Phone cord bangle from Jennifer Perkins' Naughty Secretary Club The Working Girl's Guide to Making Jewelry

Well I was tickled beyond belief to get a copy of
The Naughty Secretary Club: The Working Girl's Guide to Handmade Jewelry

If you prefer your jewelry subtle and serious, you might want to go ahead and set this book back on the shelf. However, if kitschy accessories made with a wink and a smile are your cup of tea, this book will have you on the edge of your chair.

The Naughty Secretary Club is packed with more than 50 kitschy-secretary-themed jewelry projects, plus lots of quirky sidebars covering hot topics such as office romance and the best secretary theme songs to listen to on your lunch break. You'll learn how to use your office supplies in a whole new way - did you know standard office fare, like binder folders and shredded junk mail, makes craftalicious jewelry? Plus, author Jennifer Perkins will teach you how to turn almost anything into a charm, including plastic gnome cake toppers, doll furniture and cast-off hotel keys.

Whatever your day job, you can be a Naughty Secretary in spirit - and in style. So cancel your afternoon meetings, take a break from watching the clock and send yourself a memo to whip up a new paperclip necklace just in time for happy hour!

Jennifer Perkins left her job as a secretary to return to her childhood love of jewelry-making. Her Naughty Secretary Club jewelry has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Teen Vogue, The New York Times, Elle Girl, Alternative Press, Bust, Seventeen and more. Jennifer is the host of Craft Lab and Stylelicious (both on the DIY network) and has been a guest on Craft Corner Death Match and Knitty Gritty. She has a pronounced craft following in addition to a highly visited blog and Web site, www.naughtysecretaryclub.com

I savored every page!

I love using one thing for another and she has this great project that uses old phone cords. Well I had a few things to drop off at the recycling center, stuff that I had already pillage parts off of and the rest needed to go to the other professionals in this field.

But while I was there guess what I saw? Cell phone car chargers! They have a great coil that I thought would work great to make a bangle like the one Jen designed in her book.
I followed the great directions with super photos and it worked like a charm!
I did mix it up a bit by adding a bead at the seam. For directions on how to make the bead pop on over to this post at Craftside.

I think I might use this technique for a purse handle! Thanks Jen.

The first Crafty Blogger Links of March!

Alexa Westerfield a.k.a. Swelldesigner
Check out the cool pin-up shrine that Swelldesigner made with her Crafty Chica Love Shrine kit!

Cathie Filian
Cathie Filian has an easy idea to revamp $1 store candles with a little cha cha cha flair.

Crafty Princess Diaries
Still trying to get your studio organized? Tammy is too! Maybe this resource she discovered will help you out!

Cross Stitch at About.com
A flock of free Fairy patterns have flitted in and landed at About.com Cross Stitch. Use the charts for frilly, flirty, fun projects.

Layers Upon Layers
Making monoprint background papers is an addictive activity...

Naughty Secretary Club
Jen delves into the world of paper crafts and plays Ms. Manners making personalized thank you cards.

Craftside-A behind-the-scenes peek at a crafty world
Craftside has a how-to on using a doming cube from the new book The Jeweler's Studio Handbook, handwriting ideas from Creative Paint Workshop, some wild "hand" art, and a "going green" ATC made with free downloadable art from Altered Art Circus.

The Impatient Crafter
Madge shares another free fab project from her co-authored new book along with another prize giveaway!

About Family Crafts
If you are planning a party for an upcoming birthday or other occasion you have to check out some of these creative resources!

Aileen's Musings
Aileen's looking quite regal in her faux metal crown! Check out her tutorial and make your own crown or two and join her in Queendom!

Cross stitched reindeer sweater cuff

THE SEW-IT BOOK

Reproduction of the 1929 book - The Sew-It Book - Things to make with needle & thread and odds & ends.
17 projects including a child's apron, smock, sun bonnet, rag doll and Kimono-type jacket .

Techniques include sewing, embroidery, doll dress pattern making and tie-dying. 47-page hardback book with an embossed cover.

A keepsake treasure with darling graphics that will charm sewers and quilters, young and old!

So true. The patterns are great in this book, especially the cross stitch, of which I love to do (just check out my other cross stitch work by clicking on the link)

Reindeer are my favorite image right now, I am using it all over the place in my art, craft projects and decorating.

There is a very cool reindeer in the book so I whipped one out using a scrap of cross stitch fabric and a veeeerrrry old all metal hoop that was in a box of old supplies a friend had given me. It worked great!
And this is what I made with my cross stitched deer- a cuff!

The cuff is a recycled wool felted sweater. I attached the cross stitch with 4 heart shaped studs. The cuff closure is Velcro. A note here, you only have to use the hook side of the Velcro because the sweater is just like the loop side and sticks great. This reduces a bit of bulk. In the back ground you can see one of the designs from Subversive cross stitch.

Mardi Gras Crafty Blogger Links

About Family Crafts
Are you up for a crafty challenge? Design your own simple Mardi Gras mask.

Aileen's Musings
Aileen crafts a whimsical birthday banner from rock salt, watercolors and fun embellishments! Let yourself be inspired and create your very own banner!

Crafty Princess Diaries
Tammy and her DH show off their donation to a local Humane Society event. The piece is call "I Heart Animals Necklace" and combines her metal clay skills and his chain making skills.

Cross Stitch at About.com
"Let the Good Times Roll" with Connie's free Mardi Gras Cross Stitch patterns.

Layers Upon Layers
Layers Upon Layers continues to explore lot of different snow-themed art works.

Naughty Secretary Club
It’s Stencil 101 at the Naughty Secretary Club. Learn how to make your own Headphone Hotties Skirt and enter to win free fabric paint!

Craftside-A behind-the-scenes peek at a crafty world
A sneak peek into Angela Cartwright and Sarah Fishburns' new book: In This Garden, as well as Robert Vetica's: Good to Great Hair, a watercolor Maneki Neko (Lucky Cat) greeting card and two fun uses for vintage garter clips.

Swelldesigner a.k.a. Alexa Westerfield
Swelldesigner shares a fast and fun sticker project and breaks out her old sticker collection in the process!

The Impatient Crafter
Madge shares another fab free jewelry project from her new co-authored book Bead and Wire Jewelry Exposed. Leave a comment for a chance to win a free book while you're there!

Felt/Nonfelt Bag design Inspired by Boutique Knits by Laura Irwin

This is such a great book with every page including a great detail, I want to make it all!


With Boutique Knits, you can make your very own knockout accessories. If you love showing your personal style with the “it” handbag, funky scarf, or the hat that makes heads turn, then this book is for you.

Author Laura Irwin designs knitted accessories for the trendsetting indie designer fashion boutique Seaplane in Portland, Oregon, and is particularly known for her felted hats and stylish bags. In Boutique Knits, Laura presents designs for knitted accessories that stand out from the crowd.

Boutique Knits includes:

Patterns that cover a variety of knitting techniques in varying degrees, including felting, intarsia, Fair Isle, lacework, and cables
Advice on incorporating non-knitting tools and techniques to transform your knitting to achieve that one-of-a-kind boutique feel: pliers, hammers, a sewing machine, use of millinery techniques, and handsewing techniques.
Unique adornment inspiration, such as buckles and bolts borrowed from leatherwork close an intricately cabled belt, a chain handle finishes a felted bag with circle pockets, leather lacing dresses up a knitted bag, and grommets finish a half-felted handbag.
Inspiration from vintage lace, beads, ribbon, and fabric-covered buttons!
Knitting and felting techniques to create effects like ruffles, shibori-style pleats, and clever shaping.
And more!
This collection of modern, stylish patterns will inspire beginning and intermediate knitters with its uncommon techniques and materials. Transform your knitting with Boutique Knits!

This just floored me when I saw it:

It combines felted and non felted knit sections!!!

Well, I don't have time right now to knit this baby up, but I do have time to perform some Sweater Surgery! And now to share it with you.

Here is my "before" wool sweater. Not felted yet.
The first step was to cut off a part of the sweater that was not going to be felted. This was a first for me to not felt a whole sweater as I have only done projects that were either all felted or all non felted.

After one washing of the top part you can see how much it shrank. But I wanted it a bit more sturdy so back for another wash and dry.

And here are the two parts, the felted one even smaller and thicker.Now I took the non felted parts at the side seams.
I then cut the felted section to make the body of the bag.

I then sewed the non felted sections to the felted body section of the bag.
I then sewed up the bag along the bottom edge. To gather the ends I used a matching ribbon on a large needle and went in and out along the ribbed ends.
And here you have it:

I should also mention, since I was designing as I went I wasn't sure what kind of strap I was going to use before hand. What I ended up liking was a fat matching ribbon. I simply opened up the seam and sewed it back up with the end of the ribbon between the two sweater pieces.

So whether you grab a copy of the beautiful Boutique Knits and knit yourself a great felted/non felted bag or do it Sweater Surgery style try working with the combo-I highly recommend it.