Coasters and Earrings

I know the last time I wrote I mentioned tea flavored soap. I'm still working on that one, it's very much trial and error. Until I get it figured out I thought I'd share some other crafts I've become obsessed with: Coasters. They are quite possibly the quickest craft, but I've managed to turn it into something a little more time consuming.

All I use to make them are the lids and bands for Mason jars. You flip the lid so that it's facing the opposite direction and glue it to the top of the band and there you go. They look great and are easy to jazz up. I've been painting mine and I've pulled out some decoupage glue and dressed up the centers. Here are some of my creations with these:

The coaster on the right has paper doll clothes that I pulled from a Zappos ad in a magazine. The one on the left has a sunflower cut from paper napkins I found at Kroger this weekend. I'm still looking for things to go in the center of my next batch, so any suggestions would be welcome.

Things to remember about these coasters: they are made of metal, metal scratches tables (thanks Mom for reminding me) so make sure there's something protecting the table from the metal, i.e. felt or cork; also, when you're using craft paint it isn't water resistant so make sure you seal the coasters before you use them, I'm using a spray on sealer that I picked up from the craft store.

The rest of my weekend was spent making earrings. A few years ago I decided to try some "industrial jewelry" which basically means I was at a hardware store and thought about what I could do with hex nuts. So after buying a few, I realized that I could make fantastic flowers or other designs with them and a little wire. So this weekend I returned to that style and made a couple of pairs of earrings.

By the way both the coasters and earrings are for sale. The coasters are $5 for a set of 4 and the earrings are $8 a pair. If you are interesting purchasing either of them, check them out on my store website: Bijou Urbane.