Choose Joy Banner Necklace 1st Necklace

Here is the second part to making the Choose Joy Banner necklace. Today's tutorial will show you how to make the first pictured style. At the bottom of this posting is a picture of a sneak peek at next week's tutorial for another version! I love having variety!

If you haven't already made your banner pieces, refer to last week's Tutorial Tuesday post.

Please excuse the completely terrible self-taken pictures of the necklace. And the absolutely wrong shirt to go with it. (Seriously. I should have just changed out of the cowl neck and put on something else! Oh well. C'est la vie!)

Some necessary supplies (for this necklace and the other kinds): chain, jump rings, needle nose pliers (I have two different kinds), wire cutters, mod podge, paint brush, ribbon, ribbon fasteners, necklace closures, pin/safety pin/needle (you only need one of them).

Measure out a length of chain to go around your neck and hang to the point that you want the "choose" to hang from.

Re-fold each banner in half and paint some Mod Podge onto the inside.

Then press the banners closed and carefully smooth them out to make sure there are no air bubbles inside. Let dry for a little while and then trim the edges of the banners to be more uniform.

Get out and open 2 jump rings for each banner. Measure where the center point of the chain is.

Make sure your banners are all dry, or have plenty of back-up banners to use incase this part goes awry. Use your poking device (aka pin, needle, or safety pin) and poke a hole close to the edge on each side. But don't get too close to the edge or you will rip your banner open instead of have a hole. Wiggle the poker around just enough to make the hole big enough to fit a jump ring through it.

Start with the O's and insert a jumpring into each of the holes, but don't close them yet. You will attach them to the necklace itself next!

Just to one side of the very center of the chain line up one O banner and insert the first jump ring and close. Go over a few chain links and insert the second jump ring and close. How many chain links you have the jump rings apart depends on what kind of chain you use. There is no set amount that I can tell you! Sorry about that! Repeat these steps on the otherside of center with the other O banner. The O's will now split the center of the chain between them.

Continue, continue, continue! Just leave a couple of links open and free between each banner so that the necklace has the ability to move.

Use a jump ring to attach the end of more chain between the S and E.

Measure out how long you want the JOY to hang down then cut off the chain and attach it with jump ring between the C and H. Mark the center of the chain to see where the center of the O banner will be. Attach the letters the same way as you did with CHOOSE. This time make sure the center of the O is in the center of the chain instead of off to the side a little.

Once all of the letters are attached attach the closures to the ends of the chain.

Here is a little sneaky peek of next weeks necklace!

Choose Joy Banner Necklace

This was supposed to be yesterday's Tutorial Tuesday post....but seeing as how I couldn't find ANY of my jewelry making supplies I had to postpone until today. I have NO IDEA where it all went. I guess it decided to grow legs and walk away. Because of this I had to go get some new supplies today, which I had to squeeze into my insane day. I'll actually be splitting this up into a few different tutorials. Partially because I have come up with a few different ideas as to how to make the necklaces, and this tutorial would be insanely long and full of a ridiculous amount of pictures if I put it all in to one! So... on to the first part of the tutorial!

I came up with this idea in the wee hours of the morning last week. My littlest nugget had woken up super early (hello 5am!) and was "snuggled" up in bed with me. And by "snuggled" I really mean she was rolling all over the bed wanting to get up and go play. And this is what my poor tired brain came up with (I was extra tired since I had stayed up really late getting sewing done)! I was far from in the mood to wake up after only about 3.5-4 hours of sleep. I guess my tired subconscious was reminding me of what Ashley from Lil Blue Boo has been trying to remind all of us.... to Choose Joy.

I wore completely the wrong shirt to show off the necklace!

The Choose Joy banner necklace! Want to make one too? Here's what you need to make the banner flags:

Freezer paper, calendar pages, scrap paper, pencil, scissors. Not pictured: pen, super skinny paintbrush (or permanent markers), paint, fatter paintbrush (for the mod podge).

Fold the scrap paper down about an 1 - 2 inches and draw a few different triangle shapes along the fold.

I decided I liked my third one the best. That's the one I cut out. Once it's cut out open it up and you will have a diamond shape. Put the diamond on the fold of the paper with the center being as close to perfectly perpendicular to the fold in the diamond as you can.

