From the category archives:

DIY

DIY Converting A Belt Into A Necklace

July 26, 2012

I have had my mom’s vintage Moschino belt sitting in my closet for a few years unworn. I thought the belt was really cute but it was way to heavy to wear and looked a little much with two strands of chain. So finally I had the idea to do a DIY on it and make it wearable. This project is super easy and probably took less than 20 minutes to create. i decided to break the belt into two so I could have a belt and a necklace.

Materials:
1. belt
2. Jewelry pliers
3. lobster clasp
4.  4 jump rings
5. Chain
6. Ruler

Here is the belt before I did any work to it. I decided to remove the chain with the charms which will be used for my necklace. Now that the belt is only one strand I actually love it. It is not heavy anymore and will look really cute with lots of different dresses.

Using your jewelry pliers open the jump rings on the belt to remove the smaller chain from it. Now that they are in two pieces the belt portion is ready for wear.

Here is the necklace portion from the belt I will be working with. I love the charms on it which are so Moschino! I measured the chain and it is 15 inches in length which is too small for a necklace of my liking. I decided to add some vintage chain to it to make it wearable.

I decided I wanted the total length of my necklace to be 19 inches. The leather chain measured 15 inches so I needed to add an extra four inches in gold chain. I cut the gold chain into two two inch gold segments that I would attach to each side of the leather chain.

Open your jump ring and attach it to the clasp on the leather chain part with your gold tone chain. Do this to both ends of the leather chain and close your rings so they stay connected.

It is time to put the finishing touches on the necklace. On the left side of the necklace attach a jump ring and clasp to the chain and close. On your right side attach only a jump ring and close.

This necklace hits around my collar-bone. I love how the chain only shows at the back of my neck so from the front it looks like my necklace is all leather.

This was such a fun DIY I should have done it years ago!

Lauren

{ 0 comments }

DIY Necklace Clasp

July 19, 2012

Hi Guys,

Today I have for you a very simple yet still fun jewelry DIY for you to try at home. Changing the clasps on your necklaces or bracelets to make them wearable. There have been so many times that I have had to pass on a necklace that I love because the closure was not secure and could not have been changed. The closures I hate the most are the ones you find on vintage 1950′s necklaces, hook closures. They just don’t seem secure to me and I am afraid I will end up losing the necklace. I do indeed buy those necklaces when I know for sure that I can remove those clasps and put on my own! The two necklaces that I am working on below are both vintage with hook closures.

Materials:

1. Two jewelry pliers
2. Two lobster clasps
4. Four Jump Rings
5. Ruler

Before: Original hook closures. i knew that I could re work these necklaces because if you look at where the closure lies, it can be easily removed and the open circle can hold a new clasp. That is always a giveaway when deciding if you should buy a piece!

Necklace One: Vintage Napier

I was hesitant to take off the closure at first because it was signed Napier but when I turned it over I saw that the necklace was signed again. With your Jewelry pliers open up the jump ring and remove both ring and hook closure on both sides of the necklace.

Open your new jump ring so that it is large enough to hold your lobster clasp and fit through the hole in the necklace. Once on, close both ends of the jump ring and your clasp will be secure. There is no way it will fall off now!

On the opposite side of the necklace attach a new jump ring and close both ends together.

The new closure is safe and secure and ready for wear!

I love how short the necklace is. Reminds me of something Cleopatra would wear.

Necklace Two: Vintage three strand gold pearl

Measure necklace for exact length. My necklace has a beaded extender on the end so you can make it shorter or longer. You need to determine here how long you want your necklace to be because when you put on the new clasp and closure it will no longer be adjustable.

The beaded extender. I decided to make my necklace 17 inches and to achieve that length I only need to remove the bead at the end.

Just like the first necklace remove your hook clasp and the jump ring it is attached to.

Open new jump ring and put through the hole in the necklace with your lobster clasp attached and close securely.

Remove the portion of the extender you don’t want to use. For me, I am only taking off the first bead but someone else might want their necklace shorter and have to remove more till they reach their desired length.

