Jewels! Gems! Jades and more! What else could a dragon ask for?

It's well known that dragons LOVE treasure! This hot glue dragon surely is pampered; with gems that glisten in the sunlight, this dragon's scales are entirely made of gems!

Supplies

For this project, you will need:

Hot Glue Gun
Hot Glue Sticks (LOTS!)
Wire
Beads/Acrylic Gems (Don't worry about using real gems! This isn't a real dragon, so go ahead an use plastic gems)

Step 1: Create the Frame of the Dragon

For this step, design the wire frame, or skeleton, of the dragon!

You will need lots of wire and tools for cutting and shaping the wire. Start first by modeling the head and neck of the dragon. You can model the head however you would like! You also don't have to worry about how "pretty" it looks either: you will cover it up with hot glue in the next step!

Using your wire cutters and wire shaping tools, bend the wire to your desired shapes. I modeled my dragon while looking at a dragon skeleton. I based my wire structure off of this artist's dragon design. Again, don't worry how great or good looking the wire base looks, you will cover it with glue:)

Once you have a main skeleton down, proceed to the next step!

Step 2: Glue the Body

Once you have your skeleton, add glue to your dragon! Please be careful during this step: hot glue can burn your skin. Only touch the glue when it is dry.

During this step, I added lots of glue around the skeleton I made created. As you can see, the wire base is not that good looking...but that's okay! Your's doesn't have to look perfect either! In the next step, we will cover up the body of the dragon with gems!

After you are satisfied with your dragon's body, proceed to the next step.

Step 3: Add Gems!

For the final step, we are going to add gems to your dragon!

In this step, start gluing on gems with your hot glue gun. I used smaller beads for the head, legs, and wings. As for the body, I used acrylic gems.

To make the wings, I cut out triangles on wax paper and glued them down on the wire frame I had made for the wings. I then cut out the back ridge line out of blue shiny paper. For the claws and teeth, I cut toothpicks and glued them down. For the tongue, I used wire to model the base, cut out a small triangle out of a foam sheet, and lastly, I glued the foam onto the wire tongue base. I chose larger acrylic gems for the eyes:)

For your dragon, you can choose to use certain colors if you wish!

Step 4: The Dragon's Hoard

This dragon makes an excellent collection to a fairy garden. Perhaps it may serve as the newest challenge in your RPG! Either way, this dragon loves to be around treasure!