Wednesday, April 25, 2012

DIY Rosette Necklace

Its official, we have entered the busy season.  CPA's have tax season, Youth Pastors have summer season (graduation, summer camp, mission trips, vba and new year kick offs).  Don't get me wrong, we love it - its not a bad busy, its a fun busy and we love every minute of it and I can't wait to share some of the things that we experience throughout the summer.  But more involved projects have taken a back burner and I've been enjoying some crafty things as of late.  So today starts a crafty project parade of sorts that I will be sharing over the next couple of weeks, yay!  So let's get to it.

One of my favorite craft pastimes is jewelry making.  Most of you know I have a little etsy shop where I sell some of the things I make.  For me, sitting down, being creative and making something new is such a relaxing and mind clearing pastime.  If I'm feeling a little stressed or overwhelmed making jewelry is my go-to project.  It just works for me.  I'm actually surprised I'm just now sharing a jewelry craft with you since I enjoy it so much and frequently spend time doing it.


Most of you have seen these cute and sweet little rosette necklaces on the web, but I still wanted to share my take on it with you.  This is a really easy and simple jewelry project to start with, you need basic supplies and I actually made mine with leftover scraps and materials I already had, so this was a free project for me!  

Ok, so basic jewelry making tools - these three tools will get you through tons of jewelry making hours.  You don't necessarily need all of these for this necklace, it's doable without them, but if you are using chain then it makes it so much easier.


Here's a list of supplies you will need:
- scrap fabric (could also be an old t shirt you could cut up)
- felt (I used a scrap piece - you can find packs of 10 at the $1 store)
- hot glue gun
- scissors
-chain, ribbon, leather (I used chain from a necklace I no longer used)
Optional:
- Round Nose Pliers/Flat-nose pliers (for attaching a clasp if needed)
- Wire Cutters (If you need to cut your chain)

So I'm starting out this tutorial with the assumption that you already know how to make a basic fabric Rosette - I have that much faith in your crafting abilities.  If you don't know how to make a rosette, it's pretty simple, it's basically twisting a strip of fabric and rolling it around, gluing as you go to make a rosette.  If you don't know how - here is a great tutorial!


So once you have made your rosette's - I made five for this necklace - you need to break out the felt and cut out a small circle for each. As you can see from the picture below, these are very precise circles - j/k.  I didn't care what my circles looked like, they just needed to be a little smaller than my rosette.  After you have your felt circles, hot glue them to the back of your fabric flowers.


Next, hot glue three of your rosettes right on a square of felt the way you would like to have them arranged.  I also glued a little between the rosettes to keep them together.



Then you need to bust out your chain.  I had a necklace I never wore anymore and decided to re-use that chain for this project (this is where wire cutters would come in handy since I needed to detach it from the old necklace and cut two equal strands).  If you don't have any available chain, its pretty inexpensive and available at any craft store these days, you can even find it at Walmart.  You could also use a different material instead of chain like ribbon or leather.  Just be creative, use what you have.

If you decide to buy chain, make sure you also purchase a clasp and jump ring to attach the clasp to the chain.  Here's a great tutorial for using jump rings (plus some more great basic jewelry techniques).


So after you have your two equal chain sections (or ribbon, etc), simply hot glue that chain to the back of the rosette and then to the felt - right next to your trio of previous glued-down rosettes.


Simple.  I did add a bit more glue to the back when I flipped it over to glue it down to the felt - just to make sure it was plenty sticky.


After you have glued everything down you are ready for the final step - cutting it out.  This is my least favorite part because you have to get in-between all of those flowers.  This is where a neutral colored felt piece would have been awesome, but like I said I just used scrap felt that I already had laying around. 


Now you are ready to put that cute little necklace on and take a picture of your dirty smugged mirror - this is a step, don't leave it out or else it won't turn out right.


So trying to take a picture of me wearing this necklace was a fail, I had some better ones but they were either crooked, dark or weird.  But, look at this sweet rosette necklace....don't you want to go make one now?


Thanks for joining stopping by today, more crafty things to come!

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7 comments:

  1. As always, your creations are fabulous! Love it. :) I think we should really get together and go craft-crazy, sometime!!!

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  2. Looks like another great Mother's Day gift!

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  3. I love that fabric ^_^ thank you for sharing the tutorial!

    craftingforbliss.blogspot.com

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  4. such pretty fabric you used. i tried to follow tutorials on making the rosettes and mine turned out awful, i guess i am just not to make rosettes :-( but i really like yours!

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    1. Thanks so much Meg! It took me few times to get them right :).

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  5. If your chain was the length you wanted your final necklace to be could you just glue the individual rosettes right to the chain and keep it in tact? Would that work?

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    1. I suppose you could but I think the felt helps to keep it a little studier and gluing the chain between two felt pieces gives you a better hold. Thanks for stopping by!

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