Tag: jewelry

Reindeer Bell Necklace

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This adorable necklace is just right for rockin’ out to your famiiy’s favorite holiday tunes. May I suggest ‘Jingle Bell Rock’ and ‘Run, Run Rudolph’, in particular?

Ideally, I would have used larger jingle bells as the body of the reindeer, but the craft store was clean out of just about every Christmas supply! We found sparkly, medium-sized silver bells instead, which were intriguing to Travis, if not perfect for the craft.

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To make the antlers, cut a pipe cleaner in half and thread one half through the bell. Twist to secure.

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Cut the other half in two again (so now you have quarters) and wrap a quarter around each branch of the other pipe cleaner, to form antlers. Travis needed a bit of help with this step.

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We glued two eyes and a red pom pom nose onto each bell, and set them aside to dry.

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Once the glue dried, it was time to shake our jingle bells! I tied a string to each reindeer to form a necklace, and we could rock out.

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Jingle bells, Jingle bells!

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Autumn Leaf Jewelry

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We love bringing home items from nature to make into all kinds of crafts, but the problem is that many of these are fleeting in nature (leaves that dry out, flowers that wilt). This activity captures the beauty of autumn, but it won’t fade, thanks to the use of fake leaves. You’ll find these readily at craft stores this time of year.

Originally we planned to make leaf necklaces as a gift for grandma, but I didn’t have a lacing string that was long enough. It was simpler to turn thread onto pipe cleaners instead, resulting in pretty autumn bracelets.

Travis alternated stringing on pony beads and a few of the leaves for an autumnal touch

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(Note: Grown-ups can make holes in the leaves either with a hole punch if they are thin or – on our case – with an Xacto knife to cut a slit if they are thick).

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Once each pipe cleaner was filled, I looped the ends together. A great gift for anyone with a fall birthday!

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Pasta & Beads Bracelets

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Using that big batch of Kool-Aid dyed pasta we made, Travis helped put together beautiful food art jewelry over the weekend!

When our batch of pasta was first dry, he simply loved stirring through it with his hands, so I let him have fun that way for some time before even introducing the notion of bracelet making.

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When the novelty wore off, I asked if he wanted to thread the pasta onto pipe cleaners. I made a small loop on one end of each pipe cleaner so the pasta wouldn’t slip off.

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To my surprise, he was very deliberate about choosing which items to use. Our blue pasta came out a little funny (the Kool-Aid powder sort of clumped together), but that turned out to be Travis’s favorite, so he wanted to make an all-blue bracelet!

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He loved threading the pasta so much that he wasn’t that interested in the beads I had laid out until the very end; your jewelry maker can alternate pasta and beads as much as they like!

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When the bracelets are done, simply twist the end of the pipe cleaner around the loop you created to start (you can tuck the pokey bit inside a ziti tube to avoid any metal pricks for the wearer).

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Travis also made up his very own creation – a “headband”!

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Overall, this kept us busy for quite some time – a great weekend family project.

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