Masking Tape &

Acrylic Paint.... so simple ... 

Two DIY bracelet tutorials!

                        These two bracelet tutorials are fairly easy to follow. 

credit for the tutorials are on the pictures. 

Crayon Art

Have any of you tried this crayon art I keep seeing everywhere? It looks pretty neat..I think I might take a whack at it since I have more time than I know what to do with now. 



If you need the steps, it's really easy ...





 What you need:

• A canvas of your choice
• Crayons (Any color, and you can leave the wrapper on or take if off)
• A type of glue adhesive of your choice
• Blow dryer
• Newspaper

Process:

• Glue your crayons in the order of your choice to the top of canvas
• Use the newspaper to put down in case the wax splatters
• Slant the canvas so that the wax will drip downwards 
• Use the blow dryer to heat the crayons so the wax will drip. (You can use the blow dryer as a tool to make the wax go whichever way you want it to.) 
• When you're finished.. let dry. 

Enjoy!       

Super Easy Earrings

These are so delicate looking and so easy to make. 
Put your own spin on it. 

Donut Thai Style Bracelet

This tutorial is by BeeJang but is originally from Thai Crystal Magazine.  It's a tad long ..and this link is just the first part. If you want the second half the link to it is on the bottom of their page. Very pretty isn't it? 

                                        http://beejang.livejournal.com/178392.html#cutid1

DIY For The Home

This is such a cute idea. 

Another 15 Minute Recipe

Another 15 Minute Recipe ... and of course it's pasta! 

Garlic Pasta

What you need: 
2 tsp olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp butter
3 cups chicken stock
1 lb spaghetti or angel hair pasta
1 cup grated parmesan cheese
¾ cup heavy cream
2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
salt and pepper to taste 

Prepare:
In a pot, bring olive oil to medium-low heat and then add garlic and stir for about 1-2 minutes. 
Mix in the butter, stir until melted. 
Add a little salt and pepper and your chicken stock. Bring to a boil. 
Next add your pasta, and cook for as long as directed. 
Then add your parmesan cheese, stirring, letting it melt completely.
After, turn off heat, stir in parsley and cream. Serve. 

Sea Glass Candle Holder

How Super Easy. Use E-6000 to glue sea glass together for a DIY candle holder. I bet it would glow super pretty at night! 

15 Minute Recipe

This recipe is so good! I make it a lot, when I know I shouldn't... I'm a sucker for pasta.. 
And it takes 15 minutes to make!! 

FETTUCCINE PEPPER PASTA 

 what you need:

• 16 ounces dry fettuccine pasta
• 2 red bell peppers, julienned
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 3/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (Use more or less to taste)
• 1 cup reduced fat sour cream
• 1 cup chicken broth 
• 3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• salt and pepper to taste

Prepare: 

Cook pasta according to package.

Meanwhile, spray cooking oil in a large skillet and saute red bell peppers, garlic and cayenne pepper over medium heat for 3 to 5 minutes.

Stir in sour cream and broth; simmer uncovered for 5 minutes.

Remove from heat and stir in cheese.Toss hot pasta with sauce and season with salt and pepper to taste; serve.

I found this recipe on allrecipes.com and altered it the way I prepare and serve the dish. 

What a beautiful day we are having here in Minnesota today! DIY project for the day is to glue fake flowers to the bottom of a tall vase ( or filling the bottom with stones supporting the flowers ) fill with water, and top with a floating candle! Very pretty. Very Easy. I love it! 

Wait and see...

In a few weeks my family will be taking a trip down to Atlanta to spend some time with my parents and my grandparents! I am so excited. My side of the family has yet to see our youngest daughter. With any luck, my great grandma will somehow make her way up from southern Georgia, or we will just have to find some way to take a trip to see her. I want so bad to have a 5 generation picture. How awesome would that be?! Well anyways, I've been thinking....

In this photo this purse was created with magazine strips

Have any of you seen the candy wrapper purses lately? I've been seeing them pretty frequently now, and I've always thought it was a neat concept but I just haven't been into the whole candy wrapper thing. However, on my way into work everyday I pass by this shop that sells these candy wrapper purses and key chains and what-nots and I've been thinking of making my own with a different material. Since I'll have lots of free time on my trip, I think I might spend a little time coming up with my idea. Want to know what I'm thinking about using? .... You will just have to wait and see .... 

