Beachy Bohemian Jewelry

I just added these fun Beachy Bohemian Necklaces and Bracelets to the Honey Girl Studio Jewlery Shop so pop on over to take a look. Prices range from $6 to $12 and that includes shipping!

Orange Posy Beach Necklace Green Shade Necklace

Catch of the Day Necklace

Summer Story Neckace

Shell Cross Necklace

Beachcomber Bracelet
Hootie Hightide Sea Owl Necklace

More to be added later today at Honey Girl Studio Jewelry

Kelly Ann is the Winner!

Through a random drawing, the winner of the Summer Solstice "Bloom" necklace is Kelly Ann over at The Holiday HoHo Queen. Congrats Kelly Ann! Please email me your address and I'll get the necklace sent right out to you!

Suitcase Renovation: Part 3 (Finally!)

Well, here it is! Finally finished! This little project took me slightly longer than I thought. Whenever somebody asks me how long something takes, I usually give my pattented answer...."about 20 minutes" but I'm not going to lie to you, this baby took a lot longer than 20 minutes to renovate! But I think it was worth all the time because it's going to make a PDA (pretty darn awesome) jewelry display case for an upcoming show. I painted the flowers and Honey Girl Studio label with acrylic paint. I'll seal it with clear spray but I can't today because it's super windy here today.

Here is the inside with the collaged wooden hangers secured on the sides with screws.

There are 12 pegs on each crossbar so I can get 48 pieces of jewelry in the case.

I glued these cork squares on the top so that I can just write the prices of items and push pin them to the cork. It will be easy to change.
All in all, I really like the way it turned out. When I get the jewelry made and displayed inside I'll post a picture.

Remember this........................


Was turned into this............... whew-whooooo.......let's here it for upcycling! Hey, checkout the previous post to enter into a jewelry giveaway!

Suitcase Renovation Part 2 & Give Away!

First things first, I know, I'm a day late as I promised a summer solstice jewelry giveaway but I missed posting it yesterday so I'm posting it now. Summer is in full bloom and to celebrate the burst of blooming color I created this leather heart pendant. It measures 22 inches long on a cord created from fabric and embellished with tiny orange seedbeads. The heart is about 2 inches long, hand painted and sealed with a clear varnish, however do not jump into the pool with it on! To be in the drawing, just leave a comment and I'll randomly pick a winner on Friday, June 25th!

Now back to the Suitcase Renovation: Part 2.......

I added another layer to the faux finish then began collaging different decorative papers on both sides of the inside of the case.

Here I'm measuring the crossbars for length. I cut 1/4 inch dowel rods into 2 inch pieces which I'll drill holes into the cross bars and insert them to hang the jewelry on.

Here they are all together and ready for paint. I guess there will be a Part 3 to show you all the finished project! I should get it together by later today so check back for tomorrow. :-)

Suitcase Jewelry Display......

Welcome to part one of "Suitcase Renovation" also known as "pimp my suitcase"! So I'm looking for a cool jewelry display that has to be relatively light, sturdy, portable and cute. Kind of a tall order, eh? One time of Flickr I saw where somebody turned an old suitcase into a jewelry display although not to the degree that I have cooking up in my noggin'.

Part 1: The stripping and painting of LulaMay

Enter.....the "PDU" suitcase, (that's sort for "pretty darn ugly). It's one of those hard-sided old suitcases that were typical in the 1950s-1970s. Well I suppose I should name the suitcase at this point, so I'm going to call her LulaMay. LulaMay has good hardware that works, very little wear on the trim and the sides are in good shape.

The inside of LulaMay was pristine, too bad I'm going to tear it all out! Kind of reminds me of the inside of a coffin....creepy!

The anatomomy of a suitcase......padding, wood, pleather trim and canvas. As you can see here I tore out the lining and the thin cotton batting that was underneath it. The glue that was left over on the top of the lid flaked right off with a puddy knife. I'm not worrying about any bumps because I'm going to faux finish and collage the inside of it.

I painted a coat of Gesso the the entire outside of the LulaMay being careful to go around the trim.Next I painted the inside with a base of Gesso. I worked on both the outside and inside at the same time.

Here I'm applying a coat of sandy beige to the inside of the suitcase over the Gesso.

I applied a coat of "spa blue" in the Delta acrylics line to the outside of the suitcase over the Gesso. It covered remarkably well with just one coat.

I decided to do a vintage faux finish in the inside so here it is with just a few layers applied. I have yet to put on the darker brown because I was losing light last night as I finished up around 8:45 PM.

Oh yah! Now LulaMay is starting to look "PDG"......pretty darn goooooooooood!

