This week I designed a ring that features a bead made with recycled plastic toilet paper packaging. As you can see from the photo, it's your basic 20 gauge wire ring made by wrapping the wire around a ring mandrel several times, threading the ends through a bead, then finishing with a spiral or other decorative wire shape on top of the bead. The wire is then bent downwards under the bead and wrapped around the base to secure.
The bead is what makes my ring unusual. Also, instead of crimping the ends of the wire back into the sides of the ring as most tutorials tell you to, I finished the ends with tiny spirals.
The tutorial is on my blog, but the link will bring you directly to the tutorial.

Download the pdf tutorial

It took some doing, but I got 10 tiny beaded, all handmade gifts into a decorated altoid box. Here's a few photos:



Starting at the upper left, beaded candle rings (candles not included in the box!), plant pot dangle, tiny photo frame, beaded bookmark, foldable Christmas ornament, beaded wire comb barrette, photo album with a beaded spine, striped magnet, a tube bead pin, and a purple wire wrapped push pin.

It wasn’t easy, but I got them all in! I think the next time I do this, I’ll make the photo frame a little flatter (use flatter beads). It took up the most room. The handmade comb barrette took up quite a bit of space, but it’s so pretty and unusual that it was worth it to me:



The covered altoid box looks innocent enough….

I hate to throw clear plastic egg carton away. Below are some Christmas Candle Ornaments that I've designed using them.
I tried to post a tutorial directly here, but there were too many pics, so here's a link to a detailed tutorial PDF file to download.

If you want to see it in a fancy slide-show format with music, here's the youtube link:
click here






Here's a brief overview of how to make the ornaments:

1: Cut the edges from the flat top of the  plastic egg carton.
2: Paint the top and cut 2 small circles from it. Cut the remainder into small squares. Pierce a hole in each square. Pierce a hole in the center of each circle
3: Cut a length of 20 gauge wire, make a small triangle shaped spiral, leaving a tail several inches long.
4: Thread the painted plastic squares and circles onto the wire tail.
5: Bend the wire up over the circles. Thread a few small beads onto the wire. Wrap it around the base of the "candle".

Enjoy!

10 gifts in an altoid box update:

Tonight I designed a plant pot dangle thingy. (don't know what to call it, but it sure is pretty!)



I want to make some custom beads for the photo frame and ornament, but don't have time for that until next week, so they'll have to be put on the back burner for now.

Read my major update below...

I've started a project of designing 10 gifts that will all fit in a recycled Altoid Box. Since most of the gifts will be jewelry/beading in nature, I didn't know if I should post here or in the jewelry area. Since the project will be a Christmas gift for my daughter, I decided to post here. Anyway...
So far I've got the prototypes for a Christmas ornament that folds so it fits into the box, and a tiny picture frame. The pictures aren't professional, it's late at night and I don't want to get all my photo equipment out....so I just took some quick pictures.

As you can see, they still need a bit of tweaking to look nice, but the basic designs are there. I'll post again when I've made some more progress.

Wire and Bead Photo Frame:



Wire and Bead Foldable Christmas Ornament:



Major update:
I've been busy! Below are the 6 gifts I have so far: foldable ornament, ribbon bookmark, barrette, photo frame, tiny photo album, and a plant pot decoration.



Here's a close-up of the tiny photo album. It's about 1 3/4" square. I used recycled envelopes for the pages.



My hand-made beaded barrette:

It's 5:57 am and these woke me up! Love 'em. I also love how you arranged and took the photos. These are pin-worthy.

I like the fact that it stays in place. Gotta make one. Looks easy enough...

I made a sliding top locket with two plastic pull-tab seals. It holds a tiny photo inside.
I made a little tutorial for making it. If you want to see it with music,click here to go to youtube.















































I had a lot of fun making this. It keeps a little plastic out of landfills and would make a nice stocking stuffer or small gift.

Love it. How about making a set of them into napkin rings?

It's beautiful. Bet it's lightweight too. Any reason to eat chocolate is a good thing...