How to Make Neon Duct Tape Feather Earrings

While at Girls Camp a couple weeks ago, I was put in charge of a craft for our girls (on top of the other activity I organized). I am not a naturally crafty-type person, so it was fun to explore all the possibilities on Pinterest.

I started perusing "duct tape crafts" first, since duct tape is just fun and Lee and I have made things with it in the past. I finally decided on making Neon Duct Tape Feather Earrings.

Posing with my first pair I made

I found them at the House of Brit blog--I had a feeling that the girls would love making them. They did!

The duct tape carnage at camp

 
Let's get started!

You'll need the following supplies: 

Duct tape earring supplies

• Duct tape (Duck Tape brand has all the fun colors and patterns. I found them to be the cheapest at Home Depot, not Michael's or JoAnn's)
• Jewelry wire (purchased at Michael's)
• Earring hooks (purchased at Michael's)
• Scissors
• Pencil or pen
• One pair of needle-nose pliers

1. You'll need a flat surface for working. Cut off a piece of duct tape, double in length of the size you want your feather to be. Lay it on your work surface, sticky side up.

Face side up

2. Fold the tape in half, the sticky side onto itself. It's easy to get bubbles in the tape--just push them out with your fingernail.

Folded in half

3. Hand draw a feather outline. Don't fret--you can do it. It doesn't need to be perfect.

My amateur drawing

4. Cut your feather out.

Cut cut!

5. Cut slits along each side to resemble a feather. Don't cut too deep into the middle since this will act as the shaft of the feather. I cut the slits pointing downward and found that narrow cuts made it look better.

Smaller slits = better

See! Looking good!

I agree, looking good!

7. Cut out triangles at random places in the feather to make it more realistic. The top of the triangle should be pointed toward the middle of the feather.

Triangles make it look real

8. Next, twist and rough up the feather so it doesn't lay so flat. Feel free to pull apart a few of the slits too since they stick together.

Rough it up!

See! Looks better!

Roughed up.

9. Cut off a 3-inch piece of jewelry wire with the needle-nose pliers.

Wire, hook and feather

10. Poke one end of the wire into the base of the stem. It may be hard to get through both layers, but keep at it and it will come through! You only need a short bit to be poking out.

Poked through

11. Using the needle nose pliers, curve the end up in to a hook.

Hook it!

When you pull the wire back a bit, it should look like this:

Hooked!

12. Next, sandwich that hook and the feather between your thumb and your other fingers, twist the wire up the stem. I did this with my hands since the weight of the wire wasn't too thick. You may need to use two pair of needle-nose pliers if you're working with stiffer wire.  Also, you will be smashing the duct tape stem--that will happen and is intentional--you want the wire to hold on to the feather!

Twist up!

13. Start to create a loop at the top of the stem by angling the wire back down and slip an earring hook on. Twist the wire back down the stem.

Make a loop and twist down!

14. You'll want to tuck the end of the wire to prevent from getting poked while wearing these. With the needle-nose pliers, twist the end upward in to a hook shape. I did it this way cause it looked somewhat decent. You can do whatever you please with that end--just make sure it doesn't poke you!

Not the best hook, but it doesn't poke me

15. Adjust the loop at the top of the wire so that the feather will face forward when worn.

Make it look pretty

And there you have it!

Feel free to go crazy with layering also. Here's a few I ended up with at the end of the day.

Fun colors and patterns!

Enjoy!