Today we're going to make gem accessories, which are primarily worn on the arm or wrist and they are made to complement a facial design.

How to Create Gem Accessories

To make bling accessories, you'll need plastic wax coated wands for picking up and placing gems, silver or gold Tulip 3D Glitter Fabric Paint, graph paper and plastic page protectors, and gems.

Squeeze a drop of fabric paint in the center of your design template. Place the large focal gem in the center of the drop of paint and tap it down, making sure the gem is centered. The fabric paint dries slowly, so you'll be able to reposition it a little later if you need to.

On either side of the gem, make a straight line that goes out from it, and squeeze some fabric paint dots along the lines. Now go ahead and place two smaller gems on those lines. Once those gems are tapped down and in place, you're going to place four more smaller gems. You can use gems in different colors, or you can choose to make all the colors the same.

In the next step, we're going to connect our gem components with more fabric paint. The most important thing to remember is that the sides for this design need to be symmetrical. So as you add a swirl on the left side, also add it on the right side and the bottom. If you do this, you're less likely to forget a part of your design, which you could discover later at a party, when it's too late to do anything about it.

Applying the fabric paint to the template takes practice so don't be discouraged if you have setbacks. I have done things like dropped my whole tube right on top of a finished bling tiara and it just steam rolled the whole design. If you do happen to make a mistake or drop a tool right on top of your bling cluster, just remeber it's only a little bit of fabric paint and a few gems. It's very easy to wipe it off and start over. At this point, it's very liquid, and easy to clean off with a paper towel.

One thing to remember is that if this fabric paint gets on your clothing, it's permanent. So you don't want to get it on yourself. If you have to make any adjustmets, you can use the handle of your wand to push the fabric paint into place.

Your gem accessories can be as elaborate or as simple as you'd like them to be. For this design, I added an extra drop above and below my focal gem, so I could place some smaller gems around it.

As you can see, my gem did not want to release from the wax, so I just used the handle of another tool and just tapped it so it fell down on the fabric paint, and then I pressed it into place.

Finally I added a few small drops of fabric paint between these new gems and the main body of the design, just to anchor them in place.

Take one last look to make sure everything is in place and symmetrical. Place your new gems in a place where they can safely dry, undisturbed, for about 48 hours. 

These gem accessories are a wonderful way to treat the birthday girl at your events, complement guests designs for princess parties, or entice customers to purchase bling masks (with accessory) at pay-per-face events. However you choose to use them to enhance your business, they are sure to be popular with lovers of glitter and glam.

Materials

• Gem wands (for placing gems)
• Three dimensional glitter fabric paint (gold or silver)
• Page protectors
• Graph paper
• Gems

Tips

• Because of the large size of the gems, these accessories may take up to 48 hours to dry completely, so lay them flat in a location where they can dry undisturbed.

• Apply a few drops of glitter glue adhesive to the back of your accessory and allow it to dry and become tacky before applying it to the wrist for best results.

• Experiment with longer accessories to make pieces that would work as armbands.

Beth MacKinney is the owner of and primary face painter for Face Paint Pizzazz in Elgin, Illinois, and her artwork has appeared in The Colored Palette and SkinMarkz magazines. She services the western and northwestern Chicago suburbs, Chicago’s north side, and the eastern and southeastern suburbs of Rockford. Stop by FacePaint.com to enjoy more of Beth’s face painting tutorials.