Blog
Arts and Crafts
Floral Fabric and Faux Leather Beaded Drop Earrings

Floral Fabric and Faux Leather Beaded Drop Earrings

Posted 14th May 2018 • By Design Bundles

Do you have a favorite store that you love to window shop at but can rarely afford unless it's on clearance? I definitely have several of them but Anthropologie is near the top of my list. So many beautiful things with not so beautiful prices, lol.

I happened to find some earrings that I loved but were a bit out of reach for my current budget, especially since I rarely wear jewelry now that I have 2 toddlers that love to pull on them. (ouch!)

I figured I could make something inspired by them. I'll never make a direct copy of something I find for a few reasons.

1.That's someone else's hard work and design and if you want it exactly as shown then just purchase it.

2. I like the challenge of putting my own twist things and making it my own.

Now that being said, for blog posts such as this, I AM encouraging you to make it as shown because I'm teaching you step by step. Do you understand the difference?

The Supply List:

Let's start by picking the basic shape for the earrings, I chose the teardrop shape.

Ungroup the file so you can select the individual designs.

Next, let's add the holes to the bottom of the earring for the beads to drop from. I used the next smaller earring size and centered it so I had an even line to use for the hole placement. I copied the same size hole as the top of the earring.

I designed half the earring then mirrored it. You'll still need to shift it in place but they will match the other half.

Now you have all the holes neatly aligned along the bottom.

Delete the smaller earring and group the rest together so it stays in place.

I found a really pretty floral print in the silhouette store, it's actually a tag file. Scale and align the print where you like it on the earring.

I used the eraser tool to delete the top portion. I also deleted my second earring so I could get the one designed exactly as I wanted, then I'll mirror it.

Right now the earring line has weight to it so it will print. I don't want it to print so simply changing the line weight back to zero solves that.

I changed the page size to the letter sized paper and made 2 more copies so I had extras if needed. Then load the fabric paper into the printer and print on the best available settings.

I just moved the floral designs off to the side after printing and left the earring shapes. Load your printed fabric onto the cutting mat, change the cut settings (test cut) and cut the earrings out.

Repeat the cut process for the leatherette material. Make sure to update your cut settings and blade for the different materials.

Weed the earrings out of the material and use tweezers to help remove the little holes. The fabric material is actually heat transfer! Did you know that? They don't really advertise if for some reason but I love that feature.

Use your heat press or iron to attach the printed fabric to the back of the leatherette. So one side is the leatherette and the other will be the fabric. That way if the earring moves around while you wear it, it will always look finished.

Let's put those jewelry-making skills to work now! Attach the earring hooks using 2 jump rings, one through the earring and another to the hook. That allows it to hang properly on your ear.

Next, I arranged the beads on paper to make sure I liked the design. You'll need a jump ring for each hole.

Now the trickiest part of all of this! Making your bead dangles with the head pins.

1. Slide the beads onto the pin.

2. Use a ruler to mark 3/8" above that last bead.

3. Holding the pin with the rounded pliers, use the other pliers to bend the head pin 90 degrees.

4. Now switch pliers, hold the pin with the other pliers and use the rounded pliers to bend the metal into a loop. You'll have to twist as far as you can, let go and readjust your grip, then keep bending.