Photograph Jewelry

(note: all pictures will be at the bottom of the posts…Family members – you have fair warning right now – do not read any further – it will ruin your surprise!)

I will admit – this project is a bit tedious…but I believe the end is worth it. I originally found the idea here but I could not find the self adhesive frames mentioned in the project so I had to come up with my own idea :-)

I did find at Hobby Lobby picture frame charms.  They were about $3 for a pack of 4 charms.  Since I have really not ever made any jewelry I decided to purchase the charm bracelets they had that were already assembled…all you have to do is add the charms.  I also bought some spray clear acrylic to help seal the pictures.

Of course I learned some very important lessons from this project.  First off, if you are going to make your pictures the very small size that is needed for the charms (the square charm pictures were 3/8” x 3/8”) then you need to up the resolution of your picture before decreasing your size.  I changed the resolution to 500 pixels per inch.  This will keep your pictures still crisp and clear when you decrease the size.  I learned that a high resolution is just as important for decreasing the size of the picture as it is for increasing the size.

Another hint on the pictures…I transformed mine into a sepia tint (I thought it would look nice) and increased the saturation a bit.

I also found it easier instead of trying to thread the picture through the back prongs of the charm to just leave that piece of cardboard they have in there inserted and then cut the picture small enough to fit through the front side of the frame.  Use tacky glue to glue the picture to the cardboard.  (if you are going to use the spray acrylic then you can’t use the piece of plastic that is suppose to go on top of the picture anyways…the acrylic will make it bubble up real bad (trust me – I know from experience!!)

Once the picture is glued in place then spray it with acrylic…let it dry for a while and then spray it again…repeat this for several coats (the more coats the better protected the photo will be).

Then simply attach the charms to the bracelets!  Very cute!  I know this present will be a hit!!  In fact I made one for myself as well :-)