DIY Kits for Embellished Cuffs

I must apologize for not getting the cuff kits to the shop window yet.  I have just been having so much fun finding goodies to put in all of them.  As much fun as I had in planning mine.  Each one will make two cuffs and I am sure you will still have left over fibers, fabric, buttons, charms, and other wonderful cuff ephemera.  Trust me they will be worth the wait! So be sure and check my shop thirty2ndstreet.etsy.com towards the end of next week.  Worked up a lot of cool bracelets for the shop window too.  Will try to post pictures soon.  sorry but spring seems to be coming and that means I now have 2 Lacrosse players, 2 soccer players, 1 baseball player, and 1 rugby player's games to catch.  I need to get a practice taxi so I can still have fun crafting.  Now go make something!

Playing with My Stash

Played in my studio over the past month with all sorts of fibers. I have a real thing for any kind of fibers, be it fabric, felt, ribbon, cords, linen or any woven material. The more texture and color the better. It doesn't stop at fibers either, I love buttons, vintage jewelry and any thing dangly (my word for anything that shimmers and dangles!) I had decided that my stash needed to see the world, it's not enough to just go down there and look thru it. It needed to be put out there in some form and that's when I proceeded to make cuffs. I just love how they all turned out. I started with either a felted background piece or a piece of ultra suede cut to a 1-2" width and long enough to wrap around my wrist.


I then just began to place different things upon each background. Like a little canvas. Checking to see what colors went well with one another and how I wanted to achieve different textures in the piece. I used some fiber flowers that I had needle felted and some polymer charms that I had created. I also went thru my vintage jewelry stash and added a little shimmer and blitz to some of the cuffs. Some of the edging I had crocheted with different cotton skeins that I had. It was fun creating colorful ruffles for the edges. I also added glass beads, ribbon, and embroidery stitches....anything that called to me. I sewed some of the items by hand and many of the trims by machine. Once the piece was filled with goodies I went in by hand and added any accent beads or embroidery stitches to complete them. It's funny, some of them I packed full, others I just felted a pattern, some bright and vibrant, others demure and muted. It was just so much fun! Hope you enjoy. Three cuffs were purchased by friends but the rest are in my newly opened etsy shop thirty2ndstreet,etsy.com. I plan to post DIY kits to my shop soon so you can Do It Yourself!