Blog - Candie Cooper

Mother’s Day Birthstone Necklace Idea

May 14, 2014 By candiecooper 1 Comment

This idea came about when someone asked me if I could make their mom a necklace for Mother’s Day. I thought about it for awhile and my feeling about custom jewelry is, if you’re going to have something custom made, it should be yours. Plus, I love telling a story through my jewelry!

Families are gardens that grow each year. The tassel has each of her grandkids birthstones dangling at the end. I love the rainbow effect. At the top, you’ll see a small pink crystal–that is her husband’s birthstone color.

You could also include her children within the tassel as well. If I were going to do that, I might make those a different shape or size of crystal. Oh the symbolism of it all. Makes my heart flutter!

I hope this sparks some ideas for you. Make one for your friend, your mom, for you…

Lots of Love,

Candie

P.S. If you’re new to jewelry making, you can see how to make these tassels in my craftsy class: Beading with Wire Chain and Leather. Also, the big pretty brass flower bead cap is from Ornamentea.com.

Filed Under: Jewelry

$100 Jesse James Bead Stash Giveaway!

April 30, 2014 By candiecooper 10 Comments

This post brought to you by Jesse James Beads–purveyors of the most unique beads ever!

Yesterday, I guest posted on the Jesse James Beads blog with this bungee cord necklace tutorial. Check out the full tutorial here. My challenge was to make a piece using bungee cord and their fun beads. This was my design solution. I wanted to make something that teens and adults would have fun making. What do you think? If you make it, know that the cord and beads come in a million colors. The hardest part is choosing a combo. Isn’t life tough?

Jesse James Beads is celebrating the launch of their Elite Collection at JoAnn Fabric and Crafts stores! The Elite Collection has beads that are uniquely designed for maximum design beauty. Each strand is different, full of luxurious texture and sparkle!

I absolutely adore the seed bead net over the big bead on the second strand. You know…in case you were wondering! JJB bead strands are like Yankee Candles kind of. Women absolutely cannot help but pick each one up, talk about them, smell them (ok they don’t smell the beads, but you know what I mean), and admire how each one is different and special. I work at the trade shows with JJB where there are hundreds and hundreds of strands and that’s what we do. We connect through the love of the beads.

Now because I love you and to celebrate the release of the Elite Collection bead strands at JoAnn Fabrics, Jesse James Beads gave me 20 strands of fabulous beads to giveaway! The above strands can be yours. All yours! You can make 20 bungee cord necklaces! Or just sit them on your table and smile because they are yours. All yours!

This is a $100 value of beads! I’m excited for you! Best of luck!

See the rafflecopter below for how to entering.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Filed Under: Giveaways, Jewelry

How to Make Easy Earrings with Wrapped Loops

April 22, 2014 By candiecooper 8 Comments

Want to instantly make yourself feel better? Whip up a sassy pair of earrings just for you. You deserve it. I promise. I don’t know about you, but sometimes when I make myself something, I feel guilty—I should give these as a gift, I should be adding these to my stash of things to sell, and so on. This is also not a new song on this blog. So…. I’m telling that little voice in my head I’ll do it next time. You can too! For now, it’s our turn! Let’s do this!

I actually made a trio of earrings with these supplies of which tutorials on will trickle out. For now, you only need what’s checked and listed. You might also want a couple bead caps (half domed beads that sit next to a focal bead).

P.S. Ergo plier sets are my fave.

String all the pieces onto a head pin. I’m using Beadalon decorative balled/star head pins, Jesse James Boho style beads (see JoAnn Fabrics) and brass bead caps. The bead is so decorative, I didn’t think I needed much else (note that for once in my life, I’m keeping it simple).

Make a 90 degree bend in the head pin just above the last bead cap.

Put the round nose pliers into the bend of the head pin and bring the end of the wire up and around the pliers and back under.

If you’re new to making jewelry, pliers are simply for forming wire or small amounts of sheet metal. We need a solid round loop at the top of the bead dangle so we have to use round tipped pliers to achieve that.

