Lucky Cat Beaded Charm Tutorial

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After far too long of an absence, here's a fun and easy craft tutorial.  

Lucky Cat Beaded Charms

I got the idea for these charms sometime after finding these cute cat bead at JoAnn's, but that was before they closed up. Sigh...

Don't worry, I found similarly cute kitty beads here at Amazon. So, on to the tutorial.

Materials needed:

• Cat beads or large novelty beads of your choice.
• Smaller round beads like these.
• Small bells. These ones from Michael's should work, also these from Dollar Tree.
• Eye pins, like these ones.
• Some phone charm straps. I got mine at Daiso, but these ones should worked too.
• A pair of pliers like these.

First slide one of your round beads and a cat bead head first on to a pin.

Use your pliers to bend the pin as shown. Just grip with the pliers, then turn your wrist to bend the wire pin, leaving enough space between the cat and curved part to slide a bell on.

Slide on the bell, then continue to bend the pin with your pliers to wrap the rest of the pin loosely around the top of the bell. It needs to be loose, or the bell won't be able to jingle.

Now just attach the charm strap to the "eye".  The straps I got use a lobster clasp, but some use a split ring. Either works. Now the next step...

...Is to make more!

Make plenty to give to friends and family. Maybe it will bring them luck.

Just don't forget get to save one for yourself. I love their cute little faces. 

That's it for now. I am planning to post another simple craft tutorial later. Hopefully, it won't be quite as late as this one.

Look forward to it!

Give it a try:

• 26pcs Ceramic Beads Lucky Cat Beads Maneki Neko Porcelain Spacer Beads
  
• Matte Glass Round Beads by Bead Landing
  
• 2" Eye Pins by Bead Landing
  
• Silver Jingle Bells by Creatology
  
• Crafter's Square Christmas Round Bells
  
• Phone Charm Accessory Mix by Bead Landing
  
• Bead Landing 3-In-1 Pliers
  

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Charm and Character

Today is my brother’s birthday, he is younger than me although I look much younger than him.  For the past few years, whenever I gave him a present it was always a CD/DVD holder.  I would decorate them in different ways and last Christmas I made one from scratch.  Will just how many CD holders does one guy really need.  So I decided on something different.

I hadn’t touch the shrink plastic in so long or made my zipper charms in a while for that matter and thought they would be perfect.  I found some images around the internet from some of my brother’s favorite anime and manga series.  I found the image from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya here, Lucky Star here, School Rumble here, and K-On here.  I did have a bit of trouble trying to trace them on to the plastic.  Thankfully pictures on shrink plastic always look great after being shrunk, it hides all the flaws.  They came out pretty good, I might make a few more with other characters.
Here’s the updated list:

• Rosettes
• Doll aprons
• Zipper charms
• Refrigerator
• Heart purse
• Doll
• Kitchen sink
• Cupboards
• Clothes
• Vase
• Dishes
• Curtains

Three down, nine to go.  The next one will be up in a couple of days, no worries there, I have loads of time since my externship ended.  Of course I still have to job search.  :(

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Charmed and Bowed Over

I had managed to collect a few charms, lockets and pendants from broken jewelry and didn’t know what to do with them.  One day I thought, “why not put a bunch together on one necklace?”, so I tried it.

I wanted a heart theme, so I used two heart shaped lockets to start, an upside down heart charm with a paw print, and a pendant for a set of friendship necklaces.  My sister has the other friendship one somewhere.  I filled in the gaps with some flower charms and a butterfly. 

I stitched them to some braided trim, added some clasps, and then added some faux pearls because it needed something.  Now I have a totally unique looking necklace that’s chock full of memories to boot.

I mentioned yesterday that there might be a bonus, and this is it.

To make the necklace and yesterday’s bracelet, I had to search through my box of scraps and embellishments to get some ideas.  I have tons of these pre-made ribbon bows I got a while back, and I have been trying to find ways to use them.  I found a scrap of brown bias trim that I thought looked kind of nice with the bows and maybe some faux pearls, and since I was already making jewelry I automatically made the connection between the bows and making a bracelet with them. 

Just stitched them on the trim, add clasps and faux pearls, and voila!  An unusual, yet pretty cuff.  I think it looks pretty interesting when I wear in backwards too, it looks sort of like ruffled lace.  Maybe I’ll try that too in the future.

Here’s the updated list:

• Pillow
• card bracelet
• charm necklace
• netbook sleeve
• doll swimsuit
• bum bag
• sleep mask
• picture frames
• dress

Three down, six to go.  I’ve been needing the next one really badly.

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A Past Halfway Project List Update

Now more than halfway through my list with these beaded zipper charms.  I actually used sewing pins with the beads instead of the usual, I have more pins than I need anyway.  They are pretty easy it make, except I kept on dropping the pins while trying to attach them. 

Now the updated list:

• Ribbon headbands
• Jean waistband cuffs
• Jewelry with crescent moons and stars
• Tote bag with umbrella appliqués
• Something square
• Watermelon shaped oven mitts, maybe with matching accessories
• Cell phone sleeping bag
• Change purse key chains
• Monster plush key chains
• Strawberry pins and magnets
• Painted binder clips
• bottle cap pins
• zipper charms
• butterflies

Eight down, six to go.

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