Blog - Candie Cooper

This and That: DIY Scrappy Multi-strand Leather Bracelets

April 29, 2016 By candiecooper 2 Comments

This post brought to you by LeatherCord USA.com–all opinions are my own. Thanks, LCUSA for helping me keep the lights on here at CC.com.Yum. Yum. Leather. Wow!

Like I’ve mentioned before, I had the best time on my visit to ArtBeads.com with my sponsor LeatherCordUSA.com. We filmed several videos and these bracelets are definitely one of my favorite projects from the filming. I love mixing and matching all the different textures and types of leather. Cynthia at Artbeads sent me a fun selection of charms to use with the cords from LeatherCord USA. I used Tierra Cast bails to hold everything together. The large holes on the bails make it EASY to connect bits and baubles. The beauty is that you can add lots of charms and dangles or keep it simple and just let the leather love shine like this one! LeatherCord USA’s “royal blue” is one of my favorite colors and I used various leathers like: flat braid, printed/stitched, and round.The DIY leather jewelry clasps are all from LCUSA too. OR ArtBeads has a fun selection. Just use the Loctite gel to glue them into the clasp finding. Man, I need a case of that stuff it’s so goo!

LeatherCord USA has the most delicious mix of cords with all kinds of textures! Check them out on LeatherCordUSA.com or ArtBeads to get some ideas.

Here’s the video where sweet Cynthia and I make these bracelets!

Filed Under: Jewelry, Leather

Get Aligned! Making Chakra Jewelry

April 25, 2016 By candiecooper 6 Comments

This post brought to you by Dakota Stones. Sponsored posts help to keep the lights on here at CandieCooper.com. Thanks, Dakota Stones! How to Make Chakra Jewelry with Dakota Stones on Candie Cooper's blog7 Years ago, a lady brought a piece of Chakra jewelry that she wanted to change around a bit. My younger self had no idea what these little gems represented.
Fast forward ten years and here we are. I’m very much aware of the chakras and the possible power of natural stones. Thank you, yoga, self-help books, Pinterest (the other self-help book). It’s so interesting to learn about the power of natural stones.

It’s so interesting to learn about the power of natural stones.

That’s why when Dakota Stones and I talked about possible projects, I was thrilled when the chakra jewelry idea came up. Happily, I’m taking the chakra challenge with my friend Jess Prill that works at Dakota Stones. Jess is an amazing designer-you might’ve seen her pieces in Stringing Magazine.
DS sent this beautiful set of gems–If you are curious about what each stone aids in, read the blog post at Dakota Stones here. I’ll put links to each stone on the DS site at the bottom of this post.
How to Make Chakra Jewelry with Dakota Stones on Candie Cooper's blog15 I started with a crystal fan pendant from Dakota. These things are radiant and I love how crystal clear they are. Seems like a good start for aligning those chakras right?
Next I strung the gems in the appropriate order, peppered with Tierra Cast double hole spacer beads. By the way, I’m using .024, 49 strand gold Beadalon wire. When working with gems, it’s a good idea to use thicker wire—plus, I love seeing the thick wire connections.
Zip it all up with a little bit of round leather (this is 2mm diameter). Here’s how:
That’s another Tierra Cast bead which is key in holding the clasp in place.
Use a touch of Loctite gel on either side and slide the bead into place. Keep a piece of paper nearby to grab the extra adhesive that oozes out.
How to Make Chakra Jewelry with Dakota Stones on Candie Cooper's blog13 That’s all there is to it. I can’t wait to take it for a test drive. And when I’m not wearing it, I’ll keep it on my dresser where I can see it daily (always a good reminder to take a breath and slow down, be grateful).
How to Make Chakra Jewelry with Dakota Stones on Candie Cooper's blog8 Do you follow CandieCooper.com on Facebook? I’ve been doing live videos there. This week I will feature a quick 5-minute chakra piece and give away the gems to make it.Be sure to check out my chakra partner in crime Jess Prill’s piece on the Dakota blog here.

Visit Dakota Stones for the best gems on the web–I’ve been a long time fan of their products and am thrilled they’re going to sponsor a few days here on the blog!

Chakra Stones used above–

Filed Under: Bead Love, Jewelry

Ride ‘Em Cowgirl! Make an Inlaid Leather Cuff Bracelet

April 19, 2016 By candiecooper 6 Comments

This post is sponsored by leathercord USA–all thoughts and opinions are mine.Saddle up, cowgirls and boys because I’ve got a saucy DIY leather cuff bracelet I think you’re going to love. It uses leathercord USA’s braid, round and bolo leathers which are set down in a silver cuff. It doesn’t take too long to make, but you do need a touch of patience because super glue dries fast and there are a lot of cords to keep organized.