At this point, your loop can look like this or close to it. If this is your first time making jewelry, know that this wrapped loop technique is one of the hardest tricks in the book. Making the loop consistently sized takes a bit of practice.

Now, we’re going to grab the chain nose pliers (angled tips).

Put the loop in the jaws of the pliers and now twist the end of the wire round and round just above the bead. My wraps are always messy. If you want perfect, you came to the wrong blog. Trim any excess wire with wire cutters.

Open up the kidney ear wire and hang the beaded dangle in the front opening.

Use the round nose pliers to pinch the opening shut. You don’t have to do this if you want to make lots of beaded dangles and change them out. If I’m selling earrings, I close the loop because inevitably those bead balls will make a run for it. Probably start a new bead colony or something. Plus your customers will be really happy if they aren’t messing with runaway bead dangles. But, why am I talking about customers? We’re keeping these for ourselves, right? With that….

They lived happily ever after….(“they” being us and the sassy new earrings).

THE. END.

Filed Under: Jewelry, Tutorials

Make Jewelry to Match An Outfit

April 18, 2014 By candiecooper 13 Comments

Hey CC fans! I’m Jamie and normally I can be found blogging over at SweetSeedBeads (check it out!). Today I’m guest posting here for Candie (whom I absolutely LOVE) and I couldn’t be more excited to share a fun, last minute, Easter dress inspired bracelet with you : )

My Easter dress is “so last year” but I snatched it up for like $14 at the end of the season and am still in love with it…and who doesn’t like a bargain, right? Finding jewels to match all these fun, spring colors could be quite the challenge though…so, of course, I made my own. This bracelet was made using a kumihimo braiding technique…here’s how you can make yours!

First, gather your supplies. You will need:

Kumihimo Braiding Disc
8 Plastic Bobbins
White S-Lon Cord
Size 8/0 Seed Beads (in the color of your dress)
Glue-on Cord Ends and Clasp
Kumihimo Weight (mine is my boyfriend’s fishing sinker tied to a binder clip…totally works)
G-S Hypo Cement
E6000 Adhesive
Scissors

Step 1. Measure and cut eight, 35″ lengths of S-Lon cord. Tie all ends together in a knot.

Step 2: String 40 seed beads onto each strand. For mine, I have four strands with white beads, one with coral, one with tangerine, one with aqua and one with plum beads. Once all 40 beads are on the strand, wind the strand onto a plastic bobbin and close, leaving about 8-10 beads on the outside. This will help your cords stay untangled when you begin your braiding.

Step 3: Set your strands up on the kumihimo disc. You’ll want to start with a strand on the left and right side of the #8, #16, #24 and #32. You can see in the photo below what colors of beads I placed in each slot to get the look of the bracelet above. Looking for a different pattern? Check out my Pinterest board for tons of ideas.

Once your strands are set, flip the disc over and attach your kumihimo weight to the knot that comes through the center hole. This will keep the beading taut while you work.

Step 4: Begin your braid (without beads). Start by moving the strand to the left of the #16 position up to the left of the #31 position. Finish this set by moving the strand to the right of the #32 position down to the right of the #15 position. Rotate the disc counterclockwise to the next set. Begin this set by moving the strand to the left of the #24 position up to the left of the #7 position. Finish this set by moving the strand to the right of the #8 position down to the right of the #23 position.

Continue this step until you have about a 1/2″ braid coming out from the bottom.

Step 5: Add beads to your braid. Continue braiding the same way you did in step 4, however, now on each strand, slide a bead down and lock under the previous strand. Be sure that you do not move on to the next strand until the bead is locked in place under the previous strand. Continue this step until your beading is long enough for your wrist. For my 7.5″ bracelet, my beading needed to be 6″ (my cord ends and clasp measure about 1.5″).

Step 6: Continue braiding without beads until you have about a 1/2″ tail on the end. Remove the strands from the board and tie a knot in the end to keep your braid from unraveling. Remove the weight, remove the bobbins and trim the excess cord.

Step 7: Coat both braided ends with G-S Hypo Cement. Let dry.

