Punch & Judy Friendship Bracelet

This bracelet  is very "Indian Summer"-looking. The mix of the seed beads with the thread and the handmade look all make for an interesting piece. I really liked the simplicity and knew you'd love a tutorial on it, so here goes!

You can change up any of the colors (like most of the time) to create a one-of-a-kind piece. These are great friendship bracelets as well, 'cuz they are easy to make but not the usual run-of-the-mill knotted kind.

Make the beaded panel bigger or smaller, depending on the look you want. 

Step 1: Gather materials. Needed are seed beads, a clasp, thin wire (I believe it was 26 gauge), embroidery floss, pliers and scissors.

Step 2: Cut a length of wire (size depends on how big/long you want to make the beaded panel) but a couple of feet will be plenty. Thread on 4 beads, then thread the other end of wire through the beads in the opposite way, securing on the beads. Pus the beads down to the center of the wire.

Step 3: Thread on 4 of a different color, and again thread the other end through the opposite way. Push the beads down to sit right on top of your first layer. Repeat with another color.  Keep building your panel in this way, increasing by one bead after about 4 rows of 4. I did about 4 rows of 5 then, a row of 6, a row of 7, then a row of 6, the 4 5's, then 4 4's. You don't have to follow this exactly, but make sure you gradually increase then gradually decrease for a symmetrical panel. When it's long enough, I threaded my extra wire back through the second to last row and cut right at the end of those black beads. I superglued the ends so they hold and weren't pokey. 

Step 4: Cut a length of embroidery floss, about 30". Fold it in half. Fold in half again. You should end up with a group of 4 strands of floss. Take this full group, and thread the end (starting with the side with two cut ends of floss) through the first two rows of your bead panel. Set up exactly as you see in the second picture here. Thread on so that half of the floss is on one side of the panel, and the rest is on the other side. Take the side of the floss that has the two loops as ends (the other side will have one end and two cut ends, where you cut the floss), also the side that is facing you. Separate this side into two groups of two threads, it should separate naturally. Take your side with the four threads, and bring it back over the bead panel towards you, and through the very end of the side facing you, through the two groupings you just made.

Continue pulling until your knot forms. When it is fully tightened, it should look like the picture above. Two threads will be on one side of the group of four threads, and the other two will be on the other side. This knot is also called a Lark's Head.

You can add beads to the ends tie knots to hold. To wear, simply tie the floss into a knot at the back and let the beads dangle! Super cool and handmade-looking!

All photos copyright Allison Cooling for Quiet Lion Creations.

If you post/share this tutorial, please link back to me.

Color Monday: Glitter Girl Palette

Taken from the glitter of an eyeshadow palette, this mix combines blue hues with a baby pink, offset by  chocolate brown. A great palette for a nursery!

Feel free to use this palette in any of your art or design projects.

Fall Trend Nails: The Gilded Manicure

Fall 2012 is all about excess; from the baroque trend, the layers upon layers of leather and furs (that's not nice!), the obsession with glitz and glam, and with bordeaux being the "Color", I knew this would be the perfect opportunity for a manicure tutorial.

It mixes a base of the deep red with metallic "brushed" texture on top, mimicking the way designers have mixed and layered gold and silver fabrics this season. 

Plus, they are SO easy to do; and you will use an unexpected material; tin foil. It gives the polish that great texture that will shine and layer well. The result looks like a mix of brushed metal and crackle polish. It's super quick to do and it doesn't take any skill at all!

I used silver on top of gold for a mixed metal look, but you can use one or the other if you'd like. Also, change up the base color for different looks. A darker color works better; deep sapphires, rubies, and amethysts would give you a very rich look!

Step 1: Gather materials. Needed are a base coat of polish (use any dark red for this look, change it up for other looks), a gold polish, silver polish, and tin foil.

Paint the nails your base coat, you probably need 2 coats.

Step 2: Rip a piece about 2" of tin foil; crumple up real good, then carefully undo the ball till it's flat again. Put a medium drop of the gold polish, and stamp the tin foil into it, then stamp onto your nails. Make sure you only use a little of the polish at the time to get detail. Stamp all over the nails, but leave a lot of red show through.

Step 3: Let all the gold dry. 

Do the same thing, but now with the silver; take a little at a time, and make sure you don't overly stamp, you want both the gold and the base color to be visible.

Let dry. Clean up any mess on your nails with nail polish remover.

