Hi there! It’s time for a new instalment of the Inspired by series!

Each month Riikka and I challenge each other to create something with a particular theme or thing in mind. This theme or thing can be anything and as I promised last month, this time it’s another Paris inspired challenge.

At the beginning of April, Riikka and I met up in Paris for a fun filled weekend of scrapping and sightseeing. We got to spent only one whole day sightseeing and after going to see the Sacre Coeur and the Notre Dame, we headed into Le Marais:

Although I have been to Paris many times before, I won’t even pretend to know my way around the city. But I did remember Le Marais from an earlier trip and I was glad Riikka agreed to explore this particular area. It definitely lived up to my expectations again: loads of fun shops, awesome window displays, little galleries and inspiring street art!

When we tried to slowly head back to Gare du Nord (where we had temporarily stored our luggage), we walked passed a bead shop. Of course we couldn’t resist going in! The assortment was huge! Riikka decided to collect a couple of keepsakes for us to use for this month’s Inspired by.

Here’s what she gave me:

(Photo by Riikka)

These trinkets made the challenge quite a challenge for me…

For one: I don’t really like bulky things in my scrapbook albums and art journals, so the curved Love trinket, the Eiffel Tower and the resin roses ruled those options out.

Secondly: it bothered me that there was an even number of trinkets. But I didn’t feel I could leave one out and I didn’t feel I could add one either.

Thirdly: I felt the trinkets would get lost on something like a canvas. I toyed with the idea of scanning or photographing everything (in) and making something digital, but I somehow forgot about that…

OK and then there was the obvious thing to do: make some kind of jewellery.

But of course there was a but… the resin roses did not have any holes in them. It took me days to figure out what to do about that. I went to a store and looked for bezels, but couldn’t find any. I thought about using buttons and while fiddling with the buttons I remembered that I probably had something better in my box of jewellery making stuff. And I had!

This is what I ended up with. I’m not sure it’s practical, it certainly isn’t mind blowing, but I still think it turned out a fun little bracelet!

Now I’m extremely curious to see what my dear friend and travel companion Riikka has come up with. You can find her project on her blog!