Ok? That’s your warning.Meet the natural dyed leather look from leathercord USA. It is my very favorite because the dye is more transparent. I always love using earthy brights in my jewelry and these leather cords fit the bill. When you visit the lcusa website, look for the word “natural” in front of the color.Select a couple round cords (1 to 1.5 diameter), bolo cord (3mm), and flat braid (3 strand-2mm) in colors that make your heart sing. The cuff blank you can get from me–two sizes large and small. Email or comment for details! To prep the cuff, I used my chain nose pliers to open up the little ridge of metal so I could push the cords down in.You can lay out your leather cording or you can wing it like I did. I actually think I got very lucky how well these fit down in the recessed silver cuff area. Use your trusty Loctite Gel Adhesive to secure the leather jewelry cords to the silver cuff blank.Press and hold the cords down a bit in between–this is where you need the patience because sometimes the glue oozes out and you have to be quick!Trim the cords and put some glue down in, behind the silver flap, and tuck them in.

It was at this point where I thought to myself, I think I was a little inspired by my skirt! Haha. And that I have a pink problem–it’s a go to color as of late. This was a super fun project loaded with instant gratification.

Be sure to visit leathercord USA to check out the natural dyed leather lines and style for all your jewelry making needs. leathercord USA to check out the natural dyed leather lines and style for all your jewelry making needs.

Filed Under: Leather

Make it Manly: DIY Men’s Leather Jewelry

March 18, 2016 By candiecooper 4 Comments

This post is sponsored by LeatherCord USA.Make it manly–You don’t know how long I’ve wanted to have a DIY men’s finding line called that! Haha.

I had a chance at the end of last year to make manly leather bracelets with Leathercord USA leathers and findings for Art Beads Cafe and it was SO fun. Michelle from Leathercord and I made a huge collection of bracelets for the shoot. Here are a few of my faves:
The various leathercord USA leathers make creating men’s jewelry super easy. If you want to get the look, check out the:

There are tons of Glue and Go findings that will suit the look you want too. See them all right here.

Here’s a video of me showing Cynthia at ArtBeads how to “make it manly” with leathercord USA leathers. We had so much fun filming this video. I hope it makes you smile.

Honestly, the possibilities are endless. This is just your basic DIY macrame’ bracelet with leather. Two sizes of round leather cord were used too–1mm brown and 2mm natural blue. This makes it a little more special. Use a bead or don’t and it will look great!
And bless my husband for letting me boss him around so I could take a couple photos. Secretly, I wanted to layer the you know what out of these bracelets on his wrist, but that was/is NEVER going to happen.

I’m the extra fancy one around here. Yin and yang.

Not that Aaron doesn’t have swagger because I truly believe the man has a shopping problem when I look in his closet. Haha. BUT! That’s a story for another day…

*Thanks again to Leathercord USA for sponsoring this post.

Filed Under: Jewelry, Leather, Uncategorized

Pretty In Pink: DIY Rose Gold Druzy Necklace

March 8, 2016 By candiecooper 2 Comments

This post brought to you by LeatherCord USA.Rose gold. Do you find it as refreshing as I do? It’s popping up everywhere. I’m especially in love with the rose gold plated druzy quartz pieces like the one in this DIY Leather Necklace.

This pendant is faux druzy, but none the less, I love it.Accompanying this druzy is some fab pink and natural colored round leather cords from LeatherCord USA. Two of the pieces are 1 mm diameter and the last, 1.5. This adds a little interest visually to your necklace while adding some weight. I’m especially smitten with the metallic pink and it’s velvety surface.

If you follow me on social media, you know I teach a lot of kids how to make jewelry. This is a DIY Necklace project teens will love.
First cut your cords to the approximate necklace length and add a couple inches.

Optionally you can add a delicate piece of chain to the leather strands with a few wraps of wire and a crimp bead. Here’s a close up look:The crimp bead (size 4) flattened holds the chain up while the wire keeps the cords bundled.

Connect the pendant to the cords with a jump ring.Sometimes finishing the ends of leather can be so tricky due to lack of parts or findings. This is a fool-proof way to get consistent loops at the end of leather cording. I’m using 20 g. wire to bind the ends together, remove the pen and you have a perfect loop. Repeat and you’ve got a second perfect loop the same as the first.Use jump rings to attach a clasp. This one is magnetic and great for this light-weight DIY necklace.Pretty in pink.Sophia Loren likes it (special thanks to Flow magazine for this great photo background).Find all kinds of round leather cords for DIY leather necklaces at LeatherCord USA.

Filed Under: Jewelry, Leather

Random Rambles from the Weekend: A Re-Cap

February 29, 2016 By candiecooper 4 Comments

This weekend.

Where to start?

A lovely dinner with friends Friday night.

