Beaded Stretch Bracelets with Charms

Happy Birthday to my niece Paige! She made a comment a couple months ago about liking big beaded stretchy bracelets right now and wished she had more - I filed that away for a little thing to make her for her birthday. These are really simple and quick to make - I made some before (click here for that post) but those were out of smaller beads and included words so these are a little different.

Cut 11 inches of stretchy cord (it comes on a spool, clear like fishing line but thicker and really stretchy. don't use old cord, for some reason it gets brittle after being stored in your craft room for a long time but you won't realize it until you've made your bracelet and then when putting it on it snaps and beads go flying everywhere. yeah, ask me how I know). Tie a knot in one end, string your beads and charms, knot both ends together tightly. Add a drop of glue to the knot so it'll hold and then trim the tails off. Done. Easy!

tie a lose knot in one end or the beads will
fall off while you are stringing!

Note - I used 6mm and 8mm beads for these bracelets. The charms needed to be attached to a jump ring before adding to the string so they were able to move better, otherwise they stayed stuck in place on the bracelet. When attaching a jump ring you need to open it up by twisting the ends towards and away from you - don't pull them apart or it's hard to get them lined back up again.

opening a jump ring to attach a charm

added a drop of glue to the knots, waiting for
it to dry before cutting off the excess tails. 

one year ago today: my favorite homemade citrus pesto - oh man this is SO good!

DIY: Tassel Keychain or Purse Charm

Got the idea to make a keychain with a leather tassel and some charms at Michaels.com - naturally I changed it a bit and am really happy with how it turned out. You'll need a piece of fringed leather, some jump rings (I used different sizes), a key ring, some charms/chain/
beads/whatever decorations you want, 2 tweezers and some fabric glue.









I've never made a tassel from leather fringe before - turns out it's super simple and I'll be making more of these for sure. I bought a piece of leather already fringed but you could easily make your own if you can't find it at the craft store.




To make the tassel: cut off one of the end pieces of fringe and trim about an inch off (discard that short piece). Put a dot of fabric glue on the wrong side of the leather at the top right corner. Place the longer strip on top of the glue and another drop of glue on top of that. Fold the leather strip over to create a loop. Allow to dry for a couple of minutes.






Place a strip of glue along the top edge of the leather and tightly roll it up around the loop. I put a big jump ring over the roll to hold it, you could use a bead with a center big enough to go over - or use a rubber band to hold the tassel in place until it dries.


























To assemble the keychain: using the 2 tweezers open a large jump ring, thread it thru the tassel loop, close the ring back up. Try not to wrench the ring out of shape too much so when you close it the ends come right back together easily. Attach more jump rings to the charms, gems, chain, whatever you are using - and then thread them all onto the key ring. Add keys or use as a cute charm addition to your purse!