Embossed Earrings with Feathers

I had a surprise today when I looked at the Ben Franklin Crafts 'Ideas and Inspirations" blog and saw that Puna of the Enchanted Lakes store was featuring feathers in her post about making earrings.  I just finished a pair of earrings yesterday and YES, I incorporated feathers in it, too.  The basic focus of my earrings was to spotlight the Vintaj metal embossing plates.  By simply inserting a Vintaj circle (or any shape) metal drilled disk into a patterned Vintaj embossing plate and running it through a regular die-cutting/embossing machine, the piece emerges with a pretty embossed design.  Once a metal piece is embossed it can be lightly sanded to bring out the design or Vintaj enamel paints can be applied to the piece to add some color.  I wish that I had read Puna's blog before I made my earrings because then I would have known to use connecting crimp ends to attach the feathers.  (I used regular crimps and glued the feather onto a piece of wire before crimping.)  The little blue bead I used was an angelite semi-precious gemstone, but you can use any small bead that you can purchase from Ben Franklin Crafts. Choosing the feathers, embossing plate design, and beads will probably take you longer than making these earrings. They are super easy.  I hope you'll try this fun jewelry project soon.  Happy Crafting!