Friday, January 28, 2011

The Twinery: January Project

Updated February 1, 2011 to include a Video Tutorial!
Click HERE or scroll down to watch it within the post.


It's time for my January Design Team Project for The Twinery! This is a Valentine necklace and I thought these would be so much fun to make for the little girls in my life. The way I usually come up with colour combinations is for them to accidentally come together and the way that most often happens is with my ink pads. When I put them away or pull them out and stack them, I'm usually surprised by how pretty certain colours look together and this was one of those times. As it happened, The Twinery offers baker's twine in these same colours!

First, I assembled all my supplies which are the twine (of course!), buttons (or other embellishment), paper (or other medium), stamps, punches, adhesive and scissors. Then I cut three feet of twine in Pink Sorbet, Mandarin and Lemondrop. I figured two feet was enough but it's important to leave slack for loops and knots. It's better to have more than to come up short in the end! I pulled my inks and started stamping various hearts in two sizes in each of the three colours. This is how they looked before assembly.

Here they've been paired up and holes have been punched for the buttons and twine to be threaded through them.

Having designed jewellery and hair accessories before, I knew I wanted a sort of accent at the ends so I created knots and threaded pink buttons back-to-back with the Mandarin and Lemondrop twine, leaving the Pink Sorbet free in the centre. I tied another knot to enclose the pairing and started threading the hearts.

With each heart pairing, I added a button in the colour that was not represented in the hearts and used the corresponding twine colour to hold the trio in place. One by one, all colours are represented and in a sequential order. It may look random but it's not! The other two colours of twine not threaded through remain aligned at the back since they are all used every third heart. After seven sets of hearts are attached, I created the same knot-button-knot sequence to finish.

To create a clasp, I attached a larger button to one end and a duffle coat loop to the other.

Since these necklaces are going to preschool girls, I made sure there was no chance of any of these buttons coming loose, hence the design of this necklace. The edges of the hearts are also smooth and will not cause paper cuts of any sort. I can count on that with Gina K Designs' 120lb pure luxury cardstock!

All the pink buttons are from my local dollar store which was an incredible find since they are so unique.

Here's the back view where you can see that the entire necklace is one continuous strand.

And one last look at the finished necklace. :)

Here's a quick video tutorial if you'd like to try this for yourself! :)

Have you seen the new colours at The Twinery? There's a baby pink called Blossom, a black called Charcoal and a pale chartreuse green called Honeydew. They are beautiful and sure to become your new staples! There's a big giveaway on The Twinery Blog through Saturday, January 29th and the code NEWCOLORS will get you 25% off your entire order through Sunday, January 30th!

Enjoy your weekend!!!

Sources: GinaK 120lb pure luxury White cardstock; Papertrey Ink Heart Prints; SU Rose Red, Tangerine Tango & Summer Sun inks; EK Success Large and Medium Heart punches; Marvy-Uchida 1/8" long reach circle punch; The Twinery baker's twine in Pink Sorbet, Mandarin & Lemondrop; Basic Grey buttons (orange and yellow); Forever in Time buttons (pink); Papertrey Ink buttons (yellow)

26 comments:

Ujjwal said...

What a unique project, Emily!! You amaze me each time :)

Lindsey said...

Does your creativity have no boundaries? This is utterly AWESOME! It also looks like one whole ton of work. I think I know a nine-year-old who would like this a LOT. :) Wait... I like it a lot!

donna mikasa said...

Fabulous project, Emily! What little girl wouldn't love this? Too cute!!

Yvonne Russell said...

Oh Emily... this is just darling. You are so creative with your ideas and execution of them.

Jen Carter said...

That is so fun and cute Emily!! Love it! Great colors too!! :)

Virginia L. said...

Uber creative, Emily!! Love the assorted beright colors (of heart necklace) coordinating with the Twinery! Love the new colors...I only have three of them (sigh).

Kirsty Vittetoe said...

That is so sweet!!! lovely new colors of the twine too, going to take a look now! Thanks for sharing!

Tee said...

Beautiful! Love the little buttons..and these are just darling for little girls! perfect for the valentine's day!
p.s. did you check over at the PDCC blog! have a peek, you'll be surprised!

Janna Werner said...

Hi Emily! This is SO cute ... wonder what they would say at work if I wore something like that :D Janna

Angela said...

Can I pretend to be a preschooler for a sec? This awesome necklace totally beats the plastic charm necklace I had back then!
This is amazing, and so well-designed and thoughtfully crafted. Fab all around!

scrapsnsuch@gmail.com said...

Such creativity!!! This is super cute and I love the idea even for a garland.

Monique said...

How creative Emily...Love this :)Have a great weekend!!

Meg said...

WOWZERS! I'm not sure I could bear giving this to a preschooler! Maybe they could just look with their eyes, not with their hands? :) Fantastic job--you are just overflowing with creativity, girl!

Erin (Homemade Cards by Erin) said...

This is amazing and I'd also be afraid to see what my preschooler would do to something that precious. Thanks for the Twinery head's up, doubt I'll win with over 850 comments, but worth a try?

Julie said...

Love this heart necklace Emily! Great necklace for little girls! Love those little buttons and how you attached them to the hearts with the twine!

My daughter (Emily) thinks it's beautiful too!

Monika Wright | I Love It All said...

Oh, now this is truly exceptional!

Karin said...

Oh my word, how adorable! It reminds me of those candy necklaces I used to get as a kid, only way cuter! Awesome project with fab, bright colors!

Savannah O'Gwynn said...

OHHHHHHHHHHH MY! This is super dee duper cute--TOTALLY adorable:) LOVE your thinking! No wonder you made the team! TALENTED! LOVE IT! I love those new colors too--I am def. ordering up some:)

Alice said...

this is so fun and a perfect project for little girls!! love how you did the enclosure. thanks for the explanation. fab work, Emily!

Jennifer said...

This is just too CUTE! LOVE it!!! I need to get some of those fabulous twine colors!! (=

Sunghee said...

what! you do jewelery, too! This is sooo pretty! Love the colors and the knots are wonderful!
Those new colors look so delicious!

Lynn said...

This is so adorable...and you're forcing me over to the twinery to shop :)

Jane Izumi Matsumoto said...

Oh my goodness... this is simply adorable, Emily! You do realize that the pictures alone are going to make me head over to the Twinery now. The project is beautiful. Great job!! xx Jane

Anne Harada said...

So fun, so creative Emily!! Love this inspiring project!! :)
Hugs,
Anne

Vicky Hayes said...

It's all been so beautifully thought out - and what little girl wouldn't love these?!

Emily (stampingout on SCS) said...

Any little girl will LOVE receiving this fabulous necklace! LOVE it!
And dang...I missed that sale...:(