07/21-31/2012

07/21/2012 - Rubber Triangle Necklace

I saw a picture of this on Pinterest and fell in love with it. It looked like it was just a picture of someone's art, so I hope they don't mind me copying their beautiful design. Every once in a while I get rubber tubes with a colorful line on it, so I incorporated it into this necklace.

07/22-23/2012 - Round Rubber Basket

The picture is kind of deceiving for this basket. I didn't plan the bottom very well and there in a stack of rubber strips about an inch thick so it doesn't sit completely flat. Other than that, I love how it turned out. I made the frame using embroidery hoops that were missing the outer parts and the wire handles from take-out containers for the vertical frames. I do love when I can make my projects from 100% reclaimed materials though!

07/24/2012 - Studded Wrist Cuff

When I first started making things with rubber, I would use scrapbooking brads for embellishments because of the variety of shapes and colors. The problem is (like most things we buy these days) they are so chintzy. I need to find an alternative that doesn't cost much more but has options. Now that I have said that, I used cute little square brads to adorn this cuff.

07/25-26/2012 - Free Form Bracelet 

This really shouldn't have taken me three days to complete this, but I kept adding parts and trying to figure out a good option for the closure. I has seen clamp/crimp closures once upon a time, but just couldn't any at work or at the big box crafty stores. I ended up using a magnetic clasp (for purses) and kind of ruined the whole thing. I may take it apart and redo it sometime. Maybe after my year of creating is over. 

07/27/2012 - Plastic Bowl
My collection of mesh fruit and food bags has grown over the years, but I only used one or two for scrapbooking. I thought it would be interesting to see what happened if I melted them. I turned a metal bowl upside down and layered about 6 layers of the mesh bags over the bowl and covered it with foil. (I wasn't sure what would happen so I put a cookie sheet underneath. The bags shrunk quite a bit so it is a half bowl, but it looks really neat. It is more of an artistic bowl, I suppose.

07/28/2012 - Starbucks Earrings
I made these earlier in the year from Starbucks "splash sticks", or as Zoe calls them, "the mermaid". The design is a little bit different. My sister asked for a pair when I first made them, so I finally got around to it, but now I still need to send it to her.

07/29/2012 - "Olympic" Medal
In the spirit of the Olympics, I took plastic rings in the colors of the Olympic rings and hot glued them to a gold baby formula lid. I had to cut the rings to connect them but those little bugger plastic rings were a pain to hot glue back together. I awarded my sweet husband with his own medal. This would be a fun project for little ones during the Olympics.

07/30/2012 - Pink/Rubber Yoga Mat Strap
I found some great bright pink fabric at work that I thought I could use for a yoga mat strap, but (probably through poor execution) it just didn't work out quite right, so this turned into a half finished project. I didn't want it to go to waste, so I used it for my project for the next day. Just another case of trial and error.

07/31/2012 - Rubber “Bangle" Bracelet
The pink fabric didn't work out as the yoga mat strap, so I turned it into a "bangle" type bracelet.