I mentioned in my last post that I was experimenting with some toilet paper and paper towel rolls I'd been saving.
And here's what I came up with- Pendants!
Once the basic idea for making jewelry from TP and PT rolls popped into my head I couldn't stop thinking of variations.
So I'm showing three different techniques here, all of them use the same basic materials:
TP/PT Rolls
Scrap paper (card stock and lighter scrapbook weight)
Mod Podge
Dimensional Magic
Craft Glue (anything basic that's good for paper and has a strong bond is fine)
Acrylic Paint and/or Paint Markers
Craft Knife
Scissors
Needle Tool or Skewer
I also used bits of reclaimed aluminum foil in one design for a metallic sparkle. You can add anything your imagination can come up with to these pendants- glitter, beads, sequence, pebbles, bits of shell. Really the possibilities are endless!
Let's start with the round and teardrop shaped pendants first:
To make them start by cutting rings from the rolls. I used my craft knife to cut a fairly thick ring (about 1/2 or 1/4 of an inch) then trimmed it down (to about an 1/8 of an inch) and evened the edges using scissors.
If you want a smaller pendant simply cut the ring and glue it back together at the size you like.
You can make other shapes like teardrops, cats eyes, and ovals by pressing or folding the ring into a new shape.
Once I had my rings and shapes I colored them silver. I tried using both paint and paint markers to do this, I preferred the paint markers they were faster and easier.
While the rings were drying I dug through my scrap paper and found some patterns and solids I liked. I made sure to have a mix of card stock and lighter weight papers- you'll see why in a minute.
Choose a card stock for the back of your pendant (if you don't like the color don't worry you can always paint it). Also select a patterned paper that you want to show through the front of your pendant. Apply a thin layer of glue to either the pattern paper or the card stock and glue the two papers together. The two layers of paper provide stability for the pendant.
Next apply a small line of glue around one edge of your TP/PT tube shape and glue it into a position you like on top of the patterned paper.
Let that dry thoroughly. To be sure I had good contact between the paper and the edge of my rings I added a little bit of weight on top to press it down while it dried. (I used a piece of cardboard with a half-empty bottle of craft paint sitting on top).
Once it's dry trim around the edge of the shape with scissors.
Now you have your basic pendant shape. If you like it as is, stop here and fill the pendant with dimensional magic to get a faux epoxy look.
That's what I did with the teardrop pendant.
For my large round pendant I wanted a layered look so I took it a few steps further.
First I flattened out a piece of TP tube then cut a tree shape out of it using my craft knife. I painted it brown on both sides and let it dry.
When I placed it inside the pendant I glued a piece of folded tube behind it so it would be raised off the background a bit.
I glued little leaves cut from scrap paper and tin foil onto a few of the branches.
Then filled it with dimensional magic. (Note it takes much longer than the package says for the DM to dry when using this much. The large pendant was hard to the touch after sitting overnight but took several days to loose it's cloudy appearance. The teardrop pendant was dry and clear after sitting overnight.)
(I completely covered the tree with DM. This photo shows it about 3/4 full)
Once the dimensional magic was dry I added loops made from small scraps of PT roll for the pendants to hang from.
For the teardrop pendant I glued a strip of roll (that I'd already painted silver) to the back, curled it at the top by wrapping it around a needle tool (a skewer would work too). I glued the curl in place on top of the pendant.
For the round pendant I made a small circle by rolling the scrap of roll around my needle tool. Then glued the circle to the top of my pendant.
The last step for these was to seal the back and sides with a few coats of Mod Podge. Then they are ready to hang from a cord or chain.
The last pendant was the simplest to make-
I cut an asymmetrical triangle from a corner of the roll.
Then decoupaged paper onto each side using Mod Podge. I used two different papers so it's reversible.
I made a hole through my pendant using my needle tool and coated the piece with 2 coats of Mod Podge on each side.
I used a small metal ring to hang this from a piece of cord.
Not only were these fun to make but they are unbelievably inexpensive. The only thing I bought was a bottle of dimensional magic. It was under 5 dollars for the bottle and depending on the size of the pendants you'll get at least 5 from 1 bottle. If you make smaller pendants like the teardrop one I'm pretty sure you'd get at least a dozen pendants from one bottle.
This would be a great activity to do with teen and tween girls. Or even make some great jewelry as gifts for the holidays.
TP and PT rolls are the secret ingredient for Fireflies and Jellybeans Iron Crafter Round 10 so I'm linking up!
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