A Dozen Earrings from Leftovers

Each month, Erin issues a challenge from Earrings Everyday for the We're All Ears Challenge. This month, the challenge was to Use Your Leftovers from a recent craftermath. Just as last year, I had no recent craft frenzy from which to pick my materials. But, I turned to the same solution as I did last year - I used the beads that are STILL leftover from my 2017 100 Day Project. And, I was able to create 12 pairs of earrings.

I did sort the materials for my designs into the divided sections of two small muffin tins.

And then, I got to work! I even created a video showing how I made nine of the earring designs

 I called it Making 12 Pairs of Earrings because I do show all twelve.

Anyway, let's get to the earring reveal!

For each of these, a tin circle that was altered with acrylic-flow painting and dimples hang from a dark bead.

The dangles on the bottom on these were salvaged from some old jewelry. I tried to echo the almond shape of the dangles by tapering the beads on either side of the large bead.

I've had several of the blue bead caps (bottom) for ages without a notion of what to do with them. Once I began pulling beads from the 100 Day box, these fell together.

The tiny brass leaves were what spurred these. From there, I spotted the plastic leaves and just began pulling other beads together. They aren't quite my style, but fun.

I adore these. I'll admit that I took a little time before I began assembling the earrings to perfect a few of the elements. For these, I painted the inside of the bezel with black Vintaj Patina before gluing in the handmade lace. Resin topped the lace to seal it in. The black triangles finished them.

Here's another bezel that I started beforehand. It was fished from the 100-Day box and a thick layer of crackle paste was smeared inside. Once the paste dried, I colored it slightly with a rusty paint and sealed it in resin. To create the earrings, mother-of-pearl buttons, brass bead caps, and glass pearls were added. 

I love that these elements came together. They're a little messily wrapped together, but I think it works with the vaguely tribal-look. I'm not sure what the yellowed buttons are made of, but there are brass spacers above and below the green fire agate tube and then tiny Czech glass beads above that. The more I look at them, the more I like them!

This is a hot mess is what this is. I seriously just threw some beads and buttons together thinking I could make it work. It didn't. The end.

Another of my favorites, and another that I pre-prepped. The decorative metal had some hot pink coloring to them, so I covered it up with layers of Vintaj Patinas then added a brass wax and a sealer. Small rhinestones hang below (they were a booger to get to face forward) while glass pearls hang above. 

Here's just a fun little pair that utilizes a couple of my altered washers. Glass beads that match the colors on the map and silver spacers were added to compliment the washer. 

These are so elegant. Is there anything more refined than pearls and rhinestones together? They speak for themselves. 

This final pair started with the altered Vintaj blanks. I just added a stack of matching beads. This is the first time I've used these post findings and didn't realize that I didn't have any earring backs. I'll have to fix that.

Make sure to head over to Earrings Everyday to see what Erin and the other participants of the challenge made. A big thanks to Erin for another fun challenge. I do apologize about not fully playing by the rules. I hope you understand.