Refashions

Help to Fix and Prevent Scratched Rhinestones in Jewelry

I bought these lovely earring from Lovisa the other week (they were only $3 too!) but was somewhat disappointed to discover that one of the sparkly crystals had a noticeable scratch in the silver backing. Normally I just ignore chips as much as possible and do my best to prevent them by being extra careful with my jewellery but then I had the thought – that in perhaps painting the back with silver nail polish it might not only be able to mask the hole but also prevent it from further damage too.
You will need:
1. Silver Nail Polish to coat small scratches
2. Clear Nail Polish, Mod Podge, jeweller’s resin or jeweller’s glue to Protect other Crystals
Here you can see I filled the chipped crystal but dotting in a small amount of silver nail polish.
I then painted all the remaining holes with clear nail polish and let it dry.
(I think something like Mod Podge would work well here too, also jeweller’s epoxy resin)

This is the finished earring. Although the silver doesn’t blend in perfectly with the stone, I think it does look noticeably better than before. 
Tip: Make sure to match the colour of the nail polish with the crystal backing rather than crystal colour. Most gems in cheap jewellery like this use silver backing, even ones with coloured gemstones. 
I also tried doing a few of my other pieces with a silver leafing pen, it looked alright, but I think the nail polish looked better. 
I’m not sure how great this would work with patching larger holes (they might be beyond saving) but could be worth a shot. 
I think the idea of preventing scratches in the first place is a really good one though, and I think clear nail polish is a really great option (I can’t imagine it would do any harm or discolour the jewellery, if you’re worried, use resin). 
Anyway that’s what I’ve done and it seems to work well. 
Have you ever fixed scratches in your crystal jewellery? How did you go about it? I’d really love to hear if you have some different ideas or suggestions. :)
Linking up with: Whims Wednesday

Purple Necklace Refashion – 1 Necklace into 2 Pairs of Earrings and a Different Necklace

I recently bought this wonderful necklace from Coles Supermarket. It’s an absolutely gorgeous colour – a deep, vibrant purple with a hint of cobalt blue. I’ve been on the lookout for a lovely purple necklace for quite some time now so I was very happy to come across this one. Although I love the design too, I found that I just couldn’t make it work for me – I’m more of a fan a larger scale, statement pieces and this one just seemed to get lost on me. I thought about taking it back but I just loved this purple so much (it was a great price too) I’d thought I’d have a go at refashioning it. 
As you can see the pieces were joined together with jump rings. These were easy to pull apart with my jewellery pliers.  (I have some more information about pliers here).
I choose to use the central piece to make a statement pendant necklace, which I simply reattached to original chain. I then took the two medium pieces and glued stud findings to the back of them with superglue (see this post for more info on how to make basic stud/post earrings). I left the little join rings on them just for now but these are usually easy to cut off with jewellery pliers (it can sometimes just leave the finish a bit sharp, which is why I left them on here – you can cover sharp bits with some more superglue though). For the last couple of small pieces I just added some earrings hooks as they had the perfect attachment (info about attaching earring hooks here).
Here are the end results:

I am absolutely in love with this necklace now!  Even though the main reason I wasn’t wearing it before was that it felt too small on me, in simplify it, it actually makes a much greater statement. I love it with a simple black tee, yesterday I wore it with a striped V-neck too. My other idea for refashioning this piece was to make it into a brooch, it would be the perfect size for that and nice and simple too. 
I also adore these studs. I love their statement size, yet they are still nice and light and comfortable to wear. I was worried that the post findings weren’t going to be large enough to stick to them (it’s best when making studs to use the largest finding possible in relation to the earring bit). They are perfect though and I’m sure I’ll get a lot of wear out of them. 
That’s it – I’m really happy with this refashion. I always love making jewellery from other bits of jewellery. It’s so fun to have such unique pieces.

If you’d like to do a similar refashion I suggest looking at Forever 21 or Target USA (or Target Australia)- they both have lots of similar styles at low prices. Ebay is of course another great place to buy cheap statement pieces that are great to refashion. 

