Pink Flower Necklace

WARNING: I am NOT a professional maker of jewelry, so please bear with me.

About a month ago, I went to Kohl's and spotted this beautiful necklace.

Ok, you are probably wondering which one since there are a billion!  I'm talking about the big flower necklace. I loved how the petals looked like glass and I loved the fact that it was so big (dainty little necklaces pretty much accentuate my broad linebacker shoulders!). The problem with the necklace was that it was around $22 or so. I know that's pocket change for some people, but not for me!

I seriously could not get my mind off of this necklace so I decided to go back and take a picture of it so I could attempt to make something similar.  I knew right away that I wanted to use plastic so that I could paint the underside to give it a glassy look, but where would I get the plastic from?

Well, it just so happens that my dad took my son to Wally World and bought him this:

(Well, there was a toy in there, but Elijah already took it out before I took this picture!)

Have I ever mentioned how spoiled my son is? I guess that's what grandparents are for though! Anyway, the plastic packaging was perfect. I'm not suggesting that you go out and buy this toy for your kids just to make the necklace, but I'm sure your kids wouldn't really mind =)  If not though, you could always use a plastic soda bottle.

Ok, so I had my plastic, but I needed a template for the flower (I really don't trust my freehand skills!), so I looked online and found this:

(source)

I did have to resize it, but I used IrfanView which made it super simple (I resized it to 220 for the width).

Next, I copied and pasted 3 flowers into a Word document and printed it out.

Then, I did a rough cut and taped it onto the plastic...

and then cut the individual flowers out. Once that was done, I picked the prettiest pink out of my paint box and went ahead and painted them.

Here they are with the backside painted:

I also did 2 coats of a matte finish to prevent scratches since no primer was used.  Once that was dry, it was time to attach some embellishments to the front. I went to Joann's and bought these flowers for $2.99.

 

I ended up using the inner petals only.

I also got a pack of 3 buttons for $1.50.  To attach the embellishments, I started by placing a button in the center of each flower and poking through the holes with a craft knife.

(If you look really hard, you can see the two holes)

Then I used some fishing line and strung it from the back, through the center of the silk flower, then up and around the button, back through the center of the silk flower, then through the second hole I made in the plastic flower and finished it off with a square knot. Are ya still with me?

After I added the embellishments to all flowers,I decided to attach the flowers with jump rings, like in the inspiration necklace, so I decided where I wanted them and then made a little hole using a craft knife.

I also attached the chain using jump rings. And since I wanted the necklace to be long (remember the shoulders, folks?), I didn't have to bother with a clasp.

It looked so pretty up close, but from far away, the chain just looked too plain.

So once again, I referred back to the inspiration necklace and noticed they used ribbon with the chain.  Fortunately, I already had the perfect pink ribbon in my stash.

I threaded the ribbon through each jump ring (using enough to do a double strand) and tied a knot, then I tied the ends.

Ahhh, much better!

Total cost? $4.50 for the flowers and buttons. Much better than $22!

Here is a pic of the inspiration piece again:

It's not identical, but mine has the main elements that I liked in the original.

Hmm, now I guess I need to actually get out of the house and wear it somewhere!