Quick and Easy Altered Domino Flag Lapel Pin for the 4th of July

Here’s a very quick altered domino project.  This is an American flag lapel pin that you can wear to your 4th of July celebration. 

I used a black wood domino.  I chose the type of domino that has the circular holes.  The holes are great for setting swarovski crystals.  I used acrylics and painted a blue section and some red and white stripes.

I’ve had some clear swarovski crystals stashed away for a while.  The crystals I used are 2.2mm.  I bought them at the local craft store when they were on sale.

Aleene’s® Jewel-it® is one of my favorite adhesives for setting crystals, cabs, and small metal findings.  You can see my bottle is well used.   I often use toothpicks as my tools.  They are great for getting tiny dabs of things, like adhesives, into very small places.

I use jeweler’s pliers to pick up and set my crystals.  The crystals are so small and my hands are so large that I can’t accurately place the crystals without a tool.  I remember that it took me a while to use my pliers for picking up things.  Now they are like having an extra set of (smaller) fingers. 

Note:  I squeezed out some glue on my piece of paper.  I think it’s easier to pick up a small amount of glue with the toothpick if I have a puddle.  I put the glue inside the holes of the domino.  I don’t put the glue on the back of the crystal. 

I have a bunch of self-adhesive pin backs.  I’m not crazy about them.  I prefer to glue the pin back onto my piece using E6000®.  Since this is a quick and easy project, I thought I would go ahead and use one of the self-adhesive pin backs.

Here’s a closeup of my lapel pin.  No one should ever get this close to your pin, so don’t worry if you have some minor boo-boos.  I did touch up the paint on mine before I took the picture of Betty wearing the brooch (above).

Also, I finished the sides of my pin with gold paint.  I didn’t think black sides were appropriate.

Now you can make your very own Americana flag lapel pin to wear to your Independence Day celebration.

Enjoy!