Neon Yellow and Lessons Learned - My First DIY Project

One of the many blogs that inspired me to start DIYing my own fashion utilized neon fluorescent spray paint to create a one-of-a-kind bright neon yellow necklace and the styling of it I thought was just incredible! You can check out my Neon DIY Project inspiration here: "Glitter 'N Glue" Blog: Neon Yellow DIY

I had tickets to go see Collective Soul with my husband last night and thought that it would be a great piece to wear to the concert - however time was a bit of an issue...keep reading to find out why...

On a quick side note - there is definitely a neon color craze going around and I am right on that bandwagon! Interestingly enough, my craze started when I came across the DayGlow Tour which came to Raleigh this past April. If you haven't heard of it...check it out! Day Glow Tour Website

Essentially it's a paint rave and a DIYer and Neon Lover's dream! You show up in all white and neon clothes that you don't plan on ever wearing again (trust me) and proceed to dance the night away while watching amazing "Cirque du Soleil" type performances on stage AND all this while getting sprayed with tons of neon paint...crazy...I know...it was awesome!

Before

After

Needless to say this is not an every day fashion look. But I took it upon myself to pick up some fluorescent paint from the hardware store and decide on two items I would experiment on. I couldn't find a necklace like the one in "Glitter 'N Glue" post so decided to just find something in my jewelry mish-mosh that I wouldn't miss too much if I destroyed.

Glass bead necklace

The second thing I decided to spray paint was a belt that I found at Good Will for $1.39, again, something I would not cry over if destroyed.

Thrifted grey and pink striped cotton belt

So I grabbed my spray paint, a ton of newspaper, and went to town...and learned some very valuable lessons.

1) Ventilation is key, I think I killed some of my, and my poor dog's, brain cells before I realised that the space in my kitchen was not cutting it and moved to our small back deck. Now to my defense, I was in a rush, and was really frustrated that I hadn't been able to attack this project sooner and with the time frame I wanted due to the crappy weather we had all weekend long and it was super busy with Mother's Day etc. So I attempted this in doors first because it was dark out and still raining. Obviously this was not a good idea.

2) You CANNOT be in a rush...when they tell you to do multiple thin layers and let them dry in between, they mean it, it quickly pools and creates drips and just does not create a good even coverage.

3) Glass beads are not a great medium for neon spray paint - lesson learned - I will fork out the extra $6 next time for PRIMER!!

My first neon DIY project

Tackling the belt

After doing a few coats on both the belt and necklace I slowly had the realization that these were not going to turn out the way I had hoped and so left them out over night to dry and would face my failure in the morning.

When I came home during lunch to let my dog out, I was not surprised to see that the necklace just did not take to the paint...and it was overall not the right type of necklace in the first place to use in this capacity.

However, when I went to the belt, I was suprised to find that it actually worked out pretty well! Granted it was not nice and smooth and shiny, and was pretty rough, but overall it didn't look half bad.

It doesn't go with this outfit, but it shows off the bright contrast

So I decided to proudly, and bravely, use it to pump up my work outfit yesterday and was quite pleased that no one pointed at it and laughed at the office and actually didn't notice it's DIYness until I pointed out that I had spray painted it myself!

You can't see it great in this picture, but it definitely made the outfit I think

So I've learned some lessons, gotten my feet wet, broken the DIY seal, and am ready to move on to bigger and better and BOLDER DIY projects!

Stay tuned and share any DIY failures you've experienced...I definitely believe that you learn just as much, if not more, from your failures as your successes!