Earrings Everyday - Dots

Each month, Erin at Earrings Everyday likes to throw out a theme for the We're All Ears Challenge. This month, she chose DOTS to inspire us. I have to admit that I went a little crazier than I anticipated with this theme. 

Initially, I remembered I had a few small tin discs already cut out that included dots. So, I turned to those for my first pair of earrings.

I could have just punched holes, hung them on earwires, and called it a day. But that's no fun. 

Instead, an idea had struck to try riveting some of the internal snap rings I had picked up last month to create a loop on the bottom of the discs.

As you can see, it worked out perfectly! And the rivets just look like more dots on the earrings. From the rings, I hung a few round beads to add to the dotty feel.

As I contemplated what other supplies I had that included dots, I decided to use some of my paper supplies encase a dotted paper in a bezel. This ended up failing in so many ways, but I thought it was only fair to share my failures as well as my successes. Not everything is a winner.

Though I had sealed the paper with Mod Podge prior to placing it in the bezel, somehow the resin seeped in and turned it translucent. I have to admit that I was just going to roll with it and make the earrings. However, the resin began to form some sort of crystallization. You can see it in the far right of the right bezel. I've never had that happen before. So...these were scrapped. Like I said, not everything can be a winner. 

Over the course of the week, I've been purging my bead supply. As I've sorted through just about every bead I have, a few caught my eye for this challenge. There were a few more, but I realized that I just couldn't make them work. They're now in the purged bins.

I apparently had quite a few of these wood discs with the top drill. I've tried to use them in various forms over the years without much success. Before bagging them all up to go away, I kept a couple to play with for this challenge. 

I wanted to create a rustic farmhouse feel with them. They were first lightly sanded, then painted with a little white acrylic paint. I added the pale green dots to suit the challenge and allowed the discs to dry before sanding them again.

A layer of clear crackle paste was added to the top. Once it crackled, the cracks were accented with watered-down brown acrylic paint. They're simply hung from pale green beads sandwiched between bead caps.

Also in my purge, I can across a baggie of unusual tiles that had been connected to make up a stretch bracelet. The elements are all plastic but a lot of fun. They remind me of dominoes and almost spurred me on a tangent of also making dot earrings from dominoes, but I held back.

The double holes on these elements had me puzzled as to how best to work with them. But, I let myself play and experiment for a bit to come up with this design.

Despite them being plastic, I kinda love them. 

They feel romantic and antique (I started to say vintage, but those dotted elements are definitely already vintage.) Yeah, I dig them.

Like I said, there were more dotted beads on my desk, but I knew it was time to stop so I could get everything photographed and ready for this reveal. 

Dots really are a simple design feature, but work out beautifully. I am happy that Erin presented us with this theme, as its simplicity really let me play and explore options. Thank you, Erin. 

Now, make sure to head over to Earrings Everyday Reveal to see what she created, check out what the other participants made, and maybe join in the reveal yourself!