Holiday Gifts Ideas with Dot Jewelry

Vicky Eva, Klutz buyer, DIY queen, and (most importantly) proud mama

I love making jewelry with my almost 10-year-old niece; she is a feisty fashionista and loves wearing all kinds of accessories. With the holiday season quickly approaching I wanted to get a head start on a gift for her, but I wanted something special, something handmade. The Klutz Dot Jewelry book was my inspiration for the perfect gift for my niece—handmade jewelry.

The shapes and patterns are fun to use and to wear. I grabbed some of my jewelry findings like earring wires, jump rings, and chains from around the house and started to get to work. Since I knew I would be adding holes into the paper pieces from the Dot Jewelry book, I used some laminating sheets for added reinforcement. I can’t wait to give her these gifts!

Even after making all these pieces for her, there are still more than 1,000 dots and other shapes left from the kit! I can’t wait to see her for the holidays and continue our jewelry-making experience.  

Celebrating Craft Month with Shrink & Link Jewelry

Today's post is brought to you by: Emily Feliberty - Klutz Marketing Manager

 
March is National Craft month and as you can imagine it is a serious celebration in the Klutz office. It’s a time when we shake off the winter blues and set aside some time for crafting, or what we like to call “working.” ;) While I’m not exactly known for being the craftiest one in our group, I vowed to honor the festivities and try out our newest product, Shrink & Link Jewelry.

If you’ve never played with shrink plastic, here’s the deal: It’s a sheet of magic plastic on which you draw and color designs. Cut out your designs with ordinary scissors, bake them for mere minutes on a cookie sheet and, through the miracle of quantum plasto-physics, your creations shrink to approximately 44% of their original size! Yes, I know—amazing. But wait, it gets better. Now, with the help of a handy-dandy hole punch and a custom shaping tool, kids can finally layer their creations and curve their teeny tiny plastic art like never before. With more than 50 traceable designs and 55 brads, they’ll be shrinking and linking, over and over again.

Need a visual? Watch me Shrink & Link here:

 
I kept mixing and matching, and before I knew it I had a limitless wardrobe of “did-you-really-make-that?!” jewelry. Check out my designs!

 

Who knows, maybe I’ll be dubbed the Ultimate Klutz Crafter sometime soon. Maybe not. In either case, happy National Craft Month!

What Makes Christmas Great (with Clay Charms from Klutz)

Christmas is full of wonderful things, like food, family, and lots of holiday cheer! But in the lead up to this amazing time of year, trying to find gifts for everyone on your list can be a bit stressful...

Crafting and shopping for my top people is no problem, but I’m always struggling for a way to cover the people in between: friends I don’t see often; distant family members; and any last minute people who may pop up. This year, I decided to break out one of my perennial Klutz faves, Make Clay Charms, to create some quick, handmade gifts for occasions such as these.

I baked up some super-sized Clay Charms in all sorts of Christmas shapes, and then twisted on wire hooks. Then I popped my homemade ornaments onto some simple sketched backgrounds to make cute, handmade cards that can be stockpiled and handed out on demand. Now I can spread holiday cheer to everyone I encounter! And when it all comes down to it, isn't that what makes Christmas so great?

One of a Kind Father's Day Date (with Toolbox Jewelry)

My dad may not be the handiest on the block, but with that big brain of his, there’s not a project he won’t try. My skills, well they're less in tools than tape and glue, but I’ve got that same determination to take on any crafting adventure. Together, my papa and I have put our skills to use for all sorts of projects, from a bright pink bench to this cool book clock and the light box I use to photograph all my Klutz crafts!

He’s out of town again this Father’s Day, so we scheduled a Skype date to celebrate. To carry on our tradition of handy crafts, I grabbed my copy of Toolbox Jewelry and together I whipped up a stack of cool arm hardware as we chatted the day away. Even though we couldn't be together, we still found a great way to spend our early Father’s Day date!

