Featured Crafter- Weil'd Hair and Accessories

Tuesday, Tuesday!!! The Gangstress Ladies love Tuesdays!!

This week, we're speaking with Jodi from Weil'd Hair and Accessories! She offers the most beautiful chunky beaded necklaces (and some hair accessories)! I personally have two of them, which I love and wear as much as I can!

Jodi started her shop after becoming a full time stay-at-home-mom. She found, as many do, that she needed a creative outlet to help manage being "mommy" all the time. Jodi started making hair accessories, but when she discovered chunky necklaces, her mind was made up. 

She decided to open up shop and share her creations in July 2013, making her shop a little over one year old! Creating and selling chunky beaded jewelry has given Jodi a sense of accomplishment above and beyond the everyday. 

She loves sharing her creations with others and, most of all, loves seeing happy customers! Jodi inspects each bead that is delivered to her for quality before any of them become jewelry. She offers great quality and customer service matched with amazing design so no customer is left unhappy!

What sets Weil'd Hair and Accessories apart from other chunky beaded jewelry shops is her design and level of customer service. Her necklaces are beautifully crafted and she communicates with the customer at every step of the way. 

Outside of crafting for Weil'd Hair and Accessories, Jodi is an avid reader. Since she was a child, Jodi has always found a way to lose herself in a book. Now that her daughter is in school and is bringing home book fair fliers, Jodi is being reminded of the fond memories of book fairs in her childhood.

Jodi's weird fact is that she is left handed and does almost everything with her left hand, with the exception of cutting and using the computer mouse! She just feels uncomfortable using her left hand for those tasks, so has always used her right. 

Earring Refashion: Giving Your Old Earrings New Life

I bought these earrings so long ago that they’re a little tarnished and dingy looking. I really like them but I haven’t worn them in forever because they’re not quite silver colored anymore.  This earring rebirth doesn't require much in the way of work it just takes a while because you have to let your polish dry completely before you move onto the next coat. The end result is totally worth the wait and watching paint dry.

What you need:

•  Pair of old earrings. I used some plain silver danglies I got from Claire’s like a million years ago.
• Nail polish (I used 2 colors but feel free to use only 1
• Clothes pins (to hang your earrings dry)

Step 1 – Starting with your first color (or only color) give your earrings a nice even coat. Make sure you don’t have any spots where the color pools because it will end up lumpy and will take longer to dry. Let sit for about 30 minutes.

Step 2 – Using your first color again, give your earrings another nice even coat. This helps cover any blemishes and also makes the color brighter. Let sit for another 30 minutes

Step 3 – Using your second color (or your only color) give a nice and even final coat. Since the coat of polish is so thick you should let your earrings hang dry for at least an hour so you don’t end up accidentally making indents into the polish.

I’ve got a few more pairs that I’m going to do this to and I hope you were able to find this tutorial/refashion helpful. I’d love to see your finished projects!

Cute Dress-- Almost fits!

Don't you hate it when you find a dress at the store for a GREAT price and then it won't fit over your boobs? ME TOO!! Damnit, tatas.

Well guess what? Hate it no more! Just cut the back of the dress open and add a long triangle of lace. You can add about six total inches of width across the back of the dress without it being wonky and clumpy.

Here's the dress I found:

For $6.00. Seriously. How could I walk away from this?!

It reminds me of the one Julia Roberts wore to the horse races in Pretty Woman. Big part of my childhood.

I wish I had taken a photo of the back of the dress, but as you can kind of tell at the left, the back had a button closure.

I took the button off and folded the closing ends over, then sewed them down to make a V. I added a triangle of lace, measured from the top of the back neckline to the waist, skinny side down.

A zip zip at the sewing machine, a couple quick alterations, a strip of lace as a belt, and BLAMO!

<3 Bethany

Adding Grips to Your Crochet Hooks

I’ve been noticing a lot lately that my hands are achy after I get done crocheting for a while. I’ve figured out that it’s because I’m gripping my hooks too tightly. Mostly because there’s nothing to hang onto so I hang onto that nothing for dear life.

I’ve seen so many awesome pictures of people baking clay onto their hooks, so I decided to give it a whirl.

What you need:

•  Metal crochet hooks. If you don’t have a lot of clay, choose the ones you use most often
• Oven bake clay – I used Sculpey’s Bake Shop brand
• A strand of dental floss
• Parchment paper
• Cookie sheet

Step 1 - Cut off the amount of clay that you need from each block. It’s easiest if you take your dental floss and wrap it around your clay once where you want to cut it and then pull on the ends until it cuts all the way through. I then cut each of those pieces in half so I ended up with 6 even-ish pieces.

Step 2 – Take each piece and roll them out into  long skinny snakes that are approximately the same length.

Step 3 – Take 1 strand of each color, squish them together at the base and then start swirling them around each other so you end up with a long barber-pole snake.

Step 4 – Take your barber-pole snake and attach the smashed end to the bottom of your crochet hook and start twirling the clay around your hook. Make sure you don’t leave any gaps and that your clay hugs your hook tightly so it won’t slip off after it is baked.

