Sand Dollar Jewelry Tutorial

 
Look at what we found at the beach while we were on vacation...

Are you wondering what Lydia Grace is doing?  

She was helping her Mimi and I to paint a hardener/whitener on the sand dollars to make them less fragile.  My mom wanted to use hers for a home decor idea.  I wanted to use mine to make some
jewelry.  Here's how...

I raided the jewelry making aisle at the craft store and stocked up on some $0.99 supplies (pearls, hooks, clasps, chains...).  I also bought some acrylic paint in metallic gold to paint a few of the sand dollars.

The painted sand dollars were used for necklaces.

I strung larger pearls to make the necklace for myself and smaller pearls to make the necklace for Lydia Grace.  I also used a smaller sand dollar for hers.   

(Tip: Instead of using pre-made jewelry loops to attach the sand dollars onto the necklaces, I made my own loops with pliable gold wire.  Trying to fish the pre-made loops onto the sand dollars only causes them to chip and break because the pre-made loops are way too tight to feed through the holes on the sand dollars.  Trust me...I learned this from experience.)

 Gold toggle clasps finished each necklace off.

I also made bracelets.

For these, I assembled gold chains, jewelry loops, and pendants together.  Lydia Grace's is a bit simpler, but both have a sand dollar attached to them with a pliable gold wire loop.

Happy Crafting!