You know those days where you find yourself perpetually procrastinating on Pinterest? If you’re anything like us, you head to the social media platform to “take a 5 minute break” and then thirty minutes later have dug deep into the ‘dessert’ district of the bountiful array of boards. Last night after dabbling in the website’s ‘women’s fashion’ offerings (granted it took a lot of self control to not flip through the food images), our resident craft queen, Emma, stumbled across a eye-catching necklace and then- experienced the worst thing that can happen to you on Pinterest. What is it you ask? Clicking an extremely intriguing picture only to find that there is no link attached, of course!

She decided it was time to take matters into her own hands and after grabbing her glue gun and a few old headbands, headed to her living room to reinvent the mystery accessory to her liking. Enter: our newest DIY! Seeing that everyone at the studio is still obsessed with the ‘chunky choker’ trend, Emma went to the web to gather some inspiration for her crafting!

Recently infatuated with all things bright and pink (in honor of Breast Cancer awareness month) Emma channeled her love for her favorite Nissa necklace, the Sumi Collar, and embarked on mission: craft a creative and cool choker:)    

• 2 basic headbands
• mixture of plastic beads
• mixture of ribbon
• hot glue gun
• scissors

Here we go…

Step 1: Compile your materials and plug in your hot glue gun.

Step 2: Twist your two headbands around each other one-two times. Hot glue on top of the other at both ends and hold for 20 seconds. This allows for a slightly ‘braided’ affect which will help the materials you ‘weave’ in to stay better.

Step 3: Weave your chosen beads (cut once so that they become single strands and ribbons into your glued choker while gluing (and holding for 20 seconds) the ends of the materials to the inner ends of the necklace. 

 

Only 5 items and just 3 steps? This craft will take you twenty-minutes tops and in turn, will provide you with a one of a kind choker that will be getting you stares all season long! 

The Kardashian sisters have long been Nissa Jewelry fans so when we stumbled across a recent blog post from Kim describing her obsession with Chanel’s pre-fall 2012 head jewelry, we knew we wanted to delve deeper into the trend! 

What did we find during our investigation you ask? Just like all women pick the perfect purse to compliment their outfits each day, a high-fashion hair accessory can go a long way in “making” an ensemble! Take a look for yourself…


Kim Kardashian dresses up her black shirt and simple ponytail. 

 
This model opts for a boho look while utilizing some leftover cloth rubber bands. 


Nicole Richie compliments her golden locks with the embellished gold hair accessory!

While perusing, we quickly realized there are hundreds of ways to hop on the ‘hair piece’ trend- yet we felt that a lot of consumers believed it to be a warm-weather option only. Naturally, the Nissa Jewelry Team, took it upon ourselves to prove this stereotype wrong with an Autumn Head Jewelry DIY!  With a few simple materials, you too can channel the pre-fall Chanel collection and have all eyes on your head:)

What You Need:

• Jewelry Pliers
• Jewelry Glue (for glueing stone to gold charm)
• 2 inch chain
• 1 lobster clasp
• 1 13mm stone 
• 2 jump rings
• 20 inch leather cord
• 20 inch suede cord 
• Gold Charm (similar to the one we used)
• 2 ribbon crimp end clasps

And away we go:

1. Accumulate all of the above supplies
2. Glue the flatback 13mm stone to the gold charm
3. Weave the cords throughthe gold charm as pictured
4. Attach the crimp ends to the ends of the cords
5. Attach the jumprings, lobster clasp and chain to the ends of the cords to make your headpiece adjustable

We hope that you go pull out your craft bin and get right on our fun fall spin on the head jewelry trend!

The pumpkin- it is most definitely a quintessential autumn home accessory but in our opinion it has long been due for a little ‘sprucing up’. Therefore, we took it upon ourselves to revamp the image and the use of the orange circular object. Upon first glance, there appears to be a limited amount of paths to pursue in mission: ‘make the pumpkin modern’ yet, we hope that this DIY proves to you that a little glitter, glue and paint can go an extremely long way- especially when storing your favorite baubles! Speaking of those crafty little items, here’s what you’ll need…

Glitter Pumpkins 

• Pumpkin
• Newspaper
• Spray Adhesive Glue 
• Assortment of Glitter Colors
• Spoon (if glitter does not allow for shaking on)
• Sheet of paper (to act as funnel)

…to take it up a notch

• Assortment of Paint/Paint Pens
• Paintbrushes

Here we go! 