Saturday kicked off with my husband wanting to make these pipe shelves for our library (which I’m so excited about). Yes, we call it the library even though there isn’t one shelf or grown-up book in the room. We’re visualizers. And dreamers. Haha. I think you have to be when you live in a home that’s one-hundred and fifteen years old that you’re re-doing yourself. Survival, you know? Because you know (most days) that you’ll get there someday.

S0 Saturday morning, hubs was on the horn and up early ready to head to Lowes. No showers, we set out…with our toddler.

We make it to the plumbing aisle–do you have a list, I ask him?

“No”

He has a wildly determined look in his eye, parts start being pulled and piled, they were out of this and that and I’m looking at this project thinking, we in trouble. You can imagine.

“Ok”

And this is when you know God is real, because here comes a Lowe’s guy around the corner. I asked him for a pen to draw out said shelving and start counting parts. I start drawing and he asks what are you building?

Thank you, God, for that guy because he knew numbers and measurements and where things were. AND. And. and.

He was kind.

So, thank you to Jeff at Lowe’s Marion, IND store.

We make it to the car and off to the next hardware store for more parts we went.

“Can we go to the antique mall after this?” I needed some therapy after all the hardware part shopping. Lord.
File Feb 29, 9 24 36 AM I haven’t been to an antique mall in forever and this one was so fun. I snapped a few random photos so you could see. It had all the things you want in an antique mall/flea market. Piles of stuff, collections of this and that, oddities….. SO fun…even with a toddler. We are overhauling our house on a budget and I’m looking for neat pieces for our walls and a few things for work. Of course, I get a little side-tracked by sparkle and ephemera too….
File Feb 29, 9 26 49 AM
File Feb 29, 9 26 08 AM And then there are these Simpson collector plates and I wonder who owned those? And someone’s treasured Elvis lamp that they probably painted themself. If these things could talk… File Feb 29, 9 27 49 AM File Feb 29, 10 17 02 AM My bachelorette self really wanted the Elvis lamp. It was about 2 ft tall, people. I would’ve added a few flat-back crystals to his suit.

Instead, I came home with a couple embroidered linens that were stained. I will cut them up for pendants (stay tuned), a metal canteen to hang on the wall and a brass embossed box. That is all. Because I’m only looking for things that are “on the list.”

On Sunday, we got up again (this time, I took a shower) and we went to yet another hardware store for the last round of shelf parts and some grocery shopping.

We made it home, the weather was beautiful, so we worked on our garage. It made me a little ill, to stop momentum on the shelf project, but honestly, I had a pile of boxes to go through that had been in storage that were also making me ill (if truth be known). Blah. Cleaning and going through old stuff is about as much fun as tweezing my eyebrows. But I did go through ALL of them and I feel better today for it. Getting started is the hardest part and I told myself, I will go through two boxes…. Two boxes fueled the whole project. Funny how we have to play games like that with ourselves, but I don’t care because it worked.Spring cleaning is upon us. Should you find yourself with a job of purging, this quote really hit the nail on the head for me. Going through box after box of old sketchbooks, collections, and such…. I enjoyed those things during the time and now I can let them go.

Those new “library” shelves will be filled with things my family treasures.

Are you purging anything? I’d love to hear your stories…

Filed Under: Books

Now Watch Me Whip…This Wire Pendant Up

February 26, 2016 By candiecooper 6 Comments

This post brought to you by Beadalon.com–maker of jewelry findings in all types and metal colors.
Remember that pendant I made a couple weeks ago with the wire piece from the hardware store?

Meet it’s new BFF.

DIY bead wrapped horn pendant. The idea of wearing these chains together was a coincidence. I had the first two pendants on when we shot the tutorial. Naturally, I needed this statement horn piece to complete the look.

Can you say, power play?I’m using Beadalon’s new bail making pliers at in this tutorial. More on those later, plus:

Artistic Wire in bronze
Chain
Ergo tools
Flush cutters
Tierra Cast spacer beads
Jesse James Beads Horn pendant
a bead I got randomly in Tucson–it’s handpainted and been in my stash for.ever!

So first, make a loop using the bail making pliers. The thing I like about these pliers is that they are not conical like round nose pliers. This makes it easy to get consistent size loops every….single….time! And that makes me happy!
Loop in the horn pendant.Grab the chain nose pliers and hold the loop while you wrap the extra wire.
String some unique beads…
and make a 90-degree bend just above the last bead.
Use the large section on the bail making pliers and wrap the wire up and around.Now wrap the extra wire above the last bead.
So easy!
Cut away any extra wire with the flush cutters.
Have I ever told you that I think there should be no spacer beads left behind? That’s my philosophy–I think beads look so nice in a spacer bead frame.
Thread the chain through the wire loop.
Determine the length of the necklace that you want, open a link and connect the ends–No clasp needed.That’s all there is to it! Let me know if you decide to try those bail pliers!

