Turn Cheap Rings Into Classy Jewelry

The top picture shows three of those cheap plastic rings you might find at the dollar store, at an arcade, or on the fingers of a six year old girl. The bottom picture seems to (almost) be jewelry you could buy from Nordstroms! As you can guess by the title, the bottom rings are made from the plastic ones on top, and here I will show you how I did it.

Materials

To make these rings you will need:

- One or more cheap plastic rings

- Any nail polish color with top coat

- Small decorations, like glitter, beads, charms, crystals, etc.

Not shown:

- Glue, I used Swarovski crystal glue

- Nail file or sandpaper

- Strong cutters like sharp pliers

- Tweezers

Snap and Sand

If your rings have uneven structures on the top like the stars and hearts that mine have just remove them with the cutters. Make sure to cut so that you have a flat surface for your decorations to sit later, if it is too rough then sand it with a nail file or sandpaper to make it smooth.

Paint and Polish

Set your rings on paper and paint them with the nail polish. Paint one side at a time and add a top coat of polish after they are dry.

Some tips about painting:

- Nail polish is best, other paints are not as opaque and take longer to dry

- Use a glossy or metallic top coat for best effect

The gold ring in this picture was done with regular paint but I washed that off before it dried and re did it with silver for a better finish.

Lay Out and Attach Decorations

I put my rings on the tops of the nail polish bottles to hold them steady while attaching gems. I used Swarovski crystals on my black ring which I laid out and attached with my tweezers and crystal glue. I also had a plastic flower charm to use on my purple ring and I glued a crystal in the center of that as well. For the silver ring I used silver spacer beads and more Swarovski crystals to finish it off.

Let them all dry on top of the bottles and add more touch ups if needed.

Finished!

If you have seen my other jewelry tutorial you'll see that I used a lot of leftover supplies to make these including the pliers, spacer beads, crystals, and glue. I was skeptical at first about disrespecting my Swarovski crystals by gluing them onto cheap plastic but I think it worked out. :) And while these rings aren't exactly designer quality I think it was a good way to use up my extra supplies from the last project.

While waiting for my rings to dry I also painted my own nails with the polish from the purple ring and glued on a crystal to match.

Some tips:

- Be patient with drying time

- Metallic polishes seem to look best on plastic

- Expand this idea to other cheap jewelry makeovers. Have an ugly bracelet or an old set of earrings? Try this!

- If you are buying rings for this project buy one size above your normal size because the paint forms a layer on the inside.

Thank you for looking at my instructable! :)