First, gather your goodies..

Then it’s truly as easy as 1, 2, 3! 

1. Cover your pumpkin with the spray adhesive and lay it on your ‘funnel’ paper.
2. Shake on glitter- covering the entire pumpkin or use spoon to apply- use paper to collect excess glitter and re-cycle the sparkles. 
3. Ensure pumpkin is ‘glittered’ to your liking. Respray and apply glitter to fix any spots where it does not appear enough used.
4. Pat yourself on the back and admire your new creation! 

Mix it up a little…

Try experimenting with different shapes/sizes of pumpkins and get creative with your paint and paint pens! 

…then bring out the jewelry!

Who knew there were an endless amount of avenues to peruse in the pretty-fying of pumpkins? Probably a lot more than those who thought to use the autumn item to store their favorite jewelry:)

We’re back with another tutorial and- bold statement- but this may be our favorite yet! We love the spark of simplistic style that the ribbon ring adds to each and every ensemble we pair it with. No lie- it truly goes with everything! You know what we love even more? That’s it takes less than 5 minutes to craft up AND you only need two supplies- can’t get much better than that. Behold, the DIY for your newest (and most definitely noteworthy) everyday ring…

Once you’ve got the Ribbon Ring mastered, you can try doing letters!

What you need:

•  7 inches of wire 
• a pair of jewelry pliers

Last night we took a much-needed trip up to the attic to find all of our packed away fall fashions and boy, was it an adventure.. perhaps adventure is an understatement. Does anyone else get a kick out of sifting through your old belongings? Those things that you just HAD to keep and now come across five years later and just wonder “why?”.
              
Well, while we found our bountiful supply of boots we also spotted our huge bin of fabric swatches and couldn’t resist perusing it. From our plethora of fabric scraps we were inspired to update a pair of our old hoop earrings that have been hibernating in the dark depths of our closet for far too long. Believe us- the 10 minutes you spend on this DIY will breathe a new life into your forgotten earrings! 

What you need:

• a pair of old hoop earrings
• fabric scraps
• fabric glue
• 2 small jump rings
• 2 large jump rings
• 2 ear wires

Yesterday when we were perusing Pinterest we came across the a quote that was particularly meaningful- “wherever we are, it is our friends that make our world”. It took us back as we began reminiscing about the good ‘ole days with our greatest of girl friends- where the heck would we be without them? Theres something to be said about a person that you know you can call up at any moment of the day and know they will hear you out- whether you need to vent, need reassurance, or simply just want to smile.

In our bustling and busy lives it is very easy to take these types of friendships for granted and we want to change this habitual behavior! Thus, in honor of ‘National Friendship Day’ (this Sunday), we have created a tutorial for bright and bold best friend bracelets. In your down time this weekend, why not create one for your best gal pal and surprise her with it over Sunday brunch? We promise the DIY is painless and will undoubtedly produce a prize-winning present:) Enjoy! 

Steps:

1. Take two large friendship bracelets and glue/ sew back one side of each bracelet

2. Attach a jump ring to each of those sides

3. Attach a chain to connect both

4. Add a two other jump rings to the other ends of the friendship bracelets and add  a  clasp to one of them

A Nissa-styled friendship bracelet!

Steps: 

1. Take three friendship bracelets and braid them into one big braid

2. Glue the ends to the back of the braid so they are no longer seen

3. Clip on two jump rings at each end of the braid

4. Attach a small chain to one of the jump rings and a clasp to the other

You have your very own friendship bracelet!

 If you find yourself thrown into ‘friendship fever’ head on over to our “Forever Friends” Pinterest board for some more smile-producing products and pictures:)

If we could only count the number of sunglasses that we have lost to absentmindedness,  huge beach waves, and poor manufacturing… actually on second thought- scratch that- the number would most likely just depress us. The everyday necessity is needed to shield our eyes from the sun and help us to avoid getting the dreaded ‘crows feet’ yet we are always faced with the classic dilemma of buying a wonderfully unique brand name pair or one of the plastic sorts that would not genuinely hurt our heart to misplace. 



What’s our solution to this all too common predicament you ask? We decided to buy some less expensive shades and embellish them to look fancy and fun! With just a little craftiness and imagination we had our $5 dollar ‘steals’ looking like a million bucks…

Hint #1: Pick embellishments that compliment the shape of the the sunglasses. For this pair, we stumbled across some red rose beads that perfectly flatter the funky frame without being overwhelming.

