DIY Lace Stud Earrings

Happy April Fools! Did you get any good pranks today? I'm very easy to fool since I forget about the date, even during the day, and so I'm just thinking it's an ordinary Wednesday. Or I'm simply naive. But, let's go with the first version, ok?

I wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone who participated in the Etsy send-off party with the purchases. The shop is now officially closed, and I'll be removing the link from the menu bar as well. I'll be writing more in depth about all the lessons learned soon.

Enough of chit-chat - let's get down to business! Lace earrings have been on my mind for a while, but somehow I haven't gotten around to making any before now. In my earring-making frenzy last week, I suddenly had a burst of inspiration and voila, lace earrings. These are so easy to make, it almost feels like cheating. So, if you've ever wanted to get into jewelry-making, but been intimidated by the tools and wires and techniques, simple stud earrings are the perfect place to start. You cannot do it wrong! 

 Supplies needed:

1) Venice style lace

2) Scissors

3) Mod Podge

4) Small painting brush

5) Earring studs

6) Super glue

7) Plastic bag 

 Here's the how-to:

1) Cut 2 suitable motifs for the earring from the venice lace.

3) Add a drop of water to Mod Podge (until it's runny) and paint over both sides of the lace motifs. Protect the underlying surface and the motifs by laying a plastic bag under them for this step.

4) Let completely dry before gluing the studs to the backside of the lace. Once the glue has dried, you can wear your new studs.

Ridiculously simple, right? You might be wondering why I messed with the Mod Podge in the first place. Well, the lace itself is soft, but I wanted the earrings to have a good form, and be at least somewhat stain-resistant. And infusing them in Mod Podge did just that.

Happy crafting!

xo. Hanna

DIY Sequins and pearls hoop earrings

I've been getting back into jewelry making lately. It's funny how my craft-craving always come in waves. There are periods where I only want to sew for hours on end, and then there are times when I can't make enough earrings, followed by a knitting frenzy. That's just how I roll. I guess it's jewelry making time again. 

I wanted to try and make something with flexible wire, and came up with these fun sequin and pearl earrings. I made them in a bunch of colors. I love when I get into a zone while crafting and just play around with stuff. That's fun!

What you will need:

• Flexible jewelry wire
• Earring hooks in silver
• 2mm round crimp beads
• Flat-nosed pliers
• Colorful sequins (c/o Pandahall)
• 4mm colorful beads (c/o Pandahall)
• Wire cutters or scissors

 1. Cut a 12cm long piece of flexible wire. Add sequins and pearls (11 sequins and 10 beads per earring) to the wire.

2. String the wire through one crimp bead, so that one tail of the wire is very short and the other is about 1.5cm long. 

3. Press the crimp bead together with the flat-nosed pliers. 

4. Add another crimp bead to the longer tail of the wire. Then, string the wire tail through the earring hook and back through the crimp bead. 

5. Again, press the crimp bead together withe the pliers. Cut wire tails.

6. A more advanced way of making this would be to use only one crimp bead to tie the wire loop. In this case, you would skip steps 3 and 4. 

Make one more and you have yourself a lovely pair of earrings.

 

This technique has so much potential. I can already imagine making these with bigger pearls and wooden pearls, and all sorts of combinations. I'm thinking I could make a few more variations and do an inspiration post. Would you be interested in that? 

I hope this tutorial was helpful also to those not that familiar with jewelry making. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask in the comments.

xo. Hanna

DIY Initial Necklace

Ever since I saw this necklace on Pinterest, I've been wanting to do a DIY version. There's something about minimal jewelry, that's just so...perfect. And I've always wanted to have a custom necklace with my name in it. Actually, the first piece of jewelry I ever made was in summer camp after 6th grade (I think) where I made some clay beads that had my name on them. That's how long this obsession has lasted, people!

 I thought about using wire for the initial, but that just didn't seem the right material. I wanted it to look seamless, made from one piece. So, I turned back to the same material I used the first go around - clay. Only this time I used polymer clay instead of the traditional one. You could use either the air-dry version or the bake version. Doesn't really matter.

To make your own, you will need:

• Polymer clay (either gold or white)
• golden necklace or chain+closure
• golden jewelry wire (0.6mm thick) or 
• Round-nosed jewelry pliers
• Wire cutters
• Gold permanent marker
• Needle

1. & 2. Take a piece of clay, roll it to about 5mm thickness and use a needle to carve out your initial. 

