Painting the Roses Red

I wrote a post a few weeks ago about buying outdated jewelry from a going out of business sale to transform (Jewelry Makeover), and this is part two.  

It turns out that my sister-in-law worked at Cheri's Bridal back when she was in high school.  Since its going out of business, I want to send a few things to her in Colorado.

My inspiration for this project is the first book I read from my list, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll.  I loved the illustrated Disney version when I was little and the Tim Burton movie as an adult, but the book was hard to read.  It was nonsensical and confusing just like the movies.  I had to read each section at least two times - and even then it didn't always make sense.  The story is still one of my favorites, though, because its magical, surprising and a little dark.

The store was still open, but pickings were slim.  I managed to scrape up a long gray 80's plastic pearl necklace, a set of pretty red 'ruby' flower earrings, a multi pack of stud earrings, and a set of beige rose earrings.

I really like the rose earrings, but not the dingy beige color.  Just like the Card Men in the Queen of Heart's garden, I painted the roses red.  Only I used several coats of nail polish. They now look fresh, shiny and new.

Next I made the hair barrette.  With a large button as a base, I used red lacy hem tape to make a rose.  The focal point is a tiny silver key from a luggage lock set, accented by a few of the stud earrings.  My sister-in-law has short hair, so I made sure the barrette is small: about 2" in diameter.

The charm bracelet took the most time and effort.  To make the mushrooms, I used the ear pieces and two beads from my last jewelry makeover project.  I used clippers to take off half the ear wire of the earring piece (this will be the mushroom cap) and glued the beads underneath as the stem.

To give them a shiny lacquered look, I applied several coats of white nail polish to the bottom, then red to the top. When they were dry, I used the white polish to add tiny spots.

I made a little stopwatch charm by drawing hands on a small piece of paper which I glued inside a silver finding.  I also glued shapes from playing cards in the findings and sealed them with lacquer.  With pliers, I bent the wires of the other pearl stud earrings into loops and tied them to thin black ribbon.  The backs were also snipped off the 'ruby' flower earrings and hoops were added to attach them.  For the other charms, I used the remaining keys and lock from the luggage set and a heart charm from a box of candy.  A section of the plastic pearl necklace and two black ribbons make the skeleton of the charm bracelet.  The hoop earrings were bent and used as rings to connect the sections. To secure the bracelet, there are two black velvet ribbon ties.