necklace celebrating Spain

As I've mentioned before, last summer I visited Spain. I went with my friend Sarah. I saw some of the most beautiful amazing things I have seen so far in my life. I have always seen these cute little Paris necklaces that have an Eiffel Tower charm and other cute things. Her birthday was approaching, so I decided to make a charm necklace to celebrate our trip to Spain.

The necklace was kind of inspired by my purchase of filigree cone beadcaps. They reminded me so much of the cathedral spires. Especially the Sagrada Familia church in Barcelona. Check out this photo.

Then I wanted to find a 2008 Spanish coin from the trip. This was much easier said than done. I had coins left over, but none from 2008. I contacted several friends who had also been to Spain and no coins from 2008. I wanted a worn one and all I seemed to find online were coins that were not in circulation. And to be honest, I didn't want to spend a fortune on a 10 cent coin. I posted in the forums on etsy hoping an international seller could help me out. But I eventually had to give up on the idea. Don't you hate it when you get a creative idea stuck in your head and it just isn't realistic?? Drives me nuts.

In addition to the filigree cone beadcap. I chose a photo from Barcelona for the pendant. It was a picture in Parc Guell looking out over the city with the sea in the distance. And on the back is another photo of the Alcazar castle in Segovia. Then I added a little mosaic bead, because it reminded me of all Gaudi's mosaic work. A little bird charm hangs from the chain, because when we were there, I don't know if its like this all the time, but there were birds everywhere. And they all fly right at you. It made me so paranoid about birds I am shocked none of then flew right into my head. I also chose a little key charm, because when we arrived at our last hotel (which I would not recommend staying at) they gave us one of these keys. I couldn't believe how old school it was. It may have been charming if the place hadn't been super creepy. But it made us giggle none the less, especially when I thought we locked ourselves inside the creepy room. I also added a little map of Spain, including the southern edge of France where we also visited, and stamped a disc with 2008, the year we traveled there.

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out and I gave it to her this weekend and I think she really liked it. I'm also glad I bought two of everything. So now, I can make one for myself too! Check it out, what do you think?