'Falling Leaves' Earrings

These earrings are really fun to make using aluminum drink cans.

Tools:

1" Maple leaf punch - (There are 6 different punches in this set. Leaf, heart, butterfly, star, flower, & disc. At the very last step, I've included photos of earrings showing all the different punches.) https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09927HQ7W/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

Kitchen shears or tin snips

Manual can opener

Chain nose pliers

Large straight pin, tack, or very thin nail

Supplies:

Empty aluminum drink cans in red, orange, gold, green, brown, or other colors you prefer

2 French hooks

2 - 5 mm jump rings

10 - 10 mm jump rings

First you will need to rinse out the cans & then remove the tops & bottoms of them. Carefully remove the top part of the can w/ the can opener & then use the shears to cut the rest of the can. *Cut down the side thru the writing on the can to save as much of the colored part as possible. The cans will want to curl up but that's ok.

Next comes the fun part of punching out the leaves. You might want to practice on one of the areas of the flattened aluminum that you don't want. *Be sure to check the bottom of the punch when you have placed the aluminum into it to make sure it's all the way in & have the colored side showing so you'll be able to see exactly what your leaf will look like. You will need a total of 12 leaves for 2 earrings.

Now you need to put your leaves on a stable surface like an old magazine or rubber mat & carefully put a hole in the top of the leaves w/ the large straight pin or thin nail so that you can attach the jump rings to them. *I try to put a hole right under where the leaf has the first notches in it. See photo. Do not get too close to the edge b/c the aluminum is very fragile & will bend/tear easily.

Now you will start adding the 10 mm jump rings using the chain nose pliers to open/close the rings. Each of the earrings will need 5 of the 10 mm jump rings. *You can wait to add the 5 mm jump rings until the very last as they will be attached to the French hooks. Make sure the colored part of the leaves are facing the outside & carefully attach a jump ring to 2 of the leaves. Next you will add just a jump ring to the middle of the jump ring that has the leaves on it as in the photo. Keep repeating these steps until you have used up all 5 of the rings. *The last 2 leaves w/ the jump ring will not have an extra jump ring added to it.

The last step is to add the small jump rings to the earrings. Add it to the very first ring that the first leaves were put on. See photo. (*These earrings are very lightweight & hardly noticeable when wearing...but if you feel like the edges of the leaves might scratch you, you could try putting clear nail polish or clear glue around the edges.) Your festive 'falling leaves earrings' are all finished & ready to wear...& you might as well make a pendant to match...or maybe make some earrings for your best friend. :-)