If you love Disney’s The Little Mermaid and adore all things Barbie, you will truly enjoy transforming your favourite Ariel Barbie doll with a Preciosa Crystals rhinestone embellishment. The iridescent shimmer of those CGI scales is mimicked beautifully with hundreds of tiny AB coated Preciosa Crystals, in stone sizes that are chosen for their ability of create a satisfying ombre on the mermaid tail, in colours that do justice to the Disney version.
The full list of Preciosa crystals, components and tools needed to complete this project can be found below. If you click on the product description (link), the respective product page will open, where each item can be viewed and added to cart:
| Component | Component Name / Link | Quantity |
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x 300 | |
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x 300 | |
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x 300 | |
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x 300 | |
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x 300 | |
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x 300 | |
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x 300 | |
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x 300 | |
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x 300 | |
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x 300 | |
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E6000 Plus Glue Kit | x 1 |
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Wax Crystal Picker Tool | x 1 |
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Magic Sorting Tray | x 1 |
Step 1
Prepare the doll for embellishment
Ensure that the Ariel mermaid doll is completely clean and ready for gluing. If the plastic surface is shiny and you’re aiming for full solid crystal coverage, we recommend gently sanding it until there is a rough key. This will help to give the glue a texture to securely grip to, however sanding is unnecessary for individual crystals or if there is already a texture present.
Step 2
Set up the glue applicator with resin glue
Fill the Glue Syringe from the Resin Glue kit with enough E6000 Plus Resin Glue for your project, be careful to not take more glue than you need. The easiest way to do this is to place the end of the syringe inside the nozzle of the E6000 Plus glue tube and pull the plunger on the syringe while gently squeezing the tube of glue. This will push the glue from the tube to the syringe with minimal mess and exposure to the air.
Step 3
Guard against air bubbles in the resin glue
Once the glue is transferred you are likely to have a small air bubble in the syringe, hold the syringe vertically so that the bubble floats to the opening at top and gently push on the stopper, pushing the air out until there is only glue left inside. You can then attach the needle tip, completing the syringe. For this project we chose the 16 gauge purple applicator tip as it gives a smaller dot of glue.
Step 4
Apply a thin layer of glue on the Ariel mermaid doll
Use the loaded syringe to squeeze out a thin layer of glue onto the mermaid doll and leave it for a minute or two to get tacky. Be careful to not apply too much, otherwise you will risk the glue running in unwanted directions across the curving surface of the mermaid doll. We also advise doing the embellishment in small sections when working on three dimensional objects to minimise the risk of accidentally touching the glue while it’s still wet.
Step 5
Begin placing the Preciosa Crystals in a gradual ombre
Use the Double Ended Wax Picker Pen to gently place the Preciosa rhinestones onto the glue. On this mermaid doll you can see we used the Scatter embellishment style to accurately mimic the blended markings on her famous tail. For more information on different embellishment styles, we recommend our Ultimate Guide To Rhinestone Embellishment which can be found on our website.
STEP 6
Allow the resin glue to fully dry
Tidy up any drifting glue and let it dry for minimum 2 hours, however drying times may vary depending on how thickly the glue was applied, once the glue is dry your newly blinged little mermaid doll is ready to be adored!
