Crafty Gifts

We were invited to a birthday party the beginning of the month for a couple of friends that happen to have the same birthday. We of course being of limited funds, made their gifts.

Ryan/Jose at Grand Thing this year wore his Cardinal robe and I thought it just needed a paternoster to complete the look. Ryan isn't religious in any way and didn't really want a cross even though it would be appropriate for the garb.

Jose in Cardinal robe

I knew that skulls would work as the decade marker, so I headed over to my most likely source for finding some locally - Planet Bead. They had some in a wide variety of colors - pink, blue, green, turquoise, and red - perfect! I had hoped for a tassel as the terminal end (where the cruxifix would be on a rosary) as that was period, but couldn't find one already made in the right color. So went with this cool red/black/white bead. Their wooden beads were a bit more expensive than I could afford, so I went to JoAnn's and found a couple strands of beads that had three different colors. I had some linen thread that I had gotten to make my own paternoster, so threaded up a needle and proceeded to hand knot each bead on.

Jose's paternoster

Close up of the terminal bead and one of the little red skulls. Isn't he cool?

Alaina/Lonny/Osaa/Helena - I haven't spent as much time with. She's shy and has a tendency to disappear when we're all hanging out at her house. One of pretty dresses that she wears is a gorgeous blue. So I thought some pretty pearl hair pins to put her hair up with might be nice. I had some leftover blue pearl beads from doing my belt and recently had picked up some big bobby bins. These are three inches long!  I had also gotten some silver wire just for this idea, so had fun coming up with a design. I wanted to do six, but only had enough beads to do four, so made two as single beads. The combination should be flexible enough to allow her to put her hair up and use as many pins as she desires.

Brandon made Ryan a nice box that he can store personal items in, you can see the beads peaking out from inside. It has Jose's device carved into the lid, so everyone will know its his box.