Tutorial: Flowerrific Necklace with hints of Paris

Yay! I am back with a new tutorial. Stay tuned, because I actually have an important question to ask you guys at the end. I would ask now, but I'm SO PUMPED for this tutorial. I'm pretty proud of myself.

Today, we (or I) will be making this necklace as shown below. There are some closeups.

What you need:

• Sequins
  
• Eiffel Tower keychain. I got mine at Paris. Literally, 5 for a freaking euro. If you don't have this, just get some other pendant like thing or keychain you get from a touristy place.
  
• 2 pliers. It can be a combo, like plier and wrench. You just need 2 clampy things.


• Thread. I used black sewing thread


• Needle


• Necklace Chain


• Necklace clasp. I used a toggle kind. It's like a bar with a loop. Use whatever!


• Jumprings

Instructions

• First, take the keychain and split it apart. You see in my above picture with supplies that I broke it into the keychain thing, the pendant thing, and the middle "tag" that says paris/france on it. You'll need the pliers becuase this metal is very heavy and hard. If you have problems opening the loops, don't force it with your nails and one plier. Use 2. It gives you much more force.


• Now, take the pendant, and attach a jumpring. A jump ring is like a thin ring that's really easy to open and close. Attach this the jump ring to your pendant, then to the middle of the chain necklace. Make sure that this is a link chain necklace. It'll be easier to work with.





• You see the tag? Choose where you want to put it on the necklace. I chose the middle of a side. So assuming you want to put it there, just open a link on the chain, and attach the tag on. You might have to break some links off to make both sides of the necklace on.


• Attach the clasp. Are you still with me? Here is where we should be right now.






• Faaantastic. Assuming that you are at this point, congrats. You can leave right now and have a rockin' necklace. This is where it becomes a bit hairy and time consuming. I'm going to describe it in words. First, make a chain of sequins. You should have 3 sizes. Small, medium and large. Just find a bag of assorted sequins and separate them. You make a chain like so: First, take the needle and thread it. Don't tie a knot because it's not going to be useful. Put the sequin on the thread and leave a little tail. Now, put the needle through the sequin hole so that you have a loop. Don't tighten the loop! Now, pull the needle through the loop twice. Tighten and you have a knot.


• NOW, to make the chain of sequins. Thread another sequin on. Now push the needle through the "up" side of the previous sequin. Push the sequin up through the "under" side of the newly threaded sequin. Repeat. I usually like to do 10 in a chain


• Still with me? You are a brave lady you know. This part isn't really directable. I can give you a starting point, but it's mostly feel, go and improvisation. The sequin that you last sewed on is now "1". Everything else is 2, 3, etc in order. Take the needle and push it through the hole of sequin number 5. You should have a flower shape. If you are using faceted sequins, you should push the needle through the "bowl" side. This means that when you lay the sequin down, it looks like a bowl. Now, just curve all the sequins into a circle and sew it together.
  
• To make flowers, you can layer sequin circles of different sizes together to give different depths and such. Very cool. Now, just sew them on your chain however you like. I actually put two flowers back to back. Here's the picture of that. It's blurry, I know. If you need to, you can gorilla glue the flowers for added strength.
  

Yay! Do you guys like it? Now for my question. It's been a weird dream of mine (not like a DREAM dream, but more of a daydream) to actually open an Etsy store, just to see if I can get some more cash to pay for grossly expensive textbooks. Why are they 100 dollars each, I don't know. Yay for ebay and amazon! Anyway, back to the point. Do you guys think that I have enough talent to open one? How much would this kind of necklace be worth? To ladies who have etsy stores or ebay stores, how has it been running it? Any stories?

I'm not asking for flattery. I'm asking you ladies because we are essentially strangers. I like getting opinions from people I don't know becuase sometimes, I feel like its more honest you know? Since you don't know them, you usually don't feel obligated to say something not to hurt someone's feeling. I want constructive criticism!

Toodles!

Review: I love my Croc (Nero)

OMG. I hope that you ladies didn't think that I was going to say that I loved Croc shoes. You know, those rubber shoes with holes in them? I don't understand how they could possibly be comfortable. They're rubber shoes. If you do like them, enlighten me please.

But, a few days ago, I bought a Turboion Croc NERO Titanium flat iron (pictured below in pink) at CVS. It retails there for 69.99. I had 2 five dollar off coupons to make it 59.99 or 60 dollars. It's expensive for a Croc Nero becuase I believe you can get these at Amazon for 40 dollars, but you do have to pay shipping. I wanted to get a Chi, but not enough money eh! Let's get on with the review.