Another Free Tutorial

Free Tutorial by Tegero on deviantart 

The Golden Fleece Wire Earrings 

http://tegero.deviantart.com/art/Tutorial-the-Golden-Fleece-wire-earrings-296759854?q=in%3Aresources%2Ftutorials%2Fartisancrafts%20sort%3Atime&qo=5

Feeling crafty?

Anyone feeling crafty? http://craftgawker.com/  has pages and pages of DIY crafts! 

Moss Graffiti

Happy Friday everyone! Our family lives in a beautiful town home. We love our home, but we hate not having a yard for ourselves. If we had our own yard this would be pretty awesome.Check out this idea ...

Moss Graffiti: Mix yogurt, water and live moss in a blender, then paint onto a wall. Moss will grow in the shape of whatever you painted. Just remember to spritz it with water every once in a while to keep it alive.

This was an idea by http://scotchandscones.tumblr.com/ 

Excellent Tutorial! Wrap a Cabochon Locket

It's a little late tonight, but it's been a pretty busy day, and not the best day at that. On a night like tonight, I was pretty happy to come across an awesome tutorial. This tutorial by Faith C. on deviantart is amazing and it's free! It's a pretty advanced tutorial, but she's very good at explaining the process and her pictures are great. 

http://serdanoy.deviantart.com/art/Wire-Wrapped-Cabochon-Locket-Tutorial-270819471

3 Free Tutorials

Nancy Wickman has put up some awesome wire weaving tutorials. You can access all three on Beading Gem's Journal. 

Nancy does beautiful work! Check her out on Facebook or her Artfire stores.  

 http://www.beadinggem.com/2010/03/gorgeous-free-woven-wire-tutorials-from.html

Black Friday

In case anyone is a Black Friday Shopper, just thought you might like to know .... 99 days to go. 

Some New Jewelry

                          Some New Jewelry             

         

            

       

Top Center: Wire Wrapped Apatite and Amazonite 

Right: Wire Wrapped Amazonite and Silver Chain 

Left: Wire Wrapped Garnet Bracelet w/ Sterling Silver Chain and Components. 

Bottom Center: Sterling Silver wire wrapped Jet, Jasper, and Howlite 

Free Tutorial

This is a free tutorial

posted on deviantart by Monika Laskowska 

http://aniolek-maly.deviantart.com/art/Wire-wrapping-free-tutorial-108504643

DIY Wigjig

Happy Tuesday everyone! I wasn't able to get on here to post much yesterday but I have to admit that I got wrapped up in Discovery Channel's Shark Week. I love learning about the Megalodon! 
SO anyway, I have been going back and forth for a while trying to decide if I wanted to buy a Wigjig or not. I have decided that I will probably get one but I have found an inexpensive alternative for the time being. E-How has the directions to make your own. 

http://www.ehow.com/how_8332467_make-wig-jig.html

Free Tutorial

A great tutorial by A Matter Of Style.

DIY Tribal Egyptian Necklace. 








http://matterofstyle.blogspot.it/2012/03/tribal-egyptian-necklace-diy.html

Gifting Ideas

Can you believe there's only 4 more months until Christmas! I know, most of us don't want to hear that word yet, but truth is it will be here before we know it! This is a neat gifting idea! These are Simply Dollar Store wine glasses, assorted rubber bands, and frosted glass spray paint! Or if you wanted to get really crafty there's always the DIY Sharpie Dinnerware. Check out The Sweetest Occasion for the step by step process.                                                  
                                                             

http://www.thesweetestoccasion.com/2012/07/diy-sharpie-dinnerware/

DIY Wire Chandelier

Last post for the evening. We have our neighbors coming over for a steak dinner tonight! Yum! This is a great idea by Amy Geer in House In The Woods. 


DIY Wire Chandelier 

It's made out of one of IKEA's fruit bowls! 

http://houseitw.com/2012/03/27/diy-wire-chandelier/

Too cute..

How cute is this! I had to share even though I don't know who to give credit to for the picture, but how simple! What would you make with this? 

On a mission

The Peruvian String Art proves very challenging with wire! As with everything it will take a lot of practice to master it. However, this is the end result for the first try. 

