CHRISTMAS TREES...ALREADY??

It's right around the corner!

You can feel it in the air!

Christmas!

Yes!!

Have you organized your list of Christmas gifts you want to make or give??  I don't have it on paper, but it's mulling around in my head (Oooo, hot mulled cider sounds good right now....).  The ideas are actually coming so fast and furiously that I'm not sure I'll be able to get them all made before the 25th of December! Focus!  Focus!  Focus!

These earrings are definitely on the list, though.  I've got seven different designs made but will show them to you little by little.  I'll also be posting the how-to's of making them.    But, if you'd rather just buy them outright, please feel free to visit my etsy shop.

Nature is - once again - my inspiration!  The trees that surround me daily are...AWESOME.  I just had to make earrings in tribute to them and their Maker.  And those same trees remind me of the twinkly Christmas tree!

Have fun with these.  I did!

Silver Star Earrings

The "trees" in these earrings are etched on both sides, so whether you're coming or going, you're beautiful!

I was having a time coming up with something I could use as a tree trunk that I already had in my gargantuan stockpile of jewelry-making supplies.  Then it hit me - bead caps!  It works!

And I definitely wanted to have "stars" in the sky above the trees. When I found these star beads, I knew I had to have them!

This pair of earrings is 2 5/8 inches long (67mm) from top to bottom.

So, look through your stash and see what you've got that will work.  You'll see from my seven designs that the sky is the limit, so to speak.  Be creative!

Here's the supplies you'll need:

2 triangle beads (Mine are 7/8 x 7/8 x 3/4 inch, or 22 x 22 x 19mm.  You can go bigger or smaller, according to what you've got in your stash.)
2 bead caps ( 1/3 x 1/4 inch or to scale)
2 head pins (1 3/4 inches long or longer)
2 glass "pearl" beads (I needed something to cover the huge hole at the top of my trees.  You may not need these.)
6+ "star" beads of your choice (1/4 inch or to scale)
6+ head pins to use with the stars (1 inch long)
dainty chain (3 inches total.  We'll be snipping it into smaller pieces.)
2 small jumprings (in scale with your chain - we want these to "blend in" with the chain.)
2 1/4 inch diameter jumprings
2 earwires

One finished "tree"

1.  The Tree - On one headpin stack one bead cap, one triangle, and one glass pearl.  Make a wrapped loop to secure all of the beads on that headpin.  Repeat all of #1.  You now have the two "bodies" of the earrings complete.

6 stars with simple loops & extra headpin pieces to use elsewhere

2.  The Stars - Put each one of the 6 stars onto headpins.  Secure each of them with a simple loop above each star.

My chain pieces for two earrings.

3.  Cutting the chain - My chain has very tiny links.  I cut mine this way:
          *  2 lengths have 5 links  (These will be used to dangle the TREE.)
          *  2 lengths have 3 links  (These will be used for 2 stars.)
          *  2 lengths have 2 links  (These will be used for 2 more stars.)
(If you're doing the math, you realize we still have two more stars to dangle.  These last two will not have any chain on them.)

The dangling trees.

4.  The Dangling Tree - Open one of the small jumprings, remembering to always open jumprings "front to back", not "side to side".  (Opening jumprings side to side will weaken the metal, where opening them front to back actually strengthens the metal.)
      Hang one of the trees and one length of 5-link chain onto this jumpring.  Close the jumpring, going front to back 5 to 10 times, rubbing the two edges together and lining up the two edges on the last pass. (You have helped "align" the metal molecules by rubbing the ends back and forth, strengthening the metal even more.)
      Repeat with the other small jumpring.  Set the two dangling trees aside.

The stars on chains.

5.  The Dangling Stars - Dangle two of the stars from the 3-link lengths of chain, doing it like you did in Step #4.
      Dangle two more stars from the 2-link lengths of chain.
      Leave the last two stars just as they are - no chain for them.

The finished creation!

6.  Putting it All Together - Open one of the large jumprings.  Slip these pieces onto the jumpring in this order:
      Star on 2-link chain
      Tree
       Star on 3-link chain
       Star with no chain
       Earwire
Close the jumpring, making sure to rub its ends together.  Repeat for the other earring, putting the pieces of the earring on the jumpring in the opposite order.


7.  Show off your new creation!

The Writing in the Sand

Welcome!  Sit down with a cup of something yummy and let me introduce myself.

Ever since I was a little girl I’ve loved to “create”.  I remember one Thanksgiving when I was around 7 years old, while waiting for my grandparents to show up, that I wrote poems.  Well, I thought they were poems!  They’re actually pretty funny.

During this same time, I would open my mom’s jewelry box and gawk at all the “pretties” in there.  We weren’t rich, they weren’t diamonds, just costume jewelry.  But I was awed.

And then there was a history project in grade school that I had to do.  We were supposed to make shadow boxes representing the colonial times.  I had a BLAST, with Mom right beside me, egging me on to be yet more creative!

Speaking of Mom, she would take me to her crafty meetings as a tweenager.  Here I was, 10 years old, among a bunch of sweet old ladies that had to be – gosh – 110 years old!  (Just kidding, Mom!)  There’s a verse in the Bible that talks about what I experienced there…“The aged women likewise…That they may teach the young women”.  (Titus 2:3-4)  I’ve kind of stretched those verses a bit to fit my situation, but you get the idea I’m shooting toward.  Those older women treated me like I was one of them and taught me so much.  It was confirmed - I liked this “crafting” thing!

So, decades later when I caught the “jewelry-making bug”, no one was surprised!

I think I’ll go make a pair of earrings…