DIY gems on a sweatshirt

Add faceted gems and give a 5$ sweatshirt the high bucks' look!

This Vika Gazinskaya sweatshirt is populating my DIY dreams for more than a bit!
(and I'm not alone check: I spy DIY  and style-chameleon and do-or-diy !)

left: vanessa jackman - collage by moi

I've been wanting to experiment with polymer clay for a while, and always found other projects that were procrastinating my {yes} very first trial {and errors} with polymer clay.
Yesterday was THE DAY.
(and now I'm hooked because I loved it!)

left: kirna zabete - collage by moi

5$ sweatshirt from Target before and after  -

I've got from Target 3 of these sweatshirts for 5$ each (one in each color!) and I knew what I would have done with the heather gray one (which is not even permanent, so I can still wear it plain).

I used different hues of blue and green polymer clay to make different shades of blue and teal.

make polymer clay faceted gems pins:

* I rolled a ball of polymer clay with my "ghetto rolling pin" a.k.a. a cylindrical jar,
* Then cut the sides (keeping the blade perpendicular) with random corners
* And last, using the blade at a +/- 45 degrees angle, I obtained the faceted sides.
* On the last pic, three of my gems are ready to be baked on the tile.

(you can make other faceted beauties with polymer clay... look at Dismount Creative !)

the first one... ehm. didn't come out that well.

the surface is all bubbly and I probably baked it at way too high temperature because the color has changed so much.
Ugh.
I conditioned the polymer clay by hand, and discovered that the best way to avoid air bubbles that would expand and show off on the surface while baking is to condition the clay using a pasta machine.

REMEMBER !
Any tool, surface, oven, rolling pin, knife, cookie cutter or pasta machine that comes in contact with polymer clay CANNOT be used with anything else than polymer clay.

So, long story short, I conditioned again the clay, and obtained my gems. smooth and pretty.

Once out of the oven and the clay was cooled off, I sanded down the sides, applied a coat of clear glossy paint, and  added a flat back pin with a drop of E 6000 glue .

Let the glue dry, and pin!

xox, d.

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