Saturday 24 September 2011

Make Your Own: Five-Minute Earrings Using Epoxy Stickers

Another instalment of my Enduring Sticker Love series, here I wanted to show you just how easy it is to use (and to love!) these epoxy stickers, by making a pretty pair of earrings - and the best thing is it really only takes five minutes!


It may help to know that I was about to go out and I couldn't find any earrings to wear that I fancied wearing.  Sometimes you just have to have something new - so I figured I would make them!

I gathered my materials - simply, a pair of earwires and earnuts for the backs, a little bezel tray (here I used two of the 13x18mm silver plated ovals from the shop), two stickers, two lots of images, and a bit of ModPodge.


You need to peel off the plastic film protecting your epoxy stickers - I say 'protecting' but these stickers are actually very sturdy little things, they will withstand most things that life as an earring can throw at them.  So, peel off the plastic film, grab your sticker and position it over the paper.  I used a simple inkjet print from my home printer and I did not seal it in any way.


Here I was hoping to recreate a butterfly in two halves. It didn't quite work as I ended up with a mutant butterfly that has two bodies, and slightly askew it is too, but when you wear the earrings nobody really notices, so we're good.



The adhesive on the epoxy sticker will provide a good fast bond, but just make sure you have no bubbles showing through by rubbing the sticker against the paper.  Then carefully cut around the sticker so you have two images of the exact size for your bezel.



Glue these with a little bit of ModPodge to your bezel setting.  If the ModPodge comes up over the side of the sticker, it's fine, just ignore it for now - first of all, it dries clear, and secondly it's far easier to peel off when it's dry than it is to wipe when wet.  However the sticker will benefit from wiping with a damp kitchen towel when it is totally dry just to remove any traces of errant ModPodge.


Hang from your preferred earwires, and that's really all there is to it!


Beautiful earrings, in a jiffy.



All image credits to Download - http://www.etsy.com/shop/download

5 comments:

  1. Plastic films provide lots of benefits, and their use in these vintage earrings is an example of that. They're just lovely. This so easy to do, and I want to make one someday.

    Jeleryl Comisky

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  3. I love these! Simple and unique :)

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  4. Hi! thanks for the tutorial :)
    Since you mentioned you did not use coating on the ink jet print paper. I'd like to ask if the color of the print would ruin by the adhesive stickers on the epoxy dome? And what the type of paper you used?
    I'm looking forward for the response
    thank you very much
    Also

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  5. Hello and welcome! The paper used here was standard printer paper, nothing special, although it does feel reasonably sturdy unlike some of the value brands. The inkjet printer was a Canon and no I didn't seal the prints - however, I can't say that the same will work for all paper/printer/inks combinations as, especially where the inks are concerned, there seems to be a lot of variation between one brand and another. If you have access to a printer, the only way to make sure is to try it out - the stickers are generally really forgiving and they shouldn't eat into the inks. Generally however, with some thick smooth paper and a good starting print, you should find it works well. (But if you have the option of a laser print, I would always choose that over inkjet!) :)

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