Hip Earring Tutorial (Dancing Snowpeople!)

I am SO excited: a project I made for CardMaker last year is on the cover of the November issue , using the "What's in Your Tin?" sets, it's a gift card tin and card to match. Seeing that this week inspired me to pull out the set today to make a new tin sample for you, and I had to find a fun way to incorporate "Hip to Be Square"! Here is the tin set label border stamped on Basic Grey "Eskimo Kisses" DP with a punched snowman and adhered to a hinged tin...
Now I'm going to show you some cute earrings to go inside as a gift! You need: the stamps, Polyshrink, a 1 1/4" punch, heat gun, Staz On pads, french hooks and jump rings, and a Cropodile.

Stamp the circle onto Polyshrink and punch them out. Stamp faces and buttons to the top and middle sections. Punch holes with the large side on the Cropdile to the top and bottom of the head and midsection for adding jump rings later. The bottom only needs one hole since you won't be hanging anything below it.

Now it's time to shrink the pieces! I used the small end of an embossing stylus(the large end would be stuck in there after the plastic shrinks!) to help keep my piece in place while heating by putting it in the middle of the hole. Once you turn the gun on, it wants to blow around! I like to use an acrylic block underneath while heating.

See what I mean (pic below)?? This is when you always want to panic: "oh no, it's not shrinking right!" but KEEP the heat ON and let it shrink completely! (if you stop it before it's done, it can get really distorted)

The shape will finally correct itself and flatten out, you can see it's now a perfect circle. If an edge persists in curling up just a tad, press another acrylic block on top while it is still hot, then gently remove the stylus.

Now open the jump rings and thread them through the holes, linking them together. Use two jump rings above the head so the snowman will face out properly and link the top one to a French hook.

Here they are! I stamped the tin label border a second time on some more DP to make a little card for the inside, you can pierce holes in the top to push the earrings through.And here you see it with the little scarf wrap from the outside, it just slides off when you are ready to open the tin. I hope you enjoyed this project! they are so cute wiggling and swaying! Be sure to stamp the nose in two reverse positions to have them facing out or in! The earrings measure about 2 inches long, for shorter earrings you could dojust the face OR, the face and top hat from the set linked together, that would be SOOOO cute!!

Now please go check out some cards using "Hip to Be Square" from my Guest Designer this month Karen Knegten!

Have a great day, it's almost the weekend! (and almost time for sneak peeks!)