Making paper jewelry with Décopatch

We interrupt this regularly scheduled card post . . . to bring you some jewelry! Yes, I like to make jewelry too. This jewelry is made with Décopatch paper.  Décopatch is made by a French company and is quite popular here. I see Décopatch paper very rarely in the States and when I do there's hardly any selection.  Which is a shame; because it's a great paper to craft with.  You can use it on almost any surface – plastic, chipboard, metal, wood, etc.  It's very, very thin – like tissue paper – yet surprisingly strong.  After you've applied it and it's dry, it has a finish almost like paint.

I wanted to make a gift for my aunt who doesn't have pierced ears.  She's always bemoaning the lack of stylish clip-on earrings so I thought I'd make her a pair. 

I chose a bold Décopatch paper and some thin wood geometric shapes for the earrings.  I picked out some spikey metal beads from Stamperia and some clip-on earring backs. There are different ways to apply Décopatch (see the website video).  You can tear it into pieces and apply a piece at a time, or for smaller projects, apply it all at one go. I used a round punch to try and maintain the circular shapes in the paper. The paper is too tough to cut with a punch all by itself, but I've found if you put another piece of paper under it and punch it with that, it works fine. I punched some circles larger than the wooden ones I wanted to adhere the paper to and cut out the long ovals, again slightly larger than the shape itself.

You apply the paper with this Décopatch glue.  It gives a satiny finish and is completely non-toxic; both the Décopatch glue and varnish are non-toxic.  I applied the paper to the wooden pieces (I clipped around the edges and smoothed the excess to the back (like clipping a curved seam in sewing). I let it dry – about 30 minutes.

And then you have something like this. Since I was at it, I covered a few more pieces and decided I'd make a brooch to go along with the earrings.  Once the items are dry, you can go ahead and use them as you'd like or apply the Décopatch varnish.  Even though there's a slight shine to the glue, I like the varnish, so I applied two coats of that (allowing 30 minutes between coats). This varnish is great; I use it on many projects, not just Décopatch.

 
After the varnish had dried, I drilled homes in the covered shapes to connect the beads.  I also added some smaller black Swarovski crystal beads for a bit more bling.  Then glued on the brooch pin and clip-on earring backs. 

And here you have the finished projects – earrings and brooch. 

Creative Projects, Tutorials