Hot Air Balloon Earrings

I got this idea after I made my sister's Christmas present, which was a mobile of hot air balloons. It occurred to me that they could make pretty cool earrings, even though the mobile was terrible and fell apart. 

You Will Need

• An old book you never want to read again. I guess you could also use newspaper, but I wouldn't recommend it because it isn't as durable.
• Normal paper
• Scissors
• A pencil
• Glue
• A needle or pin
• Basic hooks, jump rings and round-nosed pliers ( See Vocab Tab ) 

Method

Take your normal paper and cut out a rectangle that is the size you want your earrings. Mine are about 3.5 cm. Fold the rectangle in half and sketch half a hot air balloon/ light bulb shape. Cut it out and then unfold to ensure symmetry. This is going to be used as a template for the earrings.

Now take your book paper and trace the template onto it in pencil. Choke back your tears and pick up the scissors, you now need to murder the book. You need at least 5 balloon shapes per earring.The more shapes per earring, the more 3D the appearance.

Fold all of the shapes in half and take your first 5 to begin gluing. Remember that the book paper is super absorbent, so you're gonna want to put a lot of glue on there. Put glue on half of one balloon shape and stick it to half of  a second one. Make sure that the folds are pointing inward. Repeat until you have stuck on 5 of the shapes and then you just need to glue the last two sides together to complete the circle. Do the same for the second earring.

Once you have your two balloon shapes, take the pin and poke a hole on the top of each balloon, right in the middle by the folds. Open a jump ring, put it through the hole and attach it to your basic hoop. Repeat for the second earring.

Rating

Patience Needed: 4/10

The cutting gets pretty tedious and you get glue all over your hands, but overall I think these took me about 10 minutes to make.

Durability: 3/10

This is the sad part. Obviously they're made of paper, so they are pretty flimsy. Don't get them wet and watch out for anything like putting on and taking off of helmets or even of hugs because they get crumpled. But the plus side is that they're easy to repair.

Cool Factor: 7.5/10

Personally I would have given them at least 8, but my moany sister says that there's no way they're cooler than lemons. The number of compliments I have received about these definitely makes them worth the wear and tear. I love these because they go with just about anything and they cost virtually nothing to make.