Great Summer Craft with the Kids: Glass Pendant Necklace (or Keychain!)

I found this cute idea for making glass pendant necklaces over at Simply Modern Mom and I knew this would be a fun craft to make with my kids this summer…. I could use the glass tiles as necklaces for the girls, and keychains for the boys. I was able to purchase everything needed for this project at our local craft store- including the 1-inch square glass tiles.

As suggested in Simply Modern Mom's tutorial I first cleaned the glass tiles with a damp cloth, and then laid them out (upside down) on a piece of wax paper. Next the kids and I selected the scrapbook or origami paper we wished to use, and using my scrapbook paper trimmer, we cut out our perfect little 1-inch squares. Using Diamond Glaze, we glued our papers face down to the back of the tiles (so our image would show through the glass).

And after an hour, we added another coat of Diamond Glaze to the back of the paper to seal it nicely.

Now came the hard part (well, for me anyway!)… attaching the bails. (Bails are the small loop thingy that goes at the top of the pendant allowing you to attach the pendant to a chain.) The tutorial sure made it sounds as if all I needed was a nice small dab of E6000 (a crafting super glue) and then just press the bail into place and the whole thing would bond together nicely. Perhaps the bails I purchased were simply too heavy… but my bails just kept sliding off the top of the glass tile.

So I used a large “glob” of E6000 and held the bail in place by propping it up on a chenille stem (which in my childhood were once known as pipe cleaners) while it dried… which took about 24 hours.