Have a great weekend!

Filed Under: Beads, Tutorials

Ouch! A Remedy for Chapped Hands and a New Issue of Stringing Magazine

February 25, 2016 By candiecooper 6 Comments

It’s always exciting to see my projects go to print. Big thanks to Stringing magazine for including three of my designs in their winter issue! I don’t like to kiss and tell so this is as much as I’ll show. It’s on newsstands now or there are digital copies available which are especially great for tablet users!Winter is still here.

Still here.

And my hands are dry and chapped. I wanted to share one of my new favorite fixes:C.O. Bigelow’s Rose Salve No. 012. You can get it Bath and Body Works or online of course. There are lots of things I love about it–it’s pink, it smells nice, all in a compact tin. I keep it in my jewelry making pliers kit.

I don’t know about you, but by the end of winter, my skin is comparable to a 220 grit piece of sand paper. I try to drink more water, use lotions after showering and so on, but inevitably I am dried up.

Totes.So this has been one of my recent treats for my dried up, cracked and chapped handsies.The thing is, don’t stop after one application. As soon as your hands feel good, put it on again….and then again to rehydrate them.

Happy hands make good jewelry.Plus, I’m a sucker for a vintage looking tin. I will totally recycle this thing into jewelry when it’s empty (and that won’t be long if we keep getting hammered with these cold bursts!).

Until next time, sweet people!

Filed Under: Beads, Staying Well

Moonlit Owl – DIY Leather Bracelet

February 19, 2016 By candiecooper Leave a Comment

This post brought to you by LeatherCord USA.We’ve had a break in the weather today—-perfect for you know what this weekend! Yes! A cozy fire in our new fire pit.Sitting around a fire in nature is so restorative for my soul (not to sound dramatic, haha). I just love the ambience of it: the sounds, being outside, toasty hoodies…. We like to make sandwiches and treats in our pie irons for these winter picnics. It is these simple pleasures that make life sweet.

Today’s project is brought to you by LeatherCord USA.com I put this little DIY owl bracelet on my Instagram feed (@candiecooper if you want to see behind the scenes in real time) and had a few people ask about buying it! I love that. I’ve worn it a few times and gotten compliments too so I think it’s worth sharing so you can make your own.

The secret is having large holed beads that work perfectly with the 1.5 diameter natural blue round leather cord. You can braid and weave the leather easily through beads like this to get a solid look. These beads are from Tierra Cast and the owl from Green Girls Studio.Once you get the beads in place, it’s time to CAREFULLY measure. Michelle at leatherCord USA and I have a joke about measuring many times before cutting–somehow we always make things too small. I want to show you a trick so you can get yours to fit just right.

Do as I say…not as I do. Haha.These are leatherCord USA’s Glue and Go findings. They come in all different diameters, styles, and metal colors. The key to sizing your bracelet is remembering to account for the recessed area inside the finding.Measure this piece end to end and subtract it from your finished bracelet size, then add 1/2″ (1/4″ on each side) for the recessed areas and this is what length you should cut your leather pieces.

Clear as mud right?You can always shave a little off at a time and test the fit as you go.When you’re positive you have the right length, use the Loctite Adhesive to glue the ends in.The natural leather finishes are some of my very favorites. With the earthy fashions this spring, these leather cords for jewelry making are going to be hot! You’ll find them on this page at the bottom of the color chart–look for natural before the color name.

Get fine leather and the special Glue and Go findings from leatherCordUSA.com.

Filed Under: Leather

Red Carpet Ready Earrings!

February 17, 2016 By candiecooper 8 Comments

Have you been watching any of the award shows? I was watching the Golden Globes when I noticed the slim earring designs here and there on the red carpet. You can see a couple of them here.Do you like my faux fur vest? Haha! It’s hilarious. I get petted every time I wear it! I don’t know why?!

After watching the Globes, I decided I could make some for myself. Here we go…
Basic Materials:

Tierra Cast post earrings (or you can use good ol’ french ear wires)

Cup chain and 4 end findings from Jesse James Beads

Via Murano round crystal rings

Jump ring assortment

Beadalon wire cutters and chain nose pliers
First, determine how long you want the earrings and cut the cup chain to that length.
Attach the end findings to both ends of the cup chain. It’s easy! Set the last link of the cup chain in the finding and push the prongs over with chain nose pliers.
Open a jump ring from side to side.
Attach the ring…followed by the chain piece. Close the ring so it’s secure.
Open a small jump ring….
and attach to the post finding. Seriously! It’s that easy.
They are so pretty! The best part is you can make them as long as you want!
Thanks for stopping by!