This instructable shows you how to make a pair of lovely layered landscape earrings from paper! They're simple to make, but still elegant with a touch of gold on the sides. Each layer of the abstract landscape silhouette is subtly separated to give some depth. The two designs pictured above show ocean waves and a mountain scene, but feel free to get creative and design your own.

Step 1: Materials

For this project, you'll need:

Lots of different colors of cardstock. I would pick a heavier paper weight, that can withstand glue without swelling. If you're going for the ombre look pictured above, luckily cardstock is often sold in packs with coordinated color schemes.
Glue
Gold colored kidney ear wires, or your favorite type of earring finding
Gold paint
Scissors, or an exacto blade
Paintbrush
Pliers
Needle tool

Step 2: Cut Rectangular Strips of Paper

Pick five colors of cardstock that you want to use for your earrings and cut a long rectangular strip for each color. The strips pictured above are about 1"x0.25". You'll also want to cut at least two extra strips of any color to use as filler material in between each layer of your landscape. If you choose to use an exacto blade, try using a ruler to get straight edges and sharp corners.

The neater that you can cut these strips, the better! Once you stack the strips together, uneven edges will become more pronounced. One thing you can do is to stack all of the strips together and trim edges that stick out to make sure you get clean sides.

Step 3: Draw Your Landscape Elements

Put aside the filler rectangle strips and use a pencil to outline the shape for your landscape elements on the five rectangles of your chosen color. Pictured above, I going for a mountain scene, so I've drawn some abstract mountains on each layer in decreasing height.

Step 4: Cut Out the Outlined Layers

Use your scissors or exacto blade to cut the outlines that you have just drawn. Again, ignore the filler rectangles for now.

You can stack these cut out pieces together and preview what the final product will look like. Make sure you're happy with the result before you move on! Now is the time while you can still trim pieces until you're satisfied.

Step 5: Cut Out Some Filler Material

Using the scrap rectangles that you've been saving, cut four pieces of filler material to sit in between each layer of your landscape. Be sure to make the each piece short enough, such that it is not visible behind the landscape element that will be in front of it.

Step 6: Glue Your Pieces Together

Use glue to hold each piece of your landscape together. Start with the topmost element of your scene, add a filler rectangle, continue with the next largest landscape element, and so forth. The result of this step is pictured above.

I would suggest that you glue a few pieces of paper together at a time and give it some time to dry instead of gluing the whole stack of segments together at once. The pieces might slip around while the glue is still wet, and it'll be more manageable if you work with well held together pieces.

Step 7: Embellish With Gold Paint

Gently brush some gold paint onto the sides of your assembled landscape for an elegant touch. Be careful not to brush too hard, otherwise paint may get onto the front of your piece.

Step 8: Add Holes for the Earring Findings

Use your needle tool (or simply a needle) to add a hole near the top of your landscape piece.

Step 9: Attach the Earring Wire

Slip your piece onto the kidney ear wire as shown.

Notice how we've put the design on the wire with the back of the artwork on top. When you slip your landscape piece around the wire, the front of the design will be facing forward.

Step 10: Enjoy!

You're done! I hope you enjoyed this instructable; if you liked it, please consider voting for it in the papercrafts contest. Let me know what you think, and feel free to post pictures if you gave it a shot. I'd love to see how yours comes out!

Third Prize in the
Jewelry Contest 2017

Runner Up in the
Papercraft Contest 2017

19 Comments

jojobean2020

5 months ago

It says it's and 1" x 1/4" ? that would make them awful small. Am I missing something?

iillili

2 years ago

these are so cool i made them for my sister for her birthday and she just loved them thanks for sharing

suacamp

Question 3 years ago on Step 2

I'm sorry, can you explain me you measure system? Gere in Brasil we use centimeter and I can't find the right measure for this earrings. Can you help me? Please?

MarcyBell

6 years ago

I looked through all the finalist's entries, in the jewelry contest, and yours is the one I keep coming back to. I love the colors, and the organic look of the layered shapes! I think I'm going to attempt to make these with different types/colors of metal, silver, copper, and brass. Thanks for a fun instructable!

Alywolf

I can think of so many materials this would work for, ironed soda bottles, bits of pop cans, wood veneer... wow endless... and paper too.

Katzsta

A simple, yet beautiful, easy to do design. You also described it very nicely and your photos were great. One little suggestion as to the "paper", whenever I am doing some painting on my walls, bookcases or whatever, I always get a few color chips from the paint store to compare colors in my home. You could actually use these as long as you cover the back of the bottom-most piece. That way you are actually recycling what you don't need. These could also be done with hand painted watercolor paper. The possibilities are endless.