3. Cut two 2cm-long pieces of jewelry wire, and turn one end of each piece into a loop with the round-nosed pliers. Insert the pointy end of the pin you just made into one end of the initial. Be careful not to mash up your letter. Insert the other pin into the other end of the initial. 

Alternatively, instead of using jewelry wire, you could use pre-made jewelry needles/pins, and just nip them a little shorter with the wire-cutters.

4. Bake the initials in the oven according to the instructions on the package, or let air-dry if you're using air-dry clay.

Once they're baked and cooled down, use the permanent maker to paint the letter golden.

5. & 6. Use the pliers to pull open the link of the necklace chain at the point you want to insert the initial, and attach it. Or, if you're using chain and a necklace closure, cut your chain to the right length, separate into 2 halves, and attach the initial between the two pieces of chain, and then add the closure to the other ends of the chain pieces.

I made one necklace for myself, and one for my friend Mari Krõõt. I haven't played around with polymer clay much in the past, but this project got the little wheels turning in my head.

Update! Mari Krõõt says she experienced some fading of the color, so she recommends spray-painting the initial instead of using marker, or you could protect the color of the marker with some clear nail polish like Angelika suggested.

Happy crafting!

xo. Hanna

DIY Dangling Metal Button Earrings

Happy Independence Day, Estonia! Our little country is 97 years old today. We are celebrating by making soup and watching Tangerines, the Estonian movie that almost won an Oscar this year. But before I go to wave the blue-black-white flag, I have a DIY to share with you.

This is another one created for the Estonian fashion magazine called Mood. Laura suggested I make the Estonian versions of these tutorials available as well, and I'm working on making that happen. I'm still figuring out the best way to do that, but I'll let you know as soon as they are up somewhere. 

I've wanted to make something out of these metal buttons from the day I bought a whole batch of vintage buttons many moons ago. There were only a few of each, so adding them to a garment would be tricky, as garments with buttons usually require more in quantity. And also, they were so cool, I had a hard time imagining a garment worthy of them. So, finally I decided to turn them into jewelry. Best decision ever!

I'm sure you can find similar buttons in the stores, but you could use any other buttons in different sizes. I think these would look great with colorful buttons - like a color-blocked effect - for the upcoming spring. And you could play with the length by choosing smaller buttons, or adding only two or three. Or, make them ever more dramatic by choosing large buttons. There's so much variation possible here.

This is what you need:

• Buttons with 2 holes: 2 big buttons (mine were about 1.5cm in diameter), 2 slightly smaller, and 4 small buttons (with a diameter of 1cm)
• 0.6mm (22 gauge) jewelry wire
• 5mm metal jump rings (or you could make these out of the wire)
• Earring stud with backings
• Wire cutters
• Round-nosed pliers (this kit has all the essential jewelry tools)
• Regular pencil (if you're using bigger buttons, then something thicker)
• E6000 glue
• A toothpick fro applying glue

1.  First you need to create some metal rings for the bigger buttons. You could also make smaller rings for the smaller buttons and for joining the buttons. (Or, you could alternatively buy metal bigger and smaller metal rings and skip this step.)

Wrap the wire one and a half times around the pencil and cut. Make 6 of these. 

If you're also making the smaller metal rings out of wire, use your round-nosed pliers for that and create 10 of those.

2. Attach the metal rings to the buttons. One to the top and bottom button, and two to the ones in between. It's like attaching a key to a key-ring. Use the round-nosed pliers to seal and smooth the rings.

3. Start joining the the buttons with the smaller metal rings. Open the ring with the pliers, attach the top button...

4. ... then add the next button, so you have both button's key-rings on the smaller joining ring. Close the ring with the pliers. Repeat with the next buttons all the way down. 

 You can see the progression of adding the buttons on pictures 5 and 6.

7. Once all the buttons have been added, take the studs, add a dab of glue to the backside of the stud with a toothpick, and attach it to the back of the top button.

8. Make sure you let the glue dry completely. Done!

Pretty cool earrings, huh? I'm itching to try even more button constellation variations. Earrings, bracelets, necklaces out of buttons - should be fun! So, I'm a button enthusiast, that much is clear. What about you? Would you give these a go?

If you ever make a project from Pearls & Scissors, do share! You could either e-mail me a photo to hanna at pearlsandscissors dot com, share it on the Pearls & Scissors Facebook page, tag me on Instagram or use the hashtag #pearlsandscissorsdiy.

