DIY Decoupage Bracelet Tutorial

Last week I promised a tutorial on how to make a decoupage bracelet.  This was my first experience making one of these.  I have to say they are quite easy and lots of fun to make.

I can see all kinds of possibilities for future projects!  Here's how it went:




Supplies Needed:

• Two paper or plastic plates - I used a small plate for squirting my Mod Podge onto and a large plate for holding my paper and bracelet and to work from.
• Mod Podge or your favorite decoupage medium.
• Small paint brush.
• Scissors and paper cut into small shapes and sizes - I mixed and matched several patterns with similar colors and I cut them in varying sizes and shapes.
• Plain wooden bangle bracelet - I bought several in 1 inch wide and in 1 1/2 inch wide, but they come in numerous widths.  For this tutorial, I am using the 1 1/2 inch wide size.  Most also come in Small, Medium, and Large sizes for varying wrist sizes - I used the Medium which has an internal diameter of 2 5/8 inches.  I got these from Stuff4crafts.com - but there are many sites and craft stores that offer these.
• Newspaper - optional (I used this to protect the table I was working on - if you are exceptionally neat, you might not need this.)
• Damp towel or washcloth - not pictured but I found this helpful for wiping the Mod Podge off my fingers periodically as I was working.

1.  Use your paint brush to paint a small section of the bracelet with Mod Podge.  Then place the first piece of paper onto the Mod Podged area.  Now paint the surface of the paper with the Mod Podge and use your fingers to smear and mold the paper to the surface of the bracelet.

2.  Keep going until the exterior surface is completely covered.  As my fingers got sticky with the Mod Podge, I found it helpful to use my dampened towel to wipe them off.  Here is what the bracelets looked like after I finished the exterior.  But I wanted to also finish the interior surface as well.

3.  So I used the same technique as above to finish the interior surface of the bracelet.  Here are the finished bracelets.

I also sprayed the finished bracelets with  Mod Podge Clear Acrylic Sealer - not sure if this is absolutely necessary, but I did it because I felt like this would add an additional layer of protection.

Here is a close-up of the pink bracelet sitting atop a plain unfinished bracelet.

And here is a close-up of the brightly colored one.

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I love comments and I respond to each and every one.

Remember:  "Creativity is contagious, pass it on"  by Albert Einstein.

Here are a few more ways to keep up with me:
DJAjewels.etsy.com
Pinterest
Facebook
Monthly Newsletter - Sign up now!

New Wooden Decoupage Bracelets

Have been very busy this week!  Here are some pictures of wooden decoupage bangle bracelets I have been working on.  Am working on a tutorial now and will post later this week.  These are such fun to make - and really not that difficult!

Will also be posting these for sale in my Etsy shop soon.

As usual, thanks for visiting!  More to follow soon.

Empty Nest

This past weekend I helped my youngest son Mike get settled in to his new apartment in Atlanta.  He just finished grad school in May with a Master's of Science in Computer Science and is starting his first "real job."  My mission was to help him get his apartment a bit  "home like" so that he would at least have a comfortable place of retreat when not working.

I have many mixed feelings - I am proud of what he has accomplished and happy for him to be starting his own life, but am going to miss having him around.  Oh, he has been away at school at USC in Columbia, SC for the past several years, but this is only about 1 1/2 hours away from where we live.  So we would see him on a very regular basis.  Atlanta on the other hand is about 4 hours away - not so far we can't visit there or him come home - but it just won't be as frequently as in the past.

But we had a great weekend putting his apartment together.  A trip to Ikea for a computer desk and side table, several hours putting together the Ikea furniture, hanging curtains and a few pictures, and numerous trips to the nearby Home Depot for incidentals to complete all these projects.

In the end though, my mission was accomplished.  His apartment looks very nice and although it is in the heart of Midtown Atlanta seems safe and secure enough.  Here is a pic of the den with the small side table from Ikea we assembled, an overhead clock we bought at Lowe's, along with sofa and coffee table he inherited from his older brother.

And here is a photo of the Ikea desk we assembled - perfectly fits into the corner of his bedroom.  

And here is a picture of the curtains we hung in his bedroom - they were a nightmare to hang.  Unbeknownst to us, the wall had a combination of concrete and steel behind it - required several trips to Home Depot!

And here is a great picture of Midtown Atlanta's skyline taken from his rooftop.

The rooftop has a great area for relaxing - there are several tennis courts, basketball courts, a gazebo, hot tub, and an enclosed gym surrounded by windows.  Should have taken pics of that as well, but didn't.

Anyway,  after all is said and done, with the internet and technology today, the world is indeed a smaller place.  I "visited" with him last night on Skype and it was almost as if he was here.  Perhaps the anticipation of his leaving was more difficult than the actual event.  And after all a child's leaving "the nest" is just another of life's many milestones.