Vintage-Style Leather Cuff

Over the past few days I've brought you leather cuffs of several different styles. Leather & chain, painted leather, and even leather using spacer bars as decoration.

This is the final post of the set (for now) and can once again make use of upcycled materials!

If you've got an old brooch knocking about that you never wear, this is the craft for using it!

Painted Leather Cuffs (Plus a Paint-Free Bonus DIY!)

Yesterday, I posted a tutorial for a leather & chain cuff, and said I'd post more ideas.

Today I'm bringing you painted leather cuffs, in two styles--plus a bonus, paint-free style, for those who don't trust themselves with a paintbrush!

These can look a little daintier, and you can go wild with colour combinations--your only limit is the colours of leather/paint you can get your hands on!

As I mentioned yesterday, this is a good upcycling project for bags/garments no longer usable, and you can use faux leather too.

Leather & Chain Cuff DIY

I started making leather and suede cuffs when I was a kid. Mum bought some suede scraps and some eyelets, and showed me an old choker one of her old work colleagues had made. Then we made our own!

This is an updated version of our DIYs. I made it back in April along with some others, after finding some leather scraps at a local market (and then I forgot to post about them...oops!)

Leather cuffs - or suede ones! - would make a great upcycling project if you have an old and knackered leather/suede handbag or garment that's outlived its original use.
Of course, you can also use faux leather for this!

These are relatively simple to make. In fact, this one is the most complicated of the bunch I ended up making. Which isn't really that complicated at all.

Here comes the tutorial!

Crystal & Thread Choker DIY

 

Today I want to share this crystal and thread choker, which I made recently.

Most of the crystal pieces I make use bold colours, but this time I wanted to go for something a that incorporated cool tones, for more of a wintry look.

This is a really simple DIY and you don't need any jewellery-making skills to do it!

11 Jewellery DIYs to Start Your Year with Style

Christmas and New Year may be looming, with mulled wine and turkey still to go, but it's never too early to plan your crafts for next year.
After all, there's only 10 days left of 2015...

I've dug into the archives for this roundup of past tutorials.
Here are 11 DIYs to start your 2016 with style (or at least a trip to your favourite crafting store!)

Starting with the easiest--if you want more of a challenge, or something more time-consuming scroll to the bottom and check out my Pompom Necklace and Metal Disc Necklace DIYs!

 

Amethyst Collar DIY
Level: Easy

If you can glue one thing to another thing, this is the craft for you.

Despite being so easy to make, this is a great statement piece!

DIY Vintage Buckle Pendants

Today I want to share this really straightforward DIY for making pendants from buckles!

You could incorporate these into a great gift for any vintage fan or family history nut--see below for how I used mine!

Cord & Chain Necklace

Though I had some hassle getting cord ends that would fit my reams of leather cord, I finally settled for some coil end springs (which are slightly too big, but close enough).

So, armed with my shiny new pack of cord ends, I began experimenting and now I have this cord & chain necklace tutorial to share with you!

This project will take 1-2 hours; it took me a while because I made a couple of mistakes during the process.

Here comes the how to!

Pearl & Leather Wrap Bracelet

In my attempt to use up some more from my leather cord stash, I made this pearl and leather wrap bracelet!

With this DIY you can make use of any small beads you have lying around; I went for faux pearls as I had lots of small ones left over from some broken vintage necklaces.

You'll need:

Leather cord (I used 4mm cord)

Small beads

Beading wire

Jewellery wire (I used approx. 1mm wire)

Clasp

Jump rings

Crimps

Tools:

Scissors

Wire cutters

Round nosed pliers

Flat nosed pliers

Crimping pliers (optional--use flat nosed pliers if you don't have crimpers)

Wire-Wrapped Beaded Leather Bracelets

Today I want to share a how-to for these wire-wrapped, beaded leather bracelets.

As I posted previously, I have a ridiculous amount of leather cord, so I used a little of it in this tutorial!

These bracelets would make a nice little gift for anyone, as you can pick colours and beads according to their personal tastes.

Decorated Cuff

I’ve been totally lax at posting DIYs as of late, and I’m sorry for that. Altogether I’m feeling unmotivated in all aspects of creativity! (Haven’t even got around to photographing new stock for my Etsy store. Naughty me!)

Anyway, here’s a quick, easy, no-brainer of a DIY!

Pinning Inspiration #3

For this week’s Pinning Inspiration, I want to step away from focusing on the inspirational achievements of one person.

Today’s theme is a little closer to home: statement necklaces.

Source: vixiepix.polyvore.com via Kei on Pinterest

I’ve seen the phrase ‘statement necklace’ bandied about a lot, though am sometimes disappointed by what is deemed to be a ‘statement’ these days. Though I'd be more than happy with the above, by Doro Soucy at Lux Vixens Fashion! Check out her Etsy store for some truly fantastic pieces.

Ethnic Tassels and Ribbon Necklace

It would seem that I haven’t had enough of tassels yet. Haveyou?

I made this necklace a little while ago and always intendedto write a tutorial to go with it! Unfortunately I forgot to take photographsas I made it. Go me!

However, I think it is clear enough with the photos I tookafterwards.

This necklace is pretty straightforward to make, really, soyou can probably guess the construction fairly easily!

