Decoupage Map Earrings - DIY Jewelry Tutorial

Decoupage earrings made from a topography map

I love maps so I naturally have a pile of old maps that I have collected over the years.  I made a decoupaged map mannequin head, made map pen holders and spruced up an old acrylic mixed media painting with maps! Since I am a jeweler, I had to try map jewelry! I had a bunch wood discs left over from another project (you can find these at craft stores or online) These are easy to make but take many steps to complete.

Steps:

1) To prevent warping seal both sides with clear Krylon acrylic spray found in craft or hardware stores. I let them dry overnight. You can color the edges with a Sharpie first!

Maps ready to be glued to wood discs

2) Use a paper punch or trace the outline of your discs and cut out your maps.

I use a gloss decoupage glue

3) Using Mod Podge or any decoupage glue ( I used my Sun and Moon glaze) paint a medium layer onto the disc and place the paper on pressing out any air bubbles, I use an old mouse pad with waxed paper and press! Make sure you clean off the excess along the edges.  I let the paper dry about 15 minutes and then do the other side. I let these dry overnight, this makes trimming easier.

4) Trim the paper edges with small sharp scissors. I like to file the edges with a file or fingernail file for a nice clean edge.

5) With a good brush add a light to medium coat of the decoupage glue and repeat 2-3 times waiting 15 minutes or so between coats. If it is humid, you may want to wait longer.

6) Drill holes and hang from ear wires when dry! If you don't want to go through all of these steps just find these map earrings all ready to ship in my Etsy shop! They make great gifts!

map earrings

Here are some ideas on how to wear your map earrings:

 Be sure to follow my Pinterest board,  Maps Crafting and Decor  for more great ideas using maps!

Do you love maps?  Do you like these map earrings or do you have other fun ideas that use maps? Comments are welcomed below.

Upcycled Art Made From Bread Clips

 

This little project seemed to take forever! Collecting enough bread clips or climps as they call them in the right colors took awhile but I did get some help from my friend Lisa, from Beadsoul on Etsy. For some reason her husband collects them so she sent me a bunch! The other reason is I wanted to use a square frame; Ikea has these cool square frames with big mats but they were out of them! Ikea is not my favorite place to go (I am an online shopper!)  so I waited until I absolutely needed something else like a little cart for my craft room!

First I laid out my climps to make sure I had enough colors in the pattern I wanted on a sturdy silver piece of standard size square scrapbook paper.

 I made an "X" to figure out where the center was and just glued the four center climps and worked out from there. I used Yes glue but I am sure a glue stick could work. The cool thing about Yes glue is that with the plastic climps, it takes a while to dry so you can adjust things if necessary. You will notice the climps are not perfectly square or all the same size so I alternated the directions and fit them as closely as possible so a small border was left on the outside edge of the scrapbook paper, that allowed it to fit perfectly into the Ikea Ribba mat. I let it dry overnight before framing though.

 

What do you think? Perfect little art piece for my kitchen? Comments welcomed!