Etsy At Last

If you have been following me for a while, you may know that for the past two years, I've been aspiring to open a shop on Etsy. Well, I've finally gotten through all the necessary requirements, and I'm proud to announce the grand opening of...
Scarlet Kitsune Jewelry and Accessories
I'm still putting it together right now, so you won't see much listed, but in time there'll be more, I promise!
I just want to take this opportunity to say thank you to everyone who has read my posts-- you are a huge part of the reason why I've made it this far with my crafting, trying new materials and techniques and improving old ones. 
I'll be posting a coupon code here once I get my shop set up more entirely, so be on the lookout for that ;)

Quick Enameling

Okay, so it's not really enameling-- it's nail polish. It is quite a bit cheaper, faster, and easier though, and yields quite excellent results in my experience.

For example, I got a set of all plain silver colored earrings cheaply (except the cherry ones). There they are in various states of completion.

I usually use 1-3 coats of color, depending on the brand of nail polish and how opaque I want the color to be. You really don't need a clear top coat unless you put glitter or something on top.

Note though that your color might come out slightly different over metal with a gold vs. silver colored finish. It's not very clear in the photographs, but my one coat of green came out significantly darker on the gold cherry leaves than on the silver turtles. 

If you happen to have some plain looking jewelry, this is a great way to spruce it up. And if you mess up, it comes off with nail polish remover :)

That said, I can't guarantee that all the harsh chemicals in these products will not harm your jewelry, so please do not try this on anything valuable!

Screw Earrings

Ah, what's not to love about looking like you just came out of a hardware accident?

You'll just need to clamp your two screws in a vice and use a hacksaw to cut off the threaded part of it...

...and then hot glue them to earring posts. Does it get any simpler? ;)

Anatomical T-shirt

This is something that I made a while ago and had sitting around on my camera. Even though the photo quality isn't the best, I thought I'd post it for all the science geeks out there :)

First outline your organs in chalk. I searched up a picture on google images for this, so please don't jump on me if this isn't anatomically correct :(

Then I used Tulip metallic fabric paint to draw my design, keeping about one cm away from my chalk lines so the paint can hold better. Wait 72 hours and then wash with hot water to set the paint, and then parade around showing off your insides to every passer-by ;)
You're welcome to use my shirt as a template, or search for a more accurate and detailed drawing of your own~

Earring Pyramid

So this is what I'm currently using to hold all of my "normal" earrings (posts and dangles)....

As you can see, it's a basic square-based pyramid shape. I used leftover base molding from a house renovation project for the frame. The bottom pieces are about 6" long and 1" high, and the sides are about 7.5 x 1". 

Then I used a 1/16 drill bit to drill holes along the bottom and sides for post earrings. I staggered them so that larger earrings could fit on the top row without blocking the holes to the lower ones. I also drilled some holes in the sides for even larger earrings.

When all of your pieces are drilled and sanded, assemble them with hot glue and then spraypaint if desired.

I then strung embroidery floss around the inside of the boards so I could hang danglies too. Use a dab of hot glue and make sure you pull the string taut so it doesn't sag too much when you put weighty earrings on it. You may want to put a bit more hot glue over the string too just in case. 

Here it is from the outside.

And there you have your multi-functional earring pyramid :)

Charm Porcupine

So far I've made tons of little earring charms with a loop that can be interchanged on one pair of kidney earwires. But these presented a bit of a problem storage and display wise, because I couldn't hang them from a traditional earring display. So...time to make my own! 

I was charging my camera as I cut and drilled this, but just pretend the wood is in whatever shape it's layed out as :)

Get a strip of thin wood. Mine was about 14" x 4" x 2cm.

You'll want to cut it as shown above, in half first, and then one large triangle in the middle of each with two half triangles on each side....

...like this!

As you see, the two half triangles can be put together to make a triangle the size as the one in the center.

Now go ahead and drill holes. I belive I used a 3/32" drill bit, but you can try out one hole first to see if it's the  right size. The eventual goal is to fit one toothpick in each hole, so if you're not sure on the size, try a smaller drill bit first and work your way up until the toothpick is snug.

When you're done drilling the holes, get your hot glue gun ready-- you'll be using it a lot from here on.

First you'll need to glue your half triangles together to make a full size triangle. Try to do this quickly and push the wood tightly together.

Then, grab half as many toothpicks as there are holes, and cut each toothpick in half. Stick each toothpick half into a hole, blunt side out so you don't prick yourself, and apply a little bit of hot glue to the inside are to secure them.

See why I call it a porcupine now? ;)

After every toothpick is glued in, you can glue the four triangles together into a pyramid shape. Just as before, try to work quickly and press the wood firmly together for the best fit and hold.

At this point, you can paint this if you like or keep the natural wood look as I did.

And finally, the fun part -- put all your charms on it! :)

But what to do if you only have a small number of these dangle charms? What if building a whole earring porcupine is just too much work? Or maybe you just don't have the tools needed?

I'll show you how I made a more traditional earring holder too, and how you can easily hang these charms on that or a store-bought one ;)