Embroidered Wood Jewelry using the new Dremel Micro 8050 (and why I LOVE this Dremel)

Dremel is awesome, you all know the. The first name in small power tools has the perfect new tool for crafters and hobbyists. The Dremel® Micro™ 8050 tool.

It looks like this, and it's available in all the usual places. Home Depot, Amazon, and it's 89 dollars USD.

So what makes it the perfect tool for hobbyists?

• It works with standard Dremel bits, grinders, burrs and collets
• Lots of power in a cordless that can be left on the charger until needed- it automatically stops charging when the battery is full. 
• Light weight and ergonomic design is easy to hold and control
• TASK LIGHT! When it's in use, it has a little directed LED that shines right on the project to really see what you're doing. 
• It does everything you expect from your Dremel Rotary tool, it drills, grinds, sands, sharpens, engraves and carves

In fact, the only thing that's not perfect about it in my family is that we have only one. We plan to remedy that soon. My daughter loves it for making hard wood knitting needles. She whittles down to the basic shape for the point, then uses a sanding drum to finish shaping for a nice taper. My husband thinks it's the best thing in the world with a small collet and drill bit to put nice neat holes in leather without having to line up punches. Using the 8050 Micro, he can mark where the holes need to be then zip zip zip and they are done. My son likes engraving glass.
It's designed to fit well into small areas, and to work on small projects.

Check out Dremel on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest for lots of ideas and projects.

To make the jewelry shown, you'll need a Dremel 8050 Micro, a collet and 1/8th inch drill bit- both are available from Dremel, and if you want to bevel the edges, a sanding drum.

You will also need:

Wood disks, embroidery floss- this is a great use for specialty floss, paint, glue, needle to fit the floss, and jewelry findings. 

This is a good project for craft nights and if you pre-drill, a fantastic project to do with children because there are so many ways to embroider designs and paint the disks.

Plan your holes. I went with a couple layouts for the small disks, and one layout for the large pendant disks- I made marks on one of the wood disks.

Then instead of marking each disk, I taped a few together- these are fairly thin disks of wood. 

Then drilled the holes. So fast, so easy.

Now, you paint them. Remember to contrast the paint with the floss so the floss shows up well, and start stitching. The fun part is that the same hole layout can be used in different ways. 

Spread a layer of glue on the back to seal all the knots and thread. You can back the disks with paper, felt or even another disk. Then attach all your findings. I'm going to glue the small ones to barrettes and ring blanks. The large ones are fun pendants. 

Dremel wants to celebrate its fans’ brilliant projects, work and ideas! Now through October 12, share, tweet or post photos on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram that depict your brilliant ideas using the hashtag#MyBrilliantIdeaSweeps for the chance to win weekly prizes, including free tools and handmade gifts, or the grand prize: a custom-engraved Honda scooter and a Micro 8050. Visit www.facebook.com/dremel for rules and to learn more.

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

Tapeffiti decorated mini-comp book

Tapeffiti™ is a decorative tape that comes on the cutest mini-dispensers ever made by Fashion Angels. Recently I had the chance to try the Tapeffiti 30 Decorative Tape Roll Set (Fashion Angels link)- the set comes with a wide variety of designs that can be used on all sorts of things. The first thing I wanted to do was a decorated mini comp book. I use mini comp books to write down ideas while out and about.

Actually, the first thing I did after pulling out the supplies was offer The Amazing Turnip Girl her choice of tapes that I'd leave for her. The 30 kinds of tape have all sorts of designs, super kawaii, pretty flowers like I used above, some lacy effects, a mini caution tape, a herringbone, animal prints in bright colors. Just a lot of selection which makes this a good project for tween parties.

You will need:

• Duct tape
• Tapeffiti Decorative Tapes- not only do they have the 30 roll set, but they also have Monster High™ and Barbie™ packs as well
• Scissors- I like non-stick scissors (Amazon affiliate link)
• mini composition books- I got mine from Wal-Mart
• 1/4 inch elastic
• ribbon
• stapler

The nice thing about customizing these little notebooks is you can add in helpful details like an elastic band to keep it closed in your purse and a ribbon bookmark to make it easy to find the page you're on. 

Cut a piece of duct tape the same length as your notebook, and line up the ribbon on the back of the book against right along the spine. Tape over the spine of the notebook and ribbon.

Now you'll cover the whole notebook in duct tape. I've found the best way is to do the outside cover first, cutting length that wrap around to the inside. Burnish it down, then cut 3 lengths the same length of the notebook, fold 1 over each long edge of the cover, then 1 more around the spine. After that, cut shorter lengths to do the inside, covering the tape ends from the outside cover.

After it's covered, wrap the notebook lengthwise with a piece of elastic, pulling it just a little bit tight. Cut it with a half inch overlap, then center that overlap about an inch away from the edge on the back cover, and staple it into place. I like my staple pliers (Amazon) for this because they are heavy duty enough to go through the tape, elastic and cardboard.

Now the fun part! Decorating with the Tapeffiti™ . You can cover the staple if you'd like, I did. Or you could put it on vertically or diagonally. This part is completely up to your imagination. I'm certain that TG will do something very different from what I did. TG loves the tapes too. 

Check out Fashion Angels on Facebook! They are planning to do a giveaway when they hit 5000 fans and they are so close. They have lots of great craft items for kids and you can see a really great dress made using Tapeffiti on there as well.

Fashion Angels provided the Tapefitti™  at no cost for use in a project and for review purposes. No other compensation was given, and the opinions expressed here are my own. 

All Amazon links are affiliate links, if you use them, it will help support this site. The scissors and stapler are the brands and styles I used in making this project.