DI(fr)Yday: How to make an ombré rhinestone necklace, bracelet, and earrings

A lot of disparate inspiration sources lead me to come up with this project, which turned out to be something uniquely my own that I really enjoy wearing a lot. 

I wanted to paint a rhinestone necklace with neon polish as I've seen countless other bloggers do ever since Tom Binns launched the neon necklace collection heard round the world. So, I stepped into Claire's on my lunch break last week to pick up something cheap that I could paint. While there, I found this simple necklace, bracelet, and earring set, and decided to paint it with an ombré effect.

(I'm still doing the neon one; stayed tuned for it - probably next Friday).

I've been a bit obsessed the idea of a fading orangey sunset ombré since I saw Emily Schuman play with the effect on her nails (here). I did my own version with a larger color scheme that included yellow and deep pink (here). Since Miss Schuman also knocked my socks off (as she is so often want to do) with a pretty ombré necklace (here), I figured why not combine the two ideas, but instead of beads on wire, I would use the very nail polish shades I'd used for my manicure to transform the pretty Claire's necklace I'd so luckily stumbled upon.

This is all my longwinded way of attempting to give credit where credit is do. My ideas (especially for DIY projects) often play off the ideas of other people, sometimes coming very close to what they did and other times branching off far away. Sometimes a number of ideas collide as they did with this project, and other times I come up with a project and I'm not even sure how the idea came to me at all.

Pinterest makes tracking my inspirations and giving credit to those who inspire me easier than it would be otherwise, and for that I'm grateful. But I wanted to take a moment here to just say that I have a huge amount of respect for my fellow bloggers and creative crafties, and that stating my inspiration sources and linking with love is something I believe in and something I'm committed to.

So, let's get on with the project already!

Basically all you have to do is paint each stone with your desired color. In my case, there were more stones on the bracelet and necklace than I had shades, so a few stones got painted the same color. The earrings, on the other hand, had far fewer stones that I had colors, so a few colors were left out. 

As you're planning your design, try to flow with it, allowing the idea of ombré to guide you and taking care not to get too bogged down in making it perfect. As long as each color blends into the next, you'll get the effect you're after.

After painting each stone, use a cotton swab dipped in nail-polish remover to clean up any mistakes. Then, once your polish has dried, seal your work with a clear top coat. 

Join me on: facebook // twitter // bloglovin // pinterest // instagram