My Sudden Burst of Craftiness

I just got out for spring break, so lately I've had a lot of time on my hands. First day of spring break I went to Pearl's Paints, on Canal Street, I believe, in Manhattan. I decided to buy kidney wire, which are simple earring hooks, for those who do not understand craft store lingo. I started to make earrings. It's actually pretty easy. Kidney wire usually does not cost more than four dollars for 100. Many people use headpins to put beads on and then attach them to the kidney wire. Because I am extremely thrifty, I straightened paper clips with pliers and used them as headpins. I was trying to come up with cool ideas for earrings, and I remebered once seeing a girl with these funky feather earrings. I had once seen them in a store, but due to my aforementioned frugality, did not buy them. I found the cheapest possible way to construct them. Here's how:

Materials

-two paper clips or kidney wire hooks

-twine

-two rubber bands (optional)

-feathers (as you can see in the picture above, I used three for each one)

Instructions

1. Tie feathers together with twine. (make sure you have enough twine-at least a foot) For mine, I used a rubber band under the twine to make the bond stronger. If you are using only one feather, wrap the bottom part with twine and make a knot.

2. This part is a little tricky, so try not to be clumsy (lol). Tie the remaining length of twine around the kidney wire. If you are using paper clips as hooks, curl the wire and make a semicircle or curl at its end. I'd suggest also using some kind of sanitizer, like rubbing alcohol or an alcohol wipe on the paper clips, considering you are going to be using them in your ears.

3. Enjoy your funky new earrings!

Of course once you begin making earrings, you might get addicted and run out of space to put all your creations. Luckily, I have a cheap way to construct an earring holder, too!

Please note that my ideas often come from random websites, and I later revise them by making them cheaper! lol

Materials

-Cardboard (I cut a printer-paper sized rectangle out of a box)

- Scissors, a knife, or boxcutter (obviously only if you don't have a sheet of cardboard that is already the size you want)

- Netting (I used netting from a clementine bag, but any kind of netting will work, including old window screens)

-Stapler

- Nicely patterned paper (I will describe a cheap way to obtain this later-it serves only for appearance reasons, so it is not an immediately necessary part of this project)

- Fabric (optional)

Instructions

1. Cut out your cardboard if it isn't already cut. Because I wanted an 8 1/2 by 11 sheet, I cut my cardboard around a sheet of printer paper.

2. If you are using paper to decorate your cardboard, staple it to the cardboard. As you can see in the pictures on top of this post, I used paper for one side of my earring holder with peacock feathers and one side with leopard print. These are simply pictures I got off the Internet and printed.If you are using fabric, sew or staple it to the cardboard.

3. Staple the netting to the board, attach your collection of earrings, and enjoy!
Tips
-When making the feather earrings, try first putting on a rubber band, then put regular Elmer's glue on top of it (can even be stick glue), then wrap the twine around the rubber band. Connect the feathers to the kidney wire with the rubber band if you are using this method of creating the earrings.