Liberty Torch Bead Charm

I examined the shapes that make up the Liberty Torch and this is my attempt at recreating it in jewelry form for the 4th of July.  Let me know how I did.

Watch my YouTube tutorial here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zov199q5XEo 

Rolling Pin Bead Charm

This rolling pin is sweet as a bead charm and makes a lovely gift for the baker in your life.  But it can also be made as a dollhouse miniature by using only the wooden elements and simply gluing them together.  It only takes 3 simple beads to create: One 10x20mm wood cylinder bead and two 12x6mm wood teardrop beads. 

Be on the lookout for this rolling pin to show up in a Christmas project later on. 😉

Watch my YouTube tutorial here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c11r84VVnfo 

Also watch my Mushroom Bead Charm video that uses the same wood teardrop beads:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7noja1hqarA&t=25s 

Table Lamp Bead Charm

This cutesy little table lamp bead charm came together by chance when I accidentally laid this acrylic bead cap next to my sparkly bead dangle that I had left out on my beading desk.  And once the idea had sparked, I couldn't resist bringing this little guy to life!  I think those serendipity moments and those accidental ideas are sometimes the best of all!! 

Watch my YouTube tutorial here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RMJlcA4h-g 

You can also watch my "Simple Bead Dangles" video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dd8tXfqREEQ&t=95s 

BBQ Grill Bead Charm

This BBQ Grill Bead Charm is the cutest little Summer time accessory. They're made from the same half-circle bead caps that you've already seen me use for the Graduation Bead Charm and the Fishing Bobber Bead Charm, with the addition of seed beads, bugle beads, a thin silver bead cap and a red rhinestone.  All these are common and easy to find beading supplies.  Let me show you how to put it together.

Watch my YouTube tutorial here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcqQA5x97wQ 

Stamping Haul

I can't wait to delve into paper crafting!!  This week I took a rare trip out of town and was able to get an excellent start on building my paper crafting supplies.  I'll show you what all I got from Wal-Mart, Dollar Tree, and Joann!  Are there any must-haves that I've forgotten?  I can't wait to get started!! :-D

Wanna see my haul?  Watch my YouTube video about it here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhPvDpTIm_M 

Camping Lantern Bead Charm

You won't believe how easy it is to make this camping lantern bead charm.  I only used one bead and two earring backs.  Super simple!  This lantern is the perfect addition to our fishing theme that we've developed for Father's Day this year, so we've got another dangle for Dad's fishing cap.  It would also be great for camping lovers, boy scouts, girl scouts... any outdoor enthusiasts really.  You could dangle this from a necklace instead of a fishing cap, or you could make two and turn them into an adorable pair of earrings.  

Watch my YouTube tutorial here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOFVPzwj870 

Fishing Bobber Bead Charm

This fishing bobber bead charm will be perfect to dangle from Dad's fishing cap.  Make this for Father's Day and take Dad fishing!

Watch my YouTube tutorial here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_VUe6YOdLw 

Fishing Boat Napkin Folding

This fishing boat napkin fold is great for your table setting on Father's Day as well as fishing or boating themed birthday parties.  I love these wood grain napkins that I found at Walmart during Thanksgiving time, but you don't have to use the wood grain.  You could use a solid brown or tan to imply the wood look if you can't find wood grain napkins.  This could be done with brighter colored napkins to become a canoe too!  As with any craft, you can change it up in a lot of ways to fit a lot of different occasions.  Get Craftie and see what else you can make it become. I'd love to hear your ideas.

Watch my YouTube tutorial here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qI3qedU38B4 

Dad's Hawaiian Shirt Napkin Folding

I'll bet you never thought you'd use those floral napkins for FATHER'S DAY!  Well, that's exactly what we're gonna do.  By using a floral patterned napkin, we can turn a shirt napkin fold into Dad's Hawaiian shirt for our table setting on Father's Day.  So cute!  So quick!  So easy!  Of course, if the Dad in your life is not a Hawaiian shirt kinda guy, you can do this fold with a different pattern such as plaid or stripes.  Even a solid color napkin makes a really cute Dad shirt.  

Watch my YouTube tutorial here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EunERVp37Q 

Bullet Lipstick Bead Charms

Another viewer suggestion!  Thank you so much Janet for suggesting bullet lipstick charms. Oh my gosh! Have you ever seen anything cuter?!  I'm in love with this idea!  And I love getting suggestions, so y'all keep 'em coming! :-D  If I love your suggestion, I WILL give it a try.

Watch my YouTube tutorial here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HcYtoaDTVs 

.22 Bullet Earrings

Viewer suggestion!  Thank you so much to Bonie for suggesting .22 bullet earrings.  What a cute idea!  I so love getting suggestions from you all.  Keep 'em coming! :-D

Watch my YouTube tutorial here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4siBZ6TluH8 

Cupcake Birthday Card

How do you like my first attempt at card making?  It's a pretty good start, but I promise I will improve.  All it takes to succeed at something is to have a desire to succeed at it.  I definitely have a desire.  I am really loving card making and paper crafting. :-)  The only paper crafting I ever did much of was scrapbooking and I LOVED it too!  