Step 8: Once the cement is completely dry, line up your cord end and trim the braid to fit inside. Using a toothpick, coat the braid with E6000 adhesive (this stuff is AWESOME!) and insert the end into the cord end. Repeat for the other side. Let the E6000 set up for about 24 hours.

Step 9: Finish the bracelet by attaching your clasp…mine, easy enough, is just an S-hook.

And that’s it…pretty easy right? This whole project from start to finish only takes about three hours and can easily be done the day before Easter…so if you’re stressing about finding the perfect accessory to compliment your perfect dress…stress no more…create your own!

Hope you had as much fun as I did…thanks again, Candie!!

Happy Beading!

Filed Under: Uncategorized

$500 Giveaway

April 8, 2014 By candiecooper 1 Comment

Woot woot!! Let’s celebrate Spring with a big money giveaway!! You need a few more beads, a new outfit, or just to stash away some cash for a rainy day. Check out the Rafflecopter below to enter! Fingers crossed for you!

Thanks to these fun blogs for being major sponsors of this giveaway–

The major sponsors for this great giveaway are the following blogs: Domestic Superhero – Just Us Four – Swish Printables – Condo Blues – Our Southern Home – Persia Lou – Dial M for Moms – DIY Candy

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Filed Under: Giveaways

How to Make A Statement Necklace with Resin Chain and Beads

March 27, 2014 By candiecooper 6 Comments

Have you seen the resin chains at Hobby Lobby? I like them so much because they are reminiscent of Bakelite. They are bold and bright, fun for spring fashion, but how do you transform them into jewelry pieces? Here is one easy idea from me to you with love.

P.S. Sorry in advance for my color tint issues. I’m just not that savvy with my photo edits (YET!), but I’ll get there. Thanks for hanging in with me.

Basic supplies for this necklace are: chain nose pliers, wire cutters, 2, 7″ chain pieces, 7″ strand of Jesse James Beads, silver seed beads, 2 12mm jump rings, Beadalon duet clasp, 49 strand .018 nylon coated beading wire and #2 crimp tubes.

String the beads onto the beading wire.

Followed by 2, #2 crimp beads.

It’s so important that the crimp beads match the beading wire. Too big of crimp beads equals potentially-embarrassing-beads-crashing-to-the-floor scene. Never good.

Now string 20 silver seed beads onto the wire. Don’t be like me and mix and match your silver seed beads (see in the bag), thinking, I won’t care if I have to pick out the same colored ones. I do care, past self. That was a bad idea.

Ok, so now we have 2 crimps and 20 seed beads.

Loop the tail of wire through the end of the chain and back through the crimp beads, creating a seed bead loop. Now, you might have a couple questions….

1) Why are you using 2 crimp beads?

A) Because of the flat crimping technique and the large beads, I want to add double the security.

2) Why the seed bead loop?

A) See the splits in the chain? The seed beads add a bit of thickness (and design aesthetic is a bonus) so the wire can’t sneak out of the split. This gets us out of another potentially embarrassing moment. I’ve had jewelry break on me in front of people and it’s SO humiliating. I always say, “who made this anyway!?!?” with a big smile and a wink.

Slide the two crimp beads up next to the seed beads to cinch up the loop.

Use your chain nose pliers to smash the crimp beads down. That’s right, I said smash.

Slide the big colorful beads up, threading the tail through the first bead and trim away the excess.

Now, scoot all the beads over towards our crimped end. Trim the wire so you have 4″ approximately.

String 2 crimp beads and 20 seed beads. Run the tail of wire through the chain, down through the crimps and first bead, pull out all the slack in the beaded section. This can take some finagling. Use your chain nose pliers to tug on the end of the wire to help remove the slack.

Looks good! I use the seed bead loop for so many designs. It is my beady lasso of sorts.

Let’s finish’er up! Open a jump ring with chain nose pliers–from side to side.

Connect one end of the duet clasp to the end of the chain.

Close the ring so it’s nice and snug.

Repeat for the opposite side. It’s a cute little clasp pair, don’t you think?

Praise the Lord, we made it! A burst of color for you! I’m so excited!

