Small Round Glass Pendants DIY

I’ve had several posts about using glass tile and marbles in different craft projects. One of my favorite craft projects is making small, glass magnets. They always turn out so cute. You can find information on how to make the magnets here and here. I even have a post about how to package your magnets here. So it is really evident how much I love making these tiny glass magnets since I have so many posts about it, lol. Then I thought . . . hmmmm, wouldn’t these tiny glass marbles make the cutest darn necklaces? So the Small Round Glass Pendants was born!

I followed the same steps used here to make my glass tile pendants. Because the glass marbles aren’t perfectly rounded, my 3/4″ design hung over around the edges. To fix this, I pressed down the paper around the rounded edge. I then used the paper glaze to create the glassy, porcelain-like finish on the back. I made sure the paper glaze also covered the paper all the way to the folded down edges until it met the glass (getting a small amount on the glass itself to seal the edges). Always allow the paper glaze back of any pendant you make to fully dry. I let them dry overnight before attempting to handle them. After they were fully dry and using E6000, I attached a small flat bail to the back of the pendant. Then I used a cord and ribbon necklace to finish off the pendant!

One regular bag of glass marbles can make around 150-200 small glass round pendants. You can use photos, scrapbook paper and your own personal design. The designs you see are plain black and printed on designer scrap book paper. What I did learn in prior glass/paper crafts is that when you personalize the pendant (with printed designs you create with your computer) that using your home printer (which is most likely an inkjet printer) doesn’t work well. Since the paper glaze is watery, it ended up smearing the printer ink creating awful ink blobs. I saved my design to a flash drive and took it to the nearest Kinko’s. I handed them the designer paper and asked them to print my design onto it using their laser printer. They were able to upload my file from my flash drive and printed it lickity split. Since my design was black, it was printed in black and white costing only .11 cents for a page of about 80 pendant designs (in 3/4″ size). Inkjet printers use liquid ink sprayed through microscopic nozzles onto the paper, and laser printers use a toner cartridge (filled with fine powder) and a heated fuser. The fine powder didn’t run at all when I applied the paper glaze.

They really are the cutest little things!

DIY Glass Pendants

I have a prior post about how to make glass pendants. I love making unique pendants using glass, they always turn out awesome! This time I used a different type of glass to create a unique pendant design. I found the large roundish glass stones at the dollar store. There were approximately 30-40 glass stones in the package. The glass had a greenish-grey color to them that really added to the designs I was using.

Be sure to check out the detailed directions I posted before found here on how to make glass pendants for more helpful hints.

These pendants were more of a challenge because I didn’t have a straight edge like I did when I made the rectangular glass pendants. No worries though, once your paper glaze is dry (I mean really dry, like let it dry overnight dry), you can use your X-Acto knife to cut out the paper following the glass shape. Just like the glass pendants I made before, I used the paper glaze to cover the back. The paper glaze gives the back a glossy, almost porcelain finish and is a must when making these pendants. Then I glued on flat back pendant bails using E6000 glue.  I used a corded, ribbon necklace to compliment the pendants.

The glass being rounded gave a magnifying effect to the design. They really turned out amazing!

DIY Bottle Cap Pendants

I made these fantastic bottle cap pendants the other day. They turned out so cute and was fun to make! I purchased my supplies on Etsy from the BottleCapArtSupplies store. Here’s a link to a current listing for bottle cap pendant kits: Bottle Cap Art Supplies on Etsy. The prices are really, really good and the customer service was top-notch! Everything arrived quickly too! I highly recommend purchasing your supplies from her. Not only does she sell the silver bottle caps, she has tons with different colors and even patterns! She has a fun zebra print bottle cap! She provides detailed directions on how to make them with the supplies she ships. I will share my tricks here in today’s post. Be sure to check out Bottle Cap Art Supplies on Etsy! You know you are in the right Etsy store if you see this design below on their store front page! Be sure to read all the info, she often offers a discount!

