Hoop Earrings with Beads

I saw this earring project on Michaels.com - they used turquoise and mint green glass beads, I didn't want to go to the store to buy their exact beads so came up with my own combination and chain so mine don't look exactly like the inspiration project and I'm good with that! I'm a self-taught jewelry maker so didn't totally understand their directions but by just doing it instead of trying to make sense of their instructions I figured it out - if I did it wrong don't judge hahaha...they turned out good!

For each earring you'll need:
1 hoop earring
3 turquoise beads
3 light green beads
4 small coral beads
1 silver bead
7 silver head pins
5 lengths of silver chain about an inch long each
1 silver jump ring


Here are their directions - one thing I did differently is to put the 5 lengths of chain on a jump ring and then attached the jump ring to the loop (steps 10-13):

STEP 1

String one dark turquoise glass bead and one mint green glass bead onto a Silver head pin. Bend the head pin to a 90° angle and trim the wire down to ¼” in length.

STEP 2

Form a simple loop using your round nose pliers. Simply grasp the wire between the jaws of the pliers and rotate the pliers toward you until a small loop is formed. TIP: To ensure your loops are the same size each time, simply mark the jaws of your pliers with a Sharpie® marker. Start your loop at the mark each time for consistency.

STEP 3

Repeat Steps 1 and 2 three more times for a total of four beaded links. Set beads aside.

STEP 4

String one small pink coral bead onto a Silver head pin and trim the head pin down to ¼” in length. Note: Due to size of bead and thickness of the head pin wire, it may be difficult to bend the wire to 90° degrees prior to trimming it down as you did in Step 1. You can still form a simple loop without bending the wire 90°, although bending the wire does visually give you a nicer-looking simple loop.

STEP 5

Grasp the wire with your chain nose pliers and form a simple loop. Repeat Steps 4 and 5 seven more times for a total of eight. Set beads aside.

STEP 6

To make the remaining bead links, use your wire cutters to cut the head end off of a head pin. Measure ¼” in from the end of the wire and bend the wire 90°.

STEP 7

Use your round nose pliers to form a simple loop.

STEP 8

String a Silver bead, a dark turquoise bead and a mint green bead onto the wire so that the beads rest above the loop.

STEP 9

Bend the remaining wire end 90 degrees and trim the wire down to ¼” in length. Form a simple loop using your chain nose pliers. You now have a simple loop on both ends of the beaded link.

STEP 10

Repeat Steps 6 -9 one more time for a total of two beaded links.

STEP 11

Use your wire cutters to cut a length of Silver chain that is 15 links long. Continue cutting lengths of chain until you have a total of ten lengths.  Note: You can adjust the length of chain, if desired, to suit personal preference.

STEP 12

Open one loop end on the bead link from Step 10 using your chain nose pliers. Hook five lengths of chain onto the loop and twist the loop closed.  TIP: Never pull the loop “out” to open as this will cause distortion. Always twist the loop side-to-side to open and close.

STEP 13

Repeat Step 12 using the remaining bead link from Step 10 and the remaining lengths of chain. You should now have two beaded chain links.

STEP 14

To make your earrings, string the following bead links onto each Silver ear hoop: two small coral beads, one mint and turquoise bead link, one beaded chain link, one mint and turquoise bead link and two small coral beads.

one year ago today: steakhouse wedge salad

Matching Game

Got the idea for this simple easy game here, I saw it and thought of my niece who wants fidgets and things for her new job (click here for the fidget stress balls project) - all you need is a sheet of foam and some self adhesive foam shapes. 

Cut the foam sheet into 3"x2" squares (or whatever size you want), I made 16 squares but you can make this as big or small as you want. Stick matching pairs of foam shapes to the squares (so you have a pair of every shape, same color) making sure you can't see the shapes sticking out from underneath when you turn them over. 

That's it. Now you have a memory/matching game - turn all the squares over with the shapes turned down, and take turns turning over 2 squares, if you get a match then you get to go again. If not a match turn the 2 squares back over and the next person goes - hopefully remembering where they saw a match if they draw the other one. Keep playing until all the pairs are matched, person with the most pairs found wins. Brooke and I also played go fish with the squares - play around with them and see what else you can come up with! 

We put the squares into a manila envelope that Brooke decorated with a couple shapes and wrote "matching game" on it. So cute. Then mailed it off to her sister - another good thing is this is a super lightweight game, only cost me 2 stamps to mail it!

Brooke showing how to play, she staged turning
 over a matching pair first thing :)

everyone likes to play haha, it's not just for kids!

SaveSave