Attach your new jump ring to the opening of the last bead and you are done!

Your necklace is now secure and ready for a night out on the town.

This is one of my new favorite necklaces and it only cost 10 dollars, a great buy.

Lauren

{ 0 comments }

DIY Manicure

July 12, 2012

Prep Work

 

I posted on Monday about my favorite manicures on pinterest, as promised here is my own DIY manicure for you all to try. Every lady should have a signature manicure in her rotation of mani’s. One go to that always looks perfect and is fairly easy and fun to apply. I found mine around the time of my birthday back in February and had so many compliments on the design. Everyone was surprised that I did them myself which is always a plus! My DIY mani is very simple yet packs a big design punch. I usually use silver glitter instead of the pink but wanted to try something new today.

Materials:

1. Nail File
2. Nail Clippers Optional
3. Top Coat
4. Nude Nail Polish
5. Glitter Polish

If your nails are uneven first clip them so they are all equal length. If not, skip that first step and proceed to file your nails. I like to keep my nails fairly rounded in shape and short since they break easily.

Paint one base coat of clear polish so your nails are nice and smooth. I always use my top coat as a base coat since it works the same.

Apply two coats of your favorite nude nail polish. I found this Face nail polish at J. Crew back in January and love how similar it is to my skin color. The nude should blend in to your hands and be very subtle. Let dry for a few minutes before moving on to the fun part, the glitter.

Paint one coat of glitter polish half way down your nail so that it looks like only the tips are painted in glitter. It is kind of like an extended french manicure or an ombre nail. The top part should have the glitter and the bottom of the nail near your cuticle should only be nude. Let dry for a few minutes before moving on to the next step. The length of the glitter does not have to be perfect, just eyeball and have fun with it!

Paint around one to two more coats of the glitter over the first coat of glitter polish. You really want to cake the glitter on top of one another so it looks very thick and heavy. The tip of your nail should look like it was sitting in a pool of glitter. Let dry for a few minutes and apply your clear top coat. This mani will take a long time to dry so be careful and give your hands a break. 

Look how glossy these nails are. I suggest giving yourself an extra layer of top coat each morning to prolong your mani and help avoid chipping.

Please send me some photos of your own DIY nails. I always am in the market for more inspiration!

Lauren

{ 0 comments }

365 Lucky Days

October 19, 2011

Hi All,

Sorry for the absence from the blog for the last two weeks but we are still having tech issues, soo annoying. The good news though is that we finally figured out the problem. Due to our higher number of traffic and the large amount of content that we have on the site, all good things! We have outgrown our server and are in the process of upgrading. That is why our site has been acting real slow lately and once the server is upgraded the site will run much faster and more efficiently. Please bear with us as we work out this kink and regular posting will resume after.

For now I cam across this wonderful new blog called 365 Lucky Days. I really love the concept of this blog where the author creates a new piece of art work every day for a year and posts the work on their blog daily. Such a great idea to really push yourself to create beautiful works of art daily and a great place to showcase it all to the public. Its like having a live portfolio to look at and work on all the time. I love how the art is beautiful embroideries of iconic people. I would love to hang them all over my walls. My favorites below. Love how the fabrics lucky uses are vintage too.

Bonnie

cat woman

Liz

Marilyn

Joan

Deb

Betty

Bardot

Would love to hang the entire female cast of Mad Men in our home

Lauren

{ 0 comments }

Tom Binns Style DIY Necklace 2

September 29, 2011

Hope you enjoyed the first DIY Tom Binns inspired project where I used paint pens to create a beautiful necklace. For this project I decided to use only nail polish on a different rhinestone vintage chain. The nail polish is a bit easier to use then the paint. The polish comes out nice and thick with a great texture and you have more control since it has a brush.

