When any holiday rolls around, it’s nice to add a little bit of flair to your outfit, even if you’re not into wearing red, white and blue head to toe for the Fourth of July. A subtle accessory, or one that really pops, will give your wardrobe a hint of holiday cheer. For Valentine’s Day, we made some clay necklaces that are both playful and sassy and say, “Hey, I’m down with love.” Check out the tutorial below.
Materials:
– Sculpey clay
– chain
– eye pins
– jump rings
– lobster clasps
Tools:
– 2 sets of jewelry pliers
– wire cutters
– potter’s needle
– scrapper
Instructions:
We love Valentine’s Day because we get to go crazy with hearts. And we couldn’t resist making a neon pink heart to rock for that love-filled day.
- Roll your clay between your hands and press it down on a flat surface.
- Using your potter’s needle, draw your desired shape and then go back a second time and carve the shape, pulling the excess clay aside.
- Smooth your shape with your fingertips.
- Poke a hole through your shape with the potter’s needle, moving it around until the hole is large enough to fit your chain.
- Follow the instructions on the Sculpey packaging to bake your pendant.
- When the clay has cooled, file your chain through the hole, add jump rings (or eye pins if your chain is really thin like ours), and then a clasp.
I Heart You
Prepare your clay and press it firmly on a flat surface until it’s about ¼ inch thick.
Draw a heart with your potter’s needle, and then carve it out. Gently smooth the edges, taking care not to distort the shape.
Then add your hole by poking the needle through the side, much like a heart with an arrow. Add your chain, jump rings and a clasp, and then rock that baby!
Best Friends Foreva’ Eva’
Remember those BFF heart necklaces that you’d share with your favorite gal pal? Are those still a thing? Well we say yes, yes they are.
For this set of necklaces, follow the same process as the neon pink heart, but cut your heart in half, making a zigzag design down the middle.
Smooth out the bumps and add the hole.
Then add the chain. Our chain was very thin, so we used an eye pin to create a loop. Then we put a jump ring through the loop and added the clasp.
Besties!
With this pendant, you’ll send a message to the world (or at least to the people you walk past on the street). Your message: free hugs and kisses! So maybe a good thing, maybe kind of weird. But oh so cute, and so totally worth the occasional stranger hug.
Hugs and Kisses
Again, follow the same process but be very careful with your letters. You don’t want to lose a leg on your “x” or wind up with a deformed “o.”
Also, take note: If you’ve been using colorful clay and you want to switch to white, be sure to wash your hands. The remnants from the colored clay will show up on the white. Measure the size of your “o” by placing the “x” right next to it.
Cupid Was Here
We couldn’t resist making a little arrow necklace, and we love how it turned out!
The only difference in making this pendant is the findings.
Rather than poking a hole through the entire arrow (we tried — it was hard!), we opted to put an eye pin on each end. We baked the clay with the pins in place, which worked nicely. For this necklace, cut one piece of chain for each side.
This arrow looks great over your heart.
Enjoy your new necklaces! Kiss, kiss!
Welcome to Selfmade Finance School, our new money series with Block Advisors to help small business owners with their tax, bookkeeping, and payroll needs year-round. This week, we explore the tax implications of bringing family members into your business.
The question for today is this: Does hiring your family members make sense for your business? Let me be clear. This is not a piece about whether hiring your family members makes sense for your relationships with those family members. As someone who is part of a family business, I could fill up a lot more than 600 words on my opinions about that. For today's purposes, we focus on whether it makes sense from an overall "good business and tax implication" perspective. As it turns out, there is a decent amount of tax nuance when it comes to employing your family. Let's break it down based on relationship to the employee:
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Spouses Who Are In Business Together
Personally, if I had to be in business with my husband, it would not go well. However, many couples build viable, strong businesses together and I say, good for them! Depending on how you have your business entity structured, it will make a big difference on the tax treatment of you and your spouse working as partners. Because a business jointly owned and operated by a married couple is generally treated as a partnership for Federal tax purposes, the spouses must comply with filing and record keeping requirements imposed on partnerships and their partners. The election to file two Schedule C (Form 1040) forms, (one for each spouse) permits certain married co-owners to avoid filing partnership returns, provided that each spouse separately reports a share of all the businesses' items of income, gain, loss, deduction, and credit. Under the election, both spouses will be subject to self-employment tax and on net earnings from self-employment and receive credit for Social Security earnings.
One Spouse Employs Another
If you have a dynamic where your spouse is an employee of your business, then your spouse's wages are subject to income tax withholding, Social Security and Medicare taxes. If you are self-employed (not a corporation or a partnership), your spouse's pay does not have to be included in your federal unemployment tax account (FUTA) contributions and payments. However, if your business is a corporation or a partnership you must include that spouse's pay in your unemployment tax contribution calculation.
Kobu Agency for Unsplash
You Employ Your Child
First, let's be clear. I work in my family business, but I am an adult, so I am treated just like a normal employee. However, if you, for example, run a family restaurant and want to hire your children under 18 to work for you, there are some tax benefits. But first, you should check with your state for rules on how many hours minors can work (in non-agricultural jobs) and reference the Fair Labor Standards Act for information on limitations on the kinds of work children can perform.
"This is an often overlooked or under-utilized strategy. Paying your children for true services they provide in your business can be a powerful tax-saving tool," says Cathi Reed, Block Advisors Regional Director. "If you are a sole-proprietorship or single member LLC, and the child is less than 18 years of age, the business is not required to withhold FICA or payroll taxes. The child can use his or her standard deduction against income you pay."
You Hire Your Parent
Oh dear. If you are brave enough to do this, know that you will need to pay Social Security and Medicare taxes on your parent's wages and make the appropriate withholdings, but you don't have to pay unemployment taxes. Now all you have to do is convince your parent that you are the boss. Have fun with that!
Is Hiring Family Members Worth It For The Tax Benefits?
"There are some positive tax advantages to hiring family members. It's important to treat a family member like any other employee. Hiring your children can result in substantial savings for businesses. Make sure your child has real, age-appropriate work to do and a reasonable pay rate, comparable to other employees. Consult with a Block Advisors small business certified tax pro to ensure that you are complying with all requirements," advises Reed. "Block Advisors, a team within H&R Block, is dedicated to meeting the tax, bookkeeping and payroll needs of small business owners year-round. To start working with the tax experts at Block Advisors, visit blockadvisors.com."
In my opinion, you should not hire a family member solely because of the tax benefits. You should always hire based on whether that person is right for the job and keep in mind how this hire could materially impact your relationship with that person and others in your family. Finally, as I mentioned, make sure you have a tax professional on your team when making these determinations. As you can see, things can get a little tricky!
*All details were sourced from IRS.gov and blockadvisors.com
The opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and may not necessarily reflect those held by Kestra Investment Services, LLC or Kestra Advisory Services, LLC. This is for general information only and is not intended to provide specific investment advice or recommendations for any individual. It is suggested that you consult your financial professional, attorney, or tax advisor with regards to your individual situation. Comments concerning the past performance are not intended to be forward looking and should not be viewed as an indication of future results. Securities offered through Kestra Investment Services, LLC (Kestra IS), member FINRA/SIPC. Investment advisory services offered through Kestra Advisory Services, LLC (Kestra AS), an affiliate of Kestra IS. O'Keeffe Financial Partners and any other entity listed herein is not affiliated with Kestra IS or Kestra AS Investor Disclosures: https://bit.ly/KF-Disclosures