Hint #2: Make them your own! Think about what you love about your favorite pair of shades and recreate it with your materials! Ellina loves pop of color the turquoise brings to an ensemble and is always loosing her favorite pair of sun-shielders. Thus, she crafted a pair that features a long chain for safe-keeping of her sunglasses around her neck and threw on some of her favorite color beads…

Hint #3: Don’t underestimate the power of creativity and a little guess-and-checking. With this pair, we wanted to utilize the extra gold chain we had lying around the studio to create an awesomely eclectic pair of glasses. After a little problem solving we constructed a glamourous pair fit for any divine diva in need of some summer shades…

 
See how much you can do with a pair of sunglasses that costs less than lunch in the city? We hope that we’ve persuaded you to pick up some plastic specs and personalize them to perfectly match your personality:) Have fun and we can’t wait to see what you dream up! 

One of the only things that can improve upon the fact that it is finally Friday (wahoo!) is that we had (okay.. maybe we gave ourselves) a reason to sport our most fun and funkiest flip flops to the studio today in honor of National Flip Flop Day! While we can’t deny that our brightly colored rubber footwear were getting us stares during our commute this morning, we took the looks with pride and returned them with slight smirks- haters (in polished leather loafers and painfully high heels) gonna hate;)



While we sat around the studio discussing various flip-flop ‘flashbacks’ (does anyone else remembering sporting them in the showers back in college when it was ‘dangerous’ to go in barefoot, HA) we thought what better way to conclude the work week then an unconventional and creative craft!? Immediately the design table became overwhelmed with glue, needles, some of the staff’s most favorited beads and embellishment and of course, our fabulously-fluorescent footgear. 

Feast your eyes upon how the Nissa Jewelry crew transformed their stereotypical summer slip-ons into first-class fashions..

Laetitia, from our ‘PR’ department, breezed through the craft in less than twenty minutes, utilizing the classic ‘glue and tie’ method, creating a pretty spiffy design:
 
Next, Allison, representing the ‘Marketing’ team, pulled out the needle and thread- and doing what she does best- sewed those suckers on! Her flip-flops turned out fantastic as well:


Third times a charm, right? Emily, from our “Design” divison, showed most of the staff up with her innovative approach to the flip-flop challenge- decking out her sunshine yellow footwear with a detachable accessories! The epitome of flip-flop fabulousness, her creation triples as foot jewelry, an anklet, and a necklace!
 

Lastly, our “Business Operations” superstar, Ellina, took a page (and a little assistance) from Emily’s book and also composed a multi-functional design! She spruced up her classic white pair with some scrap chain and metal pieces that detach in order to create not only a necklace and a bracelet but also an awesome anklet! Behold, the product of team-work at it’s finest over here at the studio:) 
 

Obviously, we’re celebrating National Flip Flop Day over here at the studio in style and honestly, our crew can’t compliment this craft enough (not to mention it was fun to see everyone’s personalities come out in this ‘speedy’ and simple DIY)! If you’re looking for a special way to spend your lazy Saturday why not call up some sidekicks, bring out the snacks and flop on? 

Celebrate “Go Barefoot Day” with this bold and bright craft that takes less than 15 minutes! 

What you will need:

• 1 friendship bracelet
• 3 large beads
• 3 small beads
• threading needle
• thread (and a ruler to measure it)
• scissors 

Steps:

1. First, find an eclectic old friendship bracelet! It was hard to narrow it down but we eventually did! 
   
2.  Compile your materials.
    
3. Measure out 12 inches of thread.
   
4. Thread your needle.
   
5. Insert the needle in the middle (bottom) of your bracelet.
   
6. Pull thread through bracelet and tie a knot.
    
7. Using the needle, thread your beads through- starting with a ‘large’ one and ending with a ‘small’.
   
8. Tie a poacher’s knot around 1.25 inches (give or take a few quarters of an inch depending on the size of your index toe).
    
9. Taadaa! You’re almost done! 
    
10. Push your (still threaded) needle back through your beads towards your bracelet to reinforce your creation!
11. Pull back through the middle (bottom) of the bracelet.
     
12. Tie another knot to secure your second pull through and cut off the excess thread.
    
13. Your beautiful foot jewelry piece is complete!  
14. Enjoy ‘Go Barefoot Day’ (May 1) in style!