Beaded Necklace

I just made quite a few pieces of jewelry to donate to a benefit and I took step by steps of how I did it.  Here is what you will need... 

~Beads
~Beading Wire (sometimes called Tiger Tail)
~Crimp Beads
~Clasp (I would start off with a variety pack because they will usually also have the wire ring that you will need to attach the dangle part of the necklace and sometimes even the Head Pin as well)
~Bead crimper (You can substitute your pliers if you need to but a crimper is best)
~Needle Nose Pliers
~Wire Cutters or Heavy Scissors
If you want to add on the dangle part of the necklace you will need a Head Pin

You will start by taking your wire and cutting it to the length you need, leave about 2 inches extra for attaching the clasp.  Place a bead crimp on the wire and then one end of the clasp.  Then loop the other end of the wire back through the bead crimp and crimp the bead.  Crimping is a 2 step process and the instructions will be on the box when you buy your bead crimper.  If you do not have a bead crimper you can use pliers and just crush the bead flat.  This will do the job although the crimp will not be as sturdy and wont look as nice.

You can now cut the excess on the wire tail but leave a little so that you can cover it with the beads you start to add on, if you don't cover the wire with the beads it will itch your neck. 

Now start to string on the rest of your beads until you have about an inch or inch and a half of wire left.  Now you will do pretty much the same process you started with.  Place a bead crimp on the wire along with the other part of your clasp.  This part will be a little tougher than the first part because you have to loop the wire back in through the bead crimp and also push it back through the beads you have already strung on.  You will want to make sure you do not leave any gaps in the string, crimp the bead on so that it is tight to the string of beads.

 If you have some wire left that you cant push through the beads simply use your wire cutters to cut it very closely to the beads so that it doesn't stick out and scratch you while you are wearing it.

You can now start on the dangle part if you want to add it.  Take your Head Pin and add on the amount of beads that you want.  If you have excess wire left you can use your wire cutters to trim. 

Then you will use your needle nose pliers to shape the wire into a loop, if you have round nose pliers these will work really well here.  Close the loop completely and then take your wire ring which you will need to open a bit and connect them. 

You can now attach the ring to your claps and your done!  Here is the finished product.

Spring Flowers

Wow, it's been a while since I posted.  These past few weeks have certainly been busy with family in town and so many other things to do.  I just wanted to take a few moments to post some of my recent flower arrangements.  No step by steps with this, I think flower arrangements should be what you want them to be. 

For this arrangement I used light purple stock, white hydrangeas, purple wax flower and filled in with some lemon leaves with steel grass looped throughout.  I also took a group of steel grass and made a ring of it to put inside the vase.  The ribbon was attached with double sided tape and I also added a ring of rhinestones. 

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This next arrangement was made mainly with things I found in my backyard.  I took daffodils and some budding branches to add some green.  I also used the steel grass that I had left over to hide the glass container that I had inside my moss pot.  I then used some other branches to add some heighth to the arrangement.

It's Official!

I now own www.FunctionalFruitions.com and I could not be more excited!  It's all starting to come together, I will soon have my new Etsy account running too.  I have decided to start selling the things I make, I can't wait to share.  Stay tuned!!

Easter Egg Craft

This project is fairly easy and would be great to do with kids.  Here is what you will need:
~Empty egg carton (paper not plastic or styrofoam)
~Eggs to paint (I found great paper mache ones at Micheals- a pack of 6 for around $2)
~Acrylic paint in your desired colors
~Paint brushes
~Glitter if you want to add a little something extra
~Scissors
~Twig
~Hot glue
~Ribbon

Start by taking your egg carton and cut it into three sections of four egg holders

Next, paint your section of four the color you want, I didn't fully paint the underside and the bottoms of where the eggs sit in since you wont be able to see those spots.

You can now begin painting your eggs.  Paint them flat colors, add stripes, dots, glitter...  whatever you want.
I used my paint pallet to set them on to dry but you could place them in your egg carton but set them in lightly so you don't mess the paint. 

Once everything is dry take your glue gun and add some hot glue to the inside of each egg holder so that the eggs will stay in place.

You will then poke two small holes at each side of your egg carrier, one at each side.  This is for the twig to go through, use a twig that is bendable otherwise it will break when you shape it.  You may want to use a knife to shave the ends of your twigs down a bit so that the go into the holes better.  Obviously an adult should do this part.

Next put your twig ends through each hole and use your hot glue to glue the twig on the underside of the carton.

You can now add your bow, tie it on however you want and your done!





