Friday, January 18, 2013

Funky Upcycled Denim Cuff Bracelet

At the beginning of the school year, I bought my daughter several pairs of jeans.  By Christmas they were all to short!  She is also pretty rough on jeans and several pair were too ripped up to even send to Goodwill...so....I had wanted to work on some upcycled projects, and the denim I was about to throw out seemed like the perfect material for a fun glittering fiber project.

For this project I used:
Materials:  Denim from old pair of kids jeans, a cardboard core from a roll of packing tape, Blue acrylic paint, Acrylic sealer (brush on type), Acrylic sealer (Spray on type)  Art Glitter Fabric Dries Clear Adhesive (FDCA), Art Glitter Ultrafine glitter:  #117 Goldilocks, #65 Old Gold, #48 Emerald, #249 Woodberry, Embossing powder, Art Glitter Fantasy Fiber - English Ivy.

Tools and supplies:  Iron, Teflon sheet or parchment paper, Sizzix Big Shot, Tim Holtz Tattered Flowers Die, assorted bottle lids and caps, paint brushes


Cut a section about 1" - 1 1/2" out of the tape core and gently bend it into the size and shape needed to get on and off your wrist and wear comfortably.    

Paint the inside and edges of the core with blue acrylic paint and seal by brushing a layer or two of acrylic sealer.

Used Sizzix and Tim Holtz Tattered Flowers Die to cut flowers from excess denim.

Paint a little Art Glitter Fabric Dries Clear Adhesive on the tips of the flower petals.

Sprinkle a mix of Art Glitter Ultrafine glitters on the adhesive, one color at a time.  

Repeat this on each of the flowers.

Spray the front of the flowers with clear acrylic sealer and gently press the flowers into various caps to give them a little shape, and set them aside to let them dry.
Cut a piece of denim that is long enough to go around the outside of the core + 1/2" and about 1/2" wider than the core.  You want to cut with the grain of the fabric (not on the bias), so this piece was cut by cutting straight across the back of one leg.

Run it through the washer and dryer with a load of clothes to fray the edges

Sprinkle the fabric with embossing powder.  Any embossing powder should work, but will show through the fibers slightly, so you'll want to pick a complimentary color.  This one has gold sparkles that show through for a little extra sparkle.

Position clumps of Art Glitter Fantasy Fiber over the fabric.

Cover with a Teflon sheet or parchment paper and iron according to directions.  I actually held the iron too long in one spot and got a little more copper color there - see the iron imprint to the left?  Since I liked the variation of color I wasn't too worried about that.  But note that if your colors are changing to a lot of copper tones, you are probably holding the iron on too long, or have it too hot.

Trim off the extra fibers that are extending past the edge of the denim.

Use FDCA to glue the layers of the flower together and glue the flower to the bracelet piece.  I decided not to use the daisy shaped piece in my flower, so I'll save that for another project.  Glue a button or other bling in the center of the flower.

Use FDCA to adhere the denim bracelet to the tape core


Thanks for visiting!  Please visit the Art Glitter Blog for more glittering fun!  


2 comments:

  1. So cool, KC... you come up with the neatest projects! ;D

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  2. Turned out brilliant great job thanks for sharing...

    ReplyDelete