How to Turn Stamping Blanks Into Links and Connectors

	Beadalon Large Beading Mats - Prevent Bead Rolling 13 X 18 Inch (Set of 2) SKU: XTL-9935 $6.75
	Solid Copper Round Stamping Blanks - 25mm Diameter 24 Gauge (2 pcs) SKU: PND-7820 $2.49
	Beadalon Silver Plated Quick Links 25mm Round (18 Pcs) SKU: BMB-1751 $7.25
	Beadalon Silver Plated Quick Links 20mm Round (22 Pcs) SKU: BMB-1754 $7.25
	Earring Findings, Fish Hook Ear Wire 16mm Genuine Copper (25 Pairs) SKU: FEA-3017 $6.79
	Eurotool EuroPunch 1.25mm Round Hole Punch Pliers For Sheet Metal SKU: XTL-0060 $17.99
	Wubbers Classic Series Bent Chain Nose Quality Jeweller's Pliers SKU: XTL-0036 $29.99
	Xuron Jeweler's Super Fine Pliers Chain Nose Flat Nose SKU: XTL-5450 $25.99

Note: This audio transcript is auto-generated and may not be completely accurate.
Hi this Julie with Beadaholique.com and today I wanna show you how to use metal stamping blanks as connectors. What you're going to need is a hole punch which will go through metal. I have round one. 1.25 millimeters right here. They come in different sizes. So you want to match your hole punch to your jump ring or whatever you're going to be connecting your new links to. And for the project I'm going to show you how to do here which is a making earring. You're going to need a couple pairs of pliers to open up some jump rings. And you're going to need a pencil. So I have a bracelet already completed here and you see I've actually just taken square blanks. They have no holes in them to begin with, taken a hole punch, punched the hole where I wanted it for my connectors which are jump rings in a chain right here. I used them as links to make an actual bracelet form and then I was able to apply some dominos with eproxy stickers on top of them. That was actually a really quick and easy project. So I want to show you another really quick and easy project which is gonna take some metal stamping blanks and turn them into connectors. So I have two blanks here. You can see they have some texture on them. Here's what they look like to begin with. This is a smaller size but you can see it's smooth and shiny. I got the texture by taking a chasing hammer and just pounding it actually. Just making little divots and marks until it have an all over texture. We actually have another video by beadaholique.com entitled "How to Create a Hammered Texture on Metal Blanks". You can see how to do that but for this project I would like to make this earring right here. What you need for this earring is you're gonna need a 25 millimeter stamping blank and an 18 millimeter stamping blank with no holes in them. I've actually then got two quick links which are these great little links right here. I'm going to apply them on top of my metal stamping blanks to add some interest. I have a Swarovski rhondelle crystal. I'm going to hang it as a drop. I've got four jump rings, 7mm and then I also have a little copper earring hook. So if you're going to go ahead and use a stamping blank with no holes as a connector you need to punch some holes in it. To do that you're gonna want to mark first where you want your holes on the back side. Take a pencil and I can actually look closely. I can make a line and if I don't like where my line is, I can just rub it off with my finger. So I want to go ahead and figure out about the center. You could use a ruler and measure this or you can just eye ball it. So I made a centerline. Now for my particular project you see how on this one that the quick link just rest on top of the jump ring and it looks like it's a solid piece right here. So I don't want to punch down here otherwise it would drop my link and it would sit down here. So I want it to be right up against the edge. So to achieve that I'm going to put my quick link on top line it up so it's even. Just going to make a little mark on either end that's where I want to punch my hole. Take your hole punch it might be a little hard to catch on camera but I have a mark where I want to punch this. Going to place the link between the punch part and the base and I'm just going to squeeze. There we go. Pull it out. We got a great hole right there. Go to the other side again line it up with my marker. Punch. I'm going to do the exact same thing for my larger. Again turn it upside down. Find your approximant center point. That looks pretty good to me. Lay the link on top, the quick link I should say. Make sure it's even make a little mark punch go to the other side punch. Now I'm going to take my finger, rub off my pencil mark. Now all I have to do is connect these. So first I'm going to open up a jump ring. Put a quick link on there. I want the textured surface of my stamping blank to be in the forefront. Go ahead and put that link on there. At this time I'm going to take my other jump ring. It's going to be the top of my earring. Put it on there as well. Close the jump ring back up. I'm going to switch hands. I like working with the bent nose pliers in my right hand again open the jump ring. Thread it to the other side. Put the blank on here first so they match. One quick link close it backup. We're just using these as connectors open your forth jump ring and we can actually going to use this jump ring as a bail for our crystal. It slides in very easily just connect that into the hole punch in your blank close it backup. We just need to go the top and attach our earring hook. You can either open the jump ring or you can open the little loop at the base in the earring hook. Slide it on. Make sure it's facing in the right direction. Close it back up. And there you go. We have a very easy and pretty set of earrings which we made by converting metal stamping blanks into links. Go to Beadaholique.com for all of your beading supply needs!