Paper Rings That You Can Actually Use Everyday
by nvilchis in Craft > Jewelry
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Paper Rings That You Can Actually Use Everyday
Paper rings are a perfect way to show your craftiness, your creativity and your ecological sense if you have any. They will surely be a conversation starter at least once and the good thing about them is that they don't look like a middle school craft project even if they are that simple to make.
What You'll Need
You probably have most of this things already laying around your house, you'll need:
Paper, can come from a book, a magazine, a newspaper, a craft shop doesn't matter as long as you like it, some of it can be colored if you want to add color to your ring.
Glue, as long as it dries clear it's good, white school glue will do very well
Sand paper, it will make your ring smooth and even, you will only need it by the end
Scissors
Exacto knife
A little brush to apply glue
Pencil
Varnish or Nail polish ( I didn't put it on the image sorry.)
Design Your Ring
Start by tracing a circle of the circumference of your finger, you can use a ring that fits you well as a reference it doesn't have to be exact since you'll sand it down later. Then around it, trace the shape you'd like. Making a lot of details it's prettier but it's also a LOT of work so you can start by making a simple one just round or square with not a lot of details. my first one was just ring shaped without anything else on top so use your imagination until you think of something you'd like.
Start Cutting, This Is the Long Part
Once you're happy with your design cut it to have a stencil for the other pieces of paper you'll have to make.
This step is long and tiring and if your ring is complicated it will be even longer but have patience the end result will be nice.
If you're lucky and you own a hole punch the size of your finger use it to cut the circle in the middle, this will save you lots of time since you can cut the outside part with scissors.
Keep doing the same thing until you have enough pieces that can pile up to make the approximate thickness of your ring.
Time to Glue !
All your pieces are cut, now it's time to pile and glue, apply an even thin layer of glue then one more paper and continue doing so until you're done. By the end you'll have an pile of wet glue paper so try to not moving it a lot. and let it dry, around 24 hours should do. You can feel tempted at this step to just hurry but letting it dry completely is very important, also do not put it in the microwave, it's not only unsafe but it makes the paper burn and turn brown in the middle.
Sand and Varnish
Your ring is dry, you can now sand it, use your sand paper to make it all smooth and even , if some parts remain uneven do not worry too much since they can be filled with the varnish but try to make it as smooth as possible.
Then coat it with varnish, if you have some fancy kind that i don't know about feel free to use it but I used nail polish, it dries quick and it lasts a long time. Don't put any varnish in the inner part of the ring since it will feel sticky against your finger even when it's dry.
All Done
And voila, your ring is done, let the varnish dry and show it off to the world. I did a smaller ring this time since I wanted to finish the instructable quickly.