Packaging: It comes in this plastic case which encloses the actual box. The box slides open to reveal the sleek black croc. The cord has this plastic thing that wraps around it to hold everything together. It's really useful becuase you shouldn't wrap the cord around the iron. It destroys it. Theres this little instruction manual inside thats like 3 pages. It shows how to iron hair, curl it, make flips. It also comes with a 1 year warrenty, however if this thing breaks in one year, it's really not worth the money you know? I expect my new iron to last for a few years.

Price: Again, at 70 dollars at CVS, its not too cheap. You can look for deals online though

Functions: This, I'm a bit iffy on. Let's just talk about the past first. First, my family bought me a cheap Vidal Sassoon Wet/Dry iron. It's pretty horrible, but I was in 7th grade. I didn't really use it much. However, as I got into hair, then I realized that after I used it, my hair was kinda puffy after. Also, when I slept, it would become unstraightened significantly. Why would I do it before I sleep? I don't have time in the morning to straighten my hair and do makeup. It took me 45 minutes, previously.

Now, this iron heats up to 430 degrees F. It doesnt really say how long it takes, but I estimate about a minute. Also, I hate how it doesnt have a temperature control. I mean, when I want to do touchups, I want to be able to set the iron to a lower temperature, because my hair isn't really wavy. Also, the plastic stuff around the plates get so hot. Ugh. I wonder how I'm not killing the thing. Therefore, you can't really hold the plates together at the tips. You don't need to do that though because the plates close nicely. The cord is uber long and it swivels!

Styles: I only really tried straightening and curling. Okay, whats up with those youtubers? They seem to be able to get thier hair nice and curly. I got a frizzy mess. I tried all methods and it's not working. I can't comment on the curling aspect at all becuase I'm pretty damn incompetent at that.

Before and After Pictures:

The pictures speak for themselves. Also, after I woke up the next morning, I only needed a minor touchup. Like I didn't even bother because I'm lazy. I apologize for my roots. UGH. I will be dyeing them next week. Do you want a post on that? Let me know!

Overall, I like this iron. I'm not going to be looking for another, but I don't think that I'll be buying this again purely becuase I want to upgrade to a FHI or GHD you know? I mean, this is assuming that I'll have saved enough money to get those irons. If i were a bit broke, I'd probably get this again.

Toodles

Yays for swapping!

I think that swapping is one of the 8th wonders of life.

No, not really. It really isn't.

Maybe to fellow beauty addicts it is. I like trading stuff that I'm never going to use for stuff that I kinda actually need you know? So I am always scouring MUA for new ways to get rid of stuff and for some new stuff to get. Yeah, I know that there are risks, thats why I don't go for used mascara, lipglosses, lippies are dipped in rubbing alcohol, etcetcetc. I'm actually planning on getting a spray bottle (like mini sized) from CVS to like fill with alcohol. Its to quickly sanitize whatever when I'm in college. Who says that colleges are clean?

Anyway, enough ranting. Here is my weekly swap haul.

L to R: L'Oreal HIP cream liner in Midnight Blue, MAC pigment sample in Golden Olive, Unnamed pigment sample (probably from Coastal Scents), E.L.F mineral lipsticks in Pouty Petal, Party Pink and Rosy Raisin.

I AM OBSESSED with E.L.F mineral lippies. They are only 3 dollars each and they wear well for the price. However, they do look horrid if your lips are even slightly dry. That's more motivation to always put on lip balm at night and exfoliate. I tried them on, but I'm quite dissapointed at thier sheerness. They don't cover my pigmented lips as well as Nicely Nude (E.L.F mineral lipstick) Perhaps it's time I find a realy thick, nude lip liner? Tips anyone?

Toodles

Giveaway Update: New Prizes Added

I was feeling really bad actually. Becuase well, I thought that my prizes were a bit skimpy you know? Some people like to do like 10000 prizes in a giveaway, but frankly, I'm not going to take the time to accumulate 1000 items and store them away like a squirral preparing for hibernation. I don't want to even think about shipping costs, especially international.

However, I decided to add a few more gifts for the winner because I love you guys that much. The giveaway is located in the sidebar just in case you guys are interested.

There is one hand cream, 2 pairs of earrings and a sparkly hair tie. Yay! But back to some good news, a bunch of swaps came in yesterday and the day before, so I will be posting a bit on that tomrrow (assuming that everyone on MUA bascially confirms that they recieved my end). And a quick more bites of info: I won't be doing EOTD this week (usually I don't but whatever) because my right eyelid is kinda puffy b/c of a sty. I've been warm compressing it with some hot water and cotton pads, so it should go away soon. But better safe than sorry, especially with makeup right?

Toodles

Social Parade Linky Linky

Bascially I've joined this thing called "Smart and Trendy Moms Social Parade" Although I am not a mom, this still sounds interesting you know? So, the requirement is that I have to make a post about it. I have linked it also in the sidebar if you ladies are interested.

Toodles