Supplies:

Bottle Caps

Clear Epoxy Stickers

Flat-back Bails

E6000 or any glue formulated to bond metal and paper

Directions:

Create the design you want for your bottle cap. I used designer scrap book paper and plain white paper to print my designs on. As with any craft project in which a glue is used, it is best to not use your deskjet to print your designs. The ink often runs and ruins your design when you add any watery substance to it. Instead, I created my design and saved it to a flash drive and took it to the nearest FedEx Kinko’s. I handed them the designer paper and asked them to print my design onto it using their laser printer. They were able to upload my file from my flash drive and printed it lickity split. Inkjet printers use liquid ink sprayed through microscopic nozzles onto the paper, and laser printers use a toner cartridge (filled with fine powder) and a heated fuser. The fine powder is less likely to run when you apply the liquid adhesive. The cost to print in color is around .70 cents and if your design only has black ink in it, it costs only around .11 cents for an 8.5×11″ piece of regular copy paper. Keep in mind, the diameter of the bottle cap is only one inch so on an 8.5×11″ piece of paper you can print several copies of your design to make multiple necklaces!

Next, very carefully put the epoxy sticker over your design making sure your paper is free of dirt, lint or any other tiny particle that will affect the adhesive. Press down to ensure there are no air bubbles in your design.

I initially used an X-Acto knife to cut around the epoxy sticker but found that my razor sharp blade was cutting into the epoxy sticker. I found it easier to cut out the paper slightly larger than the stickered area and used scissors to carefully cut out the epoxy sticker.

Then I used a small dab of E6000 glue to adhere the paper (covered in the epoxy sticker) to the inside of the bottle cap. The epoxy stickers are crystal clear and rounded on the edges giving your design a domed effect. I gave it a few minutes to dry.

Then I flipped it over and used E6000 to glue on flat-back bails to the back of the bottle cap.

Lastly, I strung the pendant with a cord and ribbon necklace (that I also purchased in bulk quantity from the same Etsy seller).They turned out really fantastic and are super cute pendants! Since you are creating the pendant’s design, the options are only limited by your imagination!

Hope you enjoyed this short tutorial post about bottle cap pendants! These are so easy to make when you purchase your bottle cap pendant kits from Bottle Cap Art Supplies on Etsy! The finished product looks very nice! These necklaces make great stocking stuffers!

DIY Personalized Glass Tile Pendants

So the glass tile pendants are the latest craze and I can see why. They are so beautiful! I researched how to make them and after a botched first try, I incorporated hints from several websites and made my first successful batch of DIY Personalized Glass Tile Pendants! I have to tell you, they turned out way cuter than I expected! This post is long and detailed. I can’t help it, it’s the nurse in me! I tend to over-educate because I want to make sure there is very few, “what now?” questions! So if it is too long of a read, by all means go to another blog with less complete directions, lol. I can tell you that my first batch was awful and so I am incorporating what I have learned in the process of making these in hopes you avoid the same errors. I know this is a craft project that I will make more of because the possibilities are endless! So let’s get started…

Supplies Needed:

• Glass tiles (with rounded edges)

• Aleene’s Paper Glaze adhesive

• Scrapbook Paper or a picture

• Xacto Knife

• Bails

• E6000 adhesive

• Ribbon

• Jump rings

• Crimps (either ribbon or cord crimps)

• Lobster clasps

• Q-tips

So let’s talk about the supplies a bit. You are looking for glass tiles with rounded edges. You can find this everywhere online: eBay (where I bought mine), craft suppliers and even Etsy. They come in rectangular shapes, square shapes and round shapes. All of these shapes come in different sizes. I used glass tiles that were rectangular and 1×2″ in size. Some glass tiles have a rough bottom and that’s ok because the adhesive gets into the crevices and makes it all smooth. Scrapbook paper nowadays comes in amazing colors and patterns. You certainly can find a pattern you like and use a portion of it to make a pendant. You don’t have to add text like I did. I found the red and white patterned scrapbook paper at Hobby Lobby and it was on sale for 40% off (making the paper like 30 cents each)! It was a 14″ square sheet so I had to cut it down to 8.5×11 so it would fit in my printer. You certainly can use photos as well whether they are printed from your computer or professionally printed. The thickness of the paper is important too. The scrapbook paper I used was normal grade copy paper so not thin but not thick. I do think something just a little thicker would be better. I will explain why later. So any type of paper or photo paper will work. If the paper is really thick though, you may want to sand down the edges (just use a normal emery board for your nails) after you have glued the paper to the glass. You will also need Aleene’s Paper Glaze. It was kind of funny because the folks at Hobby Lobby had no idea what I was talking about and the folks at Michael’s said they didn’t carry it. Well, turns out Michael’s does carry it and their staff isn’t fully up-to-date on their products, lol. I found it in the adhesives area at Michael’s sitting on a shelf, lol. It wasn’t too expensive, it was around $5.00. You will need sturdy bails to turn your glass tiles into pendants. Pay attention to the size of the bail opening. Will whatever you use as the necklace itself fit through the bail opening? I chose to use sheer ribbon because it just added the right amount of elegance to the glass tile. You will need a strong adhesive to glue the bail to your pendant. I used E6000 but any strong adhesive will work. I chose to use crimps, jump rings and lobster clasps to close the necklace. You can use anything you want but I thought this too added to the elegance. I have also seen where folks tied their ribbon into a bow but I know my bow would be crooked and I didn’t want all that ribbon behind my neck bugging me.  The ribbon crimps were new to me and are pretty self-explanatory (they are the claw looking crimps in the picture). They worked but I will be honest, I liked the cord crimps better. I just twisted the ribbon tight and crimped closed the cord crimp. I cut the excess ribbon off near the hole openings. Use what you are comfortable with. I should mention that you could use Mod Podge to adhere the paper to the glass tile. As hard as I try to create a smooth even layer with Mod Podge, it just doesn’t happen with me, lol. The Paper Glaze reminded me of Royal Icing. It is thin and watery. It also dries crystal clear. I really preferred the Paper Glaze for this project.

