Crafty Quickies: 15 Minute Pendants from Recyclables

I’m so excited to be a part of Cara and Angie’s Crafty Quickies series. Each of the projects featured can be made in 15 minutes or less!  Be sure to check out all the other posts each day for more Crafty Quickies.  Do you have a great 15 minute project to share? Go here to link up your Crafty Quickies too!

If you know me, you know how much I love to use items I have around the house.  And, if I can recycle something into a new craft instead of tossing it away, it makes me very happy!  The main ingredient in these fun and funky pendants is toilet paper rolls.

Note: throughout this project, I’ve been using Aleene’s Tacky Glue. 

At this point, it’s mainly a matter of embellishing your pendant.  I applied a coat of 3D Crystal Lacquer inside and out to add a layer of protection to the pendant.  I also created my own “bail” from a piece of the toilet paper tube as shown below:

I cut a small strip and used a crochet hook (a pen or pencil or something similar would work as well) to roll up part of it, leaving a flat piece to glue to the back of the pendant.  I added a dab of glue to hold the curled part in place as well.

You can see the bail attached to the pendant here.  I made a simple flower to continue with the rustic look of this pendant using strips of toilet paper tube.  I made one larger strip for the base and a smaller one for the center of the flower.  Into each strip, I simply used my scissors to cut slits, creating essentially a cardboard fringe.  I rolled each of these up, securing with glue as I went along, and then “fluffed” them out into the flower petals.  For the final touch, I added a pop of colour with a couple of tiny buttons from my stash.  To create a little depth of colour, I used a cosmetic sponge to dab on some brown ink from an stamping ink pad around the edges of the pendant.

For another take on this pendant, here’s one that’s a bit less rustic:

The base for this one was done in just the same manner as the first one, it’s just the embellishment that adds a new look to it.

Using my handy dandy flower punch from EK Success, I punched out a strip from a piece of American Crafts paper.

Roll it up, adding dabs of glue as you go to secure it, just as you did with the cardboard fringe in the first example.  Fluff and fan it out into flower petals and glue into the pendant base.

For the flower center, there are, of course, many options – buttons, charms, pompoms, and so much more.  Here I used a felt dimensional sticker from Jolee’s Boutique.

Another adorable option – these were some doodads from a Maya Road assortment pack.

I think the possibilities are really endless.  Instead of using recycled napkins like I have here, you could paint the pendant, cover with pretty tissue paper or scrapbooking paper.  I think this last option would be lovely if the background were a pretty coordinating scrapbooking paper to add a little punch.

I stuck with flowers for my embellishments in this project (I’m on a bit of a flower kick lately) but you could certainly put other items inside – make it look more like a locket with a photo or other image in it, make your own version of a cameo with a silhouette in there, use it as a mini shadowbox to create a little scene in there.

What would you put in these pendants?