Decoden Sparkly Bangle Tutorial ^_^

by VioletLeBeaux | Jun 28, 2010 | Craft, Decoden-Tutorials, Other-Accessory-Tutorials, Tutorial

Before we get into the sparkly bangle tutorial I just wanted to let everyone who was waiting for me to reply to comments know that it’s all done!

Every comment (other than ones that were posted this morning) have been replied to so if you were waiting for an answer please go have a look ^_^ Next step is catching up on all my emails! I am trying really hard to get back on top of things so please have patience with me!

I am a big lover of deco in pretty much every form and I’ve been making lots of accessories lately. I’ve always liked over the top jewelery but lately I’ve found myself liking big bangles too 😀

So today I’m going to show you how to make your own deco’d chunky bangle like this:

So gather your materials…This is what you need:

Jewels (I’m using 2 sizes and 2 different colours)
Epoxy glue
Felt pen marker in the same colour as your jewels
Felt in a matching colour
Base to put it on (more on this in a second)

Now the base! You can use anything that is roughly the right shape. Going from left to right there is a bangle I bought on sale for $1 at a discount store, a wooden base bangle I bought at Spotlight that’s specifically made for this purpose and lastly the cardboard roll out of the center of a ball of crochet yarn.

Any of these work just as well and range in price from free (if you’ve already got the yarn) or $5.95 for the purpose made base.

After you pick your base (I chose the Spotlight one) colour the whole thing in with the felt pen so it looks similar to our jewels ^_^ This is so that when you add the jewels you can’t see light wood through the gaps.

Lay out your jewels and prepare your epoxy glue.

With the bangle flat on the table you should start by gluing one ring of jewels around the top edge. Make sure this ring is completely straight because it’s going to set the tone for the rest of the bracelet. Wait for it to dry then repeat on the other side ^_^

Now decide on the pattern you’re going to do. I chose to do alternating large and small jewels with a row of small right around the edges. Lay down one line of glue from top to bottom and position your first line of jewels. Again it’s important to get the first row right because it will effect the rest of the bracelet.

Start going around adding more and more rows 😀 I decided to change it up and do a couple of different patterns! I did straight small jewels and red as well.

Lastly you should cut a piece of felt and glue it around the inside so the wood doesn’t have to touch your arm ^_^

Aaaand there you have it ^_^

Taaadaaa ^_^

It’s so shiny when you get it out in the sun! Let me know if any of you give the sparkly bangle tutorial a go!

How to DIY Your Own Flatback Pearls

by VioletLeBeaux | Jun 25, 2010 | Craft, Other-Tutorials, Tutorial

Yay we’re back to tutorials again today it’s how to DIY your own flatback pearls!

Still no real internet but dong my best. Thanks for sticking with me and I promise that all comments will be replied to very soon *fingers crossed*

Do you guys ever get to the end of a gigantic deco project and realize you don’t have enough jewels or pearls to finish? I HATE that feeling. I hate having unfinished projects too! Especially if I’ve ordered from overseas it takes forever to get another order ;_;

So this is a stop gap solution I’ve found to avoid having to wait for an order from overseas!

What you need to DIY your own flatback pearls:

String of cheap pearls or something round and the right size
Fimo or Sculpy clay
Sharp knife
White nail polish
Pearl nail polish (I’m using a Sally Hansen)

Ok first thing is first. Get your Fimo/Sculpey and using a colour you don’t like make a blob.

Using your string of pearls press in over half way to create a nice round dent.

Like this:

If you’re doing it with a loose pearl/bead then use a piece of thread to fish it out of the mold like this:

Now cook your mold according to the packet instructions.

Using the mold you’ve just created start making pearls. Do this by taking a large chunk of some Fimo/Sculpey pressing it into the mold, pulling it out and slicing it off the round part with a sharp knife. It will take some practice before you get the technique down ^_^

Now cook your pearls and let them cool. It doesn’t matter what colour you made them because it’s time to paint!

Lay your pearls out on paper or something you don’t mind getting polish on. Paint them white.

