It may well not be far from February but up until last week I was still making my way through the enormous amount of chocolate I got for Christmas. One of my favourites was a Lindt Bear; not only delicious but it has this little heart-shaped charm on a ribbon around it's neck. Normally, once I've finished Lindt chocolate, I just throw the charms away with the wrapper but this time, I got thinking about repurposing it into a piece of jewellery that I would wear. I wasn't keen on the red of the charm, but didn't want to reach a toxic-fume level of crafing in my without-garden flat, and so I left the resin where it was and painted over it with a brush-stroke pattern in dusky pink and bronze. I love how it turned out, and reckon that this around the Lindt Bear, instead of the standard ribbon and charm, would make a nice little Valentine's gift. Keep reading to find out what I used and how I did it...
1. Eat the chocolate. First things first, eat your Lindt Chocolate Bear and appreciate just how tasty Lindt chocolate is.
2. Remove the charm. Once you've got that - undoubtedly the most important step - out of the way, you want to remove the heart charm from the red ribbon.
3. Sand the resin until matte. One side of the charm is brass and one side is red with a shiny resin covering. Wet a nail file or some sandpaper and lightly sand the resin to make it more matte (this will help the polish stick to it).
4. Rinse and dry the charm. Give the charm a rinse in water to remove any dust and dry thoroughly.
5. Paint over the resin with nail polish. Once it's dry, hold the charm by it's loop with some pliers and paint over the now matte side with a thin layer of white nail polish. Leave this to dry.
6. Sand the first layer of polish. Take a dry nail file and lightly sand this first layer of polish until it is rough but smooth.
7. Paint a second layer of polish. Paint a second, thicker coat of white nail polish on top. Leave this until it is completely dry.
8. Paint brush strokes in pink all over. Using a small paint brush and pink nail polish, paint small random brush strokes all over the white polish. Leave this to dry.
9. Paint brush strokes in metallic polish. Repeat step 8 with a metallic nail polish before covering it with a clear top coat to protect your paintwork.
10. Add a chain. Once completely dry, cut a length of chain and attach it to the charm using a jump ring. At one end of the charm, add a lobster clasp using a jump ring and at the other add just a jump ring.
Let me know what you think of this DIY in the comments below!
♥
