rounding up the herd

Did a couple of craft fairs this holiday season—one for the staff at Martha Stewart, which was also a party... hence the vino! Among the items I was selling were wool felted sheep with cinnamon stick fences and clay mushrooms.

I was felting sheep in the days leading up to the fairs. They are a good holiday craft project and make a cute gift. I gave what I had leftover to family members and everyone thought they were super sweet!

I actually developed the felted sheep for Martha's 2010 Christmas special. They were scattered all around her kitchen!

DIY Rope Bangles

Check out the photo how-to on the Crafts Dept Blog for the rope bangles that I demoed on Martha's show! They make a great DIY holiday gift!

Make: miniature crystal chandeliers

Inspired by all the amazing chandeliers dangling low from the high ceilings of ABC Carpet & Home here in New York City, I created miniature crystal light fixtures to hang over the long banquette tables sashaying the loft space where my wedding was held. They are fairly straight forward and simple to make and add a delicate sparkle to any space; I have a few in my bedroom now- makes nice mood lighting ;).

Here's how they were made:

1. Use lamp plates/bobesches as the fixture to hang the crystal strands. Drill holes along the edge with a Dremel drill to hang each strand from. I evenly spaced seven holes around the 3" round plate.

2. Spray paint the front and back of the plate white.

3. Create strands of crystals with wire using the basic wire wrapped link beading technique. I used 6 oval Swarovski crystal beads per strand finishing each off with a crystal tear drop, all connected used an oxidized silver wire.

4. You can make your own jump rings by coiling wire around a pencil, removing it and snipping into individual rings with wire cutters.

5. Use the jump rings to connect the crystal strands to the lamp plate where you drilled the holes.

6. Wiring the light fixture is fairly easy. A wire stripper tool is helpful to remove the plastic around the wire cording.

7. I used porcelain sockets for the fixture and cloth covered lamp cord. Remember to put the crystalized plate on the cord before you wire it all together!

8. Finally, add the plug to make your mini chandelier electric!

Look how pretty!

Shrooms!

 Mushrooms available for sale on Etsy... and A photo how-to on thecraftsdept blog!

growing together

Not sure if you remember my wedding invitation, but we invited our guests to "watch us grow together like crystals." We were serious.

During the ceremony that gave us the official title of husband and wife, we each tied a knot on a piece of monofilament that bared a tiny seed crystal on each end. Once tied, the knots were submerged into a crystal potion.

By the end of the evening our knots had grown together into a beautiful crystal!

We used Figgy's fabulous alum crystal formula and it worked like a charm. A charm we will have forever!

Clay Mushrooms

Totally slipped my mind... I  forgot to tell you guys that I made clay mushrooms on Martha's show today!

They couldn't be easier to make and the outcome is super sweet. Paint them grey for your Thanksgiving table or toadstool red for Christmas perhaps?! Or if you just love whimsical mushrooms like me, you can stick them in the soil of your house plants for all year round!

I developed these clay mushrooms over my time off in the summer if you remember... I thought I would get around to posting a few for sale on Etsy, but just never got around to it. Hopefully this weekend I can make that finally.

If you are interested in trying to make them yourself, you can watch the how-to video on MarthaStewart.com and I will be posting a photo how-to on thecraftsdept blog soon as well. The clay is called Laguna Dry-Hard Clay—it can be purchased through Amazon.

3 things Pico loves...

1. Being involved in any craft project I am in the mist of.

2. Snagging a head rub whenever she gets a chance.

3. Hanging underneath Ashley's shirt and peeking out once and awhile to check out the scene.

3 things I love: Pico, Ashley and scissors.

the people that MAKE Hermes

 Interesting videos of the makers behind Hermes products. Hearts and Crafts. 

Give it up for the craftsmen!

GREEN pins

On Pinterest, All green.

pin it

I think I've started an addiction to Pinterest. My digital pin boards are cultivating and my search for more inspiration is enslaving. Organizing imagery and ideas is what I used to do on my desktop! It became overwhelmed with files and folders and I would forget what I had already archived. Pinterest is the epitome solution. 
You must start pinning!

Here are some of my pins from my "black grey white" board: