My 18th party was last night, here's a few of the crafts that my family and I did for the party.

My chocolate fudge cake pops. I used Wilton's candy melts to coat them instead of chocolate. It worked better and was a lot easier to work with. Plus it enabled me to keep to the colour scheme of pink and blue ^^



The cupcakes :) My mom baked them and her best friend and I decorated them. This is one I decorated :)

My birthday cake. This was probably my favourite thing made. My mom baked the cake and decorated it all by herself. It's the first big cake decorating project she's ever done, and she should be proud of it :)

This is one of the centrepieces my nan made for the tables. She put a large pink rose, a glittery blue butterfly, little pink and blue paper roses, baby's breath and ivy leaves in crackle glass vases. They looked so good that some of the guests took them home for their living rooms!

This wasn't actually part of the decoration, it was a present from a friend. She bought me a pretty box of chocolates and decorated it with a necklace :) I thought it was a great idea (thanks Katie!)

Loppy x

This blog post isn't very jewellery-related.

Today is my 18th birthday :) so to celebrate I went to the Birminghingham Jewellery Quarter. It's surprisingly boring actually. The jewellery shops are just mostly staffed by snobby sales assistants who weren't very helpful at all. I did find one interesting jewellery shop (still staffed by snobs) that sold antique and second-hand jewellery for low prices. Most of the jewellery was very unusual and some rings even had extremely rare stones set in them.

I tried to go the jewellery museum too but it wasn't open -_- I've wanted to go there for ages but I'm going to have to wait a bit longer now.

Loppy x

So it has been quite a few weeks since my last post, sorry about that! Next week I'm off work so hopefully I'll put a few posts up then.

After I left work last night I bought some craft magazines (ooh I'll tell you more about that later!) and when I got home I decided to make some jewellery. I have a big bag that contains packets of beads and charms and I was grabbing handfuls of packets out of it to find what I was looking for. All of a sudden I saw a beautifully detailed large spider pendant that I didn't remember buying, I went to pick it up...and it started crawling! I screamed and ran to my kitchen cupboard to get a glass to catch it in so I could release it outside (I do not kill insects), but by the time I returned to the bag, the spider had buried itself deeper into the bag. I slowly tipped the bag on it's side and slid out the contents hoping the spider would run off, but it didn't :( I think I accidentally killed it!

Anyway, the point is that all of these beads I have hoarded but haven't used were all spread out over my floor, so I decided to use them. I also thought I would set myself a challenge to use them to make something I wouldn't usually make, something that isn't my style. I did make some items using new supplies though!



The contents of my bag, this isn't even half of what I own!

 

Swarovski guitar earrings (using new guitar charms and old swarovski beads)



Teacup ring (using new supplies) I'm going to start making more of these. My favourite ring so far!



I think it looks great!



My 'out-of-my-style' piece. I don't really like to use gold-coloured findings. And the beads are old, apart from the second-last one. Also my first time using a bead cap (under the last bead!)




Turquoise memory wire bracelet with a tiny silver star charm (I've had those charms for about 2 years!)



Fangs pendant, I just never got around to making this

Polymer clay rose and swarovski necklace. This bead was in a collection of pink things I bought, because of it's size I never thought of a way to use it

Book locket with swarovski heart and crystals. I bought 15 of these lockets thinking they'd be used in no time, months later they sit untouched. This is probably my favourite piece out of the things I made last night.

Dollshouse china earrings, also in the collection of pink things

So I'm setting you all the challenge to make something using old supplies, it doesn't have to be jewellery, just something crafty. Maybe you have some cake decorations sitting in the back of your cupboard? Or maybe some scraps of fabric waiting to be used? Or maybe you just have some magazines that can be cut up and made into a collage? Whatever you have lying around, use it to make something new and email pictures to loppyloves@live.co.uk all pictures will be posted on the blog. I also want you to to make something 'out-of-your-style' but within your craft, even if it's just something as simple as using a different colour scheme. Get creative!

Finally, craft magazines! Yesterday I bought the latest issue of 'Making Jewellery' (which has some really great Valentine's ideas in by the way!) and I found a magazine I haven't seen before called 'CraftSeller'. It's an amazing magazine for all crafters with tips on how to set up your business and attract customers. It also has great projects using a variety of crafts. It's only on issue 6 so I assume it's a relatively new magazine, go and buy it now!

Loppy x