Friday, December 15, 2017

We're All Ears: December Reveal, Use Your Leftovers Challenge

It's time for the 3rd Annual Use Your Leftovers Challenge over at Earrings Everyday! Hurray!


I participated last year, and had a wonderful amount of fun. Something really appeals to me about taking little bits and pieces of miscellany and making them into pretty things. And I certainly had a lot of miscellany on my table this year! (My golly, my projects really do add up... the term "craftermath" really applies to my work area. Hah!)

But, before I get to that, I need to show you what I started with. Be warned, what I'm about to show you isn't pretty. You see, for the first part of the challenge, I had to actually unearth my table enough to use it. 

So! I turned this:


...into this:


Ha! It's not perfect, but it's so much better than it was. 

All of my loose beads that had been sitting on the mat were sorted... the paper beads and focals went into one container, while everything else went into a green vintage bowl:


...Now we're getting somewhere! From there, I was able to start picking out different earrings combinations:


And then, I was able to start creating! In 15-minute spurts over the course of a few days, I came up with these:


What can I say... I enjoyed myself! (And had a lot of beads to work with. Heh.)

And now, it's time for close-ups! I do apologize... this is a very picture heavy post. I guess it's what happens when I end up going overboard and making 17 pairs of earrings. (Yep, 17!)











And here they are, all together:


There are tassels and crystals and paper beads. And, interestingly, 7 of the pairs are asymmetrical--almost half of them. For someone who likes symmetry so much, I'd say that's pretty good!

Thanks to the talented Erin Prais-Hintz for once more challenging me to use my leftovers. Be sure to hop over to Earrings Everyday to see what everyone else made for this challenge... I'm sure there will be some lovely things to see!

Thanks so much for stopping by today, and letting me share my creations with you... Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!

6 comments:

  1. Wahoo! I love that you actually CLEANED UP before starting! That is the hardest part for me (and I was finally able to get the picture of the side by side comparison from 2015 to 2017 to upload. I am so embarrassed!) I love all the variety. My favorite are those mismatched ones with the bright blue beads, the deep magenta pearls (wow, love the color!) and those tassel-y ones! Way to go! Thanks for playing along. May the new year be filled with creative experiences! Enjoy the holidays! Erin

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  2. Now that is some great cleaning up. And oh wow, 17 pairs of earrings. My goodness, you had a blast. Love love love the tassel earrings. Somehow, I cannot master asymmetrical earrings, so I am always in awe when I see lovely created pairs. Love them!

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  3. All of them are lovely but my favs are the first and last pair of tassel earrings. Does that last pair fan out the same way when worn?

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  4. I thought I had gone overboard with the seven I just created. Dang girl, you got some serious creativity going on! Good for you! That last pair of earrings are so great, I almost didn't even notice that they were asymmetrical. You totally knocked this challenge out of the park!

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  5. Wow! You really went all out this year! I love how many of your pairs ended up asymmetrical... nice work on those especially. That is hard to pull off well. It's fun seeing your tassels as earrings too. So fun!

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  6. I love the mismatched pairs and the tassel earrings, especially the last boho pair! A very inspirational collection!

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Thank you so much for taking the time to comment! :)