And here I am wearing it so you can see the full look and how it hangs.

Expect more resin chain projects here. I only bought every color they had. Have you made anything with them? I wanna see!

Happy day!

XO.

Candie

Filed Under: Jewelry, Tutorials

Easy Decorated Easter Eggs

March 25, 2014 By candiecooper 1 Comment

My mom always decorated for Easter so it’s a family tradition to craft up eggs and have Easter grass coming out our ears around this time. This is an easy project that uses Cathie Filian and Steve Piacenza’s, Mod Melts (made by Plaid). Mod Melts are DIY embellishments along with some ready to go Easter eggs from JoAnn Fabrics. They have the glittery and satin finish eggs there in pretty pastels. You can find the Mod Melt sticks and molds at Michaels Craft store. You’ll also need a skinny stick, high temp glue gun (has to be high temp or else the sticks don’t get hot enough to flow into the molds).

Wrap a bit of ribbon around the egg (I knew there was a reason I was saving this pile of pretty ribbon scraps. Craft supply hoarders unite!).

Secure the ribbon to the egg with hot glue and push it down with your finger protected by a Hot Glue Gun Helper finger cap.

Then trim the ribbon to fit and glue the end of ribbon down.

Add some metallic buzz with Martha Stewart metal ribbon–found in the decoupage/stencil section of the craft store at Michaels. It comes in gold, gunmetal and rose gold. I really like it.

By now your hot glue gun and Mod Melt stick should be ready to fire! Fill the mold and let set for 5 or ten minutes. The hardest part in this project is waiting for these suckers to cool so you can see how awesome they are. Tic toc… tic toc…

Sponge on some color by applying paint to a dobber and blotting it over the mod melt piece.

You can add further sparkle and layers with Dress It Up craft embellishments–usually found in the scrapbooking section of the craft store. These things are like craft candy! You can’t use just one. Use a glue gun to glue the embellishments to the eggs.

Ta da! Never mind that craft explosion in the background! That’s one of my other magic tricks. I can take a clean table and trash it in 3.4 minutes flat.

Here they are! Such cuties! I’m really loving paper Easter grass this year too. It’s so soft and natural looking. I don’t over think these things or anything. Can you tell?

Last week, our local Crafty Book Club met and I taught them how to use the Mod Melts with Hot Glue Gun Helpers. The ladies liked them a lot and had fun experimenting. This is our 4th year for making Easter eggs together. It’s another great tradition!

XOXO.

Candie

Filed Under: Crafting

Make a Statement Necklace Class in Philly

March 21, 2014 By candiecooper 1 Comment

Good day to you! I wanted to show you some detail shots of a class I’m teaching in Philly next month at Beadfest Spring. It’s the statement of all statement necklaces. Big and bold, sassy and classy! I’m teaming up with Jesse James Beads—they have such exciting and unique beads like the ones above. All the supplies are kicked in from the awesome people at Beadalon.

Just look at that! Stalk and pounce! That doesn’t sound right, but you get my reference right? Like a big cat! Rawr!

Do you live in the Philadelphia area? You can come make this necklace with me and experience the CC freak show first hand! Lucky! And guess what? It’s only $26! That includes all the supplies too. Literally, just bring yourself. It makes me want to hop around just thinking about it. We will have fun!

Before I forget, we will actually have several bead choices. So if leopard isn’t your thing, we will find something for your unique style! Jesse James Beads and I want you to be happy!

Here is a link to the class page and sign up info.

Fingers crossed I get to meet you!

Smiling,

Candie

Filed Under: Classes, Jewelry

How to String a Bracelet

March 20, 2014 By candiecooper 12 Comments

Are you ready for your life to be changed forever? Here is a tutorial I created this afternoon to explain how you can transform a pile of beads into a beautiful bracelet. It’s to kick off my first ever classes at Beadfest Philly in April. I’m so excited!!! It only took a mug of chicken soup, 2 raspberries, a cup of coffee, piece of fruit leather and a little chocolate for me to pull it together. I hope you find it a useful resource and something you want to share with your friends and family. And if you live in the Philly area, I hope you’ll come take a class with me at Beadfest.