Step 5 – Gently roll your covered hook like a snake, this ensures that your clay will stick to the hook and together.

Step 6 – Bake at 275° for 35-45 minutes. I originally checked my hooks at 35 minutes but they were still a little squishy, so I left them in for another 10 minutes.

Ta-da! Comfier hooks! They’re super easy to customize and I’d love to see your finished projects. Happy crafting!

Featured Crafter- Sweet Pea Designs by Dee

Tuesday comes around fast!

This week, we're chatting with Denise from Sweet Pea Designs by Dee! We've seen her gorgeous work before on the Thanksgiving Must-Haves List (and others), and I, for one, am glad to have her back!

Denise makes adorable little girls' dresses, among other cute clothing items. Her shop is filled to the brim with skill and adorableness, which I will prove in this post ;)

Denise managed a small town bakery for years, and when she retired, she found herself with not much to do. Denise is not one to sit around, so when her daughter encouraged her to use her love of sewing to fill her time, she opened up shop!

Since January of 2013, Sweet Pea Designs by Dee has been offering adorable, quality dresses. The shop name was inspired by her granddaughter, whom she's called "Sweet Pea" since the day she was born. 

Denise loves creating little dresses that make girls smile! She loves to have fun with different patterns and see what she can come up with. What makes her happy is making her customers happy. There are few things in this world that are as wonderful to a crafter as making someone feel beautiful. It's a task that can be hard to achieve in today's society- so much pressure to be one way or another- but Denise has no problem making the little girls wearing her dresses feel gorgeous!

Recently, one of Denise's customers sent her a message letting her know that her daughter won Pumpkin Princess in a Sweet Pea Designs by Dee dress!

When Denise isn't sewing, she loves spending time with her family, gardening and antiquing! You can follow Denise here to keep updated on her items!

Thanksgiving Must-Haves

Thanksgiving is coming FAST! We're just over a month away from turkey, mashed potatoes, pies and family! 

We've compiled some absolutely beautiful Thanksgiving items that you just have to see! Everything is handmade by skilled and wonderful women.

First, we have these amazing "So Thankful" tags from Adore by Nat! They're great for gifts, wine glass markers or seat assignments at Thanksgiving dinner! They're only $3.50 for a set of 12, so how could you miss out on them?

Weil'd Hair and Accessories created this absolutely stunning Thanksgiving inspired necklace! It's great with cute Thanksgiving outfits at dinner or for photos. Only $16 for this adorable piece!

From Sweet Pea Designs by Dee, we have this totally adorable Thanksgiving dress! Nothing is more fun that spunky dogs playing in fall leaves, and this dress proves that! Starting at only $28, your little girl can be perfectly in season in this dress!

If you're looking to decorate those bare walls of yours, let HCM Creations hand paint a gorgeous piece of Thanksgiving "Gobble" wall art! Imagine how cute your dining room will be at Thanksgiving dinner with this on the wall.

Lastly (but certainly not least-ly), we have this adorable headband/ ear warmer from BeeBee and Jack! The adorable crocheted peacock feather fits perfectly in season, and the warm yarn is perfect for the weather! Ringing in at a mere $15 shipped, you or your little one can be warm, stylish, and in season!

There you have it! Check out these amazing shops and all the gorgeous items they have to offer, Thanksgiving themed or not ;) 

We'll chat again soon, buddies <3

INSTAGRAM GIVEAWAY!!!

This week, we're switching things up again ;)

Everyone seems to use Instagram, and we'll confess- we love it too!

This week, you can enter to win $5 store credit from SEVEN different shops! All the details are in the giveaway right above this post ;)

Here are the shop giveaway images:

Enter to win above!! Just follow all shops on Instagram, and we'll pick a winner for each shop next Wednesday, 10/15!! 

Featured Crafter- Naomi Ha

I almost forgot it was Tuesday again! My bad. Luckily for me, I remembered in time. There's no slacking allowed in the Land of Gangstress. 

This week, we're meeting with Naomi Ha, a designer and student. She is currently seeking an education in photography, graphic communications and interior design. She is a very talented lady with an eye for design and drive to spare! She's also created a coupon code for you lovelies, offering 15% off your total order with code DownwithPlumes (exp. 12/31/14)!

 Naomi loves creating beautiful things for the home and body, and over time, found herself running out of space to keep all the things she creates. During the holidays, she gave away her creations as gifts, which grew into something much more. She now runs her own shop to share her love of art with the world and help make people's dwellings feel like actual homes.

Naomi's goal with her shop is to pay for school without taking out many loans. In the current state of higher education in America, this is a very worthwhile goal. Schooling can get so expensive and the loan payments out of control. Naomi's shop will help her avoid incurring debt and create a secondary income for her future.

Naomi has mostly knitted scarves in the past, but has moved forward into home decor, which ties in more directly with her major.

Whether you're looking for something to keep your warm or make your home feel the way you want it to, check out Naomi Ha's designs!