Craft Projects, Jewelry, Life

Ravens Win the SUPER BOWL! … and another set of earrings, too.

What a SUPER weekend (pun intended)!

If you follow my blog, you know my husband and I are really big Ravens fans. Now we are Super Bowl champs!!! So exciting. We spent all weekend getting ready to host  a few friends and mentally preparing for what was an awesome game. We are even going to the Super Bowl homecoming parade tomorrow in Baltimore!!!!

Even Remmy had a great time during the game. He scored lots of delicious treats and got to pretend he was a person, which is pretty much his favorite pastime.

Remmy Ravens Jersey

While not in football mode, we also helped my mother-in-law paint her textured ceiling in a room she is redoing. The ceiling was dingy from years of fireplace soot hitting it, and now it is bright and white as snow. I much preferred painting her ceiling than ours — the texture really hides any imperfections.

Textured Ceiling

OK, let’s talk about this room. 1. The ceiling is beautifully white, right? And isn’t the texture awesome?! I really like this kind of ceiling versus the popcorn ceilings. I’m not a fan of those. 2. Look at that fireplace. It is gorgeous. And, my MIL just had a gas fireplace retrofit into her existing fireplace that is absolutely stunning. I have fireplace envy. I wish we could flip ours on with a switch, especially since our family room is so darn chilly.

We’re going to help paint the walls soon, too. This room is going to be so pretty when it is finished! BTW — it used to be covered in dark paneling! You’d never know.

To round out this completely all-over-the-place post, I wanted to update you on the earrings post I did on Friday. I am totally ecstatic about making my own stud earrings now — I should have made them forever ago!

Anyway, I wanted to show you all another fun way to make these button stud earrings. As I was making a bunch of new pairs this weekend, I found that you can take  buttons with the attachment on the back (I swear I used to know the name of these) and use it with a button with holes to make a combo button earring.

Find two sets of buttons you’d like to combine…

Button earrings

… then cut the loop off the back of the button that will go on top.

Button earrings

Put some E6000 onto the button on top, then line up the two prongs of the top button with the holes in the lower button. Then, press them together and let the glue harden.

Button earrings

Attach a stud with the same glue and let it dry overnight.

Button earrings

OHMYGOSH Are these cute or what!? I made them for my friend Amy. Love love love them.

Button earrings

I also made a set of sister earrings 🙂 Mine are on the left, Em’s are in the middle, and Allie’s are on the right. So cute!

Button earrings

I’ll post pictures from the parade tomorrow!!!!

Craft Projects, Jewelry, Quick and Easy Crafts

DIY Button Stud Earrings

Button Stud Earrings Cover

I ordered earring stud posts about a month ago and they couldn’t have arrived at a better time. I got home yesterday and found the tiniest package waiting for me on the counter of 50 silver studs — talk about a great way to break me out of my creative rut! I love to make earrings, but I never wear any of what I make because they are all dangle/drop earrings. I am trying to get into the habit of wearing dangle earrings more, especially after receiving a beautiful cobalt blue pair from my neighbors and a mint green pair from my family this past holiday season. But, old habits die hard… or should I say my insecurities die hard. Confession… I am super sensitive about my ear lobes! I have attached ear lobes and think they look funny. My hubby is so sweet and tells me sometimes how nice my lobes are (sounds really weird when I write it on my blog), but I still am not super adventurous in calling attention to my ears with big statement earrings.

Long story short, I really like stud earrings. I think they look a lot better on my ears. Until now, I’d never tried to make them! Last night after an impromptu dinner date with my dad and after watching an episode of Glee (another confession… I love Glee. Don’t judge too much!), I sat down in my craft room and actually crafted! Woot!

Since I’ve never worked with studs before, I made several pairs of super easy earrings using buttons.

For this project I used:

  • Buttons
  • Stud earring backs
  • E6000 glue

Yup, that’s it!

I spent about 20 minutes sorting through my mounds of buttons, hoping to stumble upon two purple buttons that matched. No such luck (which I still cannot believe)! So I pulled out a bunch of other matches that I liked enough to sport on my ears.

button earrings1

Then, I placed a small dab of E6000 onto my workstation (a Neiman Marcus box) and grabbed an old needle to spread the glue with. You could use a toothpick or a rolled up piece of paper. I just grabbed an old needle because I was planning on tossing it anyway.

e6000

Using the needle, I scooped up some glue and carefully spread it on the backing of my stud.

Glue on stud

Then, one by one, I placed an earring stud onto the back of each button.

button earrings2

I let everything dry overnight before adding plastic earring backs to each pair.

These gold ones are my favorite. The best part is that the buttons are made of plastic, even though they look like metal, so they aren’t heavy on my ears at all.

Gold button earrings

In fact, I wore them to work today (bad photo alert). I look so happy to be wearing them, huh? Haha… I swear I love them even though I look slightly pained in this photo.

Me earrings

Here’s another cute pair… cobalt blue! Love them.

Blue button earrings

I can’t forget about the orange ones I made for Dana. She loves orange and she just got her ears pierced (well… a few years ago). The novelty of making her earrings hasn’t worn off yet.

orange button earrings

I made a black pair, a teal pair and two pairs of super teeny buttons. I love them all. Now, I really need a jewelry box to store them all. Anyone have any recommendations on where to get one? I am super picky and can’t seem to find one I like online.

Hopefully this project was just the start of getting out of my creative rut 🙂