Monday, April 17

Polymer Clay Stud Earring Tutorial

Flashback to last Christmas: I'm hunched over my laptop, scouring the interwebs for a pair of "solid color flat circle earrings." It's my sister's Christmas list request. And for the life of me I can't find a pair under $25. As I sat there searching, all I could think was, "There has to be a way to make these."


And sure enough, there is way. It's much cheaper than $25.


These are so easy to make. This is all you need:
  • polymer clay - we used black, gold, green, teal, and pink (you can get them for about $1 at craft stores with a coupon, or order a multi-pack of 24 colors for $10 on Amazon)
  • super glue
  • earring studs and backs (I order them from Crafty Mountain on Etsy)
I used brown cardstock and a tag punch to make display-style cards for earrings, but it's definitely not necessary.




With your first color, use a knife to cut two small squares of clay. Make sure they are the same size. Roll each square into a ball, then press balls onto a cookie sheet to flatten them into circles, being careful to flatten them to the same size. Rub your fingertip gently across the surface to smooth out any finger prints. Repeat with the other colors.

Bake the circles according to the directions on your clay (don't overbake or they will burn). After they have cooled, use super glue to attach and earring stud to the back of each circle.


Once the glue dried I used my tag punch to make cardstock tags and poked the earrings through. This makes a cute display for gifting, plus keeps the earrings together so they don't get lost.

Variations:
  1. I did two sizes in each color by using larger squares for one set and smaller squares for the other (she's wearing a larger set in these photos). 
  2. I made a few set with two colors swirled together (on the bottom left card in the photo below). 
  3. I let the boys pick out some of the clay colors, and make a few sets themselves (bottom right cards). They turned out all different and wonky and adorable. I'm going to have them make some for me.

Wrap them up, and give them to your cute sister. Or mom. Or BFF. Or, hey, skip the wrapping and put them on. You deserve cute earrings, too!


Instead of $25 for one pair of earrings, I spent $12 on supplies and ended up with 18 pairs of earrings. 18 pairs. For $12. Plus plenty of clay left over for these little crafty fellas:


After the earrings they went free-style and made all kinds of little clay Christmas gifts. Like this collection of tiny ice cream cones:


And this big slide with cars on it:


The little one was content to watch and eat snacks.


After we baked their creations the boys wrapped them.


Into the tiniest little packages. (the tags are my free printable tags available here)


Then they went on a Christmas crafting spree and made penguin cup warmers for everyone we know, and fox paper bags to put all the gifts in. These are boys after my own heart.


I love handmade gifts, and these earrings won the prize for the easiest and cheapest gifts I made last year. Plus they're cute, to boot.


Let me know if you make some, and what colors are your favorite because I'm trying to decide what to make for myself! What are your favorite homemade gifts?

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