As promised I’m back to share a small upgrade to my beautiful greek key message board!  I searched high and low from buttons to beads for something that would dress up those plain ol’ thumb tacks.  I finally settled on a string of beads and some diamond stickers.  Check it out.

As you can see from the picture, my thumbtacks weren’t exactly plain but the colors were all wrong for my board.  I bought 30 thumbtacks/1 pkg. for $1.  I could have bought a big package of multicolored tacks for $3 but I didn’t want to do any unnecessary hoarding of office supplies.

So why this string of beads?  Anyone out there a jewelry maker?  Holy cow you guys have lots of choices!  I’ve never spent any time in those aisles at Michaels but I might have to reconsider this as a new crafty venture.  Anyways, I chose this string because the metal finish was a little antique-y kind of like my nailhead trim.  I also loved the texture and varying colors of blue and purple in the stone.  But the most important characteristic of these beads is the recessed area on the back.

I felt like this ledge would allow me to practically hide the fact that I was just glueing a thumbtack to the back of a bead.  You know?

I used my Gorilla Glue to adhere my thumbtack to the bottom of the bead.  I left them to dry over night and they are solid as a rock now.

Oohh I think they are sooo pretty!  I did use my diamond stickers but I’m not sure they will be keepers for my board.  I love the look but the diamond stickers don’t have the recessed back and my thumbtacks have just enough curvature to make it obvious there’s something behind that sparkle.

Of course, this angle doesn’t show you what I mean but trust me it’s there.  But those diamonds are sure pretty!  I have to find a way to incorporate these babies into my house. 🙂