Melanie Muenchinger, Jewelry Designer?? *

Okay, here's a project I'm as excited about as my onesies and ipod tin! How about a beautiful, handmade Mother's day (or fabulous friend) gift (earrings and jewelry case/wristy) for under $2.00, which includes the packaging??

For this project you need:
4 adhesive page pebbles (mine are EK success)
1/2" circle punch
a piercing tool and mat to protect your work surface
fabulous DP (glittered looks especially cool!)
2 jump rings
4 little earring fishhooks(both of these can be purchased cheap in bulk baggies at any craft store in the beads/jewelry department, comes out to pennies apiece)

Altoid Tin ($1.50/each)
What's in Your Tin? 2

Punch out circles of your DP and then sandwich it between two page pebbles(see in the pic above). Doesn't that look awesome?? Those bracelet/jewelry blanks can be pricey, but page pebbles are cheap! I think I got 100 of these for 2.99?? They adhere to your DP and you can see the colored DP on both sides, which is great for this dangle design since you get a lot of movement. The look you want is up to you: same sides matching or different but coordinating , have fun with it! If you use a double-sided DP, you only have to punch one circle for each! You can of course use stamped paper (for little girl earrings, stamp a flower or heart from Just So Hippy and center inside the circle punch!), plain colored cardstock, or patterns you find in magazines to sandwich between the pebbles. :) (The DP In all three pairs in this tutorial are from the DCVW All Dressed Up Pack!) Finished the glittered ones really like like some little glass bead from Murano!

Poke a hole with your piercing tool through all layers (the page pebbles and DP) about 1/8-1/4 inch from the top. (I actually put both my foam mat and self healing mat under. It's not difficult to make the hole, but you do have to press hard.) The next three steps are shown below:

1.Take the open part of your fishhook(which would normally go through your ear) through the hole like this. Edited to add: Melody pointed out these are called "french hooks", shows how little I know about making jewelry! I improvised with this since the hole is so thick trying to use a jump ring itself wasn't working.

2. Then wrap the end back around the middle in kind of a figure eight so the end won't poke the person wearing it. If the open end is on the left, wrap to the right, around the back, and come around to the right again and press down to meet the middle(you can use pliers or other wire tools to make the wrapping easier but I just used my fingers, too lazy to dig my toolkit out! In the pic I have not wrapped it back down)

3. Now open your jump ring and put the circle from your twisted hook, and the circle from your second hook in, and close the ring. That's it! Now do the second one. (sorry these pics are blurry! click on the finished earrings to see it better) Using two french hooks makes them extra long and dangly!

Now you're ready to decorate your tin and make the card to put the earrings on! All stamps are from "What's In Your Tin? 2". (The one above was in a post a few weeks back, decorate as you wish!)

Stamp one of the label borders on thick cardstock (I used Ivory CS and black ink to match my earrings and packaging) and trim along the border. This will be the card to hold your earrings. Poke two holes through the CS to thread your earrings through. "To:" on the front and add your recipient's name!

Aren't those pretty?? I put "Especially for you" on the back and "From" then signed my name, before tucking inside the tin.

I don't think it's necessary, but if you want to add some "value" to this inexpensive (handmade, ONE OF A KIND!) gift, of course you still have have room to tuck a gift card underneath! :)

So what do you think? Are you ready to make some? Would you like a pair of these for yourself? Link this tutorial on your blog and provide the link in this comment section below by 10PM CST Saturday night. I will draw one person randomly (oh, maybe a couple more!) and send you a pair of earrings!

Check back for a really cool Father's Day Project using the same stamps(but NO TIN!) I'll just tell you now, it's NOT EARRINGS! ;) Have a great day, it's almost FRIDAY!

* NOT! I am really wire challenged and as much I enjoy punches/tools like that, I'm not too good with pliers etc, so I haven't experiemented much with jewelry, unless it just calls for gluing a bead on something and callin' it good! And I'm cheap, some materials are more expensive that others. But, I will have another almost cheap, easy way to make a necklace coming up! Stay tuned!