Gift tutorial: Japanese paper pendant

This is a quick and easy tutorial to make a Japanese paper pendant that can make use of any scraps of paper left over from making my tea bag folding cards, the tutorial for which can be found here.  I have attached my pendants to keyrings, which I think will make great stocking fillers for Christmas!

© 2015 Jennifer Richardson

You will need:

• Pencil
• Scissors
• Silicone craft glue
• 1 X Cabochon setting (I am using a 25mm square antique bronze setting)
• 1 X Glass cabochon (I’m using a 25mm X 25mm X 7mm transparent square)
• A scrap piece of Japanese paper (at least big enough to fit your setting)
• Cord/key ring fob to hang pendant from (I’m using an antique bronze key ring fob)

1. Take your scrap piece of Japanese paper and place your glass cabochon on top of it and move it around to find a section of the paper you particularly like. I am using a 25mm X 25mm X 7mm transparent square glass cabochon to fit a 25mm square setting.
2. Holding the glass cabochon in place with one finger, take your pencil and draw around the cabochon.
3. Using your scissors, cut out following your pencil outline giving you a piece of paper that should fit your cabochon setting.





© 2015 Jennifer Richardson

4. Spread a thin layer of silicone craft glue to the inside of your cabochon setting.
5. Place your piece of paper into the setting right side up. Press down lightly to make sure the paper has stuck and there are no creases or air bubbles. Here I am using a 25mm square antique bronze setting, but you can use any shape, size or colour. It doesn’t have to be a pendant setting. You may wish to make earrings or cuff links instead.
6. Give the back (flat side) of your glass cabochon a polish to remove any finger prints and apply a thin layer of silicone craft glue. Place the glass cabochon into the setting on top of the paper and press down to remove any air bubbles. Polish the top side of your cabochon.
7. I have attached my Japanese paper pendant to an antique bronze key ring fob matching my cabochon setting. To do this I used a pair of pliers to open the jump ring at the end of the key ring chain and fed this through the loop of the pendant then used the pliers to close the jump ring again. If you want to wear the pendant as a necklace, however, you may wish to thread a piece of cord through the pendant loop instead.



© 2015 Jennifer Richardson





I bought all my supplies for making my Japanese paper pendant key rings from eBay.

Card making tutorial: Tea bag folding with Japanese paper

You will need:

• Cutting mat
• Ruler
• Pencil
• Scalpel/scissors
• Glue stick
• 15cm X 15cm blank card
• 15cm X 15cm piece of patterned paper
• 5cm X 15cm piece of complimenting patterned paper
• 6cm X 15cm piece and 9cm X 9cm piece of coordinating coloured card

1. Take the 15cm X 15cm patterned piece of paper.  Here I am using Japanese paper, which works really well for this, but you can use any patterned paper.
2.  Using a pencil and a ruler draw a grid 5cm X 5cm squares on the back.
3.  Carefully cut along the grid lines using a scalpel or pair of scissors.  You will have 9 squares.





© 2015 Jennifer Richardson

I am using one of the most basic tea bag folding techniques following the instructions provided by Card Inspirations here.  But if you type tea bag folding into Google or Pinterest you will find many more examples.  For this tutorial you will only need 8 of the 9 squares, but don’t throw away the final square as I will have another tutorial to show you what you can do with any paper scraps!


4.  For each 5cm X 5cm square: With wrong-side facing up, fold the paper in half, open out and fold in half the other way.  Turn the paper over so the right-side is facing up and fold in half diagonally once and open out.  Turn the paper over again so wrong-side is facing up and push the diagonal folds in and up to create a folded 2.5cm X 2.5cm square.
5.  Once you have folded all 8 squares, using a glue stick start to slot one square inside another to create an eight-pointed star as shown below.
6.  Using the glue stick, stick your eight-pointed star to the 9cm X 9cm piece of coloured card (I’ve used a golden yellow) and carefully cut around the points of the star using a scalpel or scissors to create a border approximately 0.5cm wide.





© 2015 Jennifer Richardson

7.  Next cut a 5cm X 15cm piece of coordinating patterned paper and a 6cm X 15cm piece of the same coloured card you used to back the eight-point star.
8.  Stick the piece of patterned paper to the coloured card using a glue stick so that you have a 0.5cm border down the long sides.
9.  Apply glue to the back of the coloured card and position it on your blank card where you want it to be (I positioned mine approximately 2cm in from the folded edge.)





© 2015 Jennifer Richardson



10. 1.      Finally, stick the eight-pointed star to the front of the blank card positioning it half way between the top and the bottom and so the top and bottom points are lined up with the edge of the coloured card.
    I finished my card off in keeping with a Japanese theme using some Japanese Mizuhiki paper cord to tie a clamshell knot (or Daki Musubi in Japanese) which I glued to the centre of my star.  This image posted on Paper Wishes illustrates how to do this.

© 2015 Jennifer Richardson