The last time I made these cool cord bracelets, it was the dead of winter, so I wrapped them around my mini-Christmas tree. But, now that the warm weather is here, I can finally sport these neon-coloured beauties myself. And every time I look at them, I’ll remember my awesome dad and our one-of-a-kind Father’s Day date!

New Year's Eve Night in with Klutz

Happy New Year fellow crafters!

How did you celebrate the start of 2014?

This crafty girl decided to ring in the New Year in DIY style! I had a Klutz crafternoon with some favourite friends and a special surprise for our party at night.

Choosing my favourite Klutz books of 2013 was easy: Make Clay Charms, Nail Style Studio, Beaded Bands and Toolbox Jewelry. I pulled out my copies, spread them out on the table and we each got to work beading, painting, knotting and sculpting fun accessories for the night ahead.

We put on our party outfits and as the countdown finally drew near, it was time to reveal my special surprise. With my laptop, a bed sheet and some printed props, I set up a makeshift photo booth so we could snap pics of our fancy new accessories and get a little silly!

It was an amazing night with good friends and great crafts—and I didn't even have to leave the house. Who could ask for more? The best part was the next day, as we headed home to 2014, we had fun accessories and hilarious pics as souvenirs of our send-off to another great year!

Toolbox Jewels with Klutz Toolbox Jewelry

For this Christmas crafter, there is no better treat than a Klutz kit that will help you to create a ton of cool gifts!

Last year, I hit the jackpot with a bounty of Beaded Bands, so I couldn’t wait to see what my not-so-secret Santa had in store. As usual, Klutz did not disappoint.

All summer, I’d been Pinning and pining for those cool nut and washer bracelets that were popping up everywhere. So my holiday joy skyrocketed to find that they were now within my reach with Toolbox Jewelry. This pretty kit is a collision of Tiffany’s and my dad’s toolbox, and the finished product is as pretty and polished as all of these Pins.

I fixed up an armful of hot hardware with just nuts and washers, ribbons, and string! I’m wrapping up these precious toolbox jewels to deliver with love!

With just a month to go, the Christmas crafting is underway! Looking for more ideas? Check out what I’ve been up to in Christmases past, and stay tuned for Christmas crafts to come!

Back-to-School Dot Jewelry

If you are a warm weather lover like me, as soon as the August long weekend hits, you are already dreading the end of summer. Ahhh, only four more weeks of fun in the sun, and then it’s time to head back to the halls of your educational institution and hit the books.

I know my panic is a little premature, but it certainly doesn’t help that all my favourite stores are already setting out their fall finest! It’s kind of like the day after Halloween, when the world suddenly explodes into Christmas... only then at least you have fun presents and family to look forward to. With back to school, not so much…

One thing that always gets me through my end-of-summer dread is planning my back-to-school wardrobe. Those first five outfits that really set the tone for a new me for the year head.

With this wonky weather we’re having, who knows what I'll be wearing when September rolls around. But one thing I can always count on is jewelry. So, I’m styling up some Dot Jewelry to beat my back-to-school blues and kickstart my first-week wardrobe!

Straight On to Summer (with Scoubidou)

This week we got our first glimpses of the warm weather we’ve been waiting for. Sure, it was short lived, but I soaked that little bit of sun right into my soul and now I'm filled with summer dreams of swimming in lakes, bunking at summer camp, and roasting marshmallows over a campfire. I'm choosing to ignore the warnings of hail(!) ahead and am hunkering down with some Klutz that was made for summer fun.

Whether you know it as gimp, lacing or boondoggle, Klutz give new life to this summer-camp fave with its original name, Scoubidou. (Fun fact: it was a fad in France in the 1950s!) Sure, there are instructions for the classic bracelets we all know and love, but it doesn’t stop there... Pretty ponytail holders, cool Celtic knots, flip flops, and more all get the scoubidou- treatment too! And with enough cord to make all 12 projects, you’ll have plenty to keep you busy till those sunny summer days actually arrive!