Here is a random fact: I absolutely adore house shaped things, as you can see from this adorable set of little wooden houses I have by Suzy Ultman – so cute! After falling in love with this tiny city, I thought to myself wouldn’t it be great to do a DIY that incorporated the shape that I have come to love, but was also functional too. As I was brainstorming ideas I first thought about creating a tiny pinboard, however soon realised that pinboards are big for a reason, and a pinboard that only held two things wasn’t exactly useful. So, that idea was scrapped. I wanted my tiny house to be able to display things & get a job done, and then suddenly it dawned on me. No more lost earrings, no more rogue studs, an earring holder was exactly what I should make. And so here you have how to make your very own DIY Earring Holder. It’s super easy, so let’s get started with what you are going to need…
You will need || Two pieces of different coloured card | A piece of thick cardboard | Scissors | Ruler | Pencil | Glue/ Double Sided Tape | Thick Needle/Old Earring | Washi Tape (optional)
1. First you will need to cut yourself a rectangular piece of cardboard with a fold approximately quarter of the way up when you hold it vertically. Confused? Never fear, it sounds more complicated than it actually is. Essentially you need to cut a rectangle out of some thick cardboard and, when holding it upright, score a horizontal line and then fold along the line away from you. This will create your quarter line fold, or there abouts! Check out the photos for reference of where your fold should be.
2. Now you need to draw your house template onto your cardboard. First draw two vertical lines of the same height up to about 3/4 of the way up your card, with the fold at the bottom. Then continue your lines upwards in a dotted fashion and connect the two lines horizontally using another dotted line. You may be thinking, we are supposed to be drawing a house, why are we drawing another rectangle, but next comes the magic part…
3. Measure the middle point of your top dotted line and mark it, this will be the top of your roof. Now draw two solid lines from your mark to the top of each of your original vertical lines. Voila, a perfectly triangular roof. Optional: Rub out your dotted lines if you fancy, but we will be covering them up anyway.
4. Cut out your cardboard house, as shown above, and then draw around the area of your house that is above your fold on both pieces of your coloured card, as shown below.
5. Proceed to cut out both of your coloured card houses and stick one of them, preferably the lighter coloured one, onto the cardboard house on the area above the fold. This is the base colour for you amazing creation and of course mine had to be the prettiest pink.
Note: If you are using glue for this stage it is easier to apply it to your cardboard base rather than the coloured card itself. This will help you to avoid getting a wrinkly base and you will be able to get sticking more accurately. It’s the little things!
6. Now draw a diagonal line on your remaining piece of coloured card, starting from around halfway up the left hand side of your house, to about 2cm below the roof on the right hand side, as seen above. Then cut along your line and discard the bottom section of your house. This will leave you with your upper coloured section.
7. Stick your upper coloured section onto your main house in the natural position at the top of the house. You should now have a lighter bottom section and a darker upper section to your house, as shown below. Looking good!
‘Home is where the heart is, home is where the art is’
Optional Step: Take your washi tape and lay it along the diagonal line where the colours meet. it should be on top of the lighter coloured card, with its edge touching the darker colour.
8. You now have a beautiful base, but still nowhere to house your earrings. And that is where the needle comes in. All that is left to do is poke some little pairs of holes for your earrings to go into. I used a thick needle for this stage, but you could equally use a skewer or even an earring to do it too.
Top Tip: When poking the holes, remember not to put them too close together or the earrings won’t fit. Also, remember to leave some gaps for longer earrings to dangle through! You could even look at what earrings you have and decide where they are going to live on your house, and then poke the holes accordingly. That’d be super organised!
9. Finally, fold your bottom quarter rectangle away from you to create a base. You may have to fold it a few times before it allows you to use it as a stand, but just fiddle with it for a while and eventually it will give in.
Now all that’s left to do is add your earrings. Do this by taking the backs off, putting them through the holes and then reapplying the backs onto earring sticking out of the back of the house.
And there you have it, a beautiful, homemade earring holder that not only looks pretty, but holds a tonne of earrings too! This should take you approximately 30 mins to make, so is super quick, easy and achievable for even the struggling crafters amongst you! Let me know if you try it out, I’d love to see your creations. Be sure to email me them at theartofbeingholly@gmail.com
Love Holly x