It will most likely take you a few coats of white if you started with a dark colour. You can see I was experimenting with a few other pearls shapes below too ^_^

This is roughly what you want to end up with:

Now lets turn them into pearls!

This takes a few coats too. Make sure you let them dry completely before each new coat or they will never dry properly!

Peel them off the paper and you will end up with something like this:

If you made them with a dark colour you might want to paint the bottoms too but it might effect how well they stick for deco projects.

So they are not perfect and they aren’t as good as store bought ones buuuuut they are perfect space fillers in deco projects and once they are surrounded by other jewels you will never tell the difference ^_^

So yay for tutorials again! Let me know if any of you diy your own flatback pearls, I’d love to see how they turn out!

Nuffnang's Chocolate Tea at The Langham Hotel Melbourne

by VioletLeBeaux | Jun 22, 2010 | Hime Gyaru, Life

A few weeks ago I was invited by Nuffnang to attend a chocolate High Tea for fashion and food bloggers at the Aria Bar and Lounge at the Langham Hotel.

I’m not really a fashion or a food blogger but they couldn’t hold a High Tea without me so off James and I trundled across the river to be social!

The place was just spectacular! I felt slightly out of place in somewhere so fancy XD

I couldn’t believe how many other bloggers turned up! Everyone was so lovely and it was great to put faces to a lot of blogs that I read. I hope we can stay in touch 😀

I didn’t think that it could get much better than that but then my partner in crime Grace from Living Footprintsarrived in her regular hilarious manner and we had an absolute ball having non-high-tea-appropriate conversations!

And OMG THE FOOD!

I’m no food blogger so let me do my best here… there were delicious finger sandwiches, scones, endless tea/coffee/hot chocolate and you are going to drool over the best part…

UNLIMITED CHOCOLATY DELIGHTS!

The decor was impeccable and everything was themed in Alice style.

We got to meet the head pastry chef Markus Bohm and let me tell you, he is awesome at his job!

He even made us personal chocolate and passion fruit souffles!

I did my nails especially for the occasion with little macaron stickers that Leanne at The Fashionate Traveler sent me! I also did an effect to make them look as if they were dipped in chocolate…

Jamesgreatly enjoyed himself with his tiny sandwiches…

This is how he entertained himself:

It was almost too cute to eat but they were all too delicious not to!

I had such a lovely time meeting new bloggers who (as soon as we get the net switched on at home) I will definitely be catching up with again soon!

Graceand I are always a model of composure in these situations…

Yes always…

Seriously though check out that strawberry thing in front, it’s actually called “Strawberry chocolate Vacherin with Elderberry cream” and it is one of the best things I’ve ever tasted.

It’s kind of cruel making me relive all these tastes over and over again to write this… I want to go back again Nuffnang!!

Grace, Sarah from 100Datesand I showing that we all process great restraint.

So much fun! Let’s do something like this again soon, these are meet ups I can get on board with!! I <3 you Nuffnang!

Have you girls ever done high tea? I can’t wait until we actually have real furniture in our house again so I can invite everyone to tea at my place! Until then, maybe we can go to the Langham Hotel for tea together 😀

The Long Trip to Melbourne…

by VioletLeBeaux | Jun 20, 2010 | Life, Travel In Style

First off you’ve probably guessed that there is no Sneaker Sunday today, it’s all about Melbourne…

That’s because Valerie is off jetsetting around New York and after all of the ideas you suggested last week I decided to take this week off and bring you something much more informative next week ^_^

Secondly I just want to give a shout out to the girl that recognized me in Melbourne Central yesterday, you absolutely made my day 😀 It’s so weird to have people recognizing me on the street but it is very fun so I hope if any of you see me out you’ll come and say hello and take a photo or something!

Thirdly SuperKawaiiMama and Fashion Hayley were lovely enough to let me leech off their internet so I could upload all the photos of our journey down from Brisbane to Melbourne via Sydney ^_^

I’ll try not to bore you with all the landscape photos, James hadn’t been on such a long drive before in Australia so he was very interested in the landscape… It all looked the same to me!

