Necklace Set DIY- Dainty and Designer-Style!

A trend throughout the summer has been small metallic charms on dainty chains. Celebs like Cameron Diaz and Giada De Laurentiis have been spotted displaying this trend, and it's actually really easy to replicate for an everyday crafter (like us!). 

Giada and Cameron rock the style

I took a gander at Emily Elizabeth's website, a jewelry designer endorsed by celebs like Lauren Conrad, and found a great set of charm necklaces easy enough to make at home! I chose to show how to make the diamond necklace; it's really the easiest shape, and you can apply the technique later to make all the others! I use polymer clay and my own faux-metallic method to give the impression of real gold!

The full tutorial awaits below!

Emily Elizabeth Cards Necklace Set- 14K Gold

My version. Pretty similar, no?!

Step 1: gather materials. For making the diamond charm, you will need a pasta machine (for rolling clay. If you don't have one, you can use a smooth marker as a rolling pin), a paintbrush, a tissue blade (use scissors or a sharp knife if you don't have one), a dainty gold chain, a gold headpin, roundnose pliers, a swatch of knobby-textured wallpaper, marble-sized piece of gold colored clay and gold eyeshadow. For the later steps, you will need gold shimmery nail polish and a golden jump ring.

Step 2: create a loop on your gold headpin. Just take the roundnose pliers, create a loop at one end. Take the wire just at the place the wire loops back and touches, and bend the straight part back to make a lollipop shape. Next, roll the gold clay through the largest setting on your pasta machine (or roll with marker to about 2cm. thick). Take a pencil and draw a very small diamond onto the clay a little less than .5" tall. The key here is to think small! Emily Elizabeth's charms are 1/4". That was a little too small for me to make a nice-looking charm, so I made it a little bigger.

Step 3: cut out the diamond shape with your tissue blade. Make sure it is as perfectly-shaped as possible. If it's not perfect, try again. It won't look professional and designer-quality! Now, take your swatch of wallpaper (look at the texture on mine, this is what you want). Gently press on your clay diamond, making sure not to distort the shape. If this happens, you can carefully trim all edges again to obtain a crisp diamond shape.

Step 4: carefully brush the top of your diamond with the gold eyeshadow. Make sure you get it all into the textured parts, making sure you get a good shine all around. You can press down a little hard to make sure the shadow adheres. Now, bake the piece (I used a toaster oven set at 150 degrees for 15 minutes). If you are using a regular oven, I usually do about 215 degrees at 20 minutes. Let it cool completely. (Get out some gold nail polish, you will need it next!) When that's cool, superglue your loop to the back of the charm as above. Make sure none of the straight part pokes out above the tip.

Step 5: For finishing the charm, get out a bottle of sheer gold nail polish (nothing too thick or severely colored. We want subtle shine here). Carefully brush one coat all over the top and sides of the charm, making sure it is not super thick and doesn't cover up all of that good shimmery eyeshadow. Use your loop as a holding place to not smudge the charm with your fingers. Let that dry overnight, just to make sure everything is super-dry. The worst is still having that wet nail polish smell and tackiness!

Attach a gold jump ring to your loop. Attach the ring to your gold chain. Wear your new creation proudly, and let everyone think you spend $70 on it!!

To make all the other shapes, just cut your clay (in steps 1 and 2) to the spade, clover, and heart icons. Using an X-acto knife or even a sharp paring knife will help here.

My designer diamond necklace!

My diamond and heart-shaped necklaces.

If you share/use/post this tutorial, please link back to me. It is much appreciated!