I made this card in the A2 size, which is 4 1/4" x 5 1/2".  Simply cut a regular piece in half in the direction making it 8 1/2" x 5 1/2", then fold that in half to form the card base.  You can also cut it in the other direction, depending on which way you want the card to open, but we'll talk more about that at another time. 

For the cupcake, I used a 2" square for the base, angled the bottom corners, and cut out a cloud shape for the frosting.  Follow the link below for that cloud image and then simply copy the image, paste it into Word and resize it to any size you want.  My overall image from outline to outline was about 3" wide x 1 1/2" high.

Cloud image: 
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/553450241697768346/ 

You can watch my full YouTube tutorial here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHMsvl3qqzo 

Craftie Kaleidoscope - How I chose my blog name and logo

Welcome to my blog!  Please be patient with me, I’m still learning.  I’m new to blogging but I’ve loved crafting all my life, so I wanted to create this blog where I could share craft projects with other craft lovers.  I'm a homemaker, hobby crafter, and DIYer.  I love ALL things craft related. I love to try new crafts and I'll share with y'all whatever craft I'm trying next. Sometimes I might know what I'm doing and sometimes I might be trying it for the first time with you.  Either way, we’ll have fun!

So, I thought I’d tell you all about how I came up with the name and logo for my blog.  It was not random by any means.  Everything about what you see in my “Craftie” logo tells the story of my crafty journey…  First of all, the name “Craftie” is just generalized to all crafts because when I decided to do a crafting YouTube channel, I didn’t want to restrict myself to just one aspect of crafting.  I love ALL crafts and so I wanted to be able to share ALL types of crafts with all of you. 

I chose a butterfly as my logo because the life cycle of my crafting life has been similar to the life cycle of a butterfly.  I have loved crafts since as far back as I can remember, so I was born a crafty “caterpillar” by nature in that I had the potential, the love, the interest, and I played with crafty projects whenever I got the chance.  Then I felt like I had a time of dormancy, several years ago, when I was kind of in a “Craftie cocoon” for a few years.   All the while, I didn’t really realize that there was a transformation taking place, until I came out of my cocoon, just a few years ago, with a greater love of crafts, and more inspiration, and more ideas than ever before in my entire life.  I’ve been fluttering from one craft to another ever since.  :-D

The reason I chose this particular butterfly is... not only does it represent that butterfly life cycle, but the colorful colors, to me, represent creativity.  Also, the swirls and “freeform” designs in the butterfly AND in the background make me think of creative freedom. So, I had to incorporate the free-flowing swirl design for that reason.

So, for the blog…. Why Craftie “KALEIDOSCOPE”?  Well, There’s meaning behind that too, even beyond the wonderful alliteration sound that it has to it.  A kaleidoscope is not simply a colorful looking glass toy.  That word has so much more meaning, which connected to my Craftie life cycle on so many levels!  Merriam-Webster defines kaleidoscope as (other than the toy we all know and love) “a succession of changing phases or actions”, which takes us back to the butterfly life cycle.  It also defines kaleidoscope as “a diverse collection”, which describes my broad spectrum of crafts, as well as the diverse collection of crafters, that being all of us!  Then, to top it all off… a kaleidoscope is... (wait for it..)  ...the collective name for a group of BUTTERFLIES! :-D Just like a group of fish is called a school, a group of wolves are a pack, so a group of butterflies are a kaleidoscope!  That totally topped it off! So, Craftie Kaleidoscope it is then!  After all that, what else could it be?? Really?!

So, I invite you all to join the kaleidoscope!  Flutter along with me on my Craftie journey. Let’s craft and learn and have fun! 

You can also check out my YouTube video blog introduction here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lk_MkKONMO4 

You can also connect with me on my other social media sites:

YouTube: www.youtube.com/craftiecraftie 

Facebook: www.facebook.com/craftiecraftie 

Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/craftiecraftie 

Instagram: www.instagram.com/craftiecraftie 

And you can email me @:  contactcraftie@gmail.com

Simple Bead Dangles - Collab with HappyBird

I'm over the moon right now to be doing a collab with HappyBird!!  😁  I've been watching her channel since I first tried beading at all, with simple dangles just like this.  It's really surreal! These simple bead dangles can be used to add a little sparkle to pendants and other pieces of jewelry.  In my video I will show you how easy they are to make as well as showing you several different size/color/style options.  Let me know which is your favorite.  Be sure to watch HappyBird's video for a tutorial on how to make some beautiful pendants incorporating some dangles like these.

Watch my full YouTube tutorial here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dd8tXfqREEQ 

Watch Happybird's video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80fTMZIQGb4&feature=push-u-sub&attr_tag=zXbUiakDkqKH5VED-6 

Another Happybird video using these dangles:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JoIUeJ8qgE&feature=push-u-sub&attr_tag=2rcfz68E9iDPp933-6

Check out her YouTube channel @:
https://www.youtube.com/user/OneVeryHappyBird 

Check out her blog @:
https://happybirdsglitternest.blogspot.com/