If you like this, I have some similar refashions I did ages ago too:

Neon Orange Bracelet to Neon Orange Earrings

Making Clip-On Earrings More Comfortable

How gorgeous are these earrings!! And would you believe they were only $5 at Harris Scarfe! I know you can’t really see too well in these photos but they have a little metal bump inside them where it pinches your ears and its rather sharp! I thought about converting them to posts but it was going to be rather difficult with this style. Instead I came up with another solution – to make a little cushion to stick over the top of them. I have these little coloured foam pieces that were perfect too (I’m not sure what they are called as I’ve had them since I was a kid. I imagine you could still get them from craft stores though. Anyone know?? )
(How do you make long images like this larger in Blogger??)
So all I did was cut out two little circles from one of the white pieces of foam and glue them over the bumps – it took 2mins. They seem pretty secure  and make the earrings considerably more comfortable. I am noticing that the foam is flattening over time so I may need to replace them every so often – which really wouldn’t be a hassle at all.
Hopefully this helps! I imagine this would work with other clip-ons too. The pinch was slightly firmer after putting on the foam but the clasps on these particular ones were a little looser than usual. 
Other Options
If you’d like more help making clip-ons more comfortable I suggest looking at the Earring Doctor (I’ve never actually ordered anything from here myself but I’ve heard good things about them). They have all sorts of things such as specific clip-on cushions and clip-ons looseners/tighteners (called Clip-Kease, or Comfort Key for Clip-Ons).  I just did a quick search on amazon too and they have a few things too:

How do you like wearing clip-ons?? Do they tend to hurt your ears too?
PS: I did a post earlier about Sterling Silver Clip-Ons which I’ve found much more comfortable.

How To Change The Color of A Belt Buckle with Spray Paint

I actually did a belt buckle refashion a while back with nail polish but I thought I’d try spray paint this time.
This ended up working really well! I made sure to cover up the belt before painting with masking tape. I then did two coats on both sides of the buckle and left it to dry overnight. The next day I painted a gloss finish on top with clear nail polish (this wouldn’t be necessary but it definitely improved the finish and I imagine it will help the paint stay longer too). I also used some black nail polish to paint the stud (I used a toothpick to paint right down into the sides).
I really like how this belt looks with a black buckle. This finish is so much nicer than the one I did with nail polish too. Yay! Hopefully I’ll get lots of wear out of this now.

Changing the Colour of Earrings with Nail Polish – Refashion of the Week Returns

Here is a nice, quick and simple refashion. I bought this super cute pair of earrings during the week from Big W. I like them as they are but I already have quite a few pairs of light pink earrings. As I’d really like some red ones I thought I’d grab some nail polish and do a quick change up of colour.

This is really easy to do. I only needed one coat of polish as the red was similar to the pinky colour of the gems. I wasn’t too fussy about the edges either and the end result looks fine.
This would be so pretty with glitter or lustre polishes too. You could do a mix of all sorts of colours.
TIPS: If you want to change the colour of the gems completely (ie. from pink to bright blue) you will need to paint right up to the edges carefully. Make sure not to have too much paint on the brush. This can be a bit tricky so go slowly. You’ll need quite a few coats. You can use toothpicks, cotton buds or tissues to correct any mistakes. Gems in metal encasing can be removed before they are painted to make it easier. Gently pull back the metal tabs with you nails or tweezers and the gem should just fall out.
Beads, buttons, clasps and belt buckles (this refashion) can also be changed using nail polish, although I think the gems tend to result in the best finishes (you can always go over the top with a coat of clear polish too for added shine).
I finished off the refashion by changing the hooks to sterling silver. This tutorial here has instructions and more information about this.
 
You can see more earring refashions at my Refashions Earrings Tag.
 
Or check out everything at once at My DIY and Refashion Pinterest Board!
Linking up with:

 

Refashion of the Week! – Black Stud Earrings to Black Hook Earrings

I only have time for a quick refashion this week sorry! I bought these incredible earrings at Lovisa a few days ago.

These are a drop stud earrings.  I’m sensitive to cheap metal and I won’t be able to wear them as they are, so, I’m going to convert them to silver hooks! I know I’ve done a few tutorials like this before but this one is a little different. I also wanted to show off these earrings!
This is super easy. All I did was open the jump rings with jewellery pliers and removed the studs (you could also just cut them open). I then added hooks!
See this previous tutorial which teaches you how to attach hooks. There is information about supplies there too – it should be cheap and easy to come across jewellery pliers and hooks from craft stores and online if you don’t have them.
 
Even if you’re not sensitive to metals you might like to try this. I find it more comfortable to wear earrings this size on hooks or clip-ons anyway.
You could definitely convert these to silver or surgical steel studs by cutting off the old post and glueing on a new one. The little loop on the bottom on the stud would be easy to break off too with jewellery pliers (these usually just cut off nice and cleanly).
Linking up with:
craftionaryLiz Marie Blog
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