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Saturday, June 19, 2010

The pleather is all mine.

What if you could make a tooled leather jewelry set - necklace, earrings and uber-chic wrist cuff - in a few minutes, for a few bucks, using nothing but a hammer, a nail and a pair of scissors?

I did!

Aren't they swelegant? I trust you are in AWE of my leather-tooling expertise.

Hee hee.

So go to a thrift store (or maybe, on a lucky day, the dollar store), and buy a fake-o cheap-o pleather belt.

To make the cuff, simply trim the buckle end to the right length for your wrist, and cut a curve in the free end. Tip: be sure to cut it a little bit long at first, you don't want to end up with not enough length to tuck under the tab! With hammer and nail (or a leather punch), make a hole for the tongue. That's it! Just buckle up and wear.

To make your earrings and pendant, just start snipping out segments that have pretty tooling. Punch some more holes, add some jewelry findings, and done!

A few more examples:

In that picture, you can see one of the things I really like about this project. If you cut along the tooling lines, you often end up with unique and interesting shapes. How fun to suddenly have unexpected shapes pop out at you!

Finally, you could experiment with color. Here I added just a touch, with Sharpies:

Okay, that's today's idea. Gotta go!

It's been a real pleather.


16 comments:

  1. You changed your blog up a bit too didn't you? Looks great.

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  2. Clearly your brilliance will never end!! I'm glad your earrings got an award on the dollar store challenge at CSI!

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  3. I've been looking at a lot of your projects. You are very crafty indeed! Love all the repurposing. Very creative ideas. Thanks for visiting today !
    Lisa

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  4. now i want to go cut up a belt too.
    only thing is I don't have a hole punch and
    hammers like my fingers not the nail..lol

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  5. genious! i am in love with this!!!! those earings are amazing... i kind of need them!!!

    sisters4saymoreismore.blogspot.com

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  6. Well, cheers for that. Now I have to look for belts as well when charity shopping. As if I wasn't busy enough!! The Man couldn't believe it when I started rummaging through a big basket of belts yesterday, he just kinda gave up and went with the flow.
    Mich, honest, if you start being clever with toilet rolls, I will have to stop reading your blog. There are only so many things I get away with!
    x

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  7. Love the cuff! Fantastic way to repurpose! Thanks for joining the Sunday Showcase - I greatly appreciate it! Hope you have a great week! ~Stephanie Lynn

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  8. Those are so cool! What a fun and easy idea, I love it! Heather of Dollar Store Crafts emailed me about this and I'm so glad she did. I would love to link to this post if you didn't mind.

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  9. The cuff...brilliant! Saw you on "One Pretty Thing" and now I'm off to snoop through your blog.

    Carolyn

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  10. I think I missed this post before, I love it! Gotta find one of those belts somewhere... my to-do list is getting waaay too long.

    Please, the pleather is all mine. Hee.

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  11. I think this is the most original craft idea I've seen on craft blogging sites for months. Love it, and will be trying it out, especially the bracelet and earrings.

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  12. OHMYDOG!! you are SO AMAZING!! i'm gonna be stalking your blog for a good long while i think...!!

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  13. You have soo many cool and interesting ideas, I'll be following along for now :)

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  14. Mich, WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?! You are so insanely awesome! I (sniff) think I love you!

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