Acrylic Bubble Charms - DIY

[queenbee92026]

Basic Tips for creating bubble charms:

Images:
I use laser printed images sized to fit inside the bubble.
When you are printing, use the high quality function in your printing preferences.
There are other places to get images such as magazines, books, stickers or search google images, then copy paste to a blank Word document, resize and print.
You can cut these images with scissors, but I recommend getting a circle punch – ¾” in diameter.
I have not tried inkjet images, it just occurred to me that the ink would probably run.

Bubble Domes:
My suggestion to you is getting your bubbles from a company called www.tapplastics.com.
They’re not cheap, but very high quality. You’ll want to buy the half dome ¾”.

Metal Blanks
I get them from www.fanicfuls.com, they also have them at www.frostcreekcharms.com. There is an Ebay seller who sells some cool blanks, too, vintagetreasurebyjudy. The blanks are ¾” in diameter.

Adhesives: (the biggest challenge)
E6000- my personal favorite. It holds like nothing else. The one gripe I have is that you have to practice getting the perfect amount. I use about a pea size drop, then smash your bubble over the image. Have a wet towel handy, because when it runs out the sides, you’re going to want to wipe it off. This also is a “practice makes perfect” maneuver.
Craft Goop- Works almost as well as E6000, but also messy and is not as strong.
Diamond Glaze –
I figured out that if you glue your dome to the image with diamond glaze first, let it dry and then glue that component to the blank with e6000, it seems to work wonderfully.
Let your charm dry at least 12 hours.

So- the steps are:
Get your image, cut it to fit the blank, glue the dome to the image with diamond glaze, use a pea drop on top of the image, then smash the bubble over it to get the air bubbles out. (you’ll be able to see them), then glue the whole thing onto the brass blank with E6000.
As far as the back of the charm, you can add a rhinestone, vintage buttons, a cabochon with E6000 adhesive… or nothing.

Good Luck.
queenbee92026@yahoo.com

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