Trace around the diamond shape so that you now can cut out a diamond that is as close to perfect as you can without having to use graph paper and a ruler. Cut out the new diamond shape. Use this diamond to trace onto the backside of the calendar pages.

And then repeat repeat repeat! For one Choose Joy necklace you need 9 diamonds. But I would suggest doing 10 or 11 in case you mess up along the way.

Then cut out all of those diamonds!

Fold each diamond in half to create banner triangles again. Then open them back up and paint the words on them.

Once the entire word is painted on you want to completely turn the diamonds upside down AND make the word go backwards. Then rewrite the same word. So now the same diamond will have a C on one side and an E on the other, an H on one side and an S on the other, and the two O's in the middle with also have O's on the other side.

Once all of the diamonds are lettered and dry paint a layer of Mod Podge onto each one. Once that layer is dry paint another coat of Mod Podge on.

Enough Choose Joy banner pieces to make 5 necklaces!

Next Tuesday, for Tutorial Tuesday, I will show one of the ways to put the necklace together. It will be the one in the first picture of this post! And I'll show a sneak peek at the next necklace at the end of the next post. ;-D

Note to self: Don't wear a cowlneck shirt when trying to showcase a necklace! Also, remember to Choose Joy!

Calendar Flowers

Today is a fun, easy, and fairly quick project. You can even get kids in on the fun!

Today is all about making flowers using your old calendar.

 

 

Supplies needed:
old calendar pages (at least 2)
scissors
Mod Podge
single hole punch
button or bead or some other things to use in the center
flower to trace around (optional)
paint brush

Paint Mod Podge onto the entire back of one of the calendar pages. You want the coat thick enough so that the numbers/lines are cloudy looking.

Lay the second calendar page down on top of the first page so that the backsides are touching. Start at one side and slowly press them together. Try to get out any air bubbles or spread any extra thick gobs of the glue out as you go.

 It's hard to tell, but there really are two pages glued together. You want two pages glued together for a couple reasons...the first being that it is sturdier that way. But also if the bottom of your flowers show at all then all you see is pretty pages still instead of your actual calendar.

See? I told you! A pretty picture on both sides. Lay out the pieces of a fake flower to trace around. Or use a printed picture of a flower. Or just draw it freehand! It's up to you.

I tried to take a picture of my flower tracings...but it really didn't show up. Cut out the flower shapes.

Make sure that when you cut them out you come in far enough to the center to be able to use the single hole punch in the center, but don't cut in too far or the flower's petals will come apart too easily.

Use the single hole punch in the center of each flower.

The next step has many different options....

Option 1: Use the plastic center parts from the fake flower you traced around for the center of this flower.

Option 2: Use a button that has a single loop back and some thin wire to secure it. The wire I used was pulled out of some wire edged ribbon that I didn't want to be wire edged.

My husband likes to roll his eyes and scoff when I save stuff like this....but HA! Look at that! I used some of it!

String the wire through the button hole and then wrap wrap wrap the wire around it.

Option 3: Use a gromet of whatever kind you want and put it through the center and fasten it according to the directions.

Option 4: Use a brad of some kind and on the back spread the tab parts open so that they flare out to either side of each other.

Option 5: Use a bead  on top and secure in much the same way that you would the button.

This is a second method I used to make a very different kind of flower...

I drew daisy-like flowers in three different sizes freehand. (Can't you tell? Definitely not great!) Then cut them out.

Don't punch any holes in the center of any of the flower pieces. Instead glue them together stacking one atop the other.

Use the single hole puncher to punch out circles from some of the scrap pieces that were cut away while cutting out the flower shapes.

Glue the punched holes in place on top of the flower. Kinda pile/layer them for dimension.

Now what would you use these for? Well, all kinds of things, really! If you are into scrapbooking, these would be a fun addition. Card making would be another great use. You could spray each piece with an acrylic sealant on each side before attaching them to each other to make them more moisture resistant and sturdy. If you do this be sure to do a couple of coats. Once they are sealed there are even more options for what you could do with them. Use a flower to make a fun and funky ring, or as part of a hair accessory, or come up with your own idea and come back here and let me know what you made!

See? I wasn't kidding when I had said (on Facebook) that I would be having fun calendar recyling projects!