Colorful Monogram Charm Necklace

Make Your Own Initial Charms

As you (hopefully) know… I have a podcast with my blog bestie, Erin Spain. And one of the projects she posted a few weeks ago (shown here) involved this magical material and I’ve been desperate to use it ever since. I LOVED what Erin did and the idea of making jewelry stuck with me. And then Eleanor and I were shopping for her birthday party and I stumbled across these… and a project was created. So easy. So cheap. So satisfying. So copy-cat-ish.

Step 1. Design your Monogram

I use PicMonkey for all of my graphics, so I settled on a color scheme and font and created an image with the initials I wanted to use. In my case one for each member of the family. I had to try a couple of times to print at the right scale for the pendant charms I was working with. I printed on plain ol’ computer paper.

Step 2. Cut Out Initials

With scissors, I cut out each initial, being careful not to leave any little hint of white border around each letter.

Step 3. Glue letters onto pendant

Using whatever Mod Podge I had on hand, I first glued the initials onto the pendants. I made sure each initial was straight and was careful to seal the edge but not get too much Mod Podge underneath the charm.

When the Mod Podge was dry, I went back with a nail file and gentle filed the edges to clean up any overhanging paper.

Step 4. Make Some Magic

Once the letters (and Mod Podge) are totally dry, I was able to put on the Mod Podge dimensional magic. Let’s take a minute to acknowledge how COOL this stuff is. It goes on like glue and dries CRYSTAL clear and is thick enough that it doesn’t overflow the edge and maintains a lovely rounded surface.  My pendants have NO edge and the dimensional magic gave each charm some dimension. To apply the Mod Podge, I used the tip to dispense it one drop at a time and then used a pin to carefully remove any air bubbles or to help the Mod Podge reach the very edge of each charm.

Step 5. Leave to dry

I didn’t want the pendants to look lopsided, so I placed a ruler under the edge to keep them horizontal. I left them to dry overnight and then strung them onto a simple leather lanyard to tie around my neck as a choker.

This would be so easy to make with kids and they could pick whatever little image they wanted for their own necklace: unicorn, mermaid, pickle… ANYTHING! Did I mention the whole thing will cost you under $10 and you’ll have enough leftover to make dozens more? I can’t wait to try it again with something else!