Mixed Media Collage Necklace (using Jewel Pop elements)

Recently our good friends Cathie & Steve sent us some samples of their brand new Jewel Pop Shop collection. Since we love so much of the collection, it wasn't easy to decide what elements to work with first. But right away I guess I was most drawn to the piece you see above. I just love the shape, and knew that I could create something great within that crescent. In our book we have a project called the Sweet Spot Necklace, and in it we use one of Cathie & Steve's

Mod Podgeable necklace shapes. I love that particular project and I sorta had something similar in mind for this piece. This one will be assembled in pretty much the same way. The plastic crescent shape is also mod podgeable and we can adhere whatever imagery we want to the back of it with just a little bit of mod podge or other decoupage medium.

For the necklace in our book we used artwork that we had taken from a "Sweet Spot" of an Art Journal page. For this piece I used our Allie & Amy painting as a starting point. This is one of my fave paintings of ours and I'd love to have a wearable version of it. So, I just snapped a pic and then printed it out in a size that would fit the crescent shape.

These are the main elements. The black and white polka dot paper will be the accent pattern, and the pink floral is one of our own hand painted original patterns. I thought it would work as the perfect backdrop for Allie & Amy.

I cut out Allie & Amy, laid them on top of the pink floral paper, and placed the crescent shape over them to figure out the positioning of things.

Using the plastic piece as a template on the pink floral I traced the crescent shape and cut it out. Then positioned Allie & Amy where I wanted them and adhered them with some decoupage medium, and then brushed a top coat over it.

When the top coat dried I then brushed a slight antique wash around Allie & Amy and along the outer edge of the crescent.

I felt like it needed a pop of color, so I mixed up some aqua paint and used a small foam dauber to add some polka dots.

Next I traced black & white polka dot shapes to fit the gold end pieces.

I adhered the collage of Allie & Amy to the plastic crescent using some decoupage medium, adhering them face-up to the back of the crescent so that the plastic acts as a protective shield. When you adhere the paper to the plastic piece you should use a dry piece of paper towel to apply pressure to the back, thus rubbing out any air bubbles. When you look at the image through the plastic it may appear cloudy, but don't worry, it will dry clear. And I took a little extra care when adhering the polka dot paper to the gold end pieces. I first sanded the metal to scuff up the surface, and adhered the polka dot paper with Crafty Chica's Extreme Embellishment Glue. Then brushed over it with a topcoat of decoupage medium.

When all of the pieces were dry, I sanded off the excess paper around the edges.

I then used the same black & white polka dot for the back. I just traced and cut out the crescent shape and with decoupage medium I adhered it to the back to finish it off. Then added a top coat for protection. I sanded the excess paper here too.

Once it was dry I poked the holes through with a pushpin, and attached all of the necklace elements with the jump rings.

I just love how easily it all came together. Maybe the hardest part is selecting your imagery. But once you've got that figured out, the rest is really pretty much cut & paste.

As you can see, I barely even scratched the surface with the Jewel Pop collection. I have so many ideas for future pieces of jewelry. If I find the time to make any, I'll definitely share the process with you guys. And a BIG Congrats to Cathie & Steve on a fabulous collection!
Thanks so much again for checking in! Hope you loved this little necklace project! xo, Jenny…and Aaron says hi!