Vintage Thingies Thursday: Classic Jeweled Treasures

Several years ago I walked into an acquaintance's living room during the Christmas season. On the wall, lit from behind, was a Christmas tree made entirely out of costume jewelry. I instantly loved it, even if it was mounted upon black velvet. All she could tell me about it was that her grandmother had made it years before.

Fast forward to December 2006. I was reading Cathy Callahan's blog when, lo and behold, she wrote a post about Bobi Hall's Classic Jeweled Treasures! And thus I learned that there were actual directions to guide me in the creation of these lovely trees:

It wasn't until late this summer that I found two copies of the booklet at an estate sale. Lucky me! I wear the majority of my vintage costume jewelry, so I have been hard at work over the past couple of months looking for cheap and sparkly costume pieces at estate sales and thrift stores. Here are a few of my finds:

I've also found some lovely vintage rhinestone buttons that will work really well for this project. Most of them I've purchased online, because I hardly ever find these at estate sales in my area:

I think it may be a while before I have amassed enough jewelry, buttons, and beads to make myself a tree. I'm in no hurry. I may break down and use those wonderful rhinestone buttons in some other project.

What do you all think of the costume jewelry tree? Do you like them, or do they remind you too much of Elvis on velvet? Well, if you would like to make a "jeweled treasure" for yourself, I put the second copy of this wonderful craft booklet in my Etsy shop!