Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: Colorful Skeleton Earrings using Tim Holtz Findings

This week's Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge theme is an interesting one!  It's "get in shape."  That phrase, for me, evokes images of me dying on the stair-stepper machine while people in their 20's walk past in their fancy yoga pants barely breaking a sweat.  But don't worry!  In this week's context, it just means to try and incorporate unique shapes into your projects (no squares or rectangles).  Thinking about organic shapes, my mind wandered to jewelry.  I made some colorful skeleton earrings using different shaped beads and findings.

The bodies of these characters started out as white clay.  I formed the clay into thick shapes that sort of tapered at the top.  While the clay was still malleable, I used Tim Holtz's tack nails to attach red and turquoise beads.  When the clay hardened, the tacks and beads stayed attached.

Now that the clay was hard, I colored it with alcohol ink in shades of yellow, green, and teal.  When the alcohol ink was dry, I covered the beads with a shiny glaze/sealant.

I switched out the wires with a different kind that had a loop on the bottom.  I attached a bead at the base of each earring.  To add some visual and textural interest, I cut numbers out of Tim's Multi Collage fabric and glued those to the front of each bead.

Next I added beads to Tim's Loop Pins and then attached those to the bottom of each earring.  I had a thin piece of metal that I painted white and added black stripes to using a Posca paint pen.

I cut the striped metal into smaller shapes, punched a hole in them, and added them to the loop at the bottom of each earring.  The loop ended up being too small for that many elements, so I replaced the whole pin with a longer one and made the base loop bigger.  Lastly, I found some skeleton head beads in my stash and added one to the top of each pin.  I attached some earring hooks and these were done!

Here are the supplies I used that you can find at Simon Says Stamp:

• Tim Holtz Tack Nails
• Alcohol Ink: Limeade, Sunshine, Lemonade, Patina
• Tim Holtz Multi Collage Fabric
• Tim Holtz Loop Pins
• Black Posca Paint Pen

We're excited to see your shapely projects this week!   Upload your creations to the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog for your chance to win a $25 voucher to the Simon Says Stamp Store!