my Etsy shop.

Where have I been?

I bet you think I haven't been crafting?....... Oh Contrare, Way too much so, my children are feeling neglected, and I am ready for a jewelry/ Katies shoes party tomorrow. When I figure out why my computer won't download anything from my camera, then we will have craft overload. I might space it out so I don't do too much blogging all at once. I do have kids who need me ya know, ( yah that was me talking to myself, I should probably go get the little boogers off to bed) lol.

cute watch for auction

This is the watch and the watch face I have donated to the auction fot the Allen Family. An autction is being started here.

http://bradallenfamilybenefit.blogspot.com

26 year old Bradly was killed in a motorcycling accident leaving behind his wife Katie who is pregnant, and 2 sweet curly headed little boys who are 2 and 4 years old. No life insurance will make even more burdens for the road ahead for them. I can't ease their pain but I hope we can take some worries off their minds.

vinyl chalkboard

Did you know you can make a cute chalkboard with plain black vinyl. (matte finish) you can get it where they sell cricut supplies. I bought this package for 5.99 on sale. It comes in 2 sheets, 12x24. Then I went around it with some alphabet stickers that I already had. You could cut them with the cricut, but this saves so much time. You want to mark on your area where you want it exactly because you need to start with one side and go very slowly smoothing out any air bubbles as you go.


Somthing you need to know is that you don't want to put it on a wall with texture, I put it on my filing cabinet. It works great! and its still magnetic.

I saw some company that was selling this for $20. Woo hoo. I was pretty happy that I could do it for only. 5.99.

How to cut Vinyl with your Cricut

I had a hard time finding istructions when I first started using my cricut, and a few people have asked me how, so this is how.



You will need vinyl of your choice (top) and transfer tape (shown below my vinyl so you know what it looks like). This can be done without the transfer tape, but will look so much better if you do use it, its fairly inexpensive. It costs the same as the pckg of vinyl and contains much more than you will need.









If you have the 6 inch cricut like mine you will need to cut the vinyl down to 6x12 to fit in your machine. You can still cut letters up to about 4 1/2 or 5 inches. Use your favorite font and cut them out just as if you were doing this with paper. Thats right. Its pretty simple, the next part is the really important step.

Next you will need to prepare a piece of transfer tape. Do this by cutting a little section off just guessing how much you will need. Peel off the sticky top part, and carefully lay it somewhere safe, so you can use it in a minute.

Then use an xacto knife on the vinyl to fix any spots it may have messed up on. Not usually a problem if you rblade is REALLY sharp. THen use the xacto knife to lift the letters off the page leaving the backing there (kinda like peeling off a sticker). put ot on the wax paper like side of the transfer tape.

This helps you be able to line up the letters easily lifting them back up until they are just straight, which is pretty easy since the transfer tape has a red grid on the back to help you.

once you have all the letters on, you place the sticky paper back over top. rub really hard with your tongue depressor. Next if you need to you would cut the words apart. Since mine is a chore chart, that is what I did.

The last step is to peel of the wax paperry side of the transfer tape, then place the "sticker" exactly where you want it to go. Another great thing about the transfer tape is you can center your words better. Then, you will rub it again with the tongue depressor, and peel back the white sticker paper.

Hope this helps, it is a lot of fun. This font is called Stone script. It is one of the less expensive cartridges because it doesn't come with any extra pictures and stuff. It is my very favorite!

Little ties, for Cute little guys

He was disgusted that I took the camera from him. But I had to get a picute of him in this cute little tie I made. I just couldn't stop making them, they are so fast and fun. They range from sizes of newborn to 5T.

I did not make these from Jeffs old ties. What is it with Guys and their ties??

Watch bands for $15

I have been wanting to do this for so long its pathetic. I was just scared cuz I thought it looked so hard. Turned out not ot be true. Here they are.

this colorful one is sold, I can't make any identical

SOLD but I can make more.

I

Appliqued T's

I had no idea applique's were so easy. now I am addicted. I cut these lizards out of some cute fabric MK gave me. I thought an R would be fun too.
I came up with the whole plan as I was shopping for some warmer jammies for R. The nights are still so cold here. Then I realized that you can only find summery tank tops with shorts for jammies. I found these shirts and some matching sweat pants at Walmart on clearance, for next to nothing. He will be much warmer at night now.

I was desperate for something springy to make me forget about the snow out my window. :(

More bibs

special order for a special girl.
**Kaislyn

In HONOR of the

"Arrival of

little Colton"

Rawlins cake

This is Rawlins Caterpillar cake, I don't really like it, but whatever.

Luc's cake

Happy first Birthday Lucas, I had fun making his cake, the polka dots are just fruit rollups cut the with scissors. I uses a 9x9 pan for the bottom and a bread pan for the top, cut it in half it was a perfect square. I decided to just buy a cute bow for the top to make it look more like agift.

Two Dishtowel Apron

This is the "two dishtowel apron" we will be making for enrichment. I will make a tutorial soon, it has two pockets and is pretty thick. You need fairly large dishtowel, I found these at target, and approx 2 or 3 yards of ribbon, Thanks Mel for modeling.
I kinda made this up or I would give the credit to whomever else did. I am sure its been done before though.

Spring Cleaning

Click here to get a link for 15 pages of household cleaning recipes. I can't wait to try them just in time for spring cleaning. The laundry detergent recipe is at the end you can do 640 loads for about $20. Can you imagine?

crappy crafter

This is the Birthday card from my brother Don. HE is so funny he makes me laugh until my side hurts. Thanks for the laugh!

Yummy Easter treats.

The kids will also be helping me make some of these for everyone we know!

Click here for instructions on making your own.

My plan to survive Spring Break

#1 chore charts and strict rules of no playing til done. (adding to their chore charts a few spring cleaning jobs to really help me out!)

#2 A list of friends who are NOT out of town for spring break

#3 Mugs - During Christmas Break they each had a cute christmas mug to drink out of, They have been placed next to the sink.

#4 Snack boxes - Their lunch boxes have been filled with their snacks for the day. NO RAIDING THE CUPBOARDS. I get sick of putting boxes of snacks crackers granola bars away and then putting them away, and not to mention sweeping up the crumbs constantly.

#5 A list of activities they can do on their own without my help or little help. New crafts, or easy treats to bake etc. I don not want to hear I'm Bored. Nope not gonna put up with it.

#6 A little one on one date with mom sometime during break for each kid.

#7 A special surprize for no fighting. I've actually allready been doing this one for a week and its been AMAZING. I am all about Bribes/rewards.

#8 Emergency numbers on speed dial. Including Jeff and CPS.

A few new things

I finally got around to making a pin cushion, it was badley needed since I have been sewing a little more than I used to.

this other jewelry are some of the things I made while I was in Boise for Presidents day. And they are my fav. jewelry that I have made. ♥

This is my next project. You know when life calms down.

http://thisandthat-amy.blogspot.com/