Flaming Heart Necklace and Pin Tutorial

For this project, I'm going to show you how I made a fabulous necklace and pin using the Flaming Heart Sacred Trinket Shrine Kit!
..................................................................................... Because we are making a necklace, take the middle piece and snap out the optional middle channels. This is where the chain will be placed later.
......................................................................................... Here is the piece with the channels punched out. The channels are very easy to remove, but you can also leave them in and they will not be visible later.
........................................................................................... I wanted my paint to be nice and bright, so I started by brushing some Gesso on the areas I planned to paint. I brushed on 2 thin layers. The Gesso is not required, but will make for easier paint coverage.
........................................................................................ Next I painted my pieces using acrylic paint.
....................................................................................... I wanted to add some texture, so using a sponge brush I dabbed on the paint.
....................................................................................... After the pieces are painted, attach the middle piece to the back using a small amount of glue. I prefer to use Mod Podge to attach my masonite pieces.
The next step is to add your chain before adding the top piece. For my necklace I'm using ball chain and open balls to secure the chain. You can also secure your chain into the cavity by adding a knot or bead to the end of a cord, ribbon, etc. and gluing it into the cavity.
......................................................................................... Add an open ball to each end of the chain. Simply place the open ball around the end of the ball chain and close or "crimp" the open ball using some pliers. Be sure you crimp it enough so that you can place your top piece on without any gaps.
............................................................................................ The open ball will hold the chain in place. Place the end of the chain with the open ball into each cavity. Again, you can also use cord, ribbon, etc. which can be glued into the cavity.
............................................................................................ Once your chain is in place, add your top piece using a small amount of glue.
.......................................................................................... To finish my piece I stamped the front with a script rubber stamp, inked the edges with some brown ink, and added a tiny frozen charlotte to the opening!
......................................................................................... After making the necklace, I decided to make a collage pin. I wanted to cover the front with paper, so I took my top pieces and traced the shape on the back of my paper, then roughly cut it out.
.......................................................................................... I glued the paper to the front, and then sanded the sides and opening using a nail file. Doing this will leave a lovely clean edge and won't hurt the sturdy masonite!
.................................................................................... Clean edges after sanding with the nail file.
........................................................................................ Instead of stamping, this time I attached some patterned tissue paper using Mod Podge. The tissue came with a lovely package last week and of course I saved it to use in my art! (thanks Teri!)
....................................................................................... After cutting away the excess paper, again I sanded the edges with a nail file. Tim Holtz Tissue Tape would also work nicely for this!
....................................................................................... After inking the edges of the front piece, I moved on to the image. Using Frida Kahlo from the Bottle Cap Labels Collage Sheet, I centered the image using the middle piece.
........................................................................................ I roughly cut around the image, and then glued the image onto the back of the middle piece. This way I knew my image was perfectly centered. I also added some white acrylic paint to the "fire" of my back piece.
........................................................................................ I left the middle piece natural/unpainted as it added a nice contrast to the white. Assemble the back, middle, and front with just a bit a glue and done!
........................................................................................ Finally, I added a pin back using some E6000. This is an excellent size for a pin! Here are my finished pieces! I love the versatility of the Flaming Heart Sacred Trinket Shrine Kit! And of course in addition to accessories you can also use them as embellishments on other projects.