Ever wanted a pair of earphones with the Green Day "Heart Grenade"? Depends on whether or not you like Green Day. If you do, try this for yourself! If you don't, adapt the idea and use it for another band! With enough patience, you could probably fit a whole album cover on a pair of headphones, though I opted for the easily recognizable icon.

*NOTE* When I made these earphones, I didn't really think things through. There are many shortcuts I could have taken, but didn't think of until after I'd finished them. So there will be a few steps where I'll tell you what I did, then what you could do to make the process easier and probably end up with a neater finished product. Hopefully the instructions are pretty clear(:

Step 1: Plan Your Design

First off, decide what you want to paint on your headphones. I chose the heart grenade from the cover of Green Day's "American Idiot", but you can use whatever design you want. Figure out what colors of paint you need, how many paint brushes you need and in what sizes, and what color headphones to buy (so you possibly won't need to paint the background)

Step 2: Materials

Like I said earlier, this project jumps around a bit. Here are the things you'll need:

*Acrylic Paint in the colors of your design (for mine, red black and white)
*Paintbrushes in appropriate sizes
*Earphones with a kind of "button" on the end; the kind you push in your ear and have a squishy thing on the end. Try to get them in a color that matches the background of your design, it makes for less painting. Of course I went and got green earphones when I needed a black background, but they still work. Mine aren't wonderful quality, but I bought them so I'd have decent earphones on the airplane home: the complimentary ones never work.
*Clear nailpolish (to seal the paint) or any other sealant.

I'm not an expert, but these are just things I had lying around and they worked fairly well for me. If you have any questions, feel free to ask(:

Step 3: Paint the Main Image

First, paint your base image (the part of the design you focus on when you look at it). For me, the base image was the heart.

All I did was paint the outline of a heart, then fill it in. Don't forget to add the red blob at the top that the pin attaches to!

Sorry for the blur on some pictures, my camera has a horrible macro. Good at times, bad at most.

Step 4: Let Your Earphone Dry

Don't try to paint both earphones at one time, you're going to smear the paint. Better to wait the 5 or so minutes, and be safe.

There are a few ways to let your earphone dry. One being to find something to hang them from, making sure they don't touch, another being to swing them around like nunchucks, (spelling?) and then of course a hairdryer if you have one handy. If you put the setting on cool air, the paint should dry a little faster. I'd have to say I prefer the second method, its more fun xD

I dunno about everyone else, but when I'm waiting for something I listen to the song Are We The Waiting by Green Day(; Obsessive? Well...

Once your first earphone is dry, repeat step 3 on the next.

Step 5: Details

If your heart grenade is an authentic Green Day grenade, you theoretically have 4 lines splitting the heart horizontally, and three vertically (but kinda slanted). Because my friend would never let it go if I got the design wrong, I'm going to explain how to make everything right.

First, you'll need to paint the black lines on the heart grenade. If you plan on having a color other than black as the background, don't outline the heart in black. Look at the picture to see exactly how to draw the lines if you want them perfect, if not, just fudge them enough to look decent, and go with it.

Here's the order I usually draw the lines in:
Horizontal line #2
Horizontal line #1
Horizontal line #3
Horizontal line #4
Vertical line
Slanted lines (the order doesn't really matter here.)

See the picture for important details.

After you've finished the lines on the grenade, you also need to paint the pin in white.

Let it dry, and repeat this step on the other earphone.

Step 6: Paint the Background

If you're smart, you bought a pair of earphones in the color of the background of your design. You can then skip this step. If you totally forgot, like me, you'll need to do this.

Basically all we're doing here is painting the area around the grenade black. Here's where you can do touch-ups, for example if your heart was a bit bumpy, you can use the black to smooth out the edges.

Be very careful on this step, one jolt from a brother or sister could easily ruin your masterpiece.

You need to be absolutely positive your earphone is completely dry before you start painting the next one, its not fun to redo the whole thing like I had to at one point.

After you've painted both of the backgrounds, you're pretty much finished. Just seal the paint with clear nail polish, let it dry one more time, and you're finished!