Bling On The Holidays...

I thought I'd share some more images from my recent jaunt into jewelry making before I go ahead and retire my flat and round-nosed pliers for awhile! This found object necklace is chock full of buttons, baubles, sewing notions and even a vintage jingle bell. I chose an off-white monochromatic color scheme because it complimented the silver patina perfectly. If it doesn't go to a good home during my December showcase at the Oceanic Library... I may just keep this one!

This wedding bracelet is a fun and whimsical statement for that bride-to-be! With silver and pearly-white charms, embellishments and more, this themed piece has an extra-special set of charms made with beads that spell out "YES" and "I DO". It would make a perfect gift from your Prince Charm-ing!

These two golden pieces were made for each other... and gathered from flea markets years apart. A gorgeous opal bracelet-turned-choker, with a deconstructed pin, hung with vintage gold chain makes this piece a simple but elegant necklace. I'd wear it with a throwback party dress or even a tee shirt and jeans.

Keys, keys and more vintage skeleton keys! I have a whole bunch of them, but run out of ideas for what to do with them. So when a vintage metal pin matches the steely grey-blue patina of an old key, it's a great opportunity to combine the two for added interest. Pair them with some vintage costume beads and the door is now open!

And this time I did something a little different... creating necklaces out of squished pennies. I love squished pennies! I've made bracelets with them before, adding tons of beads and charms that went the themes of these awesome 51¢ souvenirs... but they take quite a while to create. I wanted to make something for my jewelry show that would be a great gift at a better price point... and these embellished copper keepsakes were just the thing.

So now it's time to retire my jewelry tools, put away my beads, baubles, charms, and head out into new territory! I've done some really hard thinking this year and I'm going in a different creative direction for 2014. Stay tuned...

Thoughtful Thursdays: How Be A Penny Pincher!

How many tee shirts can one person own from vacation spots they've visited over the years, right? I mean... at one point I owned more tees than there were days of summer! So what's a girl to do? Switch gears and start collecting pressed pennies! They're fun to collect, they don't take up much room (a whole lot less than a shirt!), and they only cost 51¢. But then I had a box full of squished pennies... so now what?

Well, I decided to show off my souvenir savvy by creating a fun and whimsical bracelet with many of the pennies I had collected over the years. It was great choosing which ones to use because they all had special memories and I got to re-live each trip as I sifted through them.

And since I am a collector of "things" I had lots of goodies to use as charms including vintage Cracker Jack toys, beads, brass stampings, findings and so on. I love my new bracelet and I'm on to collecting more pressed pennies for the next one... that's the other fun part!

Want to find out more about collecting squished pennies? Check out the Penny Collector Website. Want to know where all the penny machines are? Check out this list, divided by state and country.