"Toad"ly Crafty

Finger Print Pendant Tutorial

Supply list:

Mold

Resin or diamond glaze

foil tape

black ink pad

velum

bead

eye post

This mold is made for resin jewelry. We bought it at Hobby Lobby for $4.99. It has been very loved and there fore worth the price, plus my mom paid for so, for me really worth it :)

So I started by having my hubby stamp his finger with the black ink pad on to velum. You can use regular printer paper, but the pendant won't be opaque.

My DH insists that rolling his finger was better then putting it straight on the paper and lifting it straight off. But it ends up looking like the above pitcher, a bit smudged. So I would recommend the straight down, straigth up approach when stamping the finger print.

To get the heart look I stamped my finger slightly over lapping his. (Sorry about the pink smudges, those are on my table, not on the vellum)

You can see this creates a heartish like shape.

I used a pencil to lightly draw a heart shape. It doesn't quite take in the whole finger print, but most of the middle is included.

Then I cut it out. Be careful not to touch the stamped image, it will smear.

For this necklace I used our initials - C & S - with the word forever, smaller in a different font.

You can get really creative with this part. I made this in pain, mostly because I have not broke down and bought photo shop yet.

Notice I printed this on printer paper. But if you wanted a more opaque look, use vellum.

I then cut everything down to the size I wanted and arranged it in my mold. I added a gemstone, to give it some bling. I did the same thing with the one I am doing to represent my kids. I used a quote by a religious leader in my church, it says "The tiny fingerprints that show, will disappear all too soon, and you will miss them" It is actually a shortened down version of his quote, but still affective. Then I stamped my kids finger prints over it. This time I used brown ink, so it wouldn't blend to much with the printed words. A gemstone representing each of them was then added.

The resin I use is from Roberts craft store, but I know it is also available at Hobby Lobby. I have had it so long I can't even remember the brand name. It was around $10, but I used a 50% coupon on it. It really has lasted through many projects, including this, the playing pieces for this and the nine planets necklace here . It is great for doing scrabble tiles also! Mine is a two part mix, so you mix a 1:1 ratio.

Diamond glaze could also be used for this step.

The key to the 1:1 ratio resin is to stir the heck out of it, until little bubbles form.

Then I fill the mold half full with some resin. Notice the bubbles in the above photo.

This is were the heat gun is very important. It gets ride of those bubbles in a matter of seconds. If you skip this step, then the bubbles will harden and ruin the look of the necklace.

Once all the bubbles are removed its time to add in your fingerprints and other items. Make sure you put them in up side down, because we want the smooth round part on the bottom to be the front of the necklace.

Use the spoon to push the embellishments down into the resin. The fill up the remainder of the mold with resin.

There will be more bubbles, so just use the heat gun again to get rid of those. This can get a bit messy so make sure you have covered your work surface if you don't want to ruin it

Here is a what the my pendants look like in the mold.

Now they need to harden. This will take about 24 hours or so.

This is the foil tape. I purchased it at Micheal's. It seems it was about $2.99 or so.

Once your pendant is all set, remove it from the mold. Since mine is still setting and I want to get this tutorial out done for ya, I am using another one I had from the first time I did this project. Notice it is not very clear...this is what it looks like if you don't use the heat gun to remove the bubbles.

Cut a piece of foil that will fit around all four sides of the pendant.

This stuff is super sticky and once it is on the pendant, it will not tolerate being moved very much, so I only removed a little bit of the paper backing at a time.

Sorry this is a terrible picture, but it is just showing you to center the pendant side so that it is in the middle of the tape.

Wrap all four sides.

Then use your nail to fold the foil over the rounded front.

This picture is of the back. I just fold the foil tape onto its self, but you can fold it over the back side of the pendant, but you will see it a little through the front of the pendant.

Using a tiny, tiny drill bit, drill a whole in the center of the top side. This is were we are going to attach a post.

In this picture you can see the drill bit entering the pendant.

I am not sure what this little thing is called, I always call it a eye post in my head. Cut this down to about 1/4 inch long.

Add the a bead to the post. Then dip the pointy end in some E600 glue. And put in the whole that was drilled out of the pendant. Allow to set for several hours to ensure the glue is dry and the post is firmly in place.