I’ve seen the promotions for the new Martha Stewart dvds, so I added them to my Netflix queue. The first one I got was ‘Martha Stewart Homemade Holidays’ which is geared for Christmas and Chanukah (I know, I’m a little late!).
The dvd has seven main categories – Christmas supper, baking recipes, decorating ideas, ornaments, a Chanukah section, and sections for homemade gifts and gift wrapping.
The Chanukah section has three things: a gelt bag, a recipe for her latkes, and Claudia Roden making zalabia. The handmade gifts section has five different projects: a velvet frame, polar fleece hats (which are *so* cute), a button necklace (which I made – pics from that project below), a magnetic chalkboard, and a candy wreath teacher’s gift.
The ‘special features’ on the dvd are just links to direct your internet browser to the page on the MS website where they have instructions for the different projects – and I *think* that these projects are maybe all from the older Martha Stewart Living shows…so it’s not entirely new content (so I’m glad I put these on my Netflix queue rather than buying them).
The button necklace that’s demonstrated on the dvd is so pretty…I went to Hancock Fabrics (for the buttons, but I found these pretty shell-like pieces and used those instead) and Hobby Lobby for the supplies.
The supplies for the necklace are: nylon beading string, pretty buttons or shells with holes (around 60-80), crimp beads, clasp closure, jump rings, and needle-nose pliers.
Note: this is my first time making a necklace like this…the directions for the button necklace can be found at the Martha Stewart site here, so if you like the way this turned out and want to try it yourself, definitely print out and go by their directions as well – mine *so* isn’t perfect – but I don’t think anybody would ever know! hahaha!
First, cut the beading string into five strings that are at least 40″ in length (I liked 44″ better).
Fold each of the strings in half, and at about 2″ from each string’s end, tie a knot:
Slip a button or shell down one of the strings, and tie a knot…you want these knots to be about 1″ apart.
Keep slipping buttons/shells and tying knots until you get until about 2″ from the other end of the strings, and make one final knot. Now, do this same thing to the other four strands (you don’t have to do five strands – just however many you think you’ll like best).
Grasp the ends of the five finished lines and crimp them with your crimp bead using the pliers. Do the same thing to the other side. I added a jumpring to both ends, then added the closure to one of them. All done!
