Starting the New Year with a DIY

Hey friends!  I hope you had a fabulous holiday.  It’s been pretty hard to get back into the swing of things around here, but I thought starting the year with an easy do-it-yourself statement piece would be a great way to keep things moving!

Over on Pinterest world, I’ve spotted a few bib necklaces that have really tickled my fancy…like this Noetic Snowfall one from Anthropologie or this Tortoise and Crystal one from ShopBop.  After staring at them a half-dozen times or so, I realized that they aren’t that difficult to recreate…

First, I gathered the necessary supplies: a yellow scrap of leather for the base, an autoshape printed from Microsoft Word (You don’t see this step, but I traced the autoshape onto the back of the leather, then cut it out), old jewelry that hasn’t been worn in a while, and some jump rings.

Next, I deconstructed the jewelry.  You would think that having a carpenter for a husband would mean that I would have the proper tools available…not so much.  I just use kitchen shears and my super-woman strength.  Deconstructing was actually quite the stress reliever!

Then I played around with the leather scrap and decided which jewelry pieces I wanted to use.  I have tiny rhinestones pictured here, but they didn’t end up in the final cut.

I used a sharp kitchen knife to poke a hole into each top corner.  Then I inserted one jump ring into each hole.  The chain was separated in two and connected to the jump rings.  I used my trusty hot glue gun to attach the jewelry pieces to the leather base.

Not too bad, huh?  For the pieces of jewelry that I was willing to part with, I like how it turned out!  But you can bet that the next time I go to the thrift store, I’ll be looking for other necklaces and babbles to recycle into other bib necklaces.