6
Jul
2007
Bamboo Tile Pendants
By April. Posted in Crafty Stuff, Stuff I Made, Tutorials | 12 Comments »Finally… something crafty! After all, this is supposed to be a craft blog, not a blog where I profess my love and wish to grow a wiener.
I made some cute necklace pendants out of bamboo tiles and children’s book images:
So how in the hell do you make these damn things……
Easy! I wish I had time to do a nice tutorial with pictures and all that good stuff….
1. Get some tiles, dominos, or wood shapes from etsy, ebay, michaels, hobby lobby, etc.
2. Cut some images to the right sizes for your tiles.
3. Get some decoupage glue. I used Aleene’s Instant Decoupage Glue this time with much better results.
4. Brush some glue onto the top of the tile and place your image on top. You have to work fast when you do this because this particular glue seems to dry faster than Mod Podge glue.
5. Important!!—- Make sure that you press your image down onto the glued tile tightly. You don’t want any bubbles or raised areas on the edges of the image. You want the image completely flat against the tile. This glue is thinner though and doesn’t make your image as soggy as Mod Podge does, so bubbles are less likely. (Geez, I sound like an Aleene’s Rep. or something. I swear, I am not affiliated!)
6. Wait around 5 minutes for it to dry completely and then brush more glue on top of the image.
7. Again, wait for it to dry and keep adding more coats of glue to the image until you are satisfied, letting it dry between coats. I put around 4 or 5 coats because I knew I was going to coat them with resin eventually and wanted to make sure the resin did not ruin the image. You can stop here if you wish. I coated mine with resin because I didn’t like seeing the brush stroke lines you will get from the glue. I am anal about these things.
8. I used a different kind of resin than usual. I usually use Easy Cast resin, but this time I used Decorators Solution. I just followed the directions for mixing it, but instead of pouring it on, I brushed gobs of it on and pushed it around with the brush until the top was completely covered with a thick coat. Let them dry for 24 hours and they’re finished! I put them in the oven (don’t turn it on!) to keep them dust-free for the 24 hours.
(Edit: I have posted a new tutorial for the wire wrapping done on the top of the pendants.
x-posted on craftster
July 9th, 2007 at 11:09 am
very cute and adorable!
January 8th, 2008 at 2:04 pm
Hi
How did you attach the finding for necklace?
January 8th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
I added a little tutorial for the wire-wrapping here:
http://craftzombie.com/wordpress/?p=247
July 2nd, 2008 at 6:42 pm
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October 30th, 2008 at 8:13 pm
In the OVEN! What a great idea! My next batch of resin coated pendants are going in there for sure. I just hope my roommates don’t get hungry for pizza.
January 16th, 2009 at 10:23 pm
Pendant making is becoming very popular right now.
I enjoy making pendant neclaces. the last one I made I took some old scrable pieces and turned them into pendants, and also add a couple of glass initial pendants to spell out my daughter’s name and gave it to her on her birthday.
March 21st, 2009 at 12:53 am
What kind of images are they? Just regular printed images or do they need to be special ink and/or special paper?
March 23rd, 2009 at 7:08 am
These particular images are cut directly from old books. There is no special paper needed for this type of project. I have made the same pendants using images I printed on my computer. The key is to seal the image first before you put resin on it. You do this with products like Mod Podge. I prefer to use Aleenes Instant Decoupage Glue, but my new personal favorite is Ultra Seal (they also make a resin, which I purchased, but have not used yet.)
July 22nd, 2009 at 4:01 pm
Thanks so much for this tutorial. I had one question though… how did you know how large to cut the picture for the tile? did you just keep cutting little by little until it fit?
July 23rd, 2009 at 2:45 pm
I used my scanner to scan the tile. Then I went into my image editing program (Paint Shop Pro) and, using the image of the tile as my guide, I made a template. It is basically just an image that is a little smaller than the tile. I printed it out and traced it onto thicker cardboard and I use that whenever I am going to cut out images. I hope that makes sense! If not, I may be able to put together some kind of tutorial for that.
July 24th, 2009 at 7:48 pm
I understand, thanks again for the tutorial!
October 26th, 2009 at 3:38 am
For a good time, contact Michelle at lmlutzel@cox.net or (480)296-6383