valentine gift box - chalk art

Those of you who celebrate Valentine's day must have done your shopping by now and some of you would be still hunting for gifts. Whether you have already got yours in place or  not, presenting your gifts in a new and romantic fashion is a must. To help you inch closer to that, here is a short tutorial.

Valentine gift box - chalk art

To make this all you need - is a box (wooden, cardboard, Leather or rexine), a piece of chalk and a sealant.

I actually found this box in one of the classrooms (where I teach) some time back. It was being used as a chalk box and naturally had some scribblings on it. After some dusting and cleaning, I decided to take it up a step further by drawing some...wait for it...Hearts on it!!

The box had a wonderful quote - Everlasting love on it

so I highlighted the word love with a silver marker. Finally A coat of clear sealant and it was done.

If you want, you could cover up words on such boxes by decoupage strips or pieces of beautiful paper before sealing it.

You could also use this idea for your boyfriend/hubby's gift. If you are planning to give him a Tie, Cuff links or a Pen set use this on the branded box to give a personal and romantic touch to the gift

Another idea is to transform an old tie/jewelry box like this and use it to gift wrap Love notes or coupons ;)

I hope you found this post interesting...

Happy Valentine's Day to all of you..Will meet you on the 15th !!

Bubble wrap jewelry - pinterest Challenge

Here is the second post for another project submission to the Pinterest Challenge. New here...or wondering what it is do check it out here and my previous post here.
My inspiration:  How-To: Bubble Wrap Necklace, from Jewelry Upcycled, by Sherri Haab
I found this tutorial first during the winter Gift swap when I wasnt even on pinterest. So After a couple of months, I once again stumbled on this page and pinned it
So here are my Creations...take a look

I am big fan of Recycling and the urgent need to clear all the bubble wrap from under my bed made me take this tutorial seriously....Its fast, easy, economic and Looking at these pieces, you would never guess that they are made from Bubble wrap... So dive in and try your hand at it...these could make really quick gifts for Valentine's Day too

Then as I am entering this for the Pinterest challenge 5, incase you missed reading it in the first post, a little about how the challenge works...

• Find something from your Pinterest boards you have been dying to make.
• DO IT!
• Blog about your project and link it up to the Hosting Pinhead's Linky Party when it opens. 
• Get your friends to "like" your thumbnail on the Linky Party when the voting starts.
• The most votes wins great prizes from some awesome sponsors!

So Do visit the party, link up your projects and please do vote for me. Voting begins on coming Monday. 

Cheers

Pinterest Challenge - Mirror bib

We all keep pining lots of stuff in pinterest...(I pin a lot of stuff to make!!) but do we really do anything with them.??.....Sometime back I decided to make a conscious effort to work on prohects from Pinterest and have been waiting to show them off here. Finally I have got the perfect opportunity for it. The Pinterest challenge!! Read all about it here

Valentine week is still on but am taking  break and presenting a project that I did based on an image I pinned in Pinterest. 

I call this design The mirror bib...its inspired from a headband made by Erica in PS. I made this...
 She in turn was inspired by Nina Ricci's head turner and had used mirrors and fun gemstones on a hairband.
Inspired by this I decided to make a bib necklace.  I used differenct shapes of mirror (round, square and diamond) and glued them on to a felt base which I later backed with a piece of leather. I created the chain by connecting jump rings (Chain maille) and finally finished off with a Toggle clasp

Mirrored headband from PS: I made this

My necklace at a photo shoot

The necklace looks better than in the pics (I couldnt control the reflection while clicking pictures) and one of my students wore it at a college photo shoot and created a lot of interest.. So What do you think of it?

Then as I am entering this for the Pinterest challenge 5, a little about how the challenge works...

• Find something from your Pinterest boards you have been dying to make.
• DO IT!
• Blog about your project and link it up to the Hosting Pinhead's Linky Party when it opens. 
• Get your friends to "like" your thumbnail on the Linky Party when the voting starts.
• The most votes wins great prizes from some awesome sponsors!

So Do visit the party, link up your projects and please do vote for me. Voting begins on coming monday. 
Cheers

Leather rose earring tutorial

Hope everyone enjoyed the leather rose ring tutorial posted last week. In continuation, as promised, here is the leather rose earring.

The construction of the earring is very much similar to the ring, except that in the earring the raw edge will be visible in the front while the finger ring will have a smooth folded finish. The funda behind that is - the folded edge makes the ring more stable and single layer as opposed to double on an earring makes it lightweight. 

Materials:

# A strip of leather 1" X 7" - you could use rexin or faux leather instead. The length of the strip determines the width of your flower so you could make it a little longer or shorter.
# A pair of studs-  earring base
# Scissors and glue (rubber based adhesive)

Procedure:
1) Taper one edge of the strip like in the picture. Make a knot and pull tight

2) Now fold and twist the strip as you go around the knot, making sure that the folds are neat. Keep gluing as you twist and fold.