See? I told you it was super quick and easy. It's great if you need to do your nails fast, but still want something creative vs. a plain color. The mix of metal colors give a great shine.

Copyright Quiet Lion Creations. 

Color Monday; The Rainbow Palette

A classic palette of ROYGBIV!

Feel free to use this color palette in any of your projects.

Tarina Tarantino Skull Hair Clip

This cool skull hair clip is both girly and goth. It features a sparkly skull cabochon (in true Tarina Tarantino style) offset by a silk flower backdrop and gems. It's $38 for the real deal, but we can make ours for pennies.

This kind of clip is very easy and quick to make yourself, and you only need a few "ingredients".

My version is glued onto a hair clip for easy use. You can make it in any color combination you like. I used old gems from a nail art kit, but if you want to be all legit and use Swarovski sparkly flatbacks, go right ahead! It will be even more dazzling.

And, if you're not into skulls, you can use any other cabochon you have laying around; maybe a bigger gem, button, or anything else you can come up with.

Step 1: Gather materials. You need small gems, a hair clip, silk flowers, a cabochon, hot glue and super glue.

Step 2: Glue the smaller flower on top of the bigger one (with hot glue). Glue the skull into the middle (hot glue). Use your super glue to glue on gems around your skull, on the petals. When you are satisfied and the glue has dried, hot glue your skullflower to the hair clip. Allow hot glue to dry, gently peel the hot glue (still attached to flower) off the metal clip, score the metal clip, apply superglue and re-glue that glob of hot glue back to the clip on the superglue. I make a glob because I feel it holds better and sticks better than if you just used superglue by itself. 

Let dry.

How easy was that? 

A good project to do while babysitting or at a party night. Simple enough for kids to do but the results aren't super baby-ish like other projects!

A fun bright accessory!

All photos and instructions copyright Allison Cooling for Quiet Lion Creations.

If you share/use/post this tutorial, please link back to me. It is much appreciated!

Color Monday: Speakeasy Palette

A more masculine blend of olive greens, deep browns, briny yellow and a touch of baby blue to offset. Perfect colors for a lounge!

Feel free to use this palette of colors in any of your design projects.

ROMWE Sweetheart Earrings

I loved these earrings when I saw them. However, I am not a "heart" person; I would wear these if they were, say, lightning bolts or skulls. Not hearts. 

I loved the combination of the shiny plastic with the metal studs.

So, using the same technique that I used in my Strawberry Pendant Necklace tutorial, I created look-alike of these ROMWE Sweetheart Earrings.

As with most of the tutorials, you can make these in any colors you want, and use gold or silver findings. I did mixed metal for the studs and silver fishhooks.

The small metal studs can be found at Michaels or a craft store in the scrapbooking or t-shirt transfer section. I have seen them in both; mine were the t-shirt transfers you are supposed to iron on.

If for some reason you cannot find them, you can substitute Swarovski glass flatback gems for sparkle. It would be cool to mix the studs and the gems as well!

Step 1: Gather materials. Needed are pliers, polymer clay clear gloss glaze, clay, nail studs (find them here), and earwires. You will also need a paintbrush.

Step 2: Roll the clay out in your pasta machine on the thickest setting (or with a rolling pin until a couple of millimeters thick). With cardstock, cut out the shape of a heart, making it as big or as small as you want. Now, trace this onto your clay and cut out with your blade.
If you want to get fancy, order yourself some polymer clay mini cutters and use these to create super uniform charms! They act just like cookie cutters. I should get myself some, it would make clay work so much easier!

Step 3: Poke a hole right at the top. Repeat last step and this one to make another cutout.

Step 4: Place your studs or gems all around the outline. Press down to embed the studs right in.

Step 5: Go and bake. I use a toaster oven at 125 degrees for about 15 min. Let cool.

Paint a nice thick glaze of lacquer on the top. Let dry, then paint sides and back. Let dry.

Attach earwires.

Finished!

These would be great for little girls. If you have small clay cutters in different shapes, feel free to use them too!

Mine measured about 2cm wide by 1.5cm long. I won't be wearing them, but my mom will!

All photos and instructions copyright Allison Cooling for Quiet Lion Creations.

If you share/use/post this tutorial, please link back to me. It is much appreciated!

Color Monday: Agua Fresca Palette

A super-girly blend of hot and pastel pinks meets it's match contrasted by black!