Valentines Day Necklace

If you missed it, a little bit ago I was lucky enough to be able to guest post over at Tatertots & Jello! I came up with a sweet necklace for Valentines Day but the technique is versatile enough to be able to make a similar necklace for any occasion! Here's the tutorial:

My favorite craft of all time is jewelry making. With Valentines Day right around the corner, I thought I would whip up a girly necklace with Valentines Day colors!

I'll give you a heads up: by looking at this necklace it LOOKS like it is difficult to make, but really jewelry making is simple after you learn a few basic techniques! I've been very thorough with my pictures on this tutorial so even if you've never made jewelry before don't be afraid to give it a try!

The first thing I did for this necklace was gather up some red, pink, and purple beads. The red and pink beads are from Michaels - they are faceted acrylic beads in size 8mm.  The purple beads are 6mm that I found in my own stash.

The findings you will need for this project are chain, head pins, a clasp and jump rings. Make sure your chain has medium size links (do not want a fine chain for this project). All these supplies can be found at a basic craft store.

The tools needed for this necklace are needle nose pliers (I prefer bent-nose needle nose pliers), wire cutters, and round nose pliers.

The first step is to cut your chain to length for the base of the necklace using wire cutters.

Next, grab a head pin and string on a purple bead.

Find the center of your chain and insert the head pin through the center link.

Add on a red bead

Then, using needle nose pliers, grad the wire right above the red bead and bend it 90 degrees

Use wire cutters to trim off most of the wire, leaving only a short tail (about half an inch)

Use your round nose pliers to grab the tail at the end and bend it around the round nose pliers to form a loop. Bend until the loop is closed (you can used needle nose pliers to help squeeze it shut if needed)

Set the necklace aside for a moment and grab another head pin and string on a pink bead

Grab your needle nose pliers again and bend the wire 90 degrees

Trim off the excess wire with wire cutters

And then use round nose pliers to bend the tail into a circle

Don't bend this one all the way closed - leave a small gap

Attach the pink bead onto the loop at the bottom of the red bead

Squeeze the loop shut with needle nose pliers.

Got it? Good! Because that's the most difficult technique of the whole necklace. After you get it down you just need to repeat until you fill up the necklace with more beads. I spaced mine out every other link (if you are using different size beads or chain you may need to adjust accordingly

Here's mine all beaded up:

The last step then is just to attach a clasp to the back of the necklace. To do so, use a jump ring to attach the clasp to the chain. I used a lobster claw clasp so the other side just needs a larger jump ring to grab onto.

Use needle nose pliers to open the jump ring to the side, attach the end of the chain and the clasp, then close it back up. Do the same for the jump rings on the other side.

After the clasp is on, connect it and you are done!

That wasn't so bad now, was it?? The great thing about this necklace is that this version is fun and girly and great for Valentines day, but you could easily make a version with all black beads or with a different color scheme for a classier look!

Now...to plan my Valentines Day outfit to match my necklace!!!! :)

I'll be linking up to these parties:

Monday: CraftOManiac Monday, Making Monday Marvelous, Market Yourself Monday, Motivate Me Monday. Craftastic Monday, Just Something I Whipped Up,, More the Merrier Monday, Made By You Mondays, Tutorials and TIps,  Making the World Cuter,  Make it Monday,

Tuesdays: Tip Me Tuesday, Tutorial Tuesday, Take-a-Look Tuesday, Show Me What Ya Got, Talent Tuesday, Get Your Craft On,Homework, Ta-da Tuesday

Wednesdays: Your Whims Wednesday, Creative Share Wednesday, We did it Wednesday, Sugar and Spice, Whatever Goes Wednesday, Show & Share,Lil Luna, The 36th Avenue 

Thursdays: A Crafty Soiree, Strut Your Stuff, 20 Below Thursdays, Hookin Up With House of Hepworths, Catch a Glimpse

Friday: Friday Favs on Naptime Crafters, Weekend Wrap-Up Party, Frugal Friday, Sassy Sites, Show and Share Day, Fantabulous Friday, Simply Creations Friday, Once Upon a Weekend, Weekend Bloggy Reading

Saturdays: Whatcha Got Weekend, Saturday Night Special, Show and Tell Saturdays, Scraptastic Saturday,  Positively Splendid

Sundays: Sundae Scoop, Sunday Showcase, Think Pink Sundays 

This post sponsored by: