Make This - Sparkling Hearts Necklace

This pendant is made by masking and painting an acrylic piece, then carefully gluing in place lots of sparkly bits.



Supplies and Equipment:

• 2" heart pendant base (pink acrylic is shown)
• black paint
• silver no-hole beads in two sizes
• heart shaped rhinestones
• clear glue
• clear glaze
• toothpicks or a rhinestone tool
• masking tape
• utility or exacto knife and cutting surface

Trace your heart onto paper and plan a design.  I folded my heart in half and traced the design across so it would be symmetrical.

Put a piece of masking tape onto a cutting surface like this self-healing mat.  Trace the design onto the tape - I put the pattern over masking tape and traced the design with a lot of pressure.  Cut with the utility knife so that you have a piece of tape cut to shape.  Place it onto your heart pendant.

Paint over the edges of the masking with something clear - your clear glue or clear nail polish are good choices.  Let dry.

Paint the unmasked areas black.  Let dry, recoat if necessary until you have an opaque finish.

Carefully peel the masking - you may need to lightly score the edges with the knife first.

Glue large no-hole beads at all of the corners and let them set up.  This will offer resistance when you're filling in the rest of the lines.

Glue in the rest of the large beads along the masked lines.  Tuck tiny beads in between them.

Glue the heart shaped rhinestones in place and fill in with beads around them.

Let it all dry completely, then apply a clear glaze.  Use the least amount of glaze possible to cover it, and keep the glaze off the rhinestones.  Glazing over rhinestones softens their facets and makes them less sparkly.  Let dry completely before turning into jewelry!