Making Old New Again: Upcycling an Earring

When living the frugal life we often need to stretch our resources.  While it can makes things challenging, it also inspires us to be as creative as possible. It's one of my favorite things about living this way! 

Here is a simple, easy, and frugal way to take something old and unusable and make it new again and all it requires is a few things many of us have lying around.

I had purchased these earrings at a local drug store. They were inexpensive, but I thought they were so pretty. They were also lightweight, a quality I really prefer my jewelry has (and if it doesn't, I likely won't wear it). Being lightweight is probably one of the reasons I tend to lose earrings, but I digress...

My sad little earring, lost without its mate.

Somewhere along the way I lost one of the earrings - but I wasn't ready to toss it just yet in case the missing earring revealed itself at the bottom of a drawer, or on the floor of the laundry room (it's been known to happen). That day never did come, so I decided instead of throwing it away, I would "upcycle" and turn it into a necklace!  

Here's what I used: 

The earring                                                                                         

An old chain from which I took a small jump ring

Another old chain to use with the new necklace

Tweezers to remove the earring hook and attach the jump ring (these were used in place of the jewelry pliers I was too lazy to go in search of).

Here's how I did it:

I took off the earring hook and went and found an old skinny chain I wasn't using.  I attempted to put the earring on the chain, but the hole at the top of it was just too small.  I needed a little jump ring to attach to the earring and found one on an old chain that wasn't going to be used.  I attached that to the ring, making sure it was closed tightly.

Wearing my new necklace!

Voila! In a few minutes I had taken something headed for the garbage and gave it new purpose. I knew that earring was destined for greater things!

Have you ever turned an old earring into a necklace? Is it something you might try?  What old things do you make new again?