03/03/2012 - Mardi Gras Bead Hairband

Zoe got an awesome package from her Grandma Judy in Chicago celebrating all the spring holidays, including some fun Mardi Gras masks and beads. She had a little bit too much fun with the necklaces and broke a couple, so they got added to my craft supply. This could be done with none broken beads and a rubber band or piece of elastic too.

Reclaimed Material: beaded necklaces, bicycle inner tube
Other/New Material: none
Tools: scissors

How I did it: The first thing that I had to do was tie the broken ends back together, so I took really skinny strip of the rubber and tied it between the end beads to connect them. Next I lined up the two necklaces where I tied them together and folded it in half. I took another rubber strip and looped it around the necklace fold and the skinny strips used to tie the beads back together and tied the bigger strip together.


What I would do differently: There were a few other ideas that I was going to try, but they just didn't quite work out. I know there are about a million different things to do with these colorful buggers.

01/27/2012 - Aluminum Flower Hair Pins

This is an easy and cute way to snazz up bobby pins or old barrettes.

Reclaimed Material: aluminum can, beads from SCRAP, old wire
Other/New Material: bobby pins
Tools: small flower punch, straight pin

How I did it: I used the flower shaped craft to punch out four flowers from the aluminum, two blue and two silver. I put one blue flower over a silver one and used the straight pin to poke holes in the centers of the flowers. Then I cut a piece of the wire about 2" and threaded the bead onto the wire and pulled the two ends of the wire through the centers of both flowers. I wrapped the wire around one side of the bobby pin, trimmed the excess and tucked in the edges. I repeated it the steps with the second bobby pin.

What I would do differently: I thought I was being clever by reusing a piece of wire from a string of beads I purchased, but this only made this project take about 10x longer than it should have. I was happy to reuse wire, but I would have saved myself a lot of time by using jewelry wire which is more pliable. I will try this again using other shapes and material like colored plastic bits from lids or laundry soap bottles.