DIY Jewelry: Alphabet Pasta Stud Earrings
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Stud earrings in your favorite initials or lucky numbers are everywhere lately. Unless you know how to work with metal – and have a soldering torch – they’re pretty tough to mimic the look. However! This DIY jewelry project lets you fashion your own facsimile for a fraction of the cost using some alphabet pasta and Mod Podge
That’s right, I said pasta. Alphabet pasta. Let’s get started!
Supplies:
• Alphabet pasta
• Glue-on post earrings with pads
• Earring backs
• Gold spray paint or gold gilding liquid + paintbrush
• DazzleTac jewelry glue
• Pliers
• Mod Podge Dimensional Magic
• Toothpick
• Small piece of clay or styrofoam (not pictured)
Directions:
1. First, choose your pasta letters and/or numbers to make into earrings.
2. Use the pliers to hold the earring pads, and twist the earring posts from the pads. Since the pasta is so thin, any earring pad will look obvious, so they must be removed.
3. Paint the pasta gold, covering both sides and the back with the paint. Allow to dry.
4. Use a generous dab of DazzleTac to glue the earring posts to the backs of the pasta pieces. Make sure that the glue is both beneath, and around, the earring post to secure it.
Tip: You may have to hold the posts in place for about 5 minutes until the glue has hardened enough to keep them standing upright.
5. Allow to dry FULLY without disturbing.
6. Once the glue is dry, spread a generous layer of Mod Podge Dimensional Magic onto the back of the pasta, using a toothpick to pop any bubbles and spread it out. Make sure that you surround the earring post with the Mod Podge so the head is completely submerged. Allow to dry FULLY without disturbing.
7. Once the Mod Podge is dry on the back, flip the earrings over and embed into a small roll of clay or styrofoam. Spread a layer of Mod Podge Dimensional Magic onto the tops of the earrings and allow to dry.
Handle with care: If you have successfully covered the earring posts in both a layer of glue and a layer of Mod Podge, they should not come out easily. But they are made of pasta and metal, so you definitely want to treat with care.
When worn, they could easily pass for the real thing – and you could make hundreds from all the pasta in one single package!
Spell out your name, your initials, your pet’s name, a funny saying – but no matter what, these earrings will look understated and elegant dotting your lobes.
If you make your own version of this DIY, I’d love to see! Happy DIY’ing!
we heartsters – What letters and/or numbers are you using when making this DIY?
Adorable. How fun – I never would’ve guessed it was pasta!
Thanks, @rachelshay ! Now I have to figure out what to make to use up the rest of that pasta… ;-)
xo
Carly
HOW CUTE IS THIS?!? I would have never thought of this either, @carlyjcais, this is genius! I’d like to do a pair of these in black; I had a set of black “A” earring growing up and I loved those things…
For those of us with only one hole in our ears, do you think gluing multiple letters together would work? I’d imagine that how many it would depend on where your hole is and if more than two would fit without looking silly, but do you think they would hold up?
Thanks, @lyssachelle ! I think you could glue multiple pasta pieces together, though I would create a base to glue onto out of gold jewelry wire rather than gluing pasta to each other. Definitely give it more than one coat of Mod Podge to strengthen it!! Good luck & let us know how it goes!!
xo
Carly
These are adorable! What a great idea
Thank you, @heather ! You’re so sweet :-)
This is such a great idea! I was eying similar pieces from Urban for holiday gifts but they were all sold out. May have to make a few pairs now!
Thank you, @marissa! Best of luck making your own pair…you may have to experiment with a couple different letters though, some of the pasta pieces might be flimsier than others…
My C’s have held up well though!
xo
Carly
How did you ever come up with this–I’m blown away! I think a monogram of 3 letters would be beyond adorable….
Thank you, @amity ! I’ve been wanting a pair of initial earrings for the longest time but the C was sold out at ShopBop…so I was trying to think of other things to use instead. I went through Polyclay and cookie cutters (too big), jewelry wire (too imperfect), alphabet buttons from the fabric store (too chunky) before I tried the pasta. It seems to be holding up okay (though my 5 snapped yesterday… :-( Well, trial and error I guess!
xo
Carly
I must say that is super clever! Pasta hooked me right in being part Italian and love the stuff.. I will never look at alphabet soup the same now! Thanks for sharing your craft with us… I love it and they look adorable @amity!
Thank you, @irene ! You could in fact use any pasta in this project…wouldn’t tiny little pastel-painted bows be adorable??! Just drench the pasta in Mod Podge Dimensional Magic and it should be hard enough to withstand wearing.
xo
Carly
What a fantastic idea! Nice work :-)
Thank you, @Heidi ! Much appreciated :-)
My next trip to Michael’s I’m going to get that amazing Mod Podge Dimensional Magic for this great craft! I love the idea of making Bows! Such a great idea, @amity!
What a great idea! I’m definitely going to make a few pairs of these! So cute!
xoxo
Cathy
Where will I get this pasta..??