Bridal Hair Accessories

Happy New Year!

A belated Happy New Year to you all, were over half way through the month already, the years have just been flying by, far to quickly for my liking.

It's a new year, which means lots of new ideas for the coming months.This year I want to develop and expand the ranges in bridal jewellery, to include bridesmaid jewellery sets in exciting colours and designs, that reflect the changing tastes of brides, who want to express their individual colour choices and style. 

I'll share with you all, a couple of the new bridal combs that I have already made. I've said in the past, how much I love pearls and crystals, both of which are my favorite beads to work with, when making my jewellery pieces.

This bridal comb has been made with white faux glass beads and clear crystal faceted round beads and can be custom ordered, to match a brides chosen bridal colours.



This one has been made with ivory glass pearl beads, the top row beads are slightly larger than the beads underneath them. The colour of the pearls can be changed to compliment the brides wedding colours.

 

For this comb, I used small pink and white pearls and crystals, and they have been arranged to look like sprigs of flowers in the hair.

Learning to make these bridal combs has been an enjoyable experience, I will be making some more combs, to add the collection.

I've already started to make a tiara, I will be showing that on my blog, when it is completed.

The combs and tiaras will be added to my shop, in the spring.

If your getting married and still trying to decide what style or design of bridal jewellery to choose from, visit my shop at www.michelleshandcraftedjewellery.com,

All my jewellery is handmade and can be personalised, in your chosen wedding colours.





Make your own lipgloss!

 

I don't normally blog about make up, but as you know I do like to blog about making things, so I thought I'd include this fun and easy to do project.  

I prefer to lipglosses to lipsticks, but I've been tempted  occassionally to buying  lipsticks that I thought looked great in the store, but then don't quite look the same, once I got them home. I think the lighting in department stores are awful. The amout of times over the years, I have spent £12 on a lipstick, only to get it home, try it on and then thought, it looked much better in the store. Instead of just leaving those lipsticks to gather dust, I thought I'd turn them into lipglosses.

My first lipstick to lipgloss transformation, is a lipstick from Mac which I bough last winter, I think I wore it several times, I did not like how it looked on me, then just forgot about it.

All you need to make your own lipgloss is the following:

Lipstick of choice
Petroleum Jelly (Vasaline)
Knife
Small round container
Microwave

Get your small container, mine is a free sample container I got from the Mac counter. Cut off a piece of the lipstick and then add a tablespoon of the Vasaline. Add these to the small container and pop it into the microwave  for about 30 seconds. Remove and stir till both lipstick and Vasaline have been mixed to a smooth consistency. If you want your lipstick to have a sronger colour, add some more of the lipstick, if you want it to have a hint of colour, add some more Vasaline.

 

Pop the container into the fridge overnight, and then the next morning, you will have your very own homemade  moisterising lipgloss. I've got a few more lipsticks to convert into lipglosses, which I'll be doing in the next few days, I'll have my own little stash ready for the summer, I find wearing lipsticks a bit heavy to wear when the weather is warm, so lipglosses are a welcome alternative.

 

  

BIRTHDAY SALE 15% Off!

 

Hi Everyone

Today is my birthday, please don't ask how old I am, I'm trying to forget it myself, the years are flying by too quickly for me, lol. I don't normally celebrate my birthday, but this year I thought go on, what's the big deal, 'Age is nothing but a number'!

I wanted to share my special day with you all, so from today, until Sunday 18th November there is 15% off all my fabulous jewellery in my shop, at www.michelleshandcraftedjewellery.com.

 Just use the discount code 'BIRTHDAYSALE'.

Go and treat yourself or buy a special gift for an upcoming birthday or for Christmas.

What are you waiting for, enjoy!

Michelle x

Wire Wrapping

I've been interested in wire wrapping jewellery for a while, when I come across photos of beautiful designs,  I want to give it a go and see what I can come up with. Well, I came across a large bead, that's been sitting in my bead box since the summer. I had some gold plated 20 gauge wire, which is  softer than the normal 20 gauge wire, was my work table, so I started playing around with it and this is what I came up with.

 

It's not perfect, but I like it, I'm wearing it right now. The  wire could of been wound a bit tighter and I could of wrapped the base a bit better, but I think it's ok first a first attempt. I've already ordered some more craft wire to try and practise with. Wire wrapping has now joined my crafting 'To Do' list, which keeps growing. I'll be showing my makes on here, as and when I create them.

Bye for now

Is it that time of year already?

I was hoping to launch my new bridesmaid jewellery range this month, but have decided to delay it till the spring. This is because it's that time of year again, you know the one were us crafters are franatically making gorgeous items for christmas.  Whether it's fabulous jewellery, amazing cards or yummy smelling candles, everyone in the crafting world, is getting their shops ready for festive season.

I've already started making my sparkling goodies, mainly bracelets, earrings and necklaces, there will be lots of colour, bling and sparkle. If your looking for jewellery to wear for any upcoming xmas parties or events, or you want to buy a special christmas gift, stop by my online shop. I will be adding  lots new pieces in the weeks leading up to xmas.

Here's a bracelet, with matching earrings, that I made last night, as you can see I've made it in my favorite colour, purple. It will be on sale very soon in my online shop, at www.michelleshandcraftedjewellery.com

Bye for now.

Pearls are a girls best friend.




One of my favorite types of jewellery to make is bridal jewellery. I thought about expanding my range of jewellery to include bridal jewellery in late 2011. I love the beauty of pearls, whether they are freshwater, glass pearls, e.t.c. I remember giving my mother a gift of pearls a few years back. They were ivory faux pearls and they just glowed in the box, I wanted to keep them for myself. Pearls do feature alot in my jewellery, as do crystals, which go so well  together. Crystals and rhinestones add a bit of bling to jewellery, nothing like a bit of sparkle to make you feel special and get you noticed. 

At the moment I'm creating a number of bridesmaid jewellery sets, consisting of earrings and matching necklaces. I have used traditional colours such as white and ivory, but nowadays brides are more adventurous with their bridal colours, there will be lots of, purple (my favorite colour), gold, pink, mint, silver, grey... e.t.c.  It's been soo much fun creating my collections, I can't wait to show them off.

Here's a sneak peek of one of the set of bridesmaid necklaces that I have made, as I said before, pearls and crystals love each other.

Both my online shops stock a selection of bridal jewellery.
www.michelleshandcraftedjewellery.com
www.etsy.com/shop/Michelleshandcrafted

My new bridesmaid jewellery collections will be launched in October.

Jewellery Packaging

One of the post important aspects of running your own jewellery business is presentation. When a customer orders a piece of jewellery, it should be presented in a way that makes them feel special and your packaging should reflect this. I have chosen purple/lilac and black as my packaging colours. I carefully wrap my jewellery in lilac tissue paper, the package is then tied with a purple silk ribbon, with Michelle's Handcrafted Jewellery printed on it and then it's all placed in a purple organza gift bag.



Wedding jewellery is sent in a black box, which I will have decorated with silver embellishments. I love butterflies so you will come across a butterfly at some point, when you received your jewellery from me.



The earrings are placed on earring cards and I always include a business card, which is a gentle reminder, to my customers, letting them know where they got that particular item from. Last, but not least, each customer will receive a handwritten note from me, thanking them for their custom.

Making the jewellery is lots of fun, packaging it all up, makes me feel like I'm wrapping presents for Christmas and I enjoy wrapping presents, I enjoy my work from start to finish, what more could I ask for.