Measuring Tape Loop Earrings

So I recently finished high school. The exams were pretty tough, but deciding on what earrings to make various teachers as gifts may have been slightly tougher. With Christmas coming up, these earrings would be a great gift for someone creatoive and a tad eccentric like my history teacher, or just make them for yourself.

You Will Need:

• Fabric measuring tape

•  Scissors

•  a Nail or some other sharp object

•  a Hammer

•  a scrap plank or board

•  Basic hooks (See Vocab Tab)

•  Round-nosed Pliers (See Vocab Tab)

How To:

Take the fabric measuring tape and cut off the metal end, then cut off two equal lengths. I made mine from 10cm each. I wanted mine to show mostly the centimeter side because we're South African, but as you can see both sides show.

Lay whichever side you want to see more of facing up and then move one end sideways until it's on top of the other end. This forms the slightly twisted teardrop shape because I thought that a plain hoop would be less effective. 

Hold the ends in place and put the loop on the scrap plank or board. This plank will give you something to hammer the nail into so that you don't damage the surface underneath, but it won't be necessary if you can think of a better way to punch a hole into the top of the earring. Carefully place the point of the nail where you want to punch the hole, bearing in mind that you're going to cut the edge to make it smoothe and you don't want it to tear, and hammer it in. Not all the way, but just enough to punch a hole.

Leave the earring impaled on the nail while you cut the top edges smooth, bearing in mind once again that if the hole is too close to the top it will tear. take the earring off and then use the round-nosed pliers to attach the basic hook to the earring. 

Rating:

Effort Required: 4/10

They don't take long to make, but it can be quite frustrating to direct the curved hook loop through the tiny hole. Overall there are more challenging earrings to make.

Durability: 8/10

The plus side is that fabric measuring tape is vinyl covered fibreglass, it was made for strength. Who knew sewing could be so hardcore? These are waterproof and super resistant, though I cannot vouch for their fireproofing abilities. The only problem is tearing. One of these tore and I had to make a new one, so just be careful.

Cool Factor: 7/10

These earrings are pretty cool. They're difinately qwerky and original, not to mention that measuring tape comes in all kinds of awesome designs and pretty colours. This is a great way to own your love for craft and sewing and a great gift for someone with these traits.

Let us know what you think! Your input is greatly appreciated, so let us know if you have any comments, challenges, suggestions or feedback of any sort. We want to see your finished product!  If you like what you see then please follow us and if you want to keep up to date on our latest posts, follow My Earring Board on Pinterest. Thanks for taking the time to view our blog!

Pretty Bow Earrings

Remember me? I know it's been a LONG time since I've posted, but I've had a lot of things going on. I'm afraid it may be a while before you hear from me again, I am in a brief period of holidays before I begin writing my finals. Also, my older sister has moved to Poland. She will no longer be gracing us with her posts. I have one or two in the archives, but I'm afraid that from now on you're stuck with me.

 You Will Need:

• Two pretty bows. Choose the colour, type, pattern and size according to preference. If you can't find anything you like, make your own. Just an idea, use red and white polka dotted bows reminiscent of Minnie Mouse. I much prefer green though.

• Loop-end Wire Pins (See Vocab Tab) 

• Round-nosed Pliers (See Vocab Tab)

• Cutters (See Vocab Tab)

• Basic Hooks (See Vocab Tab)

How To:

Take a loop-end wire pin and thread it through the middle part of your bow. Be careful not to damage the bow in any way while you do this. Next, take your round-nosed pliers and bend the pin into a vaguely triangular shape. Use the cutters to cut off the excess. 

Use the round-nosed pliers to attach the basic hook to the loop of the pin. Use the pliers to bend the wire holding the bow slightly forward to adjust the angle at which the bows hang. Do this as many times as it takes for you to be satisfied.

Rating:

Effort Required: 2/10

They don't take much time or effort to make. The hardest part is finding the bows you like, really. They took me roughly 6 minutes to make.

Durability: 7/10

I admit that I have yet to wear them. I kind of just decided that I needed to post today and so I whipped these up, but as a general rule, the simpler the earring, the more durable they are.

Cool Factor: 5/10

The cool factor depends entirely on your choice of bows. Obviously it would greatly increase if you made them yourself, instead of using store bought ones like I did. But there's just so much potential here! With Christmas coming up, these would make a great (cost effective, yet touchingly homemade) gift and could even add a little festive feel to your outfit. I really like that they dangle and, though bow earrings are pretty popular, they're normally made of metal and are attached to studs.

Let us know what you think! Your input is greatly appreciated, so let us know if you have any comments, challenges, suggestions or feedback of any sort. We want to see your finished product!  If you like what you see then please follow us and if you want to keep up to date on our latest posts, follow My Earring Board on Pinterest. Thanks for taking the time to view our blog!

Peg Earrings

I have a friend who rocked up for an exam once with a clothes peg in her hair because she couldn't find a clip. These are a classier kind of cool.

Brace yourself. This list of materials may come as a surprise:

• Two miniature clothes pegs (I made mine multicoloured by taking them apart and putting the halves of different pegs together)
• Super glue 
• Basic studs (See Vocab Tab)

Here's the method. It's worth reading for the one step that isn't obvious from the picture:

Start by gluing the peg shut. This will decrease the chance of the earring breaking if someone tries to pinch it open.

Now stick the pegs onto the studs.

Good job.

Rating:

Effort Required: 1/10

In the time it took you to read this post you could probably have made a pair. At least I haven't wasted much of your time by making it unnecessarily long. Oh, wait, now I just made it longer by saying that. I'm sorry.

Durability: 8.5/10

Fewer steps usually means stronger earrings and more boring posts.

Cool Factor: 6/10

I'm not entirely happy with these. I had wanted to make them so they look like they're actually pegged onto your ears but I couldn't come up with a good enough way to do it. Suggestions?