DIY Jewelry with Mod Podge Dimensional Magic Craft

I have an obsession with scrap-booking paper that has basically approached critical mass. I even went to the expense of purchasing a hard case just for my 12 inches by 12 inch little pieces of paper beauty. The thing about it is, I don’t scrapbook.

Call me what you like but I simply cannot resist some of those papers. They’re just so dang cute, am I right? So I purchase these papers and they stack up and I get to the point where I’m desperate to use something and have to put on my thinking cap. It finally came to me. In the past, I’d made jewelry using photographs, specifically vintage images of starlets like Audrey Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe. They really went off a hit. Then I did the same with pictures of my Poppa after he passed away to give as gives to my mom, grandmother, sister, and aunt and they were really appreciated.

But not until this last week did it occur to me to use some of my prettiest of papers into jewelry. I picked the perfect little floral out of my stash and I went into town to grab some Mod Podge Dimensional Magic. For my past projects, I have used various forms of paper glaze and was met with various results. Since Mod Podge is basically the designer name in decoupage I thought I’d give it a go. Wait! But these little beauties are chevron, not floral. Yeah, well I bought some more scrapbooking paper while I was out. Sue me.

For this project you will need:

• Jewelry bezels
• Scrapbooking paper
• Circle cutter
• Mod Podge matte
• Mod Podge Dimensional Magic
• Toothpick

So here’s my paper and here are my bezels. I chose a larger circular pendant and a compact mirror. I’ve never actually owned a compact so I’m quite excited about this.

You can find these at some hobby stores, most beading stores, and online. They are called bezels, trays, and sometimes blanks and come in a variety of options. For example, you can also get earrings, rings, bracelets, charms (for a bracelet), hair accessories, purse holders, bookmarks…

First things first I need to cut my circles. But even before that, I need to know what size to cut them. The sizes on my packages were in millimeters and since I don’t know a thing about the metric system that meant I needed to convert these numbers to something my brain could get a hold of, like inches. Now if you’re like me and need to convert these numbers the absolutely easiest way is to get into Google and type something like “39mm in inches”. This nifty converter thing will pop up at the beginning of the search results and you are set.

So I have my numbers in inches and know what size to cut my circles at now. Rather than waste some of my beautiful chevron paper I decided to practice my circles on white printer paper and test them out in the bezels to see if they worked out. This is something I’d highly recommend doing.

After you’ve cut out your proper circles we need to attach them to the bezels. Take a small amount of Mod Podge and brush it either onto the tray itself, or the backside of your paper. Place into the tray and smooth out and press down with your fingers to ensure a nice, smooth surface. Give about 15 minutes or so to dry.

Do NOT shake your dimensional magic because it will cause bubbles. Instead, just kind of softly rolls it around in your hand to mix up.

Take and squeeze into the tray starting around the edge and filling inward.

Try as I might, I still got bubbles into my business. Take a toothpick and pop the bubbles as they arise. In the pic, I’m trying to use a pin but I wound up just pushing the bubble around. The size of the toothpick made all of the difference.

So on your left, you have the piece that has been filled and the other that has not. This stuff looks pretty darn opaque and I was kind of freaking out, but you don’t need to. It will dry nice and clear.

Put someplace safe and away from drafts and allow to dry, preferably overnight.

Also, if you have cats put them someplace that they don’t naturally like to lie down because you’ll wind up scraping everything out (including a LOT of hair) and starting all over. You’ll notice that my tutorial and my finished pics are different and that’s why.

And that’s all there is to that, really. It’s an easy process but you need to be sure to take care so that you don’t get anything strange into your clear layer. Little pieces of hair or glitter are going to be really evident so prepping your work space may be the most important thing when working with Mod Podge Dimensional Magic. What do you think? Will you be making up some jewelry soon?

Allison

A crafter since her earliest years, Allison spends a little time every day making something. She crafts, sews, paints, glues things onto other things, and is a firm believer that a life spent creating is a life worth living. Visit Allison’s blog, Dream {a Little} BIGGER.