So hop back over tomorrow to see the inside of the suitcase. I started on it this morning and it's looking "PDA".....pretty darn awesome! Until you visit again...... SMILES!

A Bird In The.......

How does that saying go? "A bird on a necklace is worth one in a boxwood shrub?" Ok, well not exactly like that but that's the one I'm going with for this post! It is part of my breezy summertime fair as we are nearing the summer solstice (which I will have an amazing necklace give-away on June 21st so please stop by to enter) and celebrate the beginning of summertime.

This necklace is 17 inches long. It is composed of 3 strands: handmade fabric cord, glass beaded strand and cotton strand with blue shell discs. The bird is leather with a wonderful blue shimmer reminiscent of the hazy blue summertime July afternoons. You can purchase it over at Honey Girl Studio Jewelry.

Oh Sweet Pea.......

Nothing says early summer like a big bowl of fresh from the garden sweet peas. My mom always made creamed peas over mashed potatoes and it's still my favorite way of having them this time of year. My Italian husband thinks it's disgusting but if you're Irish you'll understand how we like to "cream" things! So these early summer peas inspired me and the result is this necklace I made today.......

2 Peas in a Pod Necklace

The peas are pale green glass pearls in a handcut, formed and painted leather pod. The necklace is two strands: one of tiny green seed beads and the other is a green and white print fabric cord. The necklace measures 16 inches long. This piece is available so hop on over to Honey Girl Studio Jewelry!

A Gang of Swimmin' Women!

How about these bathing beauties? Can you even imagine swimming in such cumbersome bathing suits which were most likely made of wool! Well, I won't be swimming anytime soon as I have pleurisy! I've had it for about 16 days now and I'm still having trouble breathing and pain in my upper back! Does anybody know how long it takes to get rid of it?

Meet "The Gang of Swimmin' Women"!

This is Constance, she's the serious one of the gang. She won first place in the butterfly stroke competition. She has "that" look on her face because she knew all along that she'd take first place. To her, it's no big deal and just another silver trophy to add to her collection. She can master any stroke even while wearing the fringy wide belt!


Meet Myrna, she's the fun loving, easy-going one of the gang. She won second place in the free-style swimming competition which is no easy feat in a hat, black wool knee socks and Mary-Jane shoes! Myrna lets it all hang out as you can see by her swimsuit. After the swim meet she likes to go have a few Manhattans and a big bowl of spaghetti with spicy sausage.

Meet Winifred. She's the sexy one of the gang, just look at that short bathing suit. Her swimming skills are inconsistent because she is always trying to check out the gentlemen watching the competition in the stands! Oh Winifred!!!!


Meet Clara, she's the young one of the group and very modest. She usually comes in last place because of the bathing costume she chooses to compete in. It's made of wool with many pleats and gets pretty heavy when soaked with water!

A Big Pile of?

What is she up to now? Well, I've been sewing up cord for my "Beachy Bohemian" line of jewelry. The hearts are leather which have been painted and/or stamped. I'll be launching the new line on my jewelry website, Honey Girl Studio Jewelry on June 14th! So stop by!

Curiosities of the Sea........

This little guy sails the 7 seas looking for the perfect gold fish!

This collage was created with hand cut papers and measures 3.5 by 5 inches. I got this frame at the Dollar Store. It was painted a very ugly rusty red. A few coats of acrylic paint and ta-da! I made the "beach" sign from a piece of Grungeboard painted with bronze Lumier paint (the little key was also made the with the Gurngeboard).

Here is quite a curious creature from the sea, the elusive "Buttermaid". She is a cross between a butterfly and a mermaid. She's extremely rare and I'm so lucky to have captured one!

I created her on chipboard backed with book text. I made her mermaid body and tail with strips of handcut papers cut with scalloped scissors......that took a little while!

So have you noticed I'm into putting butterfly wings on everything lately? It's sort of like my compulsion last year where I had to put pointy hats of everything. Can't help it, I still think wings and pointy hats are the best! What are your thoughts on butterfly wings?

Sailing........

I remember the first and last time I was ever on a sailboat. It was on Lake Erie and I loved it! Gliding over the water silently, effortlessly, skimming the water leaning this way and that way with the only sound being the wind. When I saw image of this little guy I knew I had to turn him into Captain Monarch The Sailboat Fairy!He stands approximately 6 inches tall on a 2 inch by 2 inch painted and collaged wooden block on glass marble legs.
This boy was one lucky little guy with such a beautiful toy sailboat. His image is from around 1922.

I've been working on several pieces and will be sharing more with you in the coming days!