Roundup #1

You may have noticed the little badge at the top right of my blog. It's for 30 Days of Creativity, which describes itself as "a social initiative encouraging people to create stuff (anything) every day for 30 days in June." Simple enough, right? Since I have a laundry list of projects, I figured this would push me to be a little more productive than usual. I decided to break my projects down into smaller parts and instead of blogging daily, I've tweeted my progress and uploaded photos to their flickr group.

My first project was tackling one of the many necklaces on my "to re-create" list:

Toast's Abyale Necklace £29

Day 1: Pom Poms
I made these adorable babies using this tutorial from Bella Dia.



Day 2: Wooden (cardboard) Bead Loom
Instructions on how to make your own below!



Day 3: Practicing Simple Patterns
There are countless patterns online, but it's fun to make up your own, too!



Day 4: Beaded Medallion
I actually made this using an off loom beading technique because I found weaving in the ends to be really bulky and messy with the piece I made using my loom. Oh well!



Day 9: Completed Necklace
After what felt like 30 years, I finally settled on a color scheme I liked and finished!




In middle school, my best friend and I were constantly beading with craft looms. I haven't had a loom since then, but I thought it would be simple enough to make my own (plus it seemed like the perfect solution for making the centerpiece). There are tons of plans available online for building your own using wood and dowels but I'm on a tight budget so I chose to improvise! Here's how I made mine:

Materials
Cardboard Box
Scraps of Thick Paper (I used paper packaging for handle bar tape)
Packing Tape
Scissors
Contact Paper (optional)



Step 1: Cut your scrap paper about an inch smaller than the length of one flap's side. Fold it in half and cut small slits about 1cm apart along the folded edge.

Step 2: Cut one flap at the fold leaving 1/2" on either side and slide the scrap paper through the slit.

Step 3: Tape down the flaps and you're done! I chose to wrap mine with woodgrain contact paper because it looked nicer that way, but that's totally optional!



You may have noticed I skipped over a few days but I promise I was still ~creative~. I didn't have much in me besides making pizza from scratch on day 5. On day 6 I made a big mess assembling all of my pieces then deciding to start over because I'm really fickle. Day 7 called for the tutorial illustrations above, and I REALLY thought I would have been done with it yesterday but I changed my mind again!! So, day 8 was wasted, too, BUT I FINALLY FINISHED! Now I need to figure out what to do with all these extra medallions I've made...