Erica proudly works at Delta Dental of Oklahoma

This time last year, I was a Client Relations Representative and I worked with a lovely group of ladies. It was a good position and I did well. Now, I am a Marketplace Account Representative and I work with two even more wonderful ladies. I plan to make their Christmas presents but more on that later. This post is to showcase the gifts I made my coworkers last year.

I often buy too much material when I start crafts and projects. This idea came from having too much ribbon and too many beads. I looked around on Pinterest and other DIY blogs and saw these bracelets. While I was in bracelet mode, I also made travel bracelets for Wes and myself for when we went to Sydney. Two bracelet tutorials in one post. OMG! so exciting : )

1) Pearl and ribbon bracelet tutorial:

I suggest googling this and finding step-by-step pictures to accompany my instructions. It'll make it a lot easier.
Materials needed - wire, ribbon, pearls, scissors

1. Use as many pearls as about 3/4 the size of your wrist. Cut ribbon about 2.5 times the length you want the bracelet to be. Cut the wire about 1.5 times the length you want the bracelet to be. (I always use large numbers for measurements to stay on the safe side)
2. Poke the wire about 3 inches into your ribbon (the loose 3 inches will be what you use to tie it to your wrist). Work the wire into a knot where you initially poked it through.
3. String one pearl though the wire. Fold the ribbon into a small upside down "U" and poke the wire through the other end of the pearl.
4. String a pearl onto the wire and wrap the ribbon under the pearl.
5. Fold the ribbon into another small upside down "U" shape and poke the wire though the other side of the pearl.
6. Continue stringing pearls though, wrapping the  ribbon under and making upside down "U"s and poking the wire through the other end of the pearl until you're out of pearls.
7. Leave about 3 inches of ribbon and work the wire into another knot. Cut off excess wire.

2) Cord and hexagonal nut bracelet tutorial:

I suggest googling this and finding step-by-step pictures to accompany my instructions. It'll make it a lot easier.
Materials needed - cord or some type of tough string, hexagonal nuts (hardware stores call them hex nuts - lets call them beads) , tape & scissors

1. Use 16-20 beads plus one for the clasp. Actually, however many you want is fine as long as it's an even number. Grab the extra one to use for the next step. Cut three equal pieces of cord. I would use about 3 times the length you want your bracelet to be.
2. Tie the cord though one bead. Tape this bead down on a flat surface, I would recommend a table.
3. Braid about 1/4 of your string.
4. This next step will probably either sound very intuitive or confusing depending on how well you know how to braid. After you have a quarter of your string braided, start weaving the beads into the braid.  I've been braiding since I was very small and I probably couldn't give instructions on how to but I can give tips - string the beads tightly into the braid, string one bead after each cross over of string, braid very slowly. I don't know if its clear in the photo, but there's one full braid in between each bead.
5. After all your beads are weaved in, continue braiding the rest of your string. The beads should have taken up half your string so you'll have 1/4 remaining so, in theory, the first and last section of bracelet should be the same length. Mine didn't quite turn out that way.
6. Leave enough string to tie a loop knot at the end. The loop should be big enough to put the initial bead from step 2 though but not too big to where it'll fall through.

I apologize for the lack of pictures. They would have made the instructions a lot clearer. When I made these, I only had pictures but no instructions. Maybe if you find the DIY pictures online, you can use my instructions as a companion guide.

Erica's first art night project...

Kensington looking dapper with my sewing kit, art box and traveling art kit

Those of you who know me in real life know I'm pretty old school.  I swear I'm 29 going on 50.  I love writing things down, like with ACTUAL pen and paper. I think the journal and Post-It notes are two of the gnarliest inventions. That being said, I've been jotting down notes for each Monday Craft Night entry and which projects I want to highlight. Well, tonight, I discovered that I can start a blog...jot down ideas, insert some pictures...and then save it as a draft and come back to it later! OMG!! I know you're probably giggling but I don't care; I'm proud of my discovery. LOL

This is extra great news because Wes is out with a buddy tonight so I have the whole apartment to myself to brainstorm.  And we'll be out of town next week so, presto, blog ideas done on a Thursday!! But you'll never know it's a Thursday because I won't post until Monday.  Okay, okay...I'm getting way too excited about this.  Now for the actual crafting part.

Festival of the Arts 2013... I went with a friend and as we were walking around the booths, I confidentially said, "I can make stuff like this! I craft, I'm artistic, I have hobbies..."  That really got us thinking so after the festival, I took us to the local crafts store and we bought these!



Then we planned a reoccurring craft night. One Monday at her place, one Monday at mine. We put our supplies in handy little "boxie" and off we go!! Dinner and crafts and girl time. What better way to relax on a Monday night? : ) My first project was this -

Kensington is having quite the photo shoot tonight!

Wire & Ribbon pencil holder tutorial-
Materials needed: wire (I got mine from Lowes), ribbon, scissors, something round that you want the shape of your pencil holder to be

1. Make the bottom of your pencil holder by shaping a circle out of your wire & criss-crossing more wire through the middle until it's mostly filled in.
2. Make the top of your pencil holder by shaping another circle.
3. Put your round object in between the top and bottom pieces. I used a bottle of vitamins to get my shape.
4. Take your wire and go crazy; connect the top and bottom pieces with wire until your pencil holder is sturdy enough to take the center object out.
5. Press down on the top so the wire bows out and the pencil holder is pumpkin shaped. Keep pressing on the wire until you get the exact shape you want.
6. Take your ribbon and thread it in and out of the wire, basically covering all the empty space.
7. Wrap ribbon around edge of top circle to form a lip around the pencil holder. I also used this to hide all the knots I tied with the ribbon and wire.

And you're done!! Here are some pictures of how tightly wound the wire and ribbon are. The first picture is the bottom, second picture is what it looks like from the inside and last picture is the outside.