You can clearly omit this part if you aren’t wanting to add text to your pendant. I wanted to add words in different fonts and sizes in a cross-word pattern to create my pendant. As you can see, one of the designs says “Proud Cruiser Mom 17”. My son plays football for the GMHS Cruisers and 17 is his jersey number. To add text, I used Microsoft Publisher to create my design (using the “A” design option found in the left tool bar ~ see the arrow). I chose different fonts and sizes. I used the marked margins in the program to make sure my design would fit in a 1×2″ rectangle. I then cut my scrapbook paper down to 8.5×11 size and printed the designs directly on to the paper. As you can see, from one sheet of scrapbook paper you can make a bunch of pendants!

Next, cover your work surface with wax paper! This is a must! Or you will end up with a sticky mess! Some websites say to cut the paper to fit the glass first and then glue the paper to the glass. I tried this and the paper was either too big or too small and of course my lines weren’t straight, lol. I instead cut the paper out bigger than the glass tile.

Using the Aleene’s Paper Glaze, apply a thin layer of glue down the center of the backside of the tile. Center your tile over your design and firmly press down from the center out to the edges. You will be able to see the glue smear across the glass and paper. Make sure all of the paper adheres to the glass. You may have a small amount of glue ooze out, that’s ok. I suggest using slightly less glue than the picture above. Next, allow to dry for at least 2 hours. Yep, the waiting part sucks and there’s a couple more times you will have to wait.

After your paper is adhered to the tile and the glue is mostly dry, you can go to the next step. Using your Xacto Knife, cut out the tiles from the excess paper. You will want to do this at an angle because the glass is rounded. If you attempt to put your blade straight up and down, you will end up with lines that aren’t straight and the paper will hang over the glass edge. Any of the glue that oozed out of the edges will be cut away in this step.

Now is when you will seal the back. With the Paper Glaze, apply a layer around the edge. Some sites say to use your finger to smear the glue to seal the edges of the paper. I tried this at first and well, this is where the whole batch was screwed up. I had glue everywhere! So here’s the good news and bad news. Bad news first, your glass pendant is NOT waterproof. So if you are wearing your necklace, avoid getting it wet! I am guessing if Mod Podge is used at this step then it would create a tighter seal but again, the Paper Glaze makes the back of the necklace so much smoother. Good news . . . since it isn’t waterproof, I just ran warm water over the tiles for a few seconds. The paper and all the glue mess washed right off without soap! So I ended up with blank glass tiles and started all over. On my second batch, I used Q-tips. I applied a bead of Paper Glaze around the edge. I then used one end of the Q-tip to smear the glue on the edge of the paper to create a good seal between the paper edge and the glass. I then flipped the Q-tip over and with the other side, I stood it straight up and down along the glass edge. I ran the Q-tip around the glass tile edge keeping it perpendicular to the glass and wiped off any excess glue onto the Q-tip cotton end. Next, take the Paper Glaze and “color” in the glue over all of the back paper in short strokes back and forth. Coat all of the paper. You want to create a thick, even layer of glue. When I used the Q-tip to seal the paper, it created a border of sorts and the glue didn’t drip over the edge. Keep in mind I didn’t push my luck and press the glue bottle hard around the edges so that I could avoid spills over the edge. Now I can explain why thicker paper is better. When I was holding down the glass tile in the middle while applying a bead of glue around the edges, my fingernail tore the paper on one pendant because of the pressure I was applying! Just be careful because once your paper is soaked with glue (I’m talking before you add the thick layer of Paper Glaze) the paper fibers are weakened and you easily can tear it with a fingernail or even the hard cardboard part of a Q-tip. Now here’s the really long waiting part . . . put your glass tiles in a safe place and allow to dry for 24 hours. Yep, 24 hours. Don’t stick your finger in it anytime during that 24 hours to see if it is dry. You will only create an indent and leave a fingerprint that isn’t fixable. It will ruin the pendant (trust me, I know this from experience). I tried adding more glue to fill the indent but since the original glue added to the back had already began to dry, the new glue I added just created a puddle on top of the old glue. It wasn’t pretty.

