Mother of Pearl Button Jewellery

This week i've been working on some jewellery made from vintage mother of pearl buttons.  As a child I love to sort through my grandmothers button box and my favourites were always the mother of pearl.

I started with a blank silver coloured charm bracelet chain and using grey MOP buttons I added a jump ring to one of the holes.  I attached these to the chain at regular intervals.  The I got some crystal beads that are clear on one side and silvered on the other.  I put these on silver plated findings and topped them with smaller black bi-cone beads. I attached these in front of the buttons. I got a larger crystal & black bead and put them on a headpin for the end of the extender chain.

I am quite pleased with the end result.

These photos also show how bad my cutting mat has got with adhesive.  I really need a new one :)

The second button bracelet is called "Bells, buttons and bows"  I used creamy coloured MOP buttons in varying sizes and types and strung the interspersed with little silver bells and cream coloured bows on jump rings.  This one took around 3 hours to do.

I do have it for sale on Etsy but i'm thinking of keeping it for my eBid.net friend Buttons-and-bows as she was my inspiration for it.

Started knitting a striped bag that came as a kit with a knitting magazine but the arthritis got the better of me and I only managed 2 rows.

Etsy Shop and new jewellery

Opened an Etsy shop WiccaBasketUK.  So far I have only listed 5 items but hope to add another 5 later today

Wedding Invitations made on the Cameo and other crafty makes

 My daughter is getting married in June and my nephew in July.  I am making their invitations.
This is my daughters evening invitations

The background is printed from the Printable Heaven's wedding set and is an image of a car with Just Married on the back of it and lots of little hearts.  It was printed in lilac on silver shimmer pearlescent card.
I used metallic silver to make a mat with plain pearlescent on top of that.  The heart topper was cut with thw Silhouette Cameo using a file from the Silhouette store.  This was raised up on foam pads.  The sentiment is a silver coloured peel off.  On the Wedding invitations i used some heart shaped gems but can't decide whether to use them on here. The envelopes are 130mm square lilac pearlescent.

My Nephews card is a lot more complicated.  It is an easel style card on a similar card as above and is print and cut on the cameo.  The ink takes almost 4 hours to be dry enough to put through the cutting machine without smearing. (I wasted a considerable few sheets trying to get it right).

The cutting file was a freebie from Bird's Cards I think.  Apologies if it was from elsewhere.  Cutting the topper also took a few goes to get the settings right.  I print the topper and stopper on an a5 sheet and the base on an a4 sheet.  The topper is set to double cut at speed 2, thickness 33, blade at depth 6.  It takes almost 20 minutes to cut one.  The base is single cut at depth 6 speed 3 and only takes 1 1/2 minutes.  The details of the reception and RSVP is printed on the base.  I attached the toppers with double sided tape and the stopper with foam pads.  The flatback pearls are 4mm and are attached with Anita's tacky glue.  The envelopes are 5 inch square silver pearlescent.

I have been so busy with these that I have had little time for other crafting.  My youngest daughters Christmas hooded scarf if still awaiting pocket fronts.

I did manage to knit a white sparkly mobile phone sock and make a Valentine card for eBid.net's monthly Your Donation Counts (YDC) charity auctions

http://uk.ebid.net/for-sale/ydc117-hand-knitted-sparkly-mobile-phone-sock-ydc-117-for-ltg-124105922.htm

http://uk.ebid.net/for-sale/ydc-117-a-late-entry-handmade-valentine-card-ydc117-for-ltg-124357694.htm

The phone sock was knitted on 4mm needles with James C. Brett Twinkle yarn to my own pattern.
The heart card was cut on the cameo using a file from the store and was decorated with red self adhesive gems and a peel off.  The insert was cut using 120gsm decoupage paper. It is approx 130mm square.

If you would like to place a bid on these, (or any of the other 150 YDC auctions), they run from the 24th to the 28th of the month.  If you are not yet a member of eBid you can join here using this link.

Thats all for just now.  Hoping to finish all my invites by the end of March, so may not do much blogging till i'm done.

Tick Tock

Needed a new clock for the living room as my OH complains the old one ticks too loudly.  So got a frame a friend gave me and raided my paperstash and cobbled together this clock with a silent mechanism.
The tags in the corners read "precious moments" and "forever".  Quite proud of it really :)