Secret Solace Supplies: September 2013

The holidays are quickly approaching (I know, I'm sorry) so now is the time to start your handcrafted gifts.

There are tons of diy's and tutorials on painting the back of flat back glass decorative stones with nail polish.

So...I thought we should try it out but we are going to change it up a bit.

***Please Note - I apologize for the horrendous pictures in this tutorial. I'm not a very good photographer in the best conditions but photographing glass? It reflects light, it thinks it's a mirror, it was just downright ornery! So you see, the awful pictures are due to the glass's bad attitude and therefore completely out of my control. Yeah, that's it.***

Materials list:

1. Brooch bezel with glass cabochon - Secret Solace Supplies

2. Nail polish - Of Course you can use what you already have but I didn't have any so I purchased the polish at Rite Aid - SC brand - Nail Junkie (the blue) and I Miss You (the purple)

3. Nail top coat - I used Sally Hansen from Rite Aid

4. An image small enough to fit in the brooch bezel

5. Mod Podge

6. E6000 glue

This is all you need for the brooch.

If you want to try the other items shown in this tutorial as well, add the following items:

1. Flat back glass decorative stones

2. Images to fit the glass stones

3. Crafting magnets with the sticky back

4. If you want to make your stone into a pendant then you will need a bail for each one

I cut out the tiny butterfly from this piece of scrapbook paper. You can also use photos, drawings, stickers or whatever will fit in the brooch bezel. Coat both sides of your image with Mod Podge to seal and protect it.

I brushed the glass cabochon with a thin layer of top coat and let it dry. The top coat and nail polish both dry very quickly.

Once the first top coat application dried, I applied another layer of top coat and immediately added my butterfly image. Make sure your image is upside down :)

Once your cabochon has dried completely, brush on a coat of nail polish.

Add as many coats of nail polish as you want. Allow each new coat of polish to dry completely before adding another coat.

When you are finished adding layers of nail polish and the cabochon has dried completely, brush on a layer of top coat.

The picture above is the cabochon with 6 layers of nail polish and the finishing layer of top coat.

Place a small amount of E6000 glue in your bezel and add your cabochon.

You're done!

This is a quick and easy gift and will be treasured by the recipient because it's handcrafted by you.

You can personalize it by using the recipient's initial or an image that is special to them.

Need more gift ideas?

Let's use those flat back glass stones. I purchased mine at Michael's but I believe you can also find them at your local Dollar Store.

Keep in mind these stones are not perfect. They have flaws and they are not perfectly round. The flaws in the stones will more than likely cast shadows on your image. I think they are lovely anyway, I just wanted you to be aware.