Love to Laminate: Part 2 - Amy’s Orphan Earrings By Judi Kauffman for The Queen’s Ink

Every year or so my friend Amy gives me a very quirky and absolutely fabulous gift: She hands me a bag of her orphan earrings, broken and otherwise unwanted jewelry. She started this tradition as a way of providing me with charms for mixed media projects and art cards, but I surprise her now and then by wearing the orphan earrings - I like an ‘artsy’ look and frequently wear mismatched earrings and socks!

I was sorting and cleaning some of the pieces on the same day as I finished the laminated stamped and embossed cardstock from Love to Laminate Part 1, thinking that I might find a way to weave the two together. And I did!

As shown above and just below this line of copy, I made a 6-ring journal, incorporating jewelry from Amy, an old watch face, some tassels, a key, and a piece of trim I’ve saved for ages, plus some ‘hardware’ in (clips, brads, etc.). TIP: Tombow Xtreme Adhesive Tabs are ideal for attaching flat-backed elements to laminated cardstock - they provide a strong hold.

There are two versions. At the start of this tutorial are three photos with lots of embellishments hanging from the rings, below is a more minimalist version with only a key and a small bear charm. TIP: It’s easy to remove and rearrange these elements from the book rings. The jury is out about which version (or a different one) will become the final incarnation. What do you think???

Rather than putting my favorite orphan earrings back into a box I turned a 5”x7” rectangle into a wall hanging to display some of them. It’s such fun to look at!

And I covered two Traveler’s Notebook insert booklets, ring- and coil-bound several little note pads, and cut the rest of the pieces into Artist Trading Cards, bookmarks, and gift tags.

YOUR TURN
Convince your friends to save their orphan earrings for you!
Use my samples as a jumping-off point for your own quirky projects.
Colorful book rings are available at office supply stores, but you could use yarn, ribbon, twine or wire instead. (I like the book rings because they allow me to add or remove pages in the journal or note pads.)

SUPPLIES

• Laminated sheets of stamped and embossed cardstock
• Craft knife, straight edge, self-healing cutting mat
• .25” hold punch
• Tombow Xtreme Adhesive Tabs
• Broken jewelry
• Assorted embellishments
• Traveler’s Notebook insert booklets (standard or passport size)