Out of This World.

Hi there Folks,

I first discovered nail polish jewellery through SayAnything Br00ke's YouTube where she talked about a seller on Etsy called Ginger Kitty Designs who makes nail polish jewelley. After watching some of the videos on them, I decided that seeing as I have an abundance of nail varnish I should have a try myself.

Now I love Galaxy nails...they're a whole lot of effort but I think they look so wonderful when they're done. So I decided to do my take on a Galaxy design, but in necklace form. I really love how they always turn out a little different than the time before, so I thought I would make you a picture tutorial so that you could try it out at home if you wanted.

Firstly you will need the following:

Polish Colours (L-R): No7 Stay Perfect Top Coat, Revlon Galaxy, MUA Shade 1, Collection 2000 Hot Look Sherbert Lemon (30), Miss Sporty Lastig Colour (No Name), Natural Collection White, MUA Shade 2.  

A clear glass cabochon 

Silver plated cabochon back

Small silver plated jump ring (approx 3mm)

Silver plated chain (any size you like)

A blob of Blutac

Nail polish (see above colours for reference)

You will also need: tweezers, 4 small pieces of sponge, a piece of paper and super glue.

Now for the photo tutorial.

1. Place your cabochon upside down on the Blutac to secure it. Paint one coat of clear polish and let dry and then one coat of your chosen glitter polish and again let dry.

2. The galaxy needs to be build up in layers. Firstly place a small amount of the dark blue polish on the paper. Use your tweezers to hold a small piece of sponge, dab in the blue paint and stipple along the outside of where you want the centre of your galaxy to be. The black line is where I'm planning to have the centre so the blue is acting as a blending colour into the black background. Let the blue dry.

3. Take your pink polish, dab on the paper and stipple as before, this time along the inside edge of the blue you placed down previously and let dry. 

4. Then take the yellow and stipple it alongside the pink and also a little further towards to centre and let dry.

5. Next take your white and stipple it down the centre of the galaxy, i.e. along where the black line is running, then let dry.

6. Finally, once all the stippled layers are dry paint two coats of black polish over the design. Let this dry then place another coat of clear varnish over the top and leave to dry thoroughly.

7. Once entirely dry, flip your cabochon over and your galaxy will be revealed! You now need to decide which way up you would like you galaxy to sit. Add a small amount of super glue to your cabochon back and glue the cabochon into place.

8. Finally, attach your galaxy pendant to your chain using the jump ring and voila! You have your very own galaxy necklace.

Here's a close up of the finished product :]

Have any of you ever tried this or would like to try it in the future? If so please share! I've made quite a few different designs and think it gives such a lovely effect. I may well do some more tutorials on these in the future.

Ciao for now,

JB

This post if featured at the following Linky Parties:

Nifty Thrify Things, Petite Hermine, Twigg Studies, The Sasse Life, Flamingo Toes, DIY Show Off, Its Overflowing, Mommy's Sweet Confessions, Positively Splendid, Sumo's Sweet Stuff, Polish the Stars, Craft-O-Maniac, Mad in Crafts, Funky Polkadot Giraffe, Sew Much Ado, Semi Homemade Mom, Southern Lovely, Delightful Order, An Original Belle, I Should Be Mopping The Floor, The Dedicated House

Knit Knit Hooray!

Hi there Folks,

Today I'm feeling very pleased with myself, as this morning I finished off my first ever knitting project!! It may only be a super basic scarf, but I spent hours getting really annoyed trying to teach myself to knit not so long ago, so for me, this is an achievement.

Here's what the finished project looks like...

It's grey, it's super chunky and its long, just what I wanted for a nice, snuggly scarf to help me face the northern winter.

The pattern I used was really basic, literally two different rows repeated over and over (the original pattern can be found here). But I decided to jazz it up a bit once I'd finished by adding some fringing/tassles. I used 12mm plastic needles and James C. Brett 'Rustic' Mega Chunky wool in the colour CS2 (both needles and wool bought from here, although they don't have the actual wool I used on the website, sorry!)

I know there are plenty of tutorials for how to make tassles etc. on the web, but I thought I'd add onto here how I did them. It was a bit of a process as I'd initially not made them long enough and didn't like them so had to start all over. This means I have lots of lengths of wool that I really don't want to waste that I need to find a use for...I'm thinking pom poms?

Anyway, here's how I did it.

1. I wrapped the wool round a DVD box (in this case - Band of Brothers Bluray Boxset) until I had the right number of loops. I wanted 27 as I chose to do 9 tassles each using three lengths of wool.

2. I then cut the middle of the wrapped up wool and was left with all my ready made lengths.

3. Using an old, clean chopstick I folded the wool in half over the top of it and used this to push the strands through the gaps on the end of my scarf.

4. Finally I pulled through, evens the lengths out and then wrapped the top loop over the tail ends to create a slip knot. I pulled the lengths tight and voila! Was pretty speedy once I got my method down and I found that the box I used gave the perfect length for what I wanted.

And here is me looking all pleased and warm wearing my lovely new scarf :]

Ciao for now,

JB