3) when you are about 1 to 1.5 inches from the edge, stop and make a hole

4) Insert the stud back from inside so that the base is covered. Glue in place.

5) Turn around to the from and glue it

6) Press firmly and let it dry completely. Repeat for the otehr earring

Your Valentine Rose Earring is done!! Let it rest for a day and then enjoy wearing it. Please note that both pieces will not exactly look the same so please dont frustrate yourself trying to get the exact piece for both side. ;)

Hope you found this interesting
Cheers

 

Valentine leather rose ring tutorial

Here is the first tutorial in the run up to Valentine's Day - A pretty little ring that you can make for yourself and your BFFs. I normally dont prefer very dainty girly stuff or colors, but then what the heck - its valentine's day. So With all that romance in the air - here is a ring that oozes feminine charm - Its in pink, Its a flower and its got lace!! My last year's BFF corsage was a big hit and I hope that you like this ring too. Without much ado, here it is

Materials:

# A strip of leather 1" X 10" - you could use rexin or faux leather instead. The length of the strip determines the width of your flower so you could make it a little longer or shorter.
# A ring base
# A strip of White lace (0.5" wide)
# A Normal circle of  leather and felt for the base
# Scissors and glue

Procedure:

1) Taper one edge of the strip like in the picture. Make a knot and pull tight making sure that the backside is not visible on the front.

 

2) Now fold and twist the strip as you go around the knot, making sure that the folds are neat and that the backside (suede part) is not visible on the front.Keep gluing as you twist and fold. When you come to the end just snip off and tuck it in the flower. Glue in place.

3) Let it dry for sometime

4) Snip of all the extras at the back so that it is flat, taking care not to cut the tucked in portion

5) Cover with a round pieces of leather and glue a ring back on in the center

6) Press and let it dry completely

7) Measure the outer circumference of the ring and cut a strip of 0.5" wide lace or rick rack. Glue along the outer edge of the ring.

8) Finally cut a circle of felt for the backing and cut a slit in the middle. Position it over the ring back in such a way that the base of the ring gets hidden inside and only the round portion is visible. Apply glue, press and hold for a few seconds and let dry.

Your Valentine Rose ring is done!! Let it rest for sometime and then enjoy wearing it. The ring is quite statement makign by itself, but if you like an accompaniment or tune in the coming week to learn how to make rose studs earrings for Valentine's day.

Hope you found this interesting
Cheers

Valentine Spl - Key to my heart

With the blog world being awash with Valentine posts,  I am finally (officially) starting my valentine series for this year. Starting from Today till February 15th, which as some of you might know is my second blogiversary, there will be posts and tutorials dedicated to Love, Romance, passion and ofcourse Valentines day.

Sometime back, I found a batch of keys on my front porch - very nondescript local aluminium ones. On enquiry I found out that the keys were useless as their lock was broken. I smelt a project coming up right away and picked two of those keys for a special makeover. I looked through my inspiration folders and pinterest pictures and finally decided to make something based on Romance and travel

Instinctively I picked up the atlas and went to the legend and coordinates of the Indian Ocean and south India as that is where my heart truly is. I traced the key image, decoupaged it and painted it red to signify passion. The beaten copper flowers that you see were originally silver  tone bead caps, which  I flattened  and cut apart and gave them a coat of copper.I resinated ( cold diamond glaze)everything to preserve them. I finally added some crystal chain and made a wire wrapped bail for it. The pendant was done!

Then came some wooded beads, gold spacers and viola the key to my heart necklace was done.  the finished piece looked very surreal to me - one one hand it had a punk meets steampunk feel and other hand it reminded me of the Indian Thali (Thirumangalam - wedding  necklace) because of the gold, stone and the coral colored beads - either way it reminded me of love

As a continuation of this necklace I made a key charm, with emphasis on Travel. I again picked out a map and added the beaten silver bead caps to it. A wire wrapped pearl and its was done. A perfect gift I say for honeymooners - with the map of their honeymoon destination/favourite place to remind them of all the love that travel could imbibe.

So how did you like these? And to all 150 followers (yipee!!) Thanks a million and please do check out my Pinterest button on the side bar and at the end of this post. Do pin some images from JewelsofSayuri and spread the love...

Cheers

Featured on Recyled Market

Yipee... I am the next featured seller on Recycled Market, The Australian Online retail Store that I blogger here about. Erica was so sweet to interview me and add pics of some of  my designs there...It was lovely so do check it out.

While you are there - do not forget to check out my store

Also I thought I would introduce you to the Universal Craft Blog Directory a free directory, where you will find a whole bunch of other crafty minded people there. 

You may like to add yourself or recommend other people to the directory, it's a way of connecting all the crafty bloggers out there and a great way for new people to find you!

Add your link to the directory & connect with other crafters. ...And even if you're already on the ball & have added your link...do invite your friends to join in.

Cheers