SYTYC Round One...Dollar Store Crafts!!!

Here's my week one project/tutorial for the SYTYC Dollar Store Challenge.

And if you haven't yet, go vote this week. The theme is Thrift and the projects are really neat...

My favorite thing about this challenge? It may well be the first time I've ever walked out of the dollar store having spent under $5!!! So what did I get to take on this first challenge? 

Floral wire in four super bright and shiny shades... 

So what can you do with a bunch of pretty colored wire? How about make these...

The wire was perfect for making some fun, kinda-quirky, super cute jewelry.

I was able to make a ring and pendant from each spool--talk about bang for your buck!

These were really easy to make and my girls are loving them. The necklace is basically two rings stuck together--one just a bit bigger than the other, so I'll share with you how I made the rings.

You're going to need a package of floral wire and a pair of wire cutters. Also something round to help you make the band part of the ring, I used the lid of a paint bottle for my hand, and a toothpaste cap for my girls.

Cut off about 18 inches of wire. Leaving about a 3 inch tail, wrap the wire around your frame twice--starting and ending with the wire ends on top, pointing away from each other.

Start shaping your petals with the long piece of wire.

You'll make 5 petals total. I held my thumb in the center of the ring and folded the wire around it to keep them all somewhat uniform. I worked in a clockwise manner so that the following petal overlapped the first.

**Note that the short wire tail is UNDER the petals and off to the side***

When you've finished the last petal, adjust the spacing a bit if you need to. Hold the long tail in one hand, and bring the short tail up, over, and through the center of the petals to hold them in place.

Slip the ring back onto your base frame, and with the wire cutters pull on the short wire to get it as tight as you can and then cut the extra wire off, close to the underside of the ring.

Last, tightly wrap the long tail around around the piece of short wire a few times to create the flower's center. Cut the wire and use the cutters to tuck the cut end under.

There you go!

 One super hip and very budget friendly piece of jewelry.

***For the necklace I just skipped the base part and started directly with the petals. Once I had my two flowers, I laid them on top of each other and used the wire of the top flower to hold the to together and the wire of the bottom flower to make the center.***

Happy crafting.