Green, green, green, brown, green, brown, green ,green…. cow… green, brown, green, green…

I kept myself entertained with knitting and juggling the camera/video camera to document it all. I also ate a whole lot of candy!

It rained a bit on the drive but it sure did make some pretty rainbows!

This was how I spent the first 14 hours of the drive…

This was the face I made after visiting Australia’s most disgusting public bathroom… I won’t go into details but let’s just say that someone had actually stolen the toilet seats WTF?!?!

James has an obsession with giant things, like the Big Pineapple etc. For non-Australian readers, we have lots of landmarks that are gigantic fruit. Here is a large prawn:

And a big banana coming out of James’ beard…

After driving for around 12-14 hours we made it Sydney. We checked into out hotel which was in a less-than-desirable area and ran out again like crazy people to find the restaurant we were having dinner at. Of course we were *fashionably* late!

We met up with The Fashionate Traveler, ChaiGyaru and VintageGrrl and had a very lovely dinner!

The only slightly clearer photo… For some reason the only photos I got were from my tiny video camera which didn’t do too well in the light 🙁 For other photos you can check out ChaiGyaru’s post or The Fashionate Traveler’s run down of the night.

I was so sorry that we couldn’t stay longer with them, the quick dinner we did have was so much fun! I can’t wait to see you girls again!

James and I poured ourselves into bed after that and got up early for another day of driving!

We saw a lot of windmills…

For some reason I had a mad urge to have a picnic here… 😉

This is what kept us going:

Oh and also this:

This photo really says something… James grew this mustache on a dare but then he refused to shave it because it irritated me! Dashing or just tickly and annoying? I’m going with tickly and annoying!

Green green green brown green cow…

I was so sick of driving when I saw something that made it aaaaaall better…

That’s right Violet Town! I’m pretty sure that if you have the same name as the town you get to be the mayor right?? It’s perfect because it’s even the town of flowers apparently XD

After 2 days of driving we finally made it to Melbourne and to Super Kawaii Mama’s house and just fell into bed. I even refused a cup of tea which should tell you how tired I was!!

We found our own apartment 1 week after that and moved in 😀

At 2221.1km it was a hell of a drive but I’m glad we did it, we had a lot of fun on the way ^_^

And in case you ever doubted my skills at Tetris this is all of our stuff… and I actually fit it *all* into a Mitsubishi Outlander 😀 WIN!

Hope you enjoyed our trip as much as we did! What has your longest road trip been?

We are loving it here in Melbourne and there are so many big awesome things coming up that I can’t wait to share with you all!

A Special Announcement… Dinner With a Princess

by VioletLeBeaux | Jun 18, 2010 | Advert

Today’s post is a little different than usual and very special indeed, I had dinner with a princess ^_^ I’ve been very secretly excited about doing this post for quite some time now!

There was a very special package in my letter box the other day… Such cute bags it came in too…

And lovely boxes inside that…

The super special announcement that I’ve bee wanting to make is that Dora from “Gems 4 Everyone” has designed a special collection of jewelery inspired by me! That’s right… me!!

How *awesome* is that???

Gems 4 Everyone make beautiful beaded unique jewelery.

The collection is called “Dinner with the Princess” 😀

I’ll show you some of the other lovely pieces they sent me so you can see that they make all kinds of jewelery not just the OTT pearls and bows that I love!

I’m not used to writing about things like this so imagine me putting on my best game show girl voice as I walk you through the show case 😉

Please note that while the prices are listed in Malaysian Ringgit (RM) international buyers can pay via US$ via Paypal.

Snod Izaro China Crystal Earrings

These are beautiful heart drop earrings I like them because they are very light and delicate. They are long and dangly but not at all heavy so after wearing them for a whole day my ear lobes weren’t at all sore.

