Bendy Wire Bead Maker Thingy

So here's what I bought: It's a Thing-A-Ma JIG Beginner Kit by Darice.

You see that purple-ish board? It has tons of small holes. And do you see that package of blue thingies? Those are pegs that get placed into the holes on the purple board. You are supposed to put the pegs into the holes. You then wrap wire around the pegs to make swirly designs with the wire. The kit even comes with some colored wire.

I tried making a swirly design, but, meh, I'm not to sure. I think the wire that came with this kit was too thin. Maybe if I come across a thinker gauge wire it would work. It didn't seem to hold the swirly design too well with the thinner wire. Might also work better with bigger and less intricate designs.

We'll see. Does anyone have any experience with this Thing-A-Ma JIG?

I'm back...And holiday gifts

As far as my crafting skills are concerned, I think I've come a long way in the past few months. To celebrate, I'm going to keep up with my blog.

First things first, I've starting machine sewing. And I think my items are good enough to sell. And lucky enough, other people agree. I even started a etsy site at www.brooklynbelinda.etsy.com. I make a bunch of totes and bags, recycling and reusing material whenever I can. I find that placemats and non-terry kitchen towels make awesome bags. The colors and graphics are great too.

I've also started getting in to jewelry making. I've been on the lookout for recycle/reuse material that I can remake in to jewelry too.

As I feel pretty comfortable sewing, I was able to make my mom a

purse as a holiday gift. She wanted something out of this brown corduroy fabric. That's the only guidance I had. The rest was a surprise. I think it came out really nice, and almost wish I kept this one for myself...

I appliqued the flowers onto the corduroy, and used buttons as the center of the flowers.

Here are a few more shots:

Closeup of a flower on the outside.

Inside of the bag...I used a magnetic closure and there is an internal pocket.

And speaking of gifts, I made this necklace for another family member.

It's layered Mother of Pearl on a simple silver chain.