National Autism Awareness Day

So today's post is more therapeutic for me than anything. Today is National Autism Awareness Day and that is such a great thing. I have a 5 year old brother who is affected by autism and I love that attention is finally being brought to the disease. Today started out pretty well, my husband wanted more than anything to go out on our boat fishing so like a little kid he woke me up bright and early raring to go. We went out for a few hours and didn't catch a thing, not even a bite. That's ok though because I knew he had fun. When we got back home I turned on the tv to notice that a special on autism was on and I definitely wanted to watch it. Today is about education and awareness after all and I am always looking for more information on the very thing that so deeply affects my little brothers life. After watching this show I found myself just that, totally aware. Aware to the fact that I have been so blind as to how much my brother is actually affected. Aware that he is so much worse than many other children labeled with autism. I found myself at one point saying to my husband, "gee, I wish James were as far along as this little boy". The majority of the show focused on the little boy when he was around ages 2 and 3. My little brother is nearly 5 and a half and he is much worse than this little boy at the age of 3. At least this child is verbal and you can communicate. How is it that they are focusing on the little boy and having him be the depiction of "autism"? I fear that people will see this special and think that autism isn't that bad because in my eyes this boy seems fairly normal. I find myself wondering how my brother will end up. How will he develop so that he can lead a somewhat normal life. I have been aware of the disease for a while now yet so unaware of the severity to which my brother is affected. Today is the first day I actually sat and cried thinking about my brothers future. I just sat there and cried, no, sobbed.


On the other hand I do see the progress he is making and what he could become. He is so lucky to have my mother and step father there fighting for him. They work tirelessly everyday to get him the help he needs. Speech, OT, play therapy, swim therapy, or whatever else might work for him. I see my mother completely consumed everyday my his disease, consumed by research, treatment and just trying to manage day to day life. I don't know where he would be today without her there fighting for him every minute of everyday. She is truly an angel and I don't know how she manages to do what she does but she is a miracle worker.


April is National Autism Awareness Month and I urge everyone to get educated on this disease because it is so much on the rise. Next time you are out and you see a child misbehaving and you think to yourself, "what a brat, why can't they get their child under control?"... I want you to stop and think, maybe that child isn't a brat, maybe there is more there than I can see. You never know what the circumstances are and why that child is acting out. That child could be acting out because they are autistic and something very simple set them off. It could be that something is out of place, they don't like the color of the walls, or one of my brother triggers... Babies with pacifiers in their mouths.


So what's next? I pick myself up, put on my blue shirt in support of autism awareness day and move on with the day. You have to keep moving on and forward and pray. I pray that my mother and step father continue to have the strength to keep fighting and I pray that my brother will start to progress more. I pray for a treatment for this disease. I pray for the families so deeply affected by autism, and esspecially the ones effected even more so than mine because there are children that are much worse than my brother. Tomorrow is a new day and another opportunity for advances to be made.


I love my brother more than life and he is truly a blessing to our family!

Cake Balls/Pops!

Am I behind on posting or what!  It has been a crazy week.  This is a project I did last week and thought you guys would enjoy this, it's a great one to do with kids too.


Here is everything you will need...
~Cake mix and whatever ingredients it calls for
~Frosting
~Chocolate (I used chocolate chips because it's what I had at home but I would strongly suggest using baking chocolate since it makes for better presentation)  Get creative with this, use pink, purple or whatever color you want.  Michaels and most other craft stores will sell pre-colored baking chocolate. 
~Sprinkles or whatever you want to use to decorate
~Wax paper
~Bowls for mixing
~Spoon
~Baking sheet

Start by baking the cake and letting it cool, then cut around the edges so that you do not have any hardened pieces in your mix.  Cut the remainder of the cake into small squares, this makes it easier to work with.

Place your cake squares into a bowl and use your hands to break them up into a fine mix (obviously make sure your hands are clean for this).  Then take about 5 tablespoons of your frosting and add it to the cake. 

Use your hands again to knead the frosting into the cake mix, much like when making meatballs.  The mixture should work up into a mix that you can work with and mold into balls.  If you need to add more frosting go right ahead.

Lay out your baking sheet and put wax paper over it.  take small mounts of your cake mix and make it into little bite size balls and place them on your baking sheet.  I then place my sheet with the cake balls on it in my freezer for about 30 minutes, they are much easier to cover with chocolate like this since they will be harder.

Once your cake balls are almost ready to pull out of the freezer you can begin melting your chocolate.  You can use either the double pot method or a microwave but you have to be very careful with a microwave.  If using one, heat in 30 second intervals and stir often to get the right consistency.  If you over heat, the chocolate will actually harden up again.  If you are using baking chocolate just follow the directions on the package.  Take your balls one at a time and dip them in your chocolate, a serving spoon will be a big help here.  Once it is covered place it back on your wax paper covered baking sheet and decorate with sprinkles if you like.

Wait for the chocolate to harden, eat and enjoy!  Mine obviously aren't as pretty as they could be because I used chocolate chips but they were still yummy!

You can also make these into Cake Pops simply by inserting lollipop/sucker sticks into the balls before freezing them.  This also makes it easier when dipping them into chocolate.  You can also use a block of foam to put the ends of the sticks into and stand them up so that they dry better without a flat end on them from resting on the wax paper to harden.  Both the sticks and foam can be purchased at your local craft store.