Holiday Earrings Tutorial

Whew!  I liked doing my Grand Month of Halloween, with all those fun projects and extra posts, but I'm glad to get back to my regular two posts a week.  Four posts each week is hard!  (I didn't even always manage that.)  Hats off to you bloggers who always do that (and more).

Let's start off November with these fun earrings I made the other day!  I realized that Boo is long past the pulling-on-everything stage, so it is safe to wear earrings again.  I really love dangly earrings, but I didn't have any yet, so I made up this pair while watching TV with my hubby one evening.

They will be great to wear all the time, but they make me think of fancy Christmas parties.  I'm just imagining theses earrings with a pretty, red, fancy dress...

And they are really easy to make.  Just gather your materials, put on your favorite TV show, and you'll have new earrings before the credits roll.

(The above picture shows the materials for each earring--you'll need twice this so you can make a pair.  But not twice the pliers; that would be silly.)

You Need:

a pair of ear wires

some 20 gauge jewelry wire

2 large jump rings

6 largish glass beads

round-nosed pliers

wire cutters

needle-nosed pliers (or a second pair of any kind of pliers)  These aren't absolutely necessary, but it does make working with such small things easier to have pliers for each hand.

(Note to self:  Use a pen instead of a pencil the next time I need to take pictures of writing.)

First, cut your wire.  Determine how long you want the finished earrings to be, then add a little for making loops at the top and bottom.  This is Wire 1.

Wire 2 will be one bead-length shorter than Wire 1.

Wire 3 will be one bead-length shorter than Wire 2.

Next, make a tiny loop at the bottom of each wire.  (This is just to keep the bead on.)  Bend the wire so the loop comes out straight from the wire.

Thread the beads onto the wires.

Make larger loops on the tops of each wire.  (I forgot to take a picture of this, but you know what I mean, anyways.)

If the loops are not lined up the way you want them to be, just twist them into place.

Connect the ear wire and beaded wires with the jump ring.

Repeat for the second earring, and you're done!  

See how easy that was?  I was so excited these earrings turned out so well and so easily, that I made several more pairs of earrings over the next few days.

First these pretty little things.

And then these fun little feet earrings.  I was actually trying (unsuccessfully) to do something else, when I realized it was starting to look like a foot.

And, of course, the earrings for my vampire costume!  But I love that they will work for non-Halloween occasions, too.

What kind of earrings do you like best?  Dangly, stud, or hoop?