Thursday, April 8, 2010

Tutorial: How to make laminated earrings

Laminated earrings are very easy to make, they are also very cool, and a fabulous way to use up little drawings that you may have lying around, so I thought I'd share my very simple method of making these totally contemporary and totally lightweight earrings-- and don't forget, they can become pendents just as easily as earring!

What you need:

- drawing (optional)
- Photo Shop (optional)
- scanner (optional)
- printer
- copy paper & cardboard
- laminator (or access to one)
- thick sewing needle
- pointy nose pliers
- earring hooks, available at most craft stores!

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1. You need a sweet little drawing (about 2" tall) that you want to wear- find Shauna here in case you're stuck for ideas, or for image manipulation programs, which also means you can skip the next step too!

2. Scan your image at a resolution of at least 200 dpi. Open a new document in Photo Shop with the same resolution as your scan, and copy and paste your image into the new document. Paste another copy of the image, go to the edit menu and select transform flip horizontal. Now you'll have have 2 mirror image drawings.

Shauna
3. Print your drawings out on regular copy paper-- I use an ink-jet printer, you could go to a copy shop and use a laser printer, but I think the coloured pencil look is better on ink-jets.

4. Paste your drawings to some cardboard (which I think North Americans might call Bristol board from memory!). Wait a few minutes for it all to dry, and very neatly cut around the perimetre of your design, leaving a small boarder of white.

5. Use a laminator to laminate the designs, once the plastic has cooled down, cut around the designs, again leaving a small boarder.

6. Using a thick sewing needle, or even a sewing machine needle, pierce a hole in the top of each of the designs for the earring loops to go through.

7. Using pointy nose pliers attach the earring hooks to the designs and voila!! you have yourself some very cool earrings!

ENJOY!

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I've been a very busy person these last few days... between attempting to clean out my wardrobe and rid myself of clutter, I've been trying to keep up driving lessons, develop some new and exciting products-- I've almost completed my first 'Blinky Making Kit', which will contain a new sewing pattern with a couple of different styles of blinky, the fabric (most will be vintage), felt, thread etc. I've also taken a new batch of toys to Monster Threads, including some Winter Dew Drop Girls, which are sweet, rugged up little things, and I did Surry Hills Market on the weekend, where Autumn made itself well and truly felt, and where I needed to be out of bed at a shocking 4:45am... not sure I'd ever gotten up that early in my life...

Hope everyone had a lovely Easter, we're down to our last chocolate bunny :(

B.

4 comments:

CurlyPops said...

What a cute tutorial. Thanks so much!

Emjie said...

Okay, I gotta say that is a really bright idea. Thanks for sharing. :)

Varah said...

I absolutely love your tutorial.. and the cutie pie doodles!!! aaah.. nice to come across someone like you =)

vintage jewelry said...

Thanks for sharing a great way to create nice and cute earrings. I would to make few and will gift to my friends. Thank you so much for sharing !!!