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This article is written by Shari Welch

Before you take your old games to the donation station,why not take a second look at them. Could you possibly reuse the board, box, or game pieces to create something artistic and beautiful? With a little imagination the possibilities are endless.

As a mixed media artist I am always looking for new materials to use when creating my art. As an avid reduce, reuse, and recycle kinda girl this project couldn’t be more perfect. I am going to give you the basic instructions and then you can have fun deciding how to finishing them. There are so many ways you can decorate dominoes. Pinterest is full of inspirational ideas. I have a board dedicated to them.

Here is what you will need:

• Domino game pieces
• Rubbing alcohol, cotton pads
• Hand drill with a small bit
• Small piece of wood
• Mod Podge Matte clear acrylic spray sealer

Here are a few ideas to use for finishing your dominoes:

• Alcohol Inks, inking tool
• Sharpie or any permanent marker
• Found trinkets, beads, ribbon, eyelets
• Old comic books and newsprint
• Key chain, Ball chain, leather, magnets
• Mod podge dimensional magic
• Rubber stamps, permanent ink pad

Let’s get started

1.First you must wipe your domino with alcohol to insure no oils or dust is on them.

2. If you are making a necklace or want to add embellishments you will need to drill a hole. The dominoes are surprisingly easy to drill into.

3. Add a background. Paper, alcohol inks, markers, stickers, rubber stamps.  This link will help show you how to use the inks in more detail. HINT: If you use alcohol inks and you are not happy with the results you can wipe it off with a little rubbing alcohol and start again.

4. Make sure your background is dry and then spray with an acrylic sealer.

5. After the sealer is dry you can add  more colors, stamping etc.

6. If you wish, you can now add embellishments to your domino.

Remember it is all up to you on how little or how much color and embellishments you want to add. Some of my favorite dominoes are stamped with black ink and that’s all.

Here are a few dominoes I have made

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Shari Welch is a mixed media artist living in Denton Texas. She is known for using reuse and recycle materials in her artwork. She volunteers for SCRAP Denton where she is on the education committee, teaches workshops, art camp, and performs art demos. She is passionate about mixed media art and enjoys helping others discover their creativity.

You can follow Shari and see her mixed media art at her facebook page.
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