Sunday, May 23, 2010

DIY Necklace Pendant

Today's project was an inexpensive and easy pendant that looks great on a necklace.


Ever since I saw Judikins Diamond Glaze featured in a project to turn a Scrabble tile into a necklace, I've been looking for an excuse to use it.  Diamond Glaze has become so popular, however, that it was sold out in every store that I visited.  I found this bottle of Glossy Accents by Inkssentials, which is used frequently in scrapbooking for "clear, dimensional embellishment."  I was hoping that I could achieve the same effect with this product as Diamond Glaze claims.

I grabbed the bottle, along with some plain wooden discs and two pieces of scrapbook paper with patterns I liked:


Here's a close-up of the wooden discs that I purchased in the jewelry section of my local Michael's.  You can see what a bargain they are at $1.47 for 12 discs.


I used my drill to make a tiny hole on the top of the disc.  Place a scrap piece of wood under your disc to anchor the disc and give you something to drill into.


Here you can see two discs after they've been drilled.  Make sure to sand off any splinters or rough edges around the hole.


Next, I used a compass to draw a circle the exact size I wanted to cover the disc. I drew the circle on the scrapbook paper and cut out the shape.


A very thin coat of ModPodge was perfect to secure the scrapbook paper to the disc.  You won't need to seal it with a second coat on top of the paper - that's what the Glossy Accents is for.


At this point, your scrapbook paper will be covering the hole that you drilled in the disc.  I pushed four straight pins up through the back of the hole.  This not only poked a hole in the scrapbook paper, but the pins will help keep the hole open when you coat the disc with Glossy Accents.


I used a generous amount of Glossy Accents to coat the top of the disc.  I used the bottle's tip to draw a circle around the outside of the scrapbook paper, and then filled in the circle until I had a smooth surface. Be sure to follow the directions on the bottle.  Shaking the bottle will result in bubbles in the project's surface.  See that pin in the lower right of the photo?  I ended up with two bubbles on my pendant, so I used the pin to work the bubbles to the edge of the Glossy Accents and "pull" them out of the tacky liquid.


You will end up with a smooth milky-looking surface.  It took around 4 hours for my pendant to be dry to the touch and the milky appearance to change to transparent.  Here's the second pendant as it was drying.  Be sure to place your pendants on a flat surface.  The Glossy Accents will run to one side or the other if your project isn't perfectly flat.

I had to support the second pendant in order to get a flat surface. The heads of the straight pins were pushing one side up in the air.


Once the Glossy Accents is dry, carefully pull the pins out from the back.  This will pull any excess Glossy Accents back through the hole so that you'll have a clean surface on the front side of the pendant.


I let the pendants dry for 24 hours to ensure that the surface was completely hardened.  Then I created a bail with a sterling silver jump ring to hang the pendant on a chain.  You could use the pendant as a stand alone accent or dress it up with other beads.  This necklace has red Jasper, Buri nuts and handmade Balinese sterling silver beads.


And now I have 10 wooden discs left.  I'm thinking they would make great magnets for my refrigerator.  Using the same technique as the pendants, you could create monogrammed discs.  Hot glue a round magnet on the back, and you'd have a great way to organize the family's papers in the kitchen.


The Girl CreativeMakingSumo Sweet Stuff Keeping It Simple

8 comments:

Ann @ makethebestofthings said...

So so cute and clever! The bead combo on your necklace is lovely. I could see this necklace and a washer necklace in the same color worn together, how fun! Your instructions are very good.

L ~DIY Diva~ said...

very cute pendant...and easy too!

Id love to have you link to my link party
Make My Style mondays @ Avidaccents.blogspot
~L~

Beverly @ FlamingoToes.com said...

Wow, this is super cute! Thanks for the step by step tut - that was great!

Kaysi said...

What a great looking necklace!! I love that you used wood

Charity said...

So cute! I love it!

Sunshine of Seven said...

Way Cute!!!
I've actually been working on some tile necklaces, I love the glossy look!

Jax @ AlyandAsh said...

I love this!

Star @ A Load Of Craft said...

So I spent last weekend trying something VERY similar and it didn't work! Yours look great! I used Envirotex Lite Pour On ($10!) and applied it with a spoon - maybe too much! It spilled over the sides and most of them stuck to the wood they were on! I was making disc earrings but I was going to drill the hole afterwards. The ones that actually came off the wood will have to be my new magnets! I did two whole packages of wood circles from Joanns! (Yours looked more sanded even in the package btw)

Maybe I'll try again with glossy accents. Thanks for showing me it CAN be done lol

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