Friday, September 21, 2012

DIY: Trash into Treasure


I finished my little ombré trash necklace this week. Wait. What?  Yes, I said trash. Here's the scoop: I'm calling it a trash necklace because the ombré bits are actually made from trash. OK, that might not require the extensive explanation I had planned. Still, when I say trash, I'm not talking about trash I dug out of the dump pile exactly (though that'd be pretty excellent, too)...this is actually something I'd previously tossed without a thought. And then one fateful day, I started wondering if maybe I could find a use for this particular bit of refuse. Turns out, I could. Without further ado, I give you the secret of the ombré trash necklace...


That's right! A soap dispenser. But what part of the dispenser? Oh, I bet you already know.



So, you need paint, jewelry pliers, necklace chain, and your soap dispenser tube. Or a few tubes. I go through a lot of soap, so this wasn't a problem for me. At all. Germaphobe much? Yes, most definitely. To achieve the ombré effect, you'll need at least three tubes, or you could cut your single tube into pieces and then ombré paint those pieces. Have I said ombré enough yet? I'm trying to work it in organically. Going for the gold here.


You may have noticed that my finished necklace is not green. Yeah, I changed my mind halfway through. However, some of the green paint still remains firmly attached to my necklace chain. Green paint, why are you such a total jerk? I decided on a couple Martha Stewart satin acrylic paints in Jacaranda and Sweet Pea (the middle color is a mix of the two).


After some trial and error, I found that shoving the tube onto a skewer made the painting process much easier. So, if you happen to have a few skewers laying about, put them to good use here. Several coats of paint are necessary to get a solid hue, and if you want to seal it, a little Mod Podge never hurt anything. Just make sure you allow dry time between coats.


String your tubes onto the necklace chain.


See that pesky green paint? Ugh, the worst.





Dang, my new necklace makes me so smirky.

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