I'd love to feature your creation on the blog, and create a gallery of reader makes. Wouldn't it be fun to see how others have interpreted a project? I'm beyond excited to see what you create!

xo. Hanna

This post contains a couple of Amazon affiliate links. If you purchase something through that link I get a small commission.

DIY Lace and Pearls Cuff Bracelet

I know Marilyn Monroe said that diamonds were a girl's best friends, but I've always had a soft spot for pearls. I'm pretty sure it's closely related to my love for lace, because lace and pearls are just a match made in heaven. So, after drooling over oh-so-pretty lace and pearl cuffs on Pinterest (here's a little eye-candy for you), I decided it was time to DIY. Because I really can't afford real pearls, not to mention real diamonds, right now.

This is what you need:

• E6000 Craft Adhesive
• Floral venice lace (I bet this would look amazing)
• Cutting pliers
• Brass bracelet cuff (c/o Pandahall)
• Rhinestones (c/o Pandahall, I used the whole pack)
• Pearls (c/o Pandahall, I only used about a third)
• (sidenote: I had planned on using these big rhinestone buttons as well, but as I started glueing I realized they were way too big for the bracelet, so I skipped them. So that's why they're on the above photo, but not on the finished cuff.)

  STEP 1
Remove the stone tray in the center of the cuff with cutting pliers. It takes a little yanking, but it should come off just fine.

  STEP 2
Cut a piece of venice lace long enough to cover the cuff. The good thing about venice lace is that you can always cut the ends so that it looks like it was that long in the first place.
Apply glue to the outside of the bracelet cuff and carefully place the lace on top of it, making sure that it's centered both horizontally and vertically.

  STEP 3
Starting from the center, start glueing rhinestones and pearls onto the lace. I noticed that since the E6000 doesn't dry instantly, that some of the pearls (which are heavier) started to fall off as I turned the cuff and gravitation kicked in. So, I glued about 2-3 cm of lace at a time, full of pearls and rhinestone, alternating randomly between the two. Then used my blow-drier to dry the glue, and moved on to the next part.
After you're finished gluing and blow-drying, let the cuff dry for another few hours just to make sure. And you're done!

This cuff came together very quickly, and looks rather stunning in person. The rhinestones are much shinier, and the size difference between the pearls and stones gives the bracelet so much depth. It's hard to photograph sparkling things, so you'll just have to take my word for it. Now I just need a date-night to wear this to (hubby?).

Have fun creating!
xo. Hanna

This post contains Amazon affiliate links, and some of the items used to create this project were provided by Pandahall (marked with c/o). All the creativity and opinions are still my own. 

DIY Painted Wooden Beads necklace

Although I love the statement necklace trend, I don't own very many. When it comes to jewelry, I'm more of a earrings type. I don't wear necklaces nearly as often as I'd like to. And, I think part of the problem is that I don't like spending money on trendy jewelry that might not get as much wear or might go out of fashion next year. So, I thought I'd make myself a necklace that would be bold enough to make a statement yet subtle enough for my taste.

 This necklace is super simple to make. You don't even need fancy jewelry making equipment to create it. Just a few beads and nail polish is about it.

Supplies:

• 3 wooden beads (1 with a diameter of 3cm, and 2 with 2.5cm)
• Nail polish in the color of your choice
• Tooth picks
• Shot glasses or somewhere to hang the beads to dry
• necklace chain (as long as you want the necklace to be)
• hook-eye closure
• 2 small 5mm connection rings
• /or buy a ready made chain necklace

 STEP 1
Choose three bold nail polish colors for your necklace design. I chose teal, orange red and turquoise.

 Insert a tooth pick through one of the beads and start painting half of the bead in the first color. Once you're done, set it on the shot glass to dry.
Repeat with the other two beads and nail polish colors.

 STEP 3
Pull one of the connection rings open, insert the hook closure and one end of the chain, and push it back closed. Then, take the other connection ring, pull it open and insert the other end of the chain, close the ring.
You can skip this step if you use a ready-made chain necklace.

STEP 4
Once the beads have dried, pull the chain necklace though the beads, and you're done!

Wasn't it simple? Sometimes, describing the making process is so much more difficult than the making itself.

I've gotten a lot of wear out of my necklace already, so I'm thinking about making another variation, maybe this time in metallics and black. We'll see...

Happy making!

xo. Hanna