{DIY Photo Pendant}

Hey, y'all!  Mother's Day is just around the corner, and I have the BEST, super-easy-to-make gift idea for you!

Every mom loves pictures of her little ones, right?  And almost every mom likes jewelry, right?  Well, I have combined the two into a perfect Mother's Day gift!  I made this one for my awesome sister-in-law, and she LOVES it!  To start with, you need a blank photo pendant tray.

I purchased mine from Hobby Lobby, but they're sold many, many places.  And, of course, you need a photo to fit in the pendant.  I chose a cute one of my nieces because, let's face it, all that cuteness deserves to be on a necklace!  :)  I edited the pic in PicMonkey, and then I sized it to fit my pendant in Word.  It's really easy to do.

Open a Word document.  Click Insert, Photo, and then Picture from File.  Choose your picture.

Click on the pic and then click on the Format Picture tool bar.  You will see a space for height and width like in the screen shot above.  Input your measurements, and then just print.  I learned that printing on photo paper is best so that your picture is vibrant.  (I have been buying photo paper from my local Dollar Tree, so check there before buying expensive photo paper.)  Cut out your picture and make sure that it fits in your pendant tray.  If it doesn't, carefully trim it until it does.  Then coat with Mod Podge.

I coated the front and the back of the picture with Mod Podge to make sure the image didn't get messed up when I attached it to the pendant tray, which is the next step.

Coat the pendant tray with Mod Podge and adhere the picture to it.  Smooth it down carefully to make sure there aren't any bubbles.

After all the Mod Podge is dry, cover your photo with a layer of Mod Podge Dimensional Magic.  This is the step that makes your pendant look REALLY professional.  (I was just tempted to type "profesh" because I've been watching too much Rachel Zoe.)  I always start squirting my DM on a scrap sheet of paper because if there are bubbles, they usually come out first, and you don't want bubbles in your DM.    If you do happen to get a few bubbles, you can try to pop them with a straight pin.  It's hard to do, though.  Let the pendant dry UNDISTURBED for the required amount of time stated on the bottle.  Then all that's left is attaching a chain.

Since I pretty much already had the supplies on hand besides the pendant tray, I literally spent less than five dollars on this awesome gift!

Isn't that the wonderful thing about handmade gifts?  You can give beautiful, personalized gifts that you don't have to sell a kidney to afford.  

And, of course, I can think of other occasions to gift this besides Mother's Day.  How about a new mom gift or a mother of the bride gift or even a gift to memorialize a loved one who passed away?  No matter the occasion, whoever you give this to is sure to be your new best friend.  :)
Check out my other DIY necklace tutorials {HERE}.