Welcome to my 15 Minutes to Fabulous series! Over the next few days I’ll be featuring some fantastic guest writers sharing ways to be fabulous in just 15 minutes. Let’s face it, give a busy woman 15 minutes of uninterrupted time and she can conquer the world…or at least 15 minutes of it! Today’s guest blogger is Jenny from The Southern Institute. I met Jenny last summer during Hallmark’s Moments Between the Milestones blog tour here in Nashville.

Hi everyone! I’m Jenny from The Southern Institute, and I’m so excited to be here as part of the 15 Minutes to Fabulous series! I love to share fun craft projects that don’t require a lot of crafty skill or time, so I was really happy to be asked to participate.

Necklaces. I love them! Besides my wedding rings and a pair of small dangly earrings which sometimes grace my ears, necklaces are the only type of jewelry that I wear. There are so many kinds of necklaces to choose from. I tend to go for silver chains with some sort of pendant on them… I’m not too fancy-schmancy, but I like a little bit of adornment sometimes, don’t you? One type of necklace that I have been seeing a lot of lately is a geometric shaped pendants with maps in them. Have you seen these around? I think they are so cool- so I made one! I’d love to show you how you can make one too. Technically this takes longer than 15 minutes, but only when you include the drying time. All in all, it’s a quick and inexpensive way to make a trendy necklace!

Here’s what you’ll need to make your own Going My Way? necklace:

• Mod Podge Matte or regular old Elmer’s Glue
• Mod Podge Dimensional Magic
• Blank pendant
• Ball chain or silver chain
• a map (you can pick them up for free at any highway rest area!)
• a small piece of white cardstock

The How To Necklace Tutorial

First, glue your map to a piece of white cardstock paper to give it a nice backing. If you skip this step you will find that you can see the metal shining through when your necklace is dry.

Measure the size of the inside of your pendant. I suggest using something other than red ink, as you can see that it showed up in my final necklace. Boo. Cut your map to the exact dimensions.

Spread a thin layer of Mod Podge Matte or regular glue inside the pendant area and carefully lay your map in it.

Take your Mod Podge Dimensional Magic and carefully squeeze enough out to cover the map area. DO NOT pick up the tip of the tube as you are doing this… it creates air bubbles, and you want to avoid air bubbles as much as possible.

It looks kind of cloudy right now, but when it dries it will be perfectly clear. I love the way it looks from the side when it’s wet.

Now all you need to do is let it dry according to the directions. I like to let it dry overnight just to be safe. Put it on a chain and you have a fabulous necklace!

The great thing about this project is that you can use anything! Don’t like the map idea? How about a scrap of your favorite piece of fabric? A favorite photo? A tiny piece of original artwork? Make it your own and have a great time! You’ll be fabulous!

If you’re looking for more inspiration (whether you craft, sew, or cook) you’ll find plenty to inspire you at The Southern Institute. Come on by and say hello! I’d love to see you there, or you can find me on Facebook and Twitter. See you again soon!