Halloween Themed Earrings!

I'm excited to exhibit the two Halloween-themed earrings I made! The first earring (on the left) is the main character of "The Nightmare Before Christmas": Jack Skellington. On the right, I created an orange pumpkin and made the pumpkin a jack-o-lantern by adding a face.

My friend's birthday served as my inspiration. It's been over a decade since we met in first grade. Her birthday is coming up here in September, and I wanted to create a meaningful gift for her Sweet Sixteen. Some of the best moments of my life were with her. Such as when we got our ears pierced together, and she introduced me to needle felting!

Over the years, I have spent most Halloweens at her house. We eat candy, watch movies, and trick-or-treat together. She introduced me to "The Nightmare Before Christmas" last year. Every year she's eager for October to start, because it means Halloween isn't too far away. Halloween is her second favorite holiday (after Christmas, of course), so I came up with the idea to start the Spooky Season early this year as her birthday present.

• Needle
• Multi-needle tool
• Finger guards (optional)
• Sponge or anything to needle felt onto
• Felt - Orange, Black, Brown, and Green
• Poly fill - a cheap alternative to white felt

First, put the finger guards on your pointer and thumb. The guards are optional, but no guard means you might be stabbed (accidentally). Make sure to do this process on top of your sponge/surface. We need to make a white ball for the pumpkin and Jack Skellington. Take a clump of the polyfill; hold the polyfill between your pointer and thumb, and start stabbing down onto the sponge. While you are stabbing, rotate the polyfill until the shape forms a sphere. No rotation will create a flat rectangle instead.

The three main components of Jack's face are his eyes, nose, and mouth. Start his eyes by taking a clump of black felt and stabbing it onto the white surface. To make a little volume to the eyes, swirl the felt around the needle and then stab downwards. The eyes are around 0.7 mm long and 0.6 mm wide; the gap between the eyes is about 0.5 mm. I will remind you to do this process on top of the sponge.

After finishing his eyes, start the nose/nostrils under the eyes. I placed the nose right between the eyes and the heights near where the eyes end. Take a small clump of black felt and stab downwards.

The mouth is the skeleton's last main feature. Take a long amount of black felt and stretch it along the face; then stab downwards onto the surface until it's secure. Place the mouth about 0.6 mm under the nose. We still have not finished the mouth; we need to add the horizontal groves. Similar to the nose, take a small amount of black felt. Place the felt horizontally over the mouth and start stabbing down. Angle each horizontal line in a different direction/angle.

The next step is optional. The details of the face include Jack Skellington's eyebrows and eye bags. Each feature uses a thin amount of black felt. Put the eyebrows around 0.3 mm above the eyes; put the eye bags less than 0.1 mm under the eyes. For reference, make the height of the eyebrows around 0.1 mm and it's length as 0.5 mm.

Find the other white ball you made in step #1. Take a generous amount of orange felt and start covering the white ball. You won't be able to cover the entire surface in one attempt. Instead, wrap a small amount and start stabbing down. Keep coating the ball in orange until the entire surface is covered. Use small amounts of felt to refine areas until the white underneath is not visible.

The brown stripes on the jack-o-lantern are crucial. Designate two spots on the sphere: one as the "top" and the other as the "bottom." The top and bottom will be the conjunction of all the stripes. You can use a dark brown, light brown, or darker shade of orange. In my creation, I used a light brown. Start from the top and use a thin amount of felt to wrap the sphere from it's top to bottom. Stab the stripe until it's secure. Keep repeating this process until the stripes cover the entire sphere.

The three main parts of the jack-o-lantern's face are its eyes, mouth, and eye highlights. The mouth and eyes use black felt, and the eye highlights use orange felt. In my opinion, the jack-o-lantern face is more challenging than Jack Skellington. 

Let's start with his eyes. Unlike the round eyes of Jack Skellington, the pumpkin has right triangles (it's not exact, of course). Use a medium amount of black felt and arrange it into a right triangle shape. Make sure to secure the eyes into the place, or it might come off later!

The process for the mouth is slightly complicated. The mouth of a jack-o-lanterns isn't straight but jagged and zig-zagged. Therefore, you shouldn't make a straight line as we did with Jack Skellington. Instead, take a long piece of felt and stab it horizontally. After about 0.1 mm, turn the felt vertically and stab it securely and downwards. The process repeats, except the subsequent vertical line, should be upwards. Keep repeating the process until the mouth is 2.5 mm done (or how you like it).

Cut a hole into the top of Jack Skellington and the Pumpkin. Insert the ring on the earring hook into the hole. For Jack Skellington, cover the area with polyfill and start stabbing until the ring is secure. We still need to create the stem on the pumpkin, so take green felt and use that color to secure the hook. Add more green felt to increase the height of the stem. The ring is secure once you can hold the creation up by just the ring.

Good job, you finished! The only step left is to wear them. :D