I realized when I put up my last post about my water bottle bracelets I forgot to include this one and it’s one of my favourites! Again, it’s a work in progress as I haven’t finished off the inside of it and am wondering if it needs some other little touch. For this bracelet, I used clear and transparent amber flat marbles.
I applied a thin layer of gel medium on the back of the marble and then laid it over an image. I pressed down well to get a good seal, trimmed the excess paper away from the edges and allowed the marble to dry thoroughly. It dries clear so that you can see the picture perfectly. Then, I glued each of the marbles with images to the plastic water bottle bracelet. I experimented with several bracelets and quite a few didn’t work well at all. This is due to the thickness and weight of the glass marbles as compared with the thinness and lightness of the plastic as well as the fact that both surfaces are so slick. The glue I did have great success with is Aleene’s Jewel-It. An important tip is that if you try to rush the process and glue the marbles onto the bracelet before they have thoroughly dried (after applying the images), the paper images will simply pull away from the marbles, which then of course, will also mean that the marbles won’t stick to the bracelets.
Heather - Dollar Store Crafts says
This is a brilliant idea! How does the plastic hold up with the weight of the marbles?
cydlee61 says
They are a bit heavy for the plastic so I think if I were to make them again I would make the bracelet wider. That being said, though, they do hold up fine…I’ve worn the bracelet and they are sticking to it without falling off at all – I just found it was essential to use the glue I specified there as nothing else stayed on. I can also picture these working really well on bracelets made out of the cardboard roll that’s left once you finish a roll of packing tape.
cydlee61 says
Oh and thanks! 🙂