I wanted to post something crafty today, but since I haven't made anything in a while I had to dust off this project from Christmas.
Christmas for our family this year was kind of "Little House on the Prairie". There wasn't a huge pile of money sitting around, so after digging change out of the sofa cushions to buy the must-have items I had to get creative to keep the stack of presents from looking so..tiny.
I had seen this idea on the Martha Stewart Show a while back and tucked it away in the recesses of my mind. Of course finding it there when I needed it wasn't easy. So I went to MarthaStewart.com and found the video. Much easier.
My bracelets are a little different from those shown in the video, but the overall idea is the same. Since I didn't have sturdy leather for the bands, I used Tim Holtz grungeboard instead. After cutting the strips to size with a craft knife, I painted them to resemble leather using Martha Stewart satin finish craft paint in Chestnut Brown. I had planned to add monogrammed metal elements to the front of each, but for various reasons that just didn't happen. What I did instead was use a couple of oval shapes from a Tim Holtz grungeboard pack called Mixed Minis Plain, and to make them resemble metal I painted them with Martha Stewart metallic craft paint in Sterling. I let everything dry for a few hours, then punched holes for the beads with my Martha Stewart screw punch. I used the Making Memories Magnetic Stamp Set to emboss each girl's initial into one of the oval shapes, and then took a fine tip permanent marker and traced inside each letter to make them stand out. I used some heavy coated thread from my jewelry-making stash to form the loop closure at one end, after which I continued threading in and out of the holes to attach the beads and oval shapes, and finally finished at the other end by adding a button.
Thanks for looking!
