Oscar Worthy Altered Dominoes

I love the Academy Awards and I am lucky enough to have a wonderful friend who hosts an Oscar party each year. This year I decided to make her a hostess gift to show her my appreciation.

I came across a box of dominoes while I was sorting through the kids old games, some were missing so I started to toss them into the garbage but remembered some cool altered dominoes I had seen and so they were saved. The rescued dominoes seemed like the perfect canvas for this project.
I found some great black and white Academy Award photos here. I copied my favorites into a Word document and sized them slightly bigger than my dominoes.

Next I printed my pictures on regular copy paper from a laser printer (Ink Jet will smear.) I hand colored each picture using colored pencils and pastel chalks. I really like the Berol Prismacolor pencils they are worth the extra cost (but I do hide them so my kids won’t use them.) I wanted just a hint of color but if you want more color you can adjust your printer settings to print the photos lighter so you can layer on more color.

Before I glued my pictures I used a black Sharpie to color the sides of the dominoes. I painted the smooth side of the domino with a thin layer of Modge podge and then centered the photo on the domino. Once I had the photo positioned the way I liked it I trimmed off any paper that was over the edges. I applied another coat of modge podge to the top of the picture making sure to smoothe out any air bubbles, and allowed it to dry.

Now I wanted the Oscar to shine so I carefully painted the gold areas with more modge podge and added some gold glitter. I love the contrast between the bright glitter and the softly colored photo.

I sprayed the whole thing with lacquer to seal and protect the finish. I thought they needed something more so I added a layer of Modge Podge Dimensional Magic.