03/12/2012 - Starbucks Earrings

I usually try to bring my own mug to get my coffee, but there are times I just need my caffeine fix without a cup handy. I have been collecting these "splash sticks" (I think that is the fancy name Starbucks has come up with for these) got quite a while now. The moral of the story is that you should bring your own cup if you are going to buy coffee.
 
Reclaimed Material: coffee splash sticks, heart bead stoppers
Other/New Material: earring hooks, jewelry wire
Tools: jewelry pliers, looping pliers, clippers, drill

How I did it: I clipped off the stick part leaving about 1/8" to drill a hole to hang the bead under the Starbucks mermaid lady. Next I drilled holes using a tiny bit on the remaining stick sections. I also drilled a hole on the top of each lady. Next, I made 4 loops to connect the pieces of the earrings together. I connected the earring hook to the green mermaid lady using a loop, then used another loop to connect the heart beats at the bottom and repeated with the other earring.

What I would do differently: I originally wanted to use a colored bead, but decided to use these random heart things. As far as the heart bead stoppers, I am counting them as reclaimed/upcycled because they were holding some faux pearls on a string when I bought them. But I am still riding the fence on calling it upcycled. I need to come up with something that uses the whole stick, or maybe just the stick part.