Christmas Calendar, Day 4
For the Beach Babe: Sunbleached Paper Earrings
Earlier this fall I saw this really amazing post in ReFab Diaries by Betsy of foxglove accessories, where she made earrings out of old postage stamps. I wanted to make earrings, too, but did not have any stamps lying around (since we've lived here only a few months we don't have too many "old" things). Instead, I chose a couple of scrap booking pieces of paper that I thought went well together. You could use practically any paper you have around the house; napkins, cereal box, letters, magazine pages... I call these "sunbleached" because of the sort of "worn" look of the paper pattern.
How to:
Cut out pieces of the scrap booking paper, and matching pieces out of regular card stock. Then mod podge: first apply mod podge onto the "base", and lay the print paper on top. Add a layer of mod podge on top, and let dry. Repeat on the other side of the base, so you have print on both sides. When dry, you can decide wether or not to put more mod podge layers. I used a couple of layers on the paper that had some glitter attached to it, just to be sure they wouldn't fall off.
Note: The thicker all of your different materials are, the straighter the pieces will stay during mod podging. The one with the stars stayed quite straight, while the other ones are a bit wonky. Personally, I don't mind :)
Cut rectangles out of your mod podged pieces. Round the corners (and cut off any excess that for example shows the base paper). I ended up cutting all of my pairs into different sizes.
Make holes in the pieces (I used a leather hole punch).
Then you need hooks, earring-loops and 4 beads. I also used pliers.
I put the pieces in sixe order onto the loop, with beads in between (large piece, bead, mediun piece, bead, small piece); an awesome idea by Betsy on how to keep the pieces a bit separated. Pull the end of the loop through the hole at the other end, and make a "hook" so that the piece coming back towards the earring is longer with the help of pliers.
Put the hook into the "hook" you made.
Twist the "hook" you made and put the end of it through the hole in the loop. And you're done!
PS: I think they also sell loops that can be put directly onto ear (meaning you don't need a separate hook), so check that out if you don't want the earrings hanging so low :)
what a cute, simple earring idea. I love it because you could apply the same thing to any scheme of paper to fit someones personality :)
ReplyDeleteYup, I really liked the one's by Betsy that where made with stamps :)
DeleteThese are GREAT! So excited to see someone's take on Betsy's tutorial.
ReplyDeleteYeah, her earrings were awesome :)
DeleteLove this idea. I am going to make some this week.
ReplyDeleteFound these on Pinterest, and I just LOVE them!! What a beautiful pair of earrings! I have this "thing" about paper jewelry.
ReplyDeleteHaha thank you! I know what "thing" you mean.
DeleteJ