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Who needs a nametag when you could have a super cool bracelet instead? Use letter beads and wood beads to create this simple bracelet. If you’re in the giving spirit, make a matching bracelet to gift to a friend or loved one!

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Paint enough beads to spell the name you’d like on the bracelet. Let dry.

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While the beads are drying, cut a 12 inch long piece of string. (Better too long than too short– you can trim later!)

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Once the beads are dry, use a permanent marker to spell out the name.

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String your letter beads onto the cord. Keep adding beads to either side until the bracelet fits around your wrist.

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Securely tie the two ends of cord together. You don’t want too much slack in the bracelet after it’s tied, but don’t pull too hard since it’s elastic cording.

Trim the tails down to an inch or two in length, then tuck the ends in the beads to hide them.

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Wood Bead Set

Paintbrush Set

Poster Paint Set

Permanent Marker

Elastic String

Wood Bead Friendship Bracelet

handmade

homemade craft

Make these easy knit earrings for yourself, or gift to a friend!

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Cut out two squares from your plastic canvas sheets.

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Trim the edges so there aren’t any nubs.

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Add your stitches! Check out <a href="https://www.kiwico.com/diy/art-creativity/quick-easy-crafts/plastic-canvas-stitches" target="_blank">our plastic canvas stitches guide</a> for detailed instructions on the different stitches you can use.

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Attach two jump rings to each earring using pliers.

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Jewel Tone Yarn Set

Plastic Mesh Canvas Sheet Set

Yarn Needle

Earring Hooks

Scissors

Pliers

Plastic Canvas Earrings

clay project

Art that can be worn is fun for most kids I know. These charms make great gifts, too!

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To start, I worked the clay a little bit to soften it up for the kids. 

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Emma rolled out her clay and used a butter knife to cut the square shapes. Small cookie cutters would work well, too. A toothpick is perfect to make the hole for the twine. 

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Emma used buttons to make prints on her charms. This butterfly button was perfect for this.

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When they were all finished we followed our clay directions for cooking. We placed all the charms on a parchment lined baking sheet and baked them at 275 degrees for about 20 minutes.

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Once they were done and cooled Emma got to painting. She was very excited to see her charms had hardened and could be worn now.

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With some paint they were so beautiful! All that was left was to thread these sweet charms onto some twine.

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She decided to keep her favorite one for herself.

Oven-bake clay

toothpicks

decorative beads or buttons

butter knife

twine

paints

paint brush

parchment paper

Clay Charms

Kids will love this fun project! They'll watch in amazement as their artwork shrinks and turns into a beautiful necklace.

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Start by gathering all your materials, and preheating your oven to the temperature listed on your shrink plastic directions (they will vary depending on the brand of film and oven type). We used both kid scissors and adult scissors in this activity, because we both did some cutting.

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First cut your shrink film into approximately 3"x3" squares. (Younger kids may need help cutting.) Lightly sand the squares back and forth in a crisscross pattern (V loved the sanding part!).  Next let your little one color with markers to their hearts desire (color on the sanded side -- it will hold the color better).

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V made three squares, each one different -- she insisted on tracing a border around each one (this is a great fine motor skill, having them try to make a straight line around).  Using the hole punch, punch a hole into your square at the top for the necklace string (this must be done before the baking process).

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Lay parchment paper onto your baking tray.  Lay squares on top of parchment paper.  Lay another layer of parchment paper on top to prevent curling.  Now, here's a mama step -- place the tray in the oven, make sure the kids are not near the hot oven while doing this.  Follow directions listed on your shrink film for time.

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Still continuing with a mama step -- remove from hot oven and let cool in a spot that is not reachable by your kids.  Let squares cool completely.  Next, thread twine/string through the holes, knotting at each charm, creating your necklace (threading the string is also a very good fine motor activity).

