Flower Pendant

In this Instructable I want to teach you how to make your own beautiful flower pendant. These pendants are perfect for Mother's day, as they maintain the tradition and sentiment of giving flowers, but will last much, much longer.

I went with flowers because it is spring and floral patterns and artwork seem to be popping up everywhere. This same Instructable can, however, be used with any image, for any occasion.

The first thing you are going to need for this Instructable is some shrink plastic. I got mine at Michael's and really love the frosted matte side for coloring. You can get plastic papers that are frosted on one side, completely clear, or even white in color. The frosted ones I find give more control when coloring and when heated turn completely clear. It is my personal favorite, but feel free to try them all and see which one you like best.

Next you will need a black, fine tip marker for drawing your flower.

Pictures of flowers you can trace can be found in magazines, online, or from books. I used my old Tattoo source book for these flower images.

To color you can use almost anything. I prefer pencil crayons and highly recommend them. They blend best and show a bright vibrant color after they are heated.

You will also need a cookie sheet, some scissors, a few silver colored O-rings (the number depends on how you plan on hanging your pendant and how many pendants you are making), a drill with a small drill bit, small craft pliers, and some silver colored chain.

Now that you have all you materials, find the image you would like to use for your flower pendant.

Hold the shrink plastic firmly over the image with the roughest side up.

Using your fine tip black marker, trace the image onto your paper.

When the image is drawn, give the marker a few minutes to dry, otherwise you risk smudging black into the color.

After about ten minutes, use your pencil crayons to color the image. I find this step a lot more satisfying if I have a few different reference pictures of flowers to get a more accurate idea of how to color them. You can of course color them any way you want. This is the best step to let your imagination run wild with. Be creative.

Even though this plastic has a frosted finish it will bake completely clear, so make sure anything you want to be white is colored with a white pencil. It helps to hold the flower up against a dark background to see where the white is.

When you are ready to cut, use your scissors and careful cut around the flowers, leaving some space between the black line and the edge.

Place the flower cut outs on a cookie sheet and preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.

When ready, place the cookie sheet in the oven for one to three minutes.

It is best to turn the light on and watch them bake to get the best results. The flowers will curl up as they shrink. When they flatten themselves back out, give them another 30 seconds then remove them from the heat.

DO NOT TOUCH THEM. THEY WILL BE EXTREMELY HOT.

Let them cool completely before moving on to the next step.

In order to wear these flowers as pendants you will need to drill holes in them.

Using a small drill bit and an electric drill, drill one small hole in the center top of the flower image, OR one small hole on each side of the flower pendant, depending on the design.

I do not have a work bench for drilling safely so I put a piece of wood down to drill into. I highly recommend this if you don't have a proper work station so you don't accidentally drill into your kitchen table or counter top.

In the newly drilled holes, place one silver toned o-ring. Before closing the ring, place a chain through the O-ring bale.

Close the o-ring with your craft pliers.

The first two images are examples of a traditional hanging pendant with one o-ring through the top center of the pendant.

The second two images are examples of a flower "bar" pendant, with one o-ring on each side being attached to the chain.

The front is whichever side you like best.

For the first image, I prefer the look of the soft matte flower. For the other three I think they look better from the glossy side. It really is personal preference at this point. Wear them as you like and enjoy your colorful flowers year round :)