Reasons to Celebrate

Wow, I have lots of things to celebrate today – features in the Carnival of Green Crafts and on Craft Magazine, lots of new visitors, and my 50th post since jumping into this strange and wonderful land of lovely projects, even lovelier people, and endless inspiration. I must say, I’m a bit surprised at where blogging has taken me. When I started this, I wasn’t really thinking about having readers. Instead, I wanted to create an archive that I could flip through to watch my tastes and techniques change and improve (with any luck, at least!). Honestly, I didn’t think anyone would be very interested in looking at my projects. What I’ve found through blogging is so much more than I anticipated. As it has worked out, it’s the people in blog-land, not the projects, that have made this undertaking so enjoyable.

Okay, okay, enough with the teary speech. As promised and in celebration, there will be a giveaway this week! Before we get to the details, however, I thought it was high time for a new tutorial (on an unrelated note, does anyone know where the phrase ‘high time’ originates? Now that I think about it, I don’t really get it). I know sewing has been pretty dominant here, but today I decided to share my love of papercrafting and write up a little tutorial for making these lovely decoupaged bangles. This is a fun, quick, and wearable craft – all things that give it an A+ in my mind.


The materials needed are quite simple: a bangle blank (this wooden one came from Michaels); pretty paper; scissors or a paper trimmer; modge podge, a small dish, and a sponge brush; and decoupage sealant (optional).


Since I love being able to recycle and create something pretty at the same time, I like to use catalogues as my paper. To give the bracelet a unified, designed look, I start by flipping through each catalogue, looking for something that jumps out at me. Today, I was inspired by the green and yellow paint on a clapboard wall behind an Anthropologie model. I decided to make these colors the “theme” of my bracelet.


Once you have your own theme image, it’s time to get it out of the magazine.
I like the texture that torn edges give to these bracelets, so I prefer to tear the edges, rather than cut with scissors. Getting a straight tear is simple, just lay a ruler along the edge you want to make, hold it down firmly, and pull the paper back towards yourself. For this bracelet, you’ll want to tear the paper into small strips. The exact size will depend on your bangle blank, but mine are about .75” wide by 2.75” long.


Once you have your inspiration, flip through your other catalogues, looking for colors and patterns that work together. You’ll need about 20 strips.


Now the fun part – gluing! Choose your first strip, paint the back with glue, and wrap it around your bracelet, pushing out any air bubbles and as many wrinkles as you can. An easy way to keep things tidy is to use a catalogue (another use for an old catalogue – yay!) - Lay your strips face down on one of the catalogue pages to paint on the glue. When the page gets sticky and yucky, flip it and start working on the next page. Ta-da! No stray glue all over your worktable.


Now that you are gluing like a pro, continue placing strips all the way around the bracelet, always overlapping the strip you just laid.

When you have the bracelet totally covered, cut one last strip. This one is going to cover the joins on the inside - it should be wide enough to cover most of the inside of your bangle, and long enough to wrap all the way around. This is, of course, optional, but it looks nice and I like putting something a bit unexpected inside. For this bracelet, I choose a bright blue that contrasts with the yellow and green of the outside, but still looks like it belongs with them.


Okay, time to really start decoupaging. Holding the bracelet at the edges, paint a thin layer of Modge Podge over the entire exterior surface. If you’ve never used Modge Podge before, don’t worry when it goes on white – it always dries clear! Hang the bangle somewhere and let it dry. Once it is dry enough to touch without your fingertips ripping off paper (it should take about five minutes, or a bit less if you are as impatient as me), pick it up and paint the inside with Modge Podge. Lay the bangle flat to dry for a few minutes. Repeat the entire process three or four times to make sure that everything is nice and bonded.


Almost done! If you don’t want to seal your bracelet, let it dry overnight, and it will be ready to wear in the morning. If you do, take it to a well ventilated area (decoupage sealant is noxious!) and give it a good spray, following the instructions on your sealant. I see pluses and minuses to sealing – the biggest plus is that it helps to waterproof the bracelet, as Modge Podge is water soluble and can get tacky in humidity. The biggest con is the look of the sealant: I haven’t found one that produces end results that I like as much as Matte Modge Podge. In the end, I could take it or leave it. I sealed the three bracelets pictured above, but decided to leave the one I made for this tutorial unsealed. We’ll see how that works out.


Actually, I should say that one of you will see how that works out, because it’s time for our giveaway! You guessed it – I’ll be sending all four of the bracelets pictured here (two made of catalogues, one of handmade Japanese paper, and one of a vintage sewing pattern envelope and instruction page), along with some other goodies of the vintage sewing goodies variety, to one of you. To enter, just leave a comment on this post – you don’t have to say anything fancy or intelligent; just say ‘hi,’ if you’d like! Be sure to leave me some way to contact you (email address, blog link, etc) in case you win.

Thanks for visiting my 50th post - here's to the next 50!