Material: China crystal, Silver finding
Code: E016
Design: Crystal Earring
Length: 6cm
Price: RM12

Ravenous Ailsa Swarovski Crystal Bracelet

This crystal bracelet is one of their standard designs but who could say no to something so sparkly and pink 😀

Code: B042
Design: Crystal bracelet
Length: 16cm
Material: Swarovski crystal in rose, light rose, white, silver findings
Price: RM90

I wish I could show you how much it sparkles in person! I think it’s very versatile because it’s delicate enough to be worn during the day but still blingy enough to go out with in the evening.

So shiny!

Concupiscence Brigantia Plastic Floral

Gems 4 Everyone also make a lot of much larger statement necklaces like this piece.

Code: N027
Design: Plastic bead necklace
Length: 39cm
Material: Plastic bead, Silver finding
Note: Can be made using genuine Swarovski crystal (Price may varies)
Price: RM25

This one is extra cool because from a distance the clear beads are invisible and it looks as if the pretty red flowers are suspended in mid air around your neck.

Ameliorate Bertrada Floral Beads

For those with less over the top tastes there are of course more traditional options too 😉

Code: N025
Design: Plastic + Cultured pearl necklace
Length: 43cm
Material: Plastic bead, Cultured pearl, Silver findings
Price: RM15

The first time I wore this one out I got quite a few compliments, it’s nice to wear something so summery in the dead of winter! I love the tiny little pearls ^_^

Now all of those pieces were very lovely… but what I really wanted to show you was my collection!

~Dinner with the Princess~

The set has 3 pieces comprising of a ring, choker and bracelet named after the three dinner courses.

Violet’s Entree-

The ring is a cluster explosion of pearls, tiny pearlised seed beads and crystal beads.

Code: R016
Length: 6.5cm
Material: Cultured pearl, Swarovski crystal in white, beads, silver findings
Design: Cultured pearl & Swarovski crystal ring
Price: RM35

It comes on a band made of beads for the perfect fit. I love rings with non-traditional bands because it makes them so much more comfortable.

It is *definitely* an attention getting ring, there is no mistaking that you are a pearl lover when you have one of these babies. For those of you in cold climates you can wear it easily outside with gloves by tuning it into your hand ^_^

Violet’s Main-

A stunning cultured pearl choker offset with Swarovski crystals and a crown pendant.

Code: N035
Design: Cultured pearl + Swarovski crystal necklace
Length: 37cm
Material: Cultured pearl, Swarovski crystal, Silver crown, silver findings
Price: RM110

I don’t know what to say about this other than… *drool*

I just love the attention to detail in this piece, the inner row of pearls is slightly smaller so it sits perfectly flat on your neck. And the crystals… oh the crystals! As if it wasn’t pretty enough they’ve added crystals between the pearls!

The crystals shine beautifully and at a dinner party they really catch the light and draw the eye. The little crown is the perfect way to finish a choker like this and I can tell you that wearing it you really do feel like absolute royalty!

Violet’s Desert-

A lovely bracelet featuring pearls, dangling crystals and small delicate metal mesh bows.

Code: B039
Design: China crystal + ribbon + glass pearl bracelet
Length: 18cm
Material: China crystal in pink, glass pearl, ribbon, silver findings
Price: RM18

This piece is the most delicate out of the collection and I just love it to death ^_^

I love the little mesh bows on this, it really brings a lovely flavor to the little dangly jewels and pearls. I also love the way that something so cute and small fits in perfectly and doesn’t get overwhelmed by the other pieces in the collection.

I love all of the pieces they created and I’m absolutely honored to have a collection inspired by me!

As a special thank you to all my readers if you spend over RM100 at Gems 4 Everyone you will receive a special mystery gift too!

To claim your gift when you email your order through please include the phrase “I want to dine with the Princess” as your subject line 😀

And if you live in the Penang area of Malaysia you can see all of these products in person on the 27th June 2010 as they will be at the Flea Market on Upper Penang Road near to SS/Mois club/E & O Hotel.

Please go have a look at the Gems 4 Everyone website or visit their Facebook page and I’m sure you’ll find something you love too <3 Make sure to look for the Dinner with a Princess range!