It all started with a single pair of paper mâché earrings that I purchased back in the early 80s. I paid $20.00 for them, and I still have them! Wanna see them? Of course you do!

Now I must have missed paper mâché making in elementary school because I never knew how to make it, nor use it. What a shame really because although it can be a little messy, it's easy and you get to recycle paper in very unique ways - not just for earrings. Once I learned how to make the paste, that was it! I was off and running and decided to make my own earrings. Look at my harvest below.

And the above is just what I have remaining because I gave some of the earrings away as gifts and also sold some. And then, just like that, they were put in a small plastic box that was put away and forgotten in my arts & craft room until last week. Sometimes you just have to rethink things and when I did, I saw embellishments instead of earrings. The kewl thing is that they were originally newspaper pages, then they were recycled, and now they are going to be upcycled. Really, how kewl is this? I think very...
As always, I started off with an empty, clear, plastic jar with a screw on lid. I painted gesso on it and then painted it a pretty deep turquoise color. The lid had a few dents on it, but no worries because I was able to easily fix it. 😉


Next, I found some scraps of fabric that I trimmed, frayed the edges, and glued onto the jar. I adhered the aqua scrap first and then the lime green ones on top of that one as you will see.

Which pair of embellishments shall I use out of my eclectic collection? How about these? Yes, they will be perfect!

So, I glued them on and added a silver bead to the bare, black circles. I then covered the top of the dented lid with a different colored piece of fabric and added a flat, colored, glass marble for the finishing touch. Check out the results below.



Now how easy was this, huh? And if you don't have paper mâché embellishments, you could always use some pieces of costume jewelry, large charms, large vintage buttons, small sand dollars, etc. Since I have paper mâché embellishments available to me, I will be using them up on other projects because I am also trying to be minimalistic with these items as well.
Until we meet again next Wednesday, try your hand at upcycling something and have fun doing it!
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I love it. So creative! 🥰