Repurposing Old Jewelry

Have some broken necklaces or bracelets?  Perhaps you lost some of the beads over time and no longer have enough to put the necklace/bracelet in its entirety back together.  If you have loose beads from a number of different jewelry items you may consider combining them into one necklace.  My mom had a couple of broken vintage necklaces, so I combined the beads to make the necklace pictured above.  If you don't have other beads, thrift shops can be a good place to find necklaces you could repurpose for low cost.

You could also incorporate loose beads into a pair of earrings, like the earrings featured above

My jewelry designs for this post are fairly basic, but you can get a lot fancier with your repurposing, like the jewelry featured in this blog post.  For some more creative ways to repuropse old jewely, check out this blog post.

Fuse Bead Spring Magnets

Materials:
*Fuse Beads kit
*Magnetic backing
*Adhesive (if your magnetic backing does not have adhesive or has a weak adhesive)
*Scissors
*Iron

Directions:
*Design your Fuse Bead creations by arranging beads in the desired pattern on a peg board.  For the sodas, the sun, and the bumble bee I used the hexagonal board, for the ice cream I used the square board, for the butterfly I used the heart peg board, and for the umbrella I used the circular peg board
*Cover your beaded project with a sheet of waxed paper and iron the first side, then remove from the peg board, flip over, put waxed paper on top and iron the second side.  You can find more detailed directions here
*Cut off a small section of magnetic backing about 1" in length and about 1/4" to 1/2" inches in width
*Adhere magnetic strip to the fuse bead craft.  If using glue, let dry before placing on the refrigerator 

Beachy Seashell Earrings

Materials:
*2 ear wires
*8 head pins
*4 jump rings
*2 seashell beads
*Small fake pearls
*Small beads in varying shades of blue, green, brown, and gold
*Round nosed pliers
*Flat nosed pliers
*Wire cutters

Directions:
*Cut the "head" off of two of the head pins using wire cutters
*Curl the end of each using round nosed pliers, add the seashell beads, then clamp shut with the round nosed pliers.  Add beads, then curl the top of each headpin and clamp each onto a jump ring
*Bead two other head pins, trim to the desired length, then attach one to each jump ring
*Place some beads on two other head pin, but trim these head pins to a fairly short length.  Curl the ends, then clamp onto two separate jump rings
*Cut the "head" off two head pins, then curl the ends and clamp to the jump ring that the short head pins are attached to.  Add some beads, cut short, curl the end, then clamp each of these to one of the jump rings with two beaded headpins already attached

*Uding the round nosed liers, open the bottom of the ear wires, slide one of the jump rings with attached bead chains onto each ear wire, then close using flat nosed pliers

Bejeweled Dangly Earrings

Materials:
*2 ear wires (preferably in gold)
*8 head pins (preferably in gold)
*Gold seed beads
*8 beads, combination of fake crystals, fake pearls, and other gem like beads
*2 jump rings (preferably in gold)
*Round nosed pliers
*Flat nosed pliers
*Wire cutters

Directions:
*Trim 6 of the head pins to the desired lengths using the wire cutters (make sure to make two of each chosen length), then add beads
*Curl the ends of the head pins using round nosed pliers, then clamp three headpins to each jump ring using the flat nosed pliers
*Cut the "head" off the remaining two head pins.  Curl one end and clamp around the jump rings, then add beads
*When finished, curl the ends of the head pins, then clamp around the ear wires

Miniatures Part II

Miniature Board Game

Materials:
*4x6 sheet of photo paper
*Empty cereal box
*Scissors
*Mounting squares or glue
*Color printer
*1 or 2 miniature dice
*Clay
*Cardstock

Directions:
*Using Paint or a similar program, design a board for the board game
*Print the game board onto the sheet of photo paper
*Cut out the game board and attach it to a square of cardboard the same size
*Create cards by designing the back of the cards in Paint or a similar program.  Print several of these images on a sheet of cardboard, cut out and stack
*Shape miniature pawns out of clay.  I made mine out of paper because my miniature board game was based on a full sized board game Brian and I designed (the monster pictured in the center of the board can be found here), but clay pawns would be more durable
*Add miniature dice to finish the look

Miniature Stocking

Same directions as for the large sized stocking

Stylish Rain Boot Repair

Do your rain boots have a hole in them?  Here is a fashionable way to patch them up.  Even if they do not have a hole, this craft can be a great way to personalize your boots.

Materials:
*Duct tape of varying colors
*Scissors

Directions:
*Select a design for your rain boots 
*Once you have a design in mind, determine your base color.  Since the sky would make up a lot of my springy scene, I selected blue for my base color
*Using the base color, tape over the entirety of the surface that you want to cover.  Make sure that the tape is well secured in the spots where there is a hole you are trying to cover up
*Cut out shapes from the duct tape and apply on top of the base color in your chosen pattern

Bonus:
*Apply scraps of duct tape left over from cutting out the patterns to a notebook cover to give it a funky new look.  Depending on the sizes of the leftover pieces of duct tape, you may want to cut the pieces into smaller sized pieces before applying to the cover

Sparkly Shoes

Give scuffed up old shoes new life with this glittery craft project

Materials:
*Old pair of shoes
*Glitter
*Glitter bond (what I used) or spray-on adhesive
*Spray-on acrylic coating in gloss finish
*Newspaper

Directions:
*Spread newspaper across your designated work area
*If using a spray-on adhesive, stuff the inside of the shoes with leftover newspaper so as to prevent the adhesive from sticking glitter to the inside of the shoe (if not using spray on adhesive, you may still want to do this before you spray on the acrylic finish
*Apply adhesive to a section of the shoe, then quickly pour on glitter
*Repeat process until the entire shoe is covered in glitter.  Make sure you have not missed any spots.
*Let shoes dry for the recommended amount of time given on the adhesive bottle
*Spray shoes with the acrylic coating.  Let dry.

Before

After