beads | Sew Sweet and Salty

A few weeks ago, I made Halloween flower hair clips for my daughter. They are very cute, but this barrette is for you ladies who prefer something more elegant for that Halloween (or any) party.

Elsa’s braid needed some extra sparkle that her snow flakes just could not provide. Now she is ready to shine at the party. The barrette looks a bit big on her, but she is only 3 feet tall, so her head is on the smaller side. Yes, there is a 3 foot tall Elsa living in my home.

I have here a 2.25″ barrette, black satin ribbon, a gemstone ribbon that looks a little like a chain, beading string, beads, glue gun, and scissors.

I don’t know why barrettes have those 2 holes on the ends, but they were perfect for a couple of strands of beads. First I looped a beading string through one of the holes, and used pliers to attach a crimp bead. Oops, I forgot pliers and crimp beads in my supplies photo. Well, a crimp bead isn’t really necessary, but I have a bunch, so I used it.

I picked my bling for my double stranded…I guess you can call it a hair chain. I secured the end of the chain with another crimp bead. Then I tied the string to the other hole on the barrette.

I glued a strip of black satin ribbon to the barrette.

I glued a strip of the gemstone ribbon to the black ribbon.

I cut eight 1″ pieces of black ribbon, eight 1.5″ pieces of black ribbon, and eight 2″ pieces of black ribbon. I dabbed a tiny bit of Fray Check on the ends of the ribbon.

I sewed the ribbons into a loopy flower. Oops, I forgot the needle, thread, and Fray Check in my supplies photo too. I need to stop slacking. Anyways, unlike the flower I made for my daughter, this flower has 3 layers, and it is a single color.

I finished the flower and glued a gem to the center. Then I glued the flower to the barrette.

A beautiful accessory to add a touch of sparkle to your braid, bun, chignon, ok I suck at hair, those are the only hairstyle names I can think of right now. Basically, YOUR HAIR WILL LOOK PRETTY.

I hoard earrings. I recently weeded out a bunch of earrings that I’ve held on to since I was in high school. They were all rusty and discolored, and while they had sentimental value, I had to let them go. I was also going through my old beading materials, and found all this stuff I’d forgotten about. I guess at some point I felt the need to buy enough supplies to make myself accessories for a lifetime. Since I could use more earrings that will rarely get worn, I will show you all an easy earring to make. Sure you could just pick out a pair at the store. But it’s pretty fun and thrifty to customize your own earrings, and be able to make several different pairs for the price of one ready to wear pair. If you bought a bag of beads, you can make a matching necklace or bracelet. I’ll get to that in a later post.

I have 2 fishhook earwires, 2 head pins (2″), beads, and pliers that have a cutter and a round nose. I didn’t want to use the entire head pin, so I used the pliers to cut them down to 1.5″. The craft stores sell head pins of various lengths.