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!

Postage Stamp Earrings

You know how bored people used to collect books full stamps? Well, my aunt was one of those people. And in case you didn't know, postage stamps are sometimes extremely cool. So I sought a way to combine the awesomeness of earrings with that of stamps and this is the tutorial I came up with to share with you lovely people. Hope you appreciate this... post. Haha, get it? Because they're stamps :)

You will need:

• Two postage stamps of roughly the same size. If you have a pair of identical stamps, great. If not, do what I did and just try to make sure that the stamps you choose are similar or different enough to be cool. Be sure to choose the coolest stamps you can find, but also be mindful of size. Mine are the smaller end of the scale so that they're less irritating. There were some super cool Alice in Wonderland, Benjamin Rabbit and Harry Potter special editions that were just too ridiculously big to use without cutting.

• Cardboard. It needs to be pretty thick, like, thicker than a cereal box, but thinner than corrugated cardboard. I think I used the bottom of a Lindt chocolate box. By all means, use these earrings as an excuse to buy yourself a box of chocolates.

• A needle

• A hammer or something heavy to use as such. 

• Glue

• Scissors

• Clear packaging tape or that clear sticky plastic they use for covering books

• Basic Hooks (See Vocab Tab)

• Round-nosed pliers (See Vocab Tab)

How To:

Glue the stamps to the cardboard and then carefully cut around the reinforced stamps when the glue is dry. If you want to test your patience to the max, try and cut in between the little stamp frills. Alas, I, lacking the patience of a saint, opted for the simpler option of cutting a straight line along the frills. I get away with it because my under cardboard is white.

Then take the little cardboard stamps and cover them, front and back, with whatever form of clear sticky plastic you are using. Make sure you cover the whole thing to seal it properly against moisture.Try and keep any overlapping edges neat and to a minimum.

Lay them flat and use the needle and hammer to pierce holes in the top corner of each stamp. They hang in reflection to the other, so the one going in the left gets a hole in the top left corner, and the one going in the right gets a hole in the top right corner. Make sure you leave enough space for the hole to be secure, but not so much that it messes with the aesthetics of the stamp. 

Use the round-nosed pliers to bend open the loops at the bottom of the basic hooks and attach them by the holes in the stamps. Then close the loops.

Rating:

Effort required: 3.5/10

On the whole, these don't take a lot of time or effort to make. The part that gets a little finicky is the covering with plastic because sticky does not have much discretion.

Durability: 6/10

When you consider they're made of paper and cardboard, that's pretty good. They're not particularly elaborate, hence higher durability. This score does however, depend on the thickness of your cardboard, the placement of your holes and your taping prowess. 

Cool Factor: 7/10 

What I like about these is the history involved. Stamps are cool. And they're even cooler because the art of stamp collecting has been somewhat lost on our generation. They're vintage and unique, if you choose the right stamps. The idea has been done before, but not in this way (I googled it) so if you wear them out, you aren't likely to meet someone wearing the same thing (unless they too, are part of our slowly increasing fan-base). They are not always immediately identifiable, but they're still pretty.

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!

Beaded Bobby Pin Earrings

I saw a version of these earrings on Pinterest and thought they looked really cool. There was no tutorial, but I gave them a go and made up my own.

You will need:

• Seed beads in varying colours and sizes. The ones that I had were a tad too big, but I used them anyway.

• Round-nosed pliers (See Vocab Tab)

• Cutters (See Vocab Tab)

• Flat-end wire pins  (See Vocab Tab) 

Method

Before I start, here is an expertly drawn diagram of the earring by itself. 

 

First, decide on the bead sequence. For best results, arrange them in order of size. The amount depends on the size of your beads and the desired length. I used 7 beads and mine are about 2cm long. 

When selecting you wire, make sure that it isn't too thick to go through your earring holes. Start threading the beads onto the wire, beginning with the smallest bead. When the beads are all threaded use the round-nosed pliers to bend a right angle in the wire as close to the top bead as possible. 

Then continue to bend the approximate shape of the wire in my illustration. It doesn't have to be exact because you can easily adjust them once you've tried them out.When you have the general shape, cut off the excess wire using the cutters.

To put them on, simply hook them through your ears and then pull them up so that they run parallel to the lobe. You may find that you need to make them tighter, or that the line of beads runs too straight, so just take them out adjust them.

Effort Required: 2/10

Overall, they took me about 5 minutes to make. It's really not a lot of work.

Durability: 9/10

There isn't much you can do to break these bad boys without hurting yourself. They aren't bulletproof, unfortunately, but you can do almost anything to them and they won't budge. Just make sure that they are tight enough and you're good. If they do bend out of shape from something, you can just bend them back again, no biggie. 

Cool Factor: 5/10

These are what I like to call my 'lazy earrings'. If I'm going somewhere and I don't feel like coordinating, I just put these in. It's a relatively obscure type of earring, so they aren't too common just yet. It also depends on your colour choice, but these earrings really open up a world of possibilities. Who knows, you may be seeing more of this earring base in the future. 

Let us know what you think! Your input is greatly appreciated, so if you have any comments, challenges, suggestions or feedback of any sort. 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!

Leather Loop Earrings

My sister is in Johannesburg for two weeks, so I'll be posting until she gets back. These earrings are actually the result of my brother, who bought a really cool bottle of Poncho's Coffee Tequila that comes with a pretty leather thing around it's neck. He wanted me to make him a manly leather bracelet out of it and this is what I did with the off-cuts.

You will need:

• Leather string

• Scissors

•  Basic hooks (See Vocab Tab)

• Loop-end wire pins (See Vocab Tab)

• Round-nosed pliers (See Vocab Tab)

• Cutters (See Vocab Tab)

Method

Cut two equal lengths of leather string, roughly 10cm in length. Bend them in half and tie them in a knot where the two ends meet at the top. Use the pliers and cutters to bend the loop end wire pin around the base of the knot and cut off excess. Attach the loops of the pins to the basic hooks and viola!

Effort Required: 2/10

There is very little to do to make these earrings because they are extremely simple. They took me a minute to make. If you have any suggestions or ideas to make them more complex or more effective please leave a comment.

Durability: 7/10

The upside of them being so simple is that there isn't much that can break. They tend to get hooked on things, but because it's a pretty big loop they normally unhook themselves. 

Cool Factor: 4.5/10

They may be simple, but there is definitely something to be said of their simplicity. They're elegant and pretty, but random enough to deserve a spot on here on Glue and Random Objects. They are not very effective if you have brown hair and they are not incredibly original, but they match with pretty much anything and they are worth making, considering the time and effort involved to achieve the overall effect.

Let us know what you think! Your input is greatly appreciated, so if you have any comments, challenges, suggestions or feedback of any sort. 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.