Tag Archives: Charms

A Random Monday!

Good evening!

It is a picture perfect beautiful day outside this evening! I have spent a good portion of my evening up in my art studio. I have been busy dabbling, as I have a tendency to do! I am trying so hard to be an artist that in all honesty I am just frustrating the heck out of myself!

When I got home after work tonight, I decided that I was going to make a few charms for a charm bracelet that I wanted to make, but the soldering gun that my sweetie and I had picked up is just too low of quality and doesn’t get nearly as hot as it needs to be to work properly. So, that will just have to wait a little longer until I get that jewelry soldering gun that I should have gotten in the first place – save money on the unimportant stuff, splurge on the things that you will need at your disposal for as long as possible! Lesson learned! 😉

I tell myself!
“Ok, I am not going to get frustrated, I will just have to try something else.”

So, I decide to get out my resin and try my hand at making myself a motivational charm for a stacked necklace. My resin charm didn’t turn out exactly the way I had intended, but it is upstairs setting all the same, and I will know in the morning if it is something that I will be willing to wear! But from initial thoughts on it – it won’t be perfect, but it will be something I can work with. It is only my first resin piece after all!

I am just LOVING the idea of making some jewelry. I think jewelry is so unique and can really express a person’s unique style so well, and it is something that, in the past, I have been pretty good at! Plus, I just LOVE beads, wire, soldering, hammering, the idea of metal smithing – because I have never actually tried it before, and I love the way that each piece turns out! There is something very gratifying knowing that you have made something that you see someone else wearing!

I really want to perfect some of the techniques that I am learning so that I can make some really cool personalized gifts that I will be able to give away for Christmas presents this year! I know that all of the women in my life will LOVE that! I hope!! 😉

You know what would be my ULTIMATE dream…besides a happy family, and owning that farm that my sweetie and I always dream of…it would be to have a way to make a living doing something creative that feels like I am honoring my authentic self – isn’t that just a novel concept??? Sometimes I am very envious of those people who have walked away from their corporate jobs and are fulfilling their lifelong dream of making a living doing what they love. If I could incorporate jewelry, art, words, people, flexibility, and fun into a career, I would be as happy as a clam!!! Anyone hiring for anything like that right now??? LOL! Let me know, will ya?! 😉

I am a firm believer that God provides for you everything you need, at exactly the right moment, I am just impatiently waiting for my moment, I suppose! 😉

Anyway, I have finally come down for the evening, and I have decided to watch a couple of quick episodes of The Andy Griffith Show before I climb into bed for the evening while reading a little of my most current book, I Am Number Four, by Pitticus Lore. It is pretty good, in case you were interested! 😉

Have a FABULOUS evening!!

ONE LAST THING: I will make sure to take a few pictures of my necklace in the morning, and share them with you tomorrow! 😉

A Charming Day!

Good evening!

I wanted to share with you the jewelry class I was fortunate to take yesterday! 😉 I spent the day up at the Tarte store up in Aurora, Oregon. The shop is ABSOLUTELY DIVINE!! I could LITERALLY purchase EVERY SINGLE THING in that store and decorate my house with it! EVERYTHING is my style to a T!!

The room that we had our craft class was EXACTLY the way that my craft room SHOULD be!! 😉 I have thought about how to describe it to you, and words just could not describe how girly glam this room was!!! The room was basically draped with an indoor tent for grown up girls, and there was a gigantic chandelier right in the center of the room, dripping in beads.

Here are a couple of pics:

This is a large parachute that they sewed tulle to. Isn’t that INGENIOUS?!?!?!?

Do you see what I mean?? You just couldn’t help but feel the girl glam vibe that was in that room! That was P-R-I-C-E-L-E-S-S!!

They had a place setting for every one of us women, there were 15 of us. These were just soooo charming, and I now want to work from a silver tray from now on! What do you think??

So chic!! 😉

The lovely, Terri Brush was our instructor, and the first thing we learned how to do was to design, etch and form copper bracelets – this is a good project for working your arm muscles!! There was SO MUCH POUNDING going on!!! WHEW!!! 😉

Next, we got to play with solder!! Using some old keys, we coated them in solder and played with some letter stamps! That was fun!! (Just in case you can’t read these, they say “Dream Big” and “Inspire”)

What came next were create mini collages to place inside of charms that we then got to solder!!! This was my FAVORITE part of the entire class!!

Here are the backsides of my charms, the previous picture was a view of the front of the charms! I literally could have done this all day!! They are short and sweet, and HIGHLY gratifying!!! 😉 I am planning on using these to make a couple of charm bracelets!!

and last but not least! I got to play some more with the letter stamps, and I decided to make one last charm for my bracelet! but, this one ended up being MY FAVORITE OF THEM ALL!!!  This is my sweetie’s and my initials, and the date of our wedding!! I LOVE that the letters and numbers are all catty-wompous! It just seems to make this one all the more charming!!!

They left us at each of the place settings, it is a, dare I say it, a charming box of chocolate!! It is decorated so chicely, that I have a feeling that this little package will NEVER be opened!! 😉

I have ALWAYS wanted to learn how to create these charms and I am soooo THANKFUL that I have finally acquired this skill!! Terri is a gem, and this class was really a fun way to learn all of these fun jewelry making techniques!! I would highly recommend this class to anyone fortunate enough to be able to take it!!

Have a FABULOUS evening! 😉