In Mary’s bag of inspiration were an assortment of square and rectangular pieces. Along with standard and mini dominos, there were 2 inch square game pieces, and some bamboo placemat pieces that have holes already drilled from end to end.

Hmm—what will I make from these?

Well, some of you said jewelry, and that’s the first thing I always think of when I see a domino. I decided to turn the smaller dominos into decoupaged pendants, and use up some of the leftover faux postage images in my scrap pile.

I placed a domino over the faux postage images, and traced the shape, then cut them out. They required a tiny bit of trimming to fit onto the face of the domino without hanging over the curved edges. I didn’t worry too much about being precise about this, since the edges of each image will be covered with paint eventually.

I scuffed up the front, back and sides of each domino with some fine sandpaper, then painted the whole thing with acrylics that roughly matched an element in each image. I didn’t paint too much on the front of the dominos, since they’ll be covered with images—just enough to color the rounded edges.

When the paint was completely dry, I applied the images to the fronts of the dominos using a bit of matte medium. A light coat of medium on the domino, then the image, then another light coat over the top and edges. I set the dominos on a piece of plastic wrap to dry, so they wouldn’t stick to my work surface.

To blend the front and sides together, I sponged a bit of metallic paint onto each domino.

To give the dominos a way to hang, I glued a flat-sided bead to the top of each one with a bit of E6000.

I wanted a bit of sparkle, so I tapped around the edges with a little bit of glitter glue, then set the dominos aside to dry overnight.

To protect the surfaces of my finished pieces, I sealed them with a little Diamond Glaze. Any clear sealer will do.

Well, so much for the small dominos. Now, what should I do with the big squares?

I love working big, and when I was presented with big dominos, I seized the opportunity to make some big, showy jewelry. These were done with rubber stamps and Sharpies, which give a bright, colorful glow to the surface of the dominos. Think of Sharpies as conveniently packaged alcohol inks—they give the same transparent color as inks in liquid or pad form, and as a plus, they have a nice pointy tip for detail work.

First, I lightly scuffed the surface of the dominos with a little fine sandpaper. They don’t really need a good sanding—in fact, sanding them too much takes the shine off.

Next, I did a little drilling. I wanted to loop some cording throug the top of one piece, so a hole straight through from back to front was required. The easiest way to do this is to line the drill bit up with one of the holes in the domino, and let it be the guide for the bit.

I also wanted to suspend one piece from its sides, so I drilled two tiny holes with a fine drill bit, to hold small screw eyes.

I planned the placement of the stamped images by lining them up on the dominos. This is sort of a do or die kind of thing—once the ink is on the dom, it’s a hassle to get it off again. A little planning is definitely worthwhile.

I work backwards when stamping dominos, placing the stamp on its back, and patting it with ink, then placing the dom onto the inked surface. There’s less sliding that way, and I have one last chance to make sure that the image is going exactly where I want it on the front side.

I stamped the dominos with Staz-On ink, which is solvent based. I don’t usually enjoy working with this ink, but I’ve found that it tends to drag into the color much less than other inks. Just for fun, I heat set it, then set the stamped pieces aside overnight to be sure the ink was completely dry.

Coloring the images is fairly straighforward. The ink slides right onto the domino, and can be moved around easily when wet. I can also be thinned with plain old rubbing alcohol, and moved around with a brush. I created some mottled backgrounds by coloring the dominos, then dotting a little alcohol on them with a cotton swab. This is a quick way to do a polished stone technique.

As I colored, if any black ink seemed to get dragged into my field, I’d just scribble onto a piece of white paper to clean the tip of the Sharpie.

When the colored dominos were completely dry, I applied a light coat of Diamond Glaze to seal them.

I haven’t used the bamboo pieces Mary sent yet. Perhaps those will appear in a future project…