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Place finished necklace around your child's neck & have them admire their beautiful handmade necklace.

shrink plastic

sand paper

hole punch

scissors

markers

baking sheet

Stained Glass Mosaic Necklace

recycled

To help your child remember the combination to their bike lock or school locker, here are three different ways to make a bracelet with their combination.

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You'll need to start with your combination and the type of bracelet you want to make. We used our collection of larger beads (pony beads are too small), embroidery floss in lots of colors, a roll of plastic cording and one already-made rubber bead bracelet purchased from the dollar section of a store.

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Our first bracelet was the already-made rubber bracelet.  This one was super-easy: just write the combination on with a permanent marker. Although it was "permanent", the marker did smudge off a bit later, so we re-wrote it and then covered the writing with a coat of clear nail polish. That did the trick. My daughter is very pleased with this bracelet to help her remember her new bike lock combo.

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Next, we made a bracelet with beads and embroidery floss.  Embroidery floss packets can be found at any craft or fabric store. They come in an amazing array of colors and they usually cost between 40 and 80 cents. At that price, you can buy them in as many colors as you like! 

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After arranging these in a pattern, my son threaded the floss through the beads.

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Next we wrote the numbers on the blue beads.

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He changed his mind and switched the green beads for orange. After that, we tied the bracelet to his wrist and cut off the excess string. 

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Next up, we made our third type of bracelet, with the sparkly plastic cording. This is a little stretchy so it can be slipped on and off the wrist, but it's a bit harder to work with. Here's how we met the challenges of working with the cording.

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The knot to close the cording falls out easily. If you know how to tie a square knot, this will hold it in position. Or you can do what we did, and get out the trusty glue gun. We put a drop of glue on either side of the knot and that held it nicely.

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Here's our finished bracelet using the plastic cording. 
All three options met the task. It's just a matter of preference. The plastic cording and embroidery floss bracelets won't come off super-easily, so there's little chance of them getting lost while your child is at school or out riding his or her bike. 
My kids wore them for about a week, using them each day for their bike lock combinations. After that, they had the combinations memorized and no longer needed the bracelet as a reminder. 

beads

cord or string

rubber bracelet

permanent marker

Combination Lock Bracelet

These bright peacocks are so beautiful, and so simple to make!

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It's always so great when a project needs just a few around-the-house ingredients!  

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The first step belongs to the biggest person! I cut a few pieces of wire around seven inches or so, then took the needle-nose pliers and curled the end around.  This serves two purposes: it rounds the edge so there are no pokey edges, and is a stopper for the beads.

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Maddie molded the peacock's body, using blue non-hardening clay.  I asked her if she'd like plain air dry clay, and told her she could paint and add glitter-glue to it after it was dry, but she liked the blue clay.

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When she had her bird's body just right, she started on the glorious feathers, putting beads on the wire.

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 I showed her how the first bead would actually be the top of the peacock's feather.

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Until she was satisfied with her gorgeously fine fellow!

wire (floral wire works well)

clay

Clay and Bead Peacock

birthday party crafts

Heart necklaces are a great way to show your regard for a sweet friend--these are made just the way you want, and are so easy to make!

You could use polymer clay if you like, for extra durability, but we used natural clay for ours.

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I showed Maddie how to make a ball of clay, by rolling it in her hands.  (That's hard to do when your hands are small!)

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When she had it as smooth as she could make it, she flattened it out.

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After some trial and error with making the heart, I lightly scored it for her with a butter knife, showing her where to cut to make one that suited our purpose.

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"Oh!  I see!" she said.  Much better.  She cut it out with the butter knife,

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And then made the cuts to divide it in half.

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Holes went into the top of each half for stringing, and then we set them aside to dry overnight.

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When it was mostly dry and firm, out came the paints!  A color coat first, then left to dry for a minute...

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then the final decorating began.  Round polka dots are easy to make with cotton swabs!

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After the paint dried, she brushed glue over the whole heart,

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then added her final embellishments--a favorite part, digging through all those sparklies!  All that was left to do then, was to let it dry....

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39 easy jewelry projects for kids

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