DIY: Simple Beaded Necklace Tutorial

Sometimes you're in a bind and need a quick gift for someone. Sometimes you have some beads and some chain. Sometimes that turns into a present and the day is saved! Like in the case of this necklace. I just couldn't find the perfect gift so I decided to make it.

You can never go wrong with a handmade gift. People will appreciate that you took the time to make it even if they don't wear it. But, hopefully, you know the person you're trying to buy a present for well enough that you know they'd love your gift (or at least fake it). So here's a quick and easy DIY gift that you can put a lot of love and personalization into. 

Easy Beaded Necklace Tutorial

DIY: Easy Skull Earrings Tutorial

I'm a very bad DIY blogger because I've been holding on to these gorgeous skull beads for over a month because...well, life. Anyway, the very nice people over at Auntie's Beads gave me a $25 gift certificate to go nuts (as if I could ever buy just $25 worth of beads, but it was a nice gesture) and I picked these up along with a few other awesome jewelry making pieces and I knew exactly what I was going to make with them. These DIY skull earrings are super easy to make and you can customize with any kind of beads you'd like, so I thought they might make for a fun tutorial!

Flower Wreath Tutorial

I'm not Martha Stewart. Not even close. But I'll be damned if I don't try. One craft I've never really ventured into was wreath making, but this fall I thought it would be nice to have a pretty fall colored wreath on the door and Michael's has so many shades. So I took the plunge and made my first wreath! Since it wasn't a complete disaster (like my many previous craft fails), I thought I'd share it with anyone who wanted to give it a shot too.

One note on saving money: I bought my flowers right at the change of seasons. At the end of summer, Michael's still had some fall colored flowers and they were all on sale. So I hoarded them for about a month and then turned them into this! Sometimes, it pays to have a collection of craft supplies.

Tutorial: DIY Hanging Necklace Organizer

Maybe you're not like me and you're ahead of the game, but winter makes me not want to do a thing. I am definitely on the new-year-lets-get-organized-bandwagon, but I suck. So, it takes me forever to get anything done. I'm working through stuff slowly. First the clothes, then the jewelry, and finally the craft supplies. I've gotten as far as the jewelry! We can call that progress, right?

Anyway, I wanted to share a tutorial with you guys today on how I got all my necklaces organized for under $15. Organization on the cheap is my middle name (you have no idea how many glass jars I have saved just for this reason). When I realized my old method of displaying my necklaces was falling apart and totally ineffective, I figured it was time to make something new. Ta-da! The Hanging Necklace Organizer Tutorial was born. (Apologies in advance for the lack of photos. I need to get better at taking pictures at night)

Thursday Tutorial: The Tiny Flowers Bracelet

I have to be honest with you guys, I have been sitting on this one for a long time. In fact, one of the outtakes from this tutorial is a shot of a severe snowstorm happening outside my window. Yea, that long. So I apologize for being a crafty but lazy blogger. Anyway, since summer is coming I thought it was still a good time to share this tutorial for my tiny flowers bracelet!

Thursday Tutorial: Last Minute Fall Leaf Garland

I kind of snoozed on decorating for fall and Thanksgiving this year after all my excitement decorating for Halloween, but I still wanted a little something up and I thought that a garland would be the easiest way to do that. Also, I'm completely obsessed with garlands. Why? Who knows. Is "they're pretty" not a good enough answer? Anyway, I had all this fall leaf colored felt laying around in my fabric stash and decided that would be my easy solution: A Fall Leaf Garland!

Thursday Tutorial: Hot Pink Home Decor DIY

I've been in the process of making my apartment a home for a little bit now. Slowly but surely it's all coming together! Oh course my appetite is constantly bigger than my wallet, so I've been finding cheap ways to creatively decorate my apartment. This hot pink and gold serving tray set way my first attempt at doing just that and I was really happy with how it turned out so I'm sharing this little tutorial for it with you guys!

Thursday Tutorial: Colorful Summer DIY Agate Earrings

I've actually been holding onto this one for a little while because I wanted it to coincide with the opening of my second Etsy shop! However, life likes to get in that way a lot of times and I've been really behind on getting it all set up, so please visit it...at a later date. This one is just going to be things that I make, mostly jewelry since that's what I like making the most, and then Stranger Than Vintage can stay as solely vintage clothing, housewares, and accessories.