After your back is completely dry, it is time to apply the bails. It just takes a tiny dab of E6000 to the bail and then gently push the bail to the back of pendant making sure it is centered on the glass tile. As you can see in the picture, I put a little too much glue and it oozed out around the edge of the bail. I was okay with that because it does dry clear. This is the last “waiting” period. Allow your E6000 to set up. It took about 2 hours and then I was good to go on to the next step.

Cut your ribbon to size. Apply the crimps to the edge of your ribbon. If using ribbon crimps, you will want to fold the ribbon over two times and then crimp over the folded ribbon using your jewelry pliers. If using cord crimps, twist your ribbon and crimp over the twisted ribbon using your jewelry pliers. Add your jump rings and lobster clasp. I will tell  you that most mega packs of jump rings are poor in quality. I find using thicker jump rings that are “joined” (meaning not open) work the best. I use pliers to cut open the ring and gently twist it open. With jump rings, you don’t pull apart the circle, instead, you twist one part forward and the other part backwards. You are just opening the ring without losing the circular form of the ring. I added the crimp and the clasp to the jump ring. Then gently twist the jump ring back to where it is a complete circle again. I find it to be stronger when you use jump rings (also called “O” rings) that were closed and then cut open. Slide your pendant onto your ribbon and tadah, you just made the cutest pendant ever!

 I am definitely making this again and will use designer scrapbook paper without adding words to make elegant pendants. I also plan on making one with a photo of my kiddies. When I complete these, I will add the pictures to this post. Hope you enjoyed this DIY Personalized Glass Tile Pendants tutorial!

UPDATE: I made another set out of photo paper. It looked fantastic until the photo peeled right off the glass! So too thick of paper matters! You need the Paper Glaze to soak into the paper fibers to create that bond throughout! So maybe thinner (not tissue paper thin, but normal copy paper thin) is really the best paper to use!

UPDATE 2: My beautiful niece plays volleyball for Licking Heights High School. She called and asked if I could make the glass pendants for the 5 senior volleyball players as a gift from the team. I was honored to be asked and thought they turned out pretty nice too! What I did learn is that when you personalize the pendant with printed designs you create with your computer that using your home printer (which is most likely an inkjet printer) doesn’t work well. Since the paper glaze is watery, it ended up smearing the printer ink creating awful blobs. I saved my design to a flash drive and took it to the nearest Kinko’s. I handed them the designer paper and asked them to print my design onto it using their laser printer. They were able to upload my file from my flash drive and printed it lickity split. Inkjet printers use liquid ink sprayed through microscopic nozzles onto the paper, and laser printers use a toner cartridge (filled with fine powder) and a heated fuser. I ran home eager to try the new printed paper, ok, I didn’t run. I walked really slowly thanks to my PH but you get the point about my excitement and anticipation. The printed design (meaning the words and numbers) printed perfectly on my yellow lined scrapbook paper. When I applied the Paper Glaze, it didn’t smear! So that was the trick. I will say though that the Cruiser pendants above were made from my home printer (an inkjet) and didn’t run? Maybe because the black holds up better? The Licking Heights pendants had maroon colored ink? Either way, save yourself the trouble and if you are printing words on designer scrapbook paper, leave it to the professionals at Kinko’s. It was definitely worth the 63 cents for one full-page copy of my designs.