Decoden Basics

Hello lovely readers! Today I am going to break down the basic components of "decoden" and tell you where you can find all the ingredients to start making decoden yourself!

1. Deco Cream

The real stuff: You can find tubes of Japanese deco cream on many Etsy shops. The downside is that these can be really expensive (as much as $50 a tube!)

The cheap alternative: You can use silicon bathroom caulk or crack filler and get the same effect. All you have to do is buy a star tip from the bakery section of the craft store and pipe the caulk through a sandwich baggie. The upsides to caulk is that it dries fast (totally dry in 2 days tops) it's cheap (about $3 a tube) and you can find it at most department or hardware stores (Walmart, Target, Home Depot, etc.) The downside is that it can have a toxic smell, so open a window and/or have a fan going when you use it.

2. Cabochons

Buy them: You can buy plastic cabochons to decorate your cream from many Etsy stores. Search for "cute, kawaii, japanese, or decoden cabochons" under Supplies. You may also be able to find Japanese Erasers in cute food shapes at the craft store. Or use any beads, rhinestones, charms etc. that you like.

Make your own: You can also make your own cute candies and sweets with polymer clay (Sculpey, Fimo, etc.) You can make them free hand or with molds (this blog will feature how to make several miniature sweets with clay). You can find molds on Etsy shops like miniaturesweet.etsy.com

You can also make your own molds with Scupley mold making clay (found at the craft store) to make your own clay cabs.

3. Hot Fudge

This drippy sauce you see is actually colored hot glue sticks. You can find them in colors on Etsy shops or at the craft store.

4. Deco Sauce

To decorate your cabochons with yummy sauces you can use simple 3D puff paint. You can find them on Etsy stores but they're cheaper at the craft store.

5. Finishing Touches

Sprinkles: DO NOT USE REAL SPRINKLES!!! Real food sprinkles you'd put on cupcakes will melt in the deco cream and ruin your decoden. If you want sprinkles on top, you can make them with polymer clay by making a really thin snake and cutting it into individual sprinkles. You can also buy fake sprinkles from Etsy stores or use really small seed beads from the craft store.

Glitter: You can use any kind of glitter to top off your deco cream. Though you may want to put the glitter on first before the rest of your cabs because the cream could dry and then the glitter wouldn't stick.

6. What to Decoden?

Anything you like! If you want to make an iPhone case like the one in this tutorial, eBay is the best place to find them cheaply. You can also find DS cases, compact mirrors, brushes, boxes, anything you can think of!

Here's a purse that I decoden-ed!

Here are some links to Etsy shops with good decoden supplies:

blissbead.etsy.com

decosweets.etsy.com

miniaturesweet.etsy.com

shopsakura.etsy.com

yippiekawaiiyeah.etsy.com

Please comment and feel free to post your own decoden works!