With our new home and some zones set up for the kids to read/play/create, I have been getting my thinking cap on for fun things to do with the little ones.
We love nothing more than a craft day here in this house of mine, so I thought it would be fun to make some kids wooden bead necklaces that we could make together.
Something extra special that would be unique and handmade.
The boys have been super busy with cricket and football so it ended up being me and my littlest one painting the afternoon away.
She needs no encouragement to paint; she loves it. So we got some wooden beads, chose some lovely coloured paint, found some vintage lace in the bottom of my sewing box and started decorating.
I wanted to create some necklaces with a Scandinavian feel, so we decided to paint half of the wooden bead and leave the other half exposed.
I also found some really cute tassels in the local craft shop which we tried to incorporate as well.
Evie painted some of the small wooden beads in gold and got very carried away with the pink … not that it’s her favourite colour or anything!
What you need:
- A variety of paintbrushes
- 3 sizes of unvarnished wooden beads
- Lace, neon cord (from hardware shop) and raffia
- Paint – we chose pale pink, neon pink, white, neon orange and gold
- Magnetic clasps
Method
- Paint the wooden beads and leave to dry.
- With the larger beads, I painted half of each of them in my chosen colour with the other half left as exposed wood.
- We painted the smallest beads completely in a single colour to create some contrast… anything goes so whatever your child would like.
We made 4 different necklaces…
Tassel necklace
- I started in the middle of the pink cord and threaded a tassel on
- I then tied a tiny double knot either side of the tassel to secure it
- Thread on a gold bead and then tie another double knot after the bead, alternate a tassel and a bead
- Cut the thread to your desired length and then tie on the magnetic clasp to each end.
Vintage lace necklace
- I used 5 beads, we painted 3 beads, one large and two medium-sized
- We painted half of the bead in a pale pink and left the other half plain wood
- The two smaller beads we did not paint, so they were left wooden
- Thread the large bead on first and centre it so you have an equal amount of lace each side, tie a knot either side to secure the bead, next thread a medium sized bead also painted in the half pink each side of the large bead
- Tie a knot either size of each medium-sized bead, then add the small wooden beads each side
- To finish, tie a knot at the top of the lace.
Neon pink and raffia necklace
- I threaded through the wooden beads and used two of the painted gold small beads to finish off each side of the medium sized bead
- After each bead I tied a knot to secure
- Tie each end in a knot.
Evie’s fun painted necklace
- Evie designed this sweet necklace and had a lot of fun in the process!
- We used a neon pink cord and threaded through her favourite beads
- Tie a knot after the last bead (both sides) to secure in place
- We tied a lose knot at the end.
Evie loves the necklaces. I am quite tempted to wear them myself. They go beautifully with her summery dresses and she has had a lot of fun wearing them.
We had a great time creating these little gems I hope you do too!
Happy painting and designing with your little ones!
Images and words by Clare Keylock, blogger and photographer – see more from Clare on Instagram
Great Idea