Mother’s Day is just around the corner, and we have been crafting up a storm in our household! Emily made a whole tray of these personalized initial pendants for her grandmothers and several friends, and I made a bunch too. They are lots of fun to make!
First smooth out some oven bake clay to about 1/4 inch thickness between two pieces of waxed paper. One package of clay can make a LOT of necklaces!
Next, we used alphabet stamps for the letters! If you don’t already have these, they are worth investing in as we have gotten so much mileage from them for various craft projects and for handwriting practice. We use Melissa and Doug’s set, found here –
Melissa and Doug Alphabet Stamp Set
Emily’s favorite part was trimming off the edges with a knife from a toddler’s feeding set! A plastic knife would work well too.
She poked a hole for the string using a bamboo skewer. When we had a whole tray of them done, we baked them according to the package’s instructions… fun!!
Wear your creation!! They are about the size of a Scrabble tile when finished.
These could be painted after baking, but we chose to stay with the terra cotta look. Have fun!!
May 7th, 2010 on 8:09 am
What a fun and simple idea.
May 7th, 2010 on 8:09 am
I'm going to do something similar today using sculpey for the kids.
May 7th, 2010 on 8:15 am
I really like that, and your timing was perfect – I was just searching for Mother's Day jewelry crafts (I was actually hoping to come up with something to do with all my bread clips – any ideas?)
May 7th, 2010 on 8:16 am
Great idea! We could make a day of this on Saturday and still have them ready for Mother's Day.
Thanks!
May 7th, 2010 on 8:16 am
I am pretty sure the trimming with a knife would be a favorite part here too – the rest would probably be "delegated" to me
May 7th, 2010 on 8:44 am
I was planning on letting my 1st grader Sunday School students make your wonderful washer necklaces. We even started the process with painting them this past Sunday, but when I went to clean up my classroom on Wednesday, ALL the washers were GONE!!!
(Oh, the JOYS of sharing spaces…)
SO, I am NOW going to do this idea with Sculpy, and have the kiddos put their thumbprint on the pendant, which I saw on another blog…
But, now that I've seen THIS, plans may change…
May 7th, 2010 on 8:54 am
@ Ticia — We used sculpey too, and one package can make a LOT of pendents. I know we'll be using it for other projects too. Have fun!
@ Wonder Mom — What is this world coming to, when painted washers aren't safe in a church??
I think the kiddos will have a great time making these, and they are so simple and quick to do!
May 7th, 2010 on 8:55 am
@ An Almost Unschooling Mom — I must have been picking up on the "Mother's Day Jewelry" vibes! I have a large collection of bread clips too….. Now you've got me thinking…….. Hmmm…
May 7th, 2010 on 9:20 am
Oh, here's the site for the Sculpy thumbprint pendants:
http://belladia.typepad.com/crafty_crow/2010/04/fingerprint-pendant-tutorial.html
May 7th, 2010 on 9:59 am
I really like this idea! Very nice gift.
May 7th, 2010 on 11:47 am
so cute! can you believe that my husband asked me today if i was aware that mother's day was this weekend? yes…..
May 7th, 2010 on 11:55 am
Great idea! We even have some letter stamps, but back home not at Gramma's house where we'll be for Mother's Day. Maybe we can come up with some manly version for Father's Day – I'm thinking a key chain might work =)
May 7th, 2010 on 12:27 pm
Love, love, love that! I don't think I knew anything about baking clay (is that what it's called?) until I started reading your blog.
May 7th, 2010 on 12:50 pm
Adorable. My daughter was very excited to see that her alphabet stamps are famous.
May 7th, 2010 on 12:53 pm
Absolutely adorable! I can't wait until my little guy is old enough to make me something for Mother's Day. Maybe daddy will help him colour me a card this year:)
May 7th, 2010 on 2:06 pm
I love this idea, so cute and simple to do!
May 7th, 2010 on 2:27 pm
That is such a pretty necklace for a little one to make.
May 8th, 2010 on 6:55 am
what a cute idea! I have so much of that clay – I will have to try this with my kids – maybe we can use it to make gifts – too late for Mother's Day. We did something else instead. Thanks for sharing!
May 8th, 2010 on 11:14 am
You have a really cute website. I'm just getting around to replying to people…I'm sorry if I'm late here or if I've already replied to you, but I just wanted to personally thank you for coming to our website and entering our giveaway contest for the Amazon gift card. Thank you for visiting our website and I hope you will return! Have a great weekend!
May 8th, 2010 on 3:40 pm
These are really cute. Great idea, thank you for sharing.
Happy Mother's Day to you!
May 9th, 2010 on 8:52 pm
Great idea!
You take really nice pictures. Thanks for sharing
Greta
http://www.taketworeviews.com
May 9th, 2010 on 9:51 pm
oo love these! I will have to make some of these for the grandmothers
May 18th, 2010 on 2:10 am
This is so creative I like everything you make its so uniquely gorgeous,perfect gift for a mother's day. Wish I saw this earlier!
vee
June 25th, 2010 on 12:30 am
What a wonderful idea! Mother's Day is an opportunity to give back to mom and this personalized gift is an excellent way of showing your utmost gratitude.
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November 10th, 2010 on 2:45 pm
Much appreciated, it’s really hard to find things to keep my children busy out here in the country. They expressed some interest in the kitchen last week, my little boy too, so I’ve been trying out some of the kids recipes here. They seems to enjoy those!