Over the past few months, I slowly bought supplies with coupons or when on sale to make photo pendants. It was something I really wanted to try but did not have a specific project in mind. I finally had all supplies just days before recent family birthday celebrations.

Perfect timing to make personalized gifts.

The process was easy and gave a stunning result – even for a beginner like me.

Last week I jumped the gun and showed the final result before this tutorial was ready. As promised, a detailed description of how the pendants were made is included below. Since then, I’ve been on a bit of a photo-pendant making binge, creating gifts to give for birthdays and holidays to come.

Ahem…some of you have one of these coming to you in the near future 🙂

Supplies

• Photo or design – printed on plain printer paper and cut to size of glass tile
• 7/8 inch glass tile or 1 inch glass tile
• Paint brush
• Scissors or X-acto knife
• Baal
• Diamond Glaze
• Super Glue
• Thin ball chain with 1.5 mm diameter
• Mixed glass beads with hole larger than 1.6 mm

Steps

1. Select, edit and crop photo

Photos were edited using PicMonkey. Photos were printed to size using Power Point – check out quick instructions here.

2. Cut photo to size

If your photo is already sized correctly, just cut along the edges and slightly round the corners with an X-acto knife or scissors. If not, align the tile over the photo, trace around it and cut just inside the lines. Check your work and trim any overhanging edges before proceeding.

3. Apply photo to the glass tile

Apply a pea sized bead of diamond glaze to the tile. Use either the tip of the diamond glaze bottle or a paint brush to spread glaze evenly across the tile, removing bubbles as much as possible. Align and press the photo onto the tile, face down. While not fully secure, adjust as needed. From the center, sweep your finger outwards to seal the edges and remove any remaining air bubbles. Allow to dry a minimum of 10 minutes or until the photo no longer seems wet

*Note: be sure to wait for the glaze to dry before proceeding or it produces a dark shadow that looks like a wet spot and remains even after drying

4. Seal the tile

Apply a pea sized bead of diamond glaze on the back of the photo. Use a paint brush to evenly coat the back of the photo. Use the residual glaze on the brush to seal the edges. Allow to dry a minimum of 1 hour.

5. Affix baal to the tile

Apply super glue to the baal. Align over the top, center of the tile and press firmly into place. Obviously avoid contact of super glue with skin – we all know super glued fingers are no fun! Check alignment quickly and adjust if necessary. Allow to dry fully.

 6. String pendant with beads

Once the pendants are dry, string with mixed glass beads of your choosing.

 

Diamond Glaze and Super Glue come in large quantities so there will be plenty of leftovers for future projects – I’m looking forward to experimenting with different shapes and sizes of glass tiles.

I’d love to see if you make your own pendants or necklaces. Please share in the comments if you do!

 

This post was shared on the {Wow me} Wednesday at Gingersnap Crafts link party