Let’s get rollin’!

These are the basic materials needed. Before I forget, this post is brought to you by Jesse James Beads and Beadalon. They both help keep the lights on in my studio.

Back to the materials: Wire cutters, crimping pliers, 49 strand .018 nylon coated beading wire, crimp beads, beads and a sparkly Upper Clasp.

One thing that is so very important: the crimp beads must correspond to the wire diameter. Look at the bottom of the wire spool–it says use with crimp bead #1 or crimp tube #2. The crimp bead and tube packages will be marked with #__.

I promise, I’m not making this stuff up.

I always use 49 strand .018 Beadalon wire for my stringing projects. It’s so versatile and can hold the big chunky beads with no problemo. The Jesse James Beads were strung (almost) exactly like they were on the wire. I added a few tiny 4mm glass beads in the middle and at the end. The nice thing about JJB is they come in 7″ strands. My wrist is 7.5ish so by the time I strung the beads and included the clasp length in the total bracelet length, I had a perfectly sized bracelet.

Row of beads length + clasp width + approx 1/4″ for wire connections = your bracelet length

When you are happy with the bead section, string one crimp bead followed by one end of the clasp.

Run the tail of wire back through the crimp bead and slide it up next to the clasp. Leave a little room for the clasp to move freely.

Crimping pliers have two openings in the jaw–the “U” shape and the “EYE.” That’s what I call them at least. First, hold the wires so everything stays in place and put the crimp bead in the “U” shape. Clinch the crimping pliers together to mold the crimp bead into a “U” shape.

Turn the crimp bead 90 degrees and place in the “EYE” shape. Clinch again so it folds the crimp bead over (kinda like a squashed “C”).

Slide all the beads to the clasp/crimped end of the bracelet and cut the wire from the spool so you have an 1.5″ or so to work with.

I string with the spool attached so I don’t waste wire. You can pre-cut the wire too. For me, that’s just too much of a commitment though (laughing).

Repeat for the other side, stringing a crimp bead and the second part of the clasp. Run the tail of wire through the crimp bead and pull out all the slack. Not so tight that the beads can wiggle a bit though.

Crimp again as you did before. It’s helpful to put the flush side of the crimping plier up against the beads (see arrow above).

Now cut the tail of excess wire. Check twice that you have the right wire and cut once (ancient bead stringing secret).

And that my dear friends, is all there is too it! Are your ready to get this bead stringing party started or what?! Hokey Pokey time!!!

Now they are doing the loco-motion! Woot-woot!

Here they could be doing a little line dancing or the funky chicken dance.

No wait. They are doing the Macarena.

Heyyyyy Macarena! These beads came to play, y’all.

Speaking of party….guess what? I’ve got a little giveaway for you!

This is a beginning bead stringing kit! It has Beadalon wire, crimping pliers and crimp beads along with the infamous Jesse James Beads below. It will also include a sparkly Upper Clasp like the one on my bracelet above.

Is that Macarena song stuck in your head too? Mine too. Sorry about that!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Happy entering and thanks for showing the like love to these dear sponsors!

Filed Under: Jewelry, Tutorials

Embroidery & Sewing Scissors on Etsy

March 12, 2014 By candiecooper Leave a Comment

Fresh snippets from my Etsy shop! I use these babies for snipping ribbon, thread, precise paper cutting (I’m sure I’m not supposed to do that, but…) and more. The vintage nature of them is so lovely. I think they liked being photographed too. Shiny and bright! A little treat for your stash, perhaps?

Love,

Candie

Filed Under: Crafting

Mother’s Day Birthstone Necklace Idea

$100 Jesse James Bead Stash Giveaway!

How to Make Easy Earrings with Wrapped Loops

Make Jewelry to Match An Outfit

$500 Giveaway

How to Make A Statement Necklace with Resin Chain and Beads

Easy Decorated Easter Eggs

Make a Statement Necklace Class in Philly

How to String a Bracelet

Embroidery & Sewing Scissors on Etsy

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