Anyway, I've written up a tutorial for this pair of fun dangly agate slice earrings for summer that are for sale in the shop. If you want to make your own, I'd love to see them! If you'd like to buy a pair, I'd be ecstatic! So let's get this tutorial started!

Thursday Tutorial: DIY Red Ombre Hair

So I have to admit that I've felt like a pretty bad blogger the past few weeks. Not that my heart's not in it anymore, because it is. I've just felt completely swamped by life. Part of this feeling led me to believe that I needed a new or at least updated hair do. Naturally, I'm a girl and that's what we gals do when we feel like something needs to change, we change our hair. There you go fellas, Ladies 101. 

Anyway, when trying to figure out what to do with my mess of hair without spending a ton of money, I decided the biggest change would be in getting both a cut and a color. Picking out a color for my hair was the hardest part, but I finally settled on red, even though I know how quickly red fades and what a pain in the butt upkeep is on it. This is why, if you saw yesterday's outfit post, you will see that I have since given up on red hair and gone back to something dark. BUT if you have the patience to re-dye your hair every month and not wash it often, here is a tutorial for how I got my Red Ombre Hair! 

A few things before I start this red ombre hair tutorial:

a.) Bleach is very corrosive. It will burn. Try to keep it off your skin as much as possible and always wear gloves when applying. 

b.) My hair had a LOT of layers of dye before I started so I knew I would have to leave the bleach on for longer periods of time to get it as light as I wanted it. If you don't dye your hair often, this will take less time. Try bleaching a little test piece first. 

c.) This is kind of a LONG process. Expect it to take at least a few hours.

DIY Red Ombre Hair Tutorial

Thursday Tutorial: Dainty Floral Drop Earrings

Today's tutorial is completely inspired by my friend Julia over at 2 or 3 Things! She did this super adorable outfit post with a pretty floral headband and inspiration struck! I thought, "Man that looks cute, but I'd probably never wear a whole headband full of flowers." And then.....

DIY: Easy Vintage-Style Beaded Necklace Tutorial

Back story: I found these avocado green beads at Micheal's one day and they immediately spurred my creativity. Their shape and color just seemed so vintage to me that I knew I had to turn them into a necklace. Now, does this necklace look vintage? Eh, maybe not so much. Either way, I like the way it turned out. Since you can easily change out the materials in this tutorial to make your own version, I wanted to share it with you all so you can DIY your own simple beaded necklace. But, fear not, if you are not the DIY type and still love the necklace you can pick it up in my Jewelry Shop!

Tutorial: Golden Birthday Necklace

So I wouldn't necessarily call myself "crafty", but if I envision something in my head that I want and I can't find the right thing in stores, sometimes I will try to make it. Now, it almost never comes out how I imagined it in my head, but I'll at least like what I made...sometimes. This was one of those times.

I am no expert in metal jewelry making by any means, but I decided to make this necklace last year for my golden birthday. I know, I know, it's mostly silver, but that's because at the time I wasn't a huge fan of gold. Instead I decided to just be "metallic" for my golden birthday and I needed a big statement piece to go with it. I wore a silver strapless jumpsuit with a big gold, bronze, and silver beaded belt and grey shoes. This necklace fit perfectly.

Anyway, I saw this shape in a lot of necklaces last summer, but none of them were the right color so I made my own and now you can too! I still wear it all the time. I wore it in my very first outfit post over the summer and promised a tutorial.  So here you go!

Golden Birthday Necklace Tutorial

Thursday Tutorial: DIY Metal Shirt Collar Necklace

Yes, there was one weekend where I got pretty crafty and decided to make some of the things I've been watching in my trendspotting. When I first wrote this post on metal shirt collars, I wasn't sure what I thought of them so I thought I would make one for myself to find out. I still has some sheet metal laying around from a different project and all the tools, so it wasn't going to cost me anything. Here it is! A Metal Shirt Collar Necklace Tutorial! Outfit post to come.