Morse Code Earrings

     These asymmetric earrings make a statement - literally!  I used the seed beads to denote the dots and the tube-shaped beads for the dashes.  The big beads at the center of each earring are also dots, made larger to distinguish them as a new letter.  See if you can figure out what these ones say (there's a typo in the first earring; there should be one fewer dots in the first letter), and have fun coding your own jewelry.

Materials:

*Two different types of beads, one to denote dots and the other dashes

*Head pins

*Ear wires

*Round nosed pliers

*Needle nosed pliers

*Wire cutters

Directions:

*Pick a short message to encode.  Each of the earrings I made spells out one three-letter word.

*Translate your message into Morse code.

*Add beads to a head pin to spell out your message.  If you want your message to read vertically from top to bottom, you'll have to put the beads on in the reverse order in which you would read them.  For example, if your message ends with the letter "A," which is dot dash, you'll want to put the dash bead on first and then the dot.

*Cut off all but about 1/4" of excess pin.  Curl the tops of the head pins using round nosed pliers and clamp onto the ear wires using needle nosed pliers.

DIY Vanilla Lip Balm

     This lip balm is fast and easy to make and requires only three ingredients: coconut oil, vanilla extract, and beeswax (you could probably also use a different type of wax if you want to make it vegan).

Materials:
*Coconut oil
*Beeswax
*Vanilla extract
*Clean, empty makeup container
*Tablespoon measure
*Glass measuring cup
*Spoon

Directions:
*Combine 3 tbsp of beeswax and 5 tbsp of coconut oil in a glass measuring cup.
*Place measuring cup in the microwave and set for 2 minutes.  Every 30 seconds, take the cup out and mix it.  By the end of the 2 minutes, the wax and oil should be completely liquefied, although depending on the power of your microwave, this may or may not be the case.  If not, continue melting and mixing in 30 second increments until it is completely liquefied.
*Add a small amount of vanilla extract (I used 2 "splashes" from the rather wide necked container) to the measuring cup and mix.  The vanilla extract won't want to mix completely with the oil and wax, so it will form these little brown bubbles.  The more you mix, the smaller they'll become and the more uniformly they will be distributed.
*Pour the mixture into clean, empty makeup containers and let harden.

Quick and Easy Card Scrapbook

     For me, cards have long posed a storage challenge.  If you've been following my blog for some time, you've probably seen my various card scrapbooking attempts.  Each one has its charm, but I needed something fast and easy that would work for oversized and musical cards.  I have some antique family photo albums on which my ancestors glued photos to black paper and I decided to use the same idea here.

Materials:
*Cardstock in a color of your choice
*All purpose adhesive
*3-ring binder
*3-hole punch
*Cards

Directions:
*Take a sheet of cardstock and punch one of the long edges so that it will fit into your binder.
*Glue on cards and other mementos.  My dad rarely signs his cards, so I included envelope pieces as well on many of the pages.
*If you have cards that you can't glue down or don't want to glue down, stick them in the pockets of the binder.

Mason Jar Pencil Holder

     Okay, so I don't know if this technically counts as a Mason jar.  It's a Zhena's tea jar, but you could craft a similar container from a Mason jar, albeit without the nice little pencil sharpener attachment (which is where the tea's wooden measuring spoon was stored).  That loop where I have my pencil sharpener also works well as a space to set the colored pencil you're working with if you want to put it down for a second.

Materials:
*Zhena's tea jar (or other glass jar)
*Jump ring
*Pencil sharpener with loop at the end
*Two pairs of pliers

Directions:
*Open up the jump ring and loop it through both the loop on the tea container and the loop on the pencil sharpener.  Close the jump ring.
*Add some pencils.  That's it!

Mini Easter Basket

     Transform an old medicine cup into an adorable mini basket.

Materials:
*Plastic medicine cup
*Twine
*All purpose adhesive
*Green tissue paper
*Mini foam eggs
*Ribbon rose
*Scissors

Directions:
*Cut three lengths of twine long enough that they could reach from the bottom of the medicine cup, loop up to form a handle, and reach down to the bottom on the other side.
*Braid the three pieces of twine together and then glue on to form the handle.
*Wrap twine around the medicine cup, gluing down as you go.  Let dry.
*Once you've finished gluing down the twine, embellish with a ribbon rose or other decoration of your choice.
*Wad up some paper (tissue paper would work fine, but you could also use scrap paper) and stuff it in the bottom of the medicine cup.
*Cut very thin strips of green tissue paper to create the Easter "grass."  Layer it atop the paper,
*Add a few teeny eggs and you're ready for your very own mini egg hunt.

Happy egg hunting!

Mini "Crystal" Ball

     Yes, I know Halloween is still months away.  Why do you ask?  While the Halloween bug still is in my system (when isn't it?), my main motivation for making this craft was the fact that it's the middle of the semester.  During this hectic time of year, I need crafts that are super quick to make.  You'd be hard pressed to find a craft that's quicker to make than this one and the end result looks pretty nice.

Materials:
*Clear glass marble

*Bead cap

*All purpose adhesive

Directions:

*Glue bead cap to the marble.  Set aside to dry.  That's it!

Mini "Magic" Wand

     Okay, so I know Halloween is still months away, but I came up with the idea for these adorable mini "magic" wands and I could not wait that long to try it.  The procedure is similar to the one I used to make my full sized prop "magic" wands.  They are the perfect size for Barbie's Halloween shindig, but could work for many other dolls as well.

Materials:
*Toothpicks
*All purpose adhesive
*Plastic crystal bead in the color of your choice
*Paint in the colors of your choice
*Paintbrush

Directions:

*Glue a plastic crystal bead to the end of a toothpick.

*Layer on all purpose adhesive to create a handle for your wand.  You could probably also use hot glue or perhaps other glues to achieve a similar effect.  I wound the glue around the part of the toothpick where I wanted the handle to be in a spiraling motion and then set it aside to dry.

*Paint the handle of the toothpick.  Let dry.

*Paint the remainder of the wand.  Let dry.