Unfortunately I wasn't able to take pictures of the step by step process, but I will put up the site that helped me a lot. Believe it or not, it was a math site. Going back to the early school days...

http://www.mathcats.com/crafts/stringart.html

The first few steps are easy. I changed it a little. Instead of coiling wire and stretching it out and then placing that onto an outer wire I just wrapped my outer wire with gemstone beads. I used 20 gauge for the outer wire, and 26 gauge for the wire wrapping. (Use any beads you have around.) Space the beads out just a little. I would really like to be able to to come up with an intricate design for wrapping the wire. It will become my mission. Once I start getting the hang of the process and it becomes a little easier, I will probably put up a full blown tutorial for everyone. 

Good News and Bad News ...

It's about 12 a.m. and I've been working on the Peruvian String Art earrings with wire instead of thread for about four hours now. The good news is I HAVE figured out the technique using wire. The bad news is I was not taking pictures as I was going when I started it so I will create a new one tomorrow morning and post it up. In the meantime ... here's another free tutorial.

Charlotte's Web 

http://toocutebeads.blogspot.com/2012/04/design-idea-charlottes-web-bracelet.html

Brick Stitch Earrings Free Tutorial

I put up these tutorials in hopes that it sparks some creative ideas. I don't really like working with seed beads, so I will probably try this technique in my own way. 

Inside brick stitch tutorial by Chris Franchetti Michaels on About.com

http://beadwork.about.com/od/beadedearrings/tp/Inside-Brick-Stitch-Hoop-Earrings-Tutorial.htm

Cute Craft For The Kids

I found such an easy and cute craft for my little ones. Put tape onto a canvas and let them paint over it. Let dry and take the tape off. HOW CUTE! Especially as a first piece of art idea. 


http://deborahgilbert42.wordpress.com/2012/02/14/capris-valentine-craft/

New Jewelry

Check out these two pieces in my Etsy shop

http://www.etsy.com/shop/alysshanson

Amethyst, Amazonite, Apatite, Rose Quartz, and Smoky Quartz make up this Bib Necklace and 5 Ring bracelet

FREE TUTORIAL

Here is a really clear, free tutorial by Judy Larson published by Beadinggem. 

Braided Wire and Bead Bangle


http://www.scribd.com/doc/88188571/Braided-Wire-and-Bead-Bangle-Tutorial

Coming soon

So, as a I mentioned before, I have always loved making jewelry! I can remember a time when I was in elementary school creating bead animals with a group of friends before and after school and selling them to friends or to whoever wanted one. We made more money than we thought we would and the school eventually found out and put an end to that real quick. Anyway, it felt so exciting. My friends and I had taught ourselves all the techniques to making them and ever since then I've always loved to teach myself new aspects of jewelry and art and other crafts. I know that there are tutorials out there that you can buy, and they're step by step ...blah blah blah...real simple ... $4 ... $20 for two ... that type of thing .. but I can't justify buying any of them for myself. No matter how badly I want to learn how they did it, I find that it becomes more of a challenge if I can try to figure it out on my own. It may take a while, but in the end I feel more satisfaction knowing I figured it with no help, just ... common sense really. That being said, I am going to try to make a new piece of jewelry every week. Once I figure out the basis of it, I'll blog the steps I took to get to the end result. I realize it may not be the right way, but if it gets the job done.... (I believe the quote is “If things aren't going right, go left) ABSOLUTELY! This week: Everywhere you go I'm sure you have noticed the Peruvian thread earrings that seem to be a very popular fashion jewelry piece.

I recently saw Stonepoetry (If you have not heard of them look them up on Etsy) did a similar piece using wire. I FELL IN LOVE WITH IT! I really hope I'm able to figure it out this weekend. I am very determined! Check back later this week to see if I was successful!

Welcome to my blog! I've grown up always doing crafty projects with my grandmother and my love for all things dealing with art and crafts just kept growing and growing... 

I love to scrapbook, draw, paint, and do a lot of DIY projects but most of all I love making jewelry! 

I can remember making jewelry since I was a little girl but it all came to a stand still ... I got stuck. Years went by and I more or less just forgotten how much I loved it until I started watching Project Accessory on Lifetime. I became so inspired by Nina Cortez  (http://www.ninaloren.com/ ) that I knew that is what I needed to do! It's only been a few months but I'm so motivated now that I feel like when I go back to school I will be changing my major to Art. I know, I know, a lot of people say it's worthless.. but I love art!  I love everything to do with art. SO ... I will be uploading fun tutorials, DIY projects, and my own jewelry and art for everyone. Enjoy!