Materials:

Rhinestone necklace

Nail polishes in multiple colors. I used Essie and O.P.I brands

Before:


Steps:

1. Choose your colors before you begin painting and pick your pattern as well. It helps to go in there with a set plan rather then winging it

2. I painted my necklace in sections. I found it easier that way. I first started painting one coat of polish on the square shaped rhinestones. Paint carefully and try your best not to get the polish on the other stones since they will be a different color. Let dry between coats and then paint again. Two coats is more then enough on all of the rhinestones.One coat is pictured below. You get a very translucent shade. Two coats gives you a much darker color.

2nd coat

3. I chose to paint the bottom stones in a nice green color. I love the contrast between the colors. Navy and green look so nice together my color inspiration came from a green and blue striped shirt.

4. I added blue, orange, and green shades to the tiny rhinestones on the front of the necklace to add some lighter colors and brighten the necklace up a bit. You really just need to put a drop of polish on these stones since they are so small. At first the stone will look like a bubble but let it dry and the polish will soak into the stone showing the natural facets. Again use two coats.

5. I painted the remainder of the stones a nice neon orange which I love. It gives such a great contrast to the necklace and a tribal and native American feel.

6. The chain was around 15 inches and much too short for my neck so I added about four inches of vintage chain to the end of the rhinestone chain. I added the chain by connecting it to a jump ring around one of the rhinestones. The jump ring stays in place and now the necklace is at the perfect length. I also added my own lobster clasp as well.

Finished Necklace:

This is one of my new favorite necklaces I just love it. The colors are really striking in person and has a really nice shine to it so you don’t even need a top coat.

Have a great day

Lauren

 

 

{ 2 comments }

Tom Binns Style DIY Necklace1

September 27, 2011

I have been so excited to share my first DIY feature on the blog modeled after a Tom Binns Necklace. Yes I love his jewelry, all of those beautiful handpainted rhinestones but I definitly do not like the hefty 2,000 dollar price tag. I mean we are not buying diamonds here, they should not be that expensive. I have seen alot of great tutorials for DIY Binns necklaces and decided to try one of my own. I went into the Corvus Noir archives and saw that I have lots of vintage rhinestone necklaces and picked one that would be perfect to use.

Inspiration

Materials Needed:

Rhinestone necklace- mine is vintage from the 1950′s but you can find a cheaper modern day version at Forever21 or Claires

Paint Pens- I bought two different packages one with neon colors and the other non neon all from Michaels

Nail Polish and Top Coat


 

This DIY is super easy.

1. Paint the center stone with paint pen. Make sure to shake the pen well while working and depress the tip of the pen onto some paper to get more paint out. Do this consistently while working on all of the stones.

2. The paint pen was a little hard to use on such a large stone so after painting a couple coats( I let them dry inbetween each coat) I decided to use a neon nailpolish and painted many coats on top of eachother. Probably like 6 or 7 so the stone does not look see through

3. I chose a blue shade to surround the center stone. Paint each stone and allow to dry before moving on to the next coat. I reccomend 3 or 4 coats to get a really rich color.

4. Paint the remainder stones with whichever color combonation you would like. I went color by color picking random stones so that I would not have a pattern. Remember to use at least 3 to four coats. I also left some stones unpainted so you could see the natural rhinestones which gives the necklace a little more light.

5. Once the paint has dried paint clear nail polish over each stone. The polish will make the center stone nice and shiny and will also seal in all of the colors. I made the mistake of not painting the stones on the chain and the paint started to rub off. So I will be repainting once more on only the chain and then putting the top coat on top.

warning: The top coat will change the colors of the paint a little bit. They become a bit richer and darker, less neon. I did not like that at first but it really is the only way to seal in that color.

Finished Necklace: I love all of the different colors mixed together. It is really bright, fun, and colorful. Craig said it reminded him of a candy necklace which sounds good to me!

Have fun with this project. I did not really keep track of time but it definitly took a few hours. Paint each stone carefully and try not to mix the paint from stone to stone.

I have another DIY tutorial coming up the end of the week inwhich I used only nailpolish. Stay tuned for that!

Lauren

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

{ 0 comments }