DIY PROJECT #7: THE NEON STATEMENT NECKLACE

One of the most popular colour trends of the season (especially for accessories) has surprisingly been the ever so vibrant neon yellow. At first I was skeptical about the bold colour but I started to fall in love with it when I kept seeing it paired with neutral colour palettes in accessories. 

There are a lot of DIY tutorials out there for DIY-ing your very own neon jewelry, inspired by Tom Binns. Those tutorials are great, as they are thrifty and nifty. Usually they call for a rhinestone necklace (easily purchased at any Forever 21 store for under 10 dollars) and some neon nail polish (which you use to selectively paint the rhinestones on your necklace. But my doubt with using nail polish was the difficulty of keeping it clean within the lines of the stones, and I was worried about it scratching off or looking opaque. I wanted to keep the sparkle in my necklace.

So when I saw these awesome neon crystal beads at my local bead store (6 bucks for a strand - buy one get one free deal), I knew I could finally make my own neon statement necklace. 

For this amazingly fun project you will need:

• neon crystal beads (12 small, 8 large)
• 10 beige crystal beads
• 12 white seed beads
• 4 gold beads
• gold chain (about half a yard long)
• two jump rings
• a toggle clasp
• pliers
• E6000 glue
• fishing line or stretchy cord
• 5 rhinestone spacers
• 30 minutes of your time

Step 1: Loop your fishing line through a gold bead, tie it securely. Then string your line through the first hole of your rhinestone spacer. 

Step 2: String 6 white seed beads. Then string on your second rhinestone spacer. After doing that, you want to string 6 small neon beads, then another spacer. Then another six small neon beads, then another spacer. After this fourth spacer, you then want to string on your last six white seed beads, and finish it with the last spacer. String a gold bead at the end of your spacer so that the bead holds everything in place. 

Step 3: For your second row of beads, you want to do the exact same thing as Step 2, except this time you are using 10 beige beads under your white seed beads, and 8 large neon beads under your smaller neon beads (See photo below for reference). Finish with a gold bead at the end of the spacer. Let the line hang as you'll want to use the line to attach to your chain. 

Step 4: Attach your gold chain to the line by double looping it through the gold bead. Cover the knot with E6000 glue for added security. 

Step 5: Using your pliers, open up your two jump rings. Thread your rings through your toggle clasp parts on either end. 

Five steps, and you're done. I didn't get as many visuals this time around for the process ( I got too excited and made the necklace too quickly thus forgetting to take pictures.) Let me know if you're confused by the instructions and I shall clarify. Have fun!