Hey Beads, Buttons and Bubbles readers! LP was crazy nice enough to invite me to take over her blog, so here I am! I'm Jen, a momma living near Dallas with my super amazing hubby and our three crumb snatchers. I run a blog called Life, Crafts and Whatever, where I blog about... well, life, crafts and whatever.




I've been bloggy buddies with LP for a bit. We've chatted off and on for a while, and then she won a giveaway over at my blog (and I suck and it's taking forever to get it out to her, darn handmade crafts, GRRRR) and then I won a giveaway to her etsy shop, and I totally rock the adorable necklace she sent me.

She said I could guest post about whatever. A tutorial, an introduction, she gave me free reign. Instead of writing about how I almost pulled my hair out today because my 8 year old's new thing lately is to cry and pout, or about the left over lasagna we had for dinner, I thought I'd share a tutorial with ya.

I've been wanting to make a necklace holder for a while. Mine just get tangled collect on my sunglass shelf. And honestly, I can't remember half of what I own, which means I never wear them.

This is what I started with. Nothing fancy, just a good sized frame. I really wanted more details on the frame, but for $2, I wasn't going to complain.

I then hit up Lowe's, and picked up some trim for $5 (I already had the Gorilla wood glue at home). Just a suggestion. Measure before you cut to see if you have enough wood. I cut first, then realized I only had enough wood to go on top and bottom. So one of my wood pieces has a seam on it. Oops.

I let it dry over night. Then I laid it out on my super fancy painting station (otherwise known as a bar stool with a trash bag wrapped around it)

Then I got out my spray paint that Krylon was nice enough to let me try. I usually use Kilz primer (when I remember to primer) so I was really excited to try this out. I'm all about saving steps where I can. It went on super easily, wasn't thick and gritty like Kilz can be. I did three coats, it had really great coverage.

Next I marked and drilled my holes. Most I spaced out every 1.5 inches, some I did at 2 inches (for those chunkier necklaces). I drilled the holes with my dremel. They're not pretty, it took me a few holes to realize that I needed to put the drill bit on my mark, and then turn it on. If I already had it turned on, it would just skitter and dance all over the place. Then I screwed the hooks in the holes (I picked up a pack of I think 50 hooks at Walmart for $3). My holes were a bit too big for the hook screw part, but it wasn't anything a drop of E6000 didn't fix. I admit, I need more patience with my crafts, and should have waited for the cordless drill to charge so I could use the correct size drill bit, but I make it work.

I picked up some antiquing glaze at Lowe's for $8 (they don't sell it at Home Depot, FYI). I've been dying to try this stuff out, and knew it would give my necklace display some depth and dimension.

It's super easy to use, just apply it with a stiff bristle brush, it has about a 15 minute window that you can mess with it. Make sure you get into all the nooks and crannies.

Then take a paper towel and wipe it off. You can take off a lot or a little, it's up to you.

And then it's time to hang it up! I went from this mess of forgotten, tangled jewelry...

To this!

And a couple of close-ups.

The POW necklace 8th from left is from You, Enhanced. The 3 necklace on the far right is from Fabulously Flawed.

Flower bib necklace is from my etsy shop. The 3 stone necklace to the right of my bib necklace is from Whimsy Shop.

Supply list recap:

picture frame
decorative wood trim if your frame is plain
gorilla wood glue
hooks
Krylon Dual Paint
Valspar antiquing glaze
E6000 if needed

So there you have it! Thanks again LP for letting me take over your blog! You rock, sista!