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The project:
I found this old jewellery tray and wanted to upcycle it as a birthday gift for my daughter's friend, Haven! Playing on her name, I used silicone, glitter, and pigments to create a magical scene on the worn lid. Using friendship beads (for a Taylor Swift flare), I customized the shimmering silicone with flatback pearls, shells, starfish, a gold button, and even a mermaid! The depth created by piping, dollops, and smearing makes this project as fun to make as it is beautiful. Find an old tray, pick some charms, and get your silicone decodON!
- Materials:
- 100% Pure All-Purpose Silicone (White and Clear)
- Dulux Squirts silver spray paint
- Blue color pigments or mica powders
- Pink color pigments or pastel Anko powders
- Flat-backed pearls (Haven's birthday is in June, so these represent her birthstone!)
- Alphabet friendship beads (to spell out "HAVEN")
- Mermaid, shell, and starfish charm details & small gold button
- Iridescent chunky hexagonal glitters & fine glitters
- Baking paper and Glad wrap (for protecting the box edges)
- Fine 240-grit sandpaper (to create a little tooth for the silicone to grip on!)
- Tools:
- Standard silicone caulking gun
- Disposable piping bags & plastic open-star tip
- Wooden popsticks & wooden chopsticks (used as a mixing tool, a sliding tool to eliminate air bubbles, and as a crafting tool to sweep and shape the organic ocean waves around the mermaid!)
- Comb trowel & flat margin trowel (optional alternative hardware aisle spatula-style tools!)
- Craft tweezers
- Lazy Susan / rotating craft table (I used an old microwave turning table I found at Good Sammy's—it's an absolute game-changer for getting an even spray coat!)
- Step 1:
Step 1 Title: Spray Painting & The Hinge Protocol The storage box started out as a loud pink, so I gave it 2-to-3 coats of Dulux Squirts silver spray paint. To get an even finish, I laid the tin open on my repurposed microwave turntable to smoothly rotate it while spraying. Once dry to the touch (10 minutes), I stood the box up like an upside-down "V" and manually moved the hinges every so often so they wouldn't dry stuck in place! Once fully cured, I gave the top a very light scuff with fine sandpaper just to create a mechanical "tooth" for the silicone to grip.
- Step 2:
Masking & The Wave Swirl I didn't separate the lid from the base. Instead, I lined underneath the lid with baking paper and Glad wrap to protect the rest of the box while I worked, keeping all my piping strictly on the top surface so the lid wouldn't jam shut later. To create the shoreline, I squeezed a blue tinted clear silicone directly onto the center canvas. Using my popstick in sweeping, organic motions, I worked the silicone to create distinct, marbled streaks that look like moving ocean waves around the mermaid! Then, I created pink accent "river banks" with clear silicone and pink glitter—both mixed in AND sprinkled on top—be prepared for a glitzy mess! I embedded a few flowers to show Audrey how to push them into the silicone enough so they can "glue" down securely without disappearing into the squish.
- Step 3:
Piping the Border & Embedding the Charms I framed the shoreline with a pink scalloped border using a double-bag setup and an open-star tip.* Then, Audrey and I went to town adding personalized details! Because Haven’s birthday is in June, we used flatback pearls across the pink border as a nod to her birthstone, and used craft tweezers to set alphabet friendship beads right into the waves to spell out "HAVEN". As a hidden detail, I embedded a small gold button and mermaid charms into the scene. Finish by scattering iridescent chunky hexagonal glitters over the top! Despite laying out a design before piping we changed it up a bit—the Mermaid needed to be more centre—not only as the hero but as an anchor to hold up the lid when Haven opens up to put in her treasure trinkets!
*NB: Check out Part 1 of my silicone series to see how I execute the double-bagging technique!
- Step 4:
The Ultimate Lazy Cleanup Hack:
When you're finished piping, do not wash your sticky bags or plastic tips in the sink, or you will ruin your plumbing! Instead, follow my guide in Part 1 of this series on how to clean your piping tips! So go ahead and throw the messy bag in the bin, because your tip is perfectly clean and ready for your next project!
- Step 5:
While my piping technique along this journey has definitely improved, I'll be honest—the "organic" look totally worked for me on this one! I found a piping technique guide tucked inside one of Audrey's decoden kits… and I've been practicing! I can't wait to show you what's next!
💖 Catch Up on the Rest of the Series!
