Starry-Eyed Skull Bracelet

I fell in love with my first skull bracelet about a year ago after finding it in a weird little shop on vacation.. there's just something creepy-adorable about the little beads. Sadly, the elastic snapped to my skull bracelet and I lost half the beads. Instead of trying to find another one I decided to just make my own! On top of that, I wanted to make a more girly-glam version of the bracelet, thus the starry-eyed skull was born!

Supplies:
-Skull beads - They come in all different sizes, shapes, and colors. Try Etsy.com (just search skull beads and pick which you like best!) You can also find them at many craft stores.
-Jewelry elastic
-Glitter nail polish
-Ribbon (optional)
-Hot Glue Gun + Glue (optional)

Step One:
-String the skulls onto the Jewelry elastic. Measure to fit your wrist (with my size wrist/ beads I used 15 skulls)
-Tie string in a secure knot.

pink, red, and turquoise! 

Step Two:
-Lay bracelet flat. Face all skulls upwards
-Using glitter nail polish carefully dab each skull eye socket. The polish should fill the hollow socket. I found using a medium sized glitter gave me the look I wanted. You can see below the different between using a fine glitter and a medium. It's totally your preference!

 fine glitter vs. medium glitter

(tip: if you mess up or don't like the polish you've chosen use a cotton swab to remove the paint!)

for the pink skull bracelet I only painted every other skull

Step Three:
-Let polish dry completely (this could take a while)
-Optionally decorate with a ribbon bow. Use a little dab of hot glue to secure the bow so that it does not untie.

Voila! Spooky-Glam skull bracelets you can stack :)

I love chunky stacked bracelets

.. maybe a little too much :)

Little Boxes

Are you automatically singing the little boxes song in your head now? I know I was the entire time I was making these. (don't know what I'm talking about?  just watch an episode of weeds or listen here, it's addicting.)

Anyway, cute little boxes are the perfect way to snazz up a tiny gift! For my mother's last birthday we got her a charm bracelet and instead of having one jewelry box to open I places a charm in each little box.

Supplies: 

-craft/ scrapbook paper (mine is from a paris-themed pack I found at Joanns)

-scissors

-glue/ glue stick/ glue dots

-pencil

-ruler

-printer

-embellishments (stickers, ribbons, flowers, glitter, whatever)

Step One: Print out a box template. You can find them in pretty much any size or shape by simply googling "box template". You can print out a different template for every size and shape or you can just adjust one using a ruler (which is what I did). Here's a great little jewelry box template: link

Cut out the template.

Step Two: Trace the template onto the backside of the scrapbook paper. I'm awful with strait lines so I always use a ruler as well. If you want to extend the sides of the box so that it is taller just add the same amount of space to each side of the box. A taller box will have the same size lid. Make a box larger by creating a larger inner square. You then must increase the lid the same amount as well (for an easier solution to a bigger box, just print the template larger).

*Try mix & match paper patterns for bottoms and lids! The great thing about buying paper packs is that they usually contain the same pattern in different colors. 

Step Three: Cut the box out of the craft paper. Fold along the four sides of the inner square and the tabs. Really make the folds crisp by laying them on a flat surface and pressing along the fold with the ruler. Glue along a tabs to connect each of the sides and do the same for the lid. Do not place the lid on top of the box (no matter how tempting) until the glue is completely dry. 

Step Four: Put the presents inside the boxes with some cute tissues paper, close em up and decorate! Ribbons and bows are always great for presents but you can also use stickers, glitter, cloth embellishments, buttons, flowers, stamps, twine, more paper- the skies the limit.

Check out my finished birthday boxes below!