How to Make a Snowflake Necklace

It is about making a beautiful snowflake necklace for your sister, friend or your wife /girl friend (If you are a guy reading this post ;)) to gift this holiday season or may be one for yourself. It is so easy to make and you will be surprised "How gorgeous" it looks. If you can't afford for real diamonds then this is something you should make to impress your girl. I am sure it has more value than the real diamonds if it is handmade jewelry by you.(Don't you agree ? :))Lets start making!!

• One sheet of Shrink plastic (I used Grafix clear)
• Marker
• Scissors
• Xacto Knife
• One Lobster Clasp
• 3 Jump rings
• Chain of your preferred Length (I used 18")
• Hole punch
• Rhinestones
• Jewelry pliers
• Glue (I used G S Hypocement)
• Rubbing alcohol &Cotton (Optional)

Chose a template (Google search) to trace the snowflake design. You can either print it out and use as a template or you can put the sheet of shrink plastic on your monitor and trace it directly from the screen. My snowflake measured 4.5" in length and width before shrinking

Cut the shape using scissors and blade. Use blade for the inner parts of the snowflake and scissors for the outer part. Be careful to not ruin your design while using sharp scissors. I am saying so because I did spoil my first design while cutting the inner parts of the snowflake with scissors and that is why I recommend you to use blade for the inner and intricate parts of the design. The scissors tend to slide along while turning the design to cut.You should keep in mind that it is not paper and it is plastic ;) (It may sound silly to you until you experience it ;) , so take my word and thank me later ;))

Use rubbing alcohol and a piece of cotton to remove the sharpie marks from the design. If you want to avoid this step , trace the design a little larger than you want and cut the design in such a way that you don's get the marks.

Once you are done cutting your design,Make a hole with help of a hole punch on the top of the design to make it as a pendant.

Put the cut design on a piece of cardboard to shrink it in the oven. Preheat the oven to 325F and keep the design in the oven for 2-3 minutes.(Refer the package) Enjoy watching the shrink !! The design do curl while shrink and returns to flat .At that moment you can take the design out from the oven. Do not leave the design in the oven and move away.Be there and enjoy the process .

Once the design is shrunk (It shrinks to 1.5" and the width of each stem is less than half inch), the next step is to decorate it with rhinestone to give the pendant that gorgeousness. I used G S hypo cement glue as it comes with a precision tip and it is so easy to use with rhinestones. However you can also use super glue or E 6000 for this.

Once the glue is dry, Attach a jump ring to the top of the pendant and pass it through the necklace chain. Attach one jump ring on one side and another with lobster clasp on the other side to complete the necklace.

Voila !! You now have a beautiful necklace to gift your girl.

Feel free to share your comments or suggestions below. I will be happy to hear from you :)

I am entering this instructable in Formlabs contest. It will be great if I win Form 1 +3D printer. Because I can make beautiful jewelry designs like this snowflake necklace and who know I can even start my own jewelry line :).Thanks for the great opportunity Formlabs .