You’ll need:

11.5 inches ribbon

4 x 6 inch lengths of chain

11 tassels (buy or make! Check out steps 1-4 of this tassel necklace tutorial for a how to)

Three large jump rings

Needle and thread

Scissors

Flat nose pliers

1. Fold over the ends of the ribbon and stitch to secure andthen stitch on one end of each 6 inch length of chain to each ribbon end.

2.  Use jump rings toattach three tassels to the chain, evenly spaced. To stop the tassels fromslipping, hook the jump ring through one of the links. Open and close the jumprings using flat nose pliers.

3. Stitch the back of the ‘heads’ of the other tassels to theribbon.

 

4. All done! Here is Mr Cow modelling the finished piece:

This has fast become one of my favourite necklaces. It’s nottoo fussy but is different enough that it easily jazzes up a plain outfit!

Over the past three weeks, I’ve shared three ethnic inspirednecklaces featuring tassels and/or pompoms.

Missed one?

Understated Pompom-Tassel Necklace

Sweetlime-inspired Pompom Necklace

Will be linking up to the parties listed at the bottom of the page!

Understated Pompom-Tassel Necklace

Did you like the Sweetlime inspired necklace I posted about last week, but found it too big for your tastes or too busy for your personal style?

Then this tutorial is one for you. This pompom tassel necklace uses some of the same, or similar, parts, but produces something smaller and more understated.

It also takes less time!

Sweetlime Inspired Pompom Necklace

Whilst flicking through a copy of Marie Claire, I saw a gorgeous statement necklace by Sweetlime. It had everything: colour, texture, metal, textile, beads and a real ethnic, world traveller feel.

It was £365. Trust me, if I had £365 to spend on a necklace (or a couple of thousand, having looked at all the lovely things on their website) I would be making a huge order!

My version

Thanks to my stash, I was able to make my own version of Sweetlime’s ‘Pom Pom Madness’ necklace. This took me almost a day to make which proves that Sweetlime’s expertly crafted jewellery is worth the money (if I could afford it!)

Source: sweetlimeuk.com via Kei on Pinterest

And here is the original from Sweetlime (isn’t it lovely?) Sweetlime source parts of their jewellery from all over the world and a percentage of all their sales goes to the Salaam Balack Trust, a charity that runs 24 hour shelter homes in India (read more about it on their website, here). So you get karma points with your unique jewellery!

As you can see, there are several differences, especially when it comes to the beads. I was trying to stick to what I had, and ended up only spending 50p on an extra bead (the blue glass one with the red swirls) from Big Bead Boutique because that’s all I needed!

I didn’t have any nice ribbon and despite trawling the internet and high street alike, couldn’t find any embroidered ribbon at all! I ended up using embroidery thread to weave a friendship bracelet style ‘ribbon’ instead.

Okay, you’ve probably had enough of my rambling, right? Right! On to the tutorial :)

This is a great weekend project!

Out of the Jungle Necklace

When sorting through my fabric scraps, I was inspired to whip up this ‘Out of the Jungle’ necklace!

Of course, I took pictures along the way and made a tutorial :)

Studded Tassel Necklace

After digging out a bag of square studs for the easy stud necklace I posted previously, I was itching to do something else with some of the studs I had left!

I ended up making this short necklace, inspired by some Japanese street fashion photos. A lot of the stylish and adorable people snapped were wearing necklaces that looked like all kinds of non-necklace things: curtain ties, upholstery tassel, even doll parts!

Remembering the tassel braid left over from when I recovered my bedroom stool, I pulled this necklace together over the space of a few minutes!

The construction is very easy and requires a few basic stitches and a few basic jewellery-making techniques. Anyone can do it!

Bottle Necklace

Whilst browsing the internet recently, I found some cute bottle necklaces! I have a few little glass bottles that I’ve kept since childhood, so decided to turn them into necklaces!

It doesn’t take much to make a simple necklace, just wire, chain and basic jewellery findings. After making the first, I made more and took pictures so I could share this tutorial!

Second-hand Shopping

It always happens. Just as I decide to curb my spending a little, I get the overwhelming desire to hunt for bargains--and usually find something, too. It's also one of the perils of volunteering at a charity shop. There will always be something you want, right there, tempting you from the rail or shelf or display...

Nevertheless, I'm pretty pleased with my recent second-hand shopping haul!

Easy Stud Necklace DIY

I put together this easy-peasy stud necklace after seeing one in a concert video! Due to this I can’t credit the original design :( But I here is a tutorial anyway.

This is such an easy DIY that even a novice could do it!

Friendship Bracelets

A while ago I got hooked on making friendship bracelets. Though they were time-consuming, I liked the result. Since I have a ton of embroidery floss (perfect for these bracelets!) I ended up making a number of them!

I won’t go into detail about the process, because there are tonnes of friendship bracelet tutorials out there.

However, here’s a quick rundown of how I embellished the ones above.

Left to Right:

Blue Tones: Added studs (taken from a broken watch strap)

Pink/Purple/Yellow: Sewed on colour-coordinating skull beads using matching embroidery thread (I finished this bracelet with a snap closure, as I made it a bit too big!) 

(These last two bracelets were made for a friend. As she very much an outdoorsy, nature-loving person, I picked natural colours!):

Green/Brown/Beige: (No extra details)

Green/Brown: Added small beads in the process of weaving the bracelet. I threaded a bead onto the centre two strands and then continued weaving around it, leaving the centre strands out of the design until I reached the bottom of the bead, where I tied it on. This gave the bracelet a ‘wobbly’ shape.