Celebrating Small Heroes

"How important it is to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes!"

~Maya Angelou~

I'd just seen my oldest board the bus and was heading to work. Suddenly, I noticed my lovely neighbor waving me down so I pulled over to chat.

"Did Dylan tell you about what happened on the bus yesterday?"

{fear... horror... wonder...}

She relayed a story about Dylan falling victim to a bully on the bus (something he never shared with me) and proudly shared how her daughter stood up for him, going as far as to report it to the school administration.

{sadness... pride...}

As I began processing all of the other emotions that followed, one kept rising to the top—sheer admiration of this small girl who did a really big thing. I had to figure out a way to honor her.

My go-to? You guessed it... something handmade... something celebratory... something a tween might appreciate? A sparkly confetti necklace!

Here's what I used.

I used a simple hole-punch to make the confetti and began layering it on my wooden disc with Mod Podge and a toothpick (one end as a brush, the other as a positioning tool), allowing the confetti to overlap the edges of the circle.

I printed and punched my quote and added it to the back of the disc while the front was drying.

Once the front was dry, I trimmed the overlapping confetti from the edge of the disc.

The newest material to me was Mod Podge Dimensional Magic. This was a first experiment with this medium.

{Learn from my mistakes} I added way too much to the top of the confetti side and it began to drip down the sides. Oops! Start with a thinner coat and build up.

A few hours later, I added a few more confetti pieces and another layer of Dimensional Magic to create more dimension to the piece.

Once all was dry, I sealed the back with traditional Mod Podge and added a silver bail with E-6000 adhesive.

You know how I like to overthink things. It's just how I roll... I remembered that I received a bottle cap in an assortment of jewelry findings and thought that I could make this pendant even nicer with that serving as my tray.

All was looking great until I became too impatient and added the epoxy bubble to the top before the Mod Podge was dry. There was too much moisture trapped in the layers below. It doesn't look bad, but it could have been perfect {with a little patience on my part}.

I hope my little hero will wear her special necklace. I can't wait to give it to her this weekend. Not having girls of my own, I can only guess about what she might actually wear.

Unrelated, but related... I gave a Hello Kitty poster and marker set to a feisty little 6-year-old down the street, who promptly informed me that she doesn't care for Hello Kitty - at all. Oops. Clearly, I'm out of touch.

Well, I'm so pleased with how these turned out that I might just make one for everyone. There is no limit to the looks you can achieve with different papers and textures.

I'm thinking about vellum... Ooooooo...