Kids love to be creative and love showing their individual, unique style. Making their own jewellery is a way to indulge both of those passions. From simple pasta necklaces, bead or charm bracelets to intricate friendship bracelets and more sophisticated string jewellery, there is something to suit everyone’s tastes and talents. The best thing about jewellery making is that there are no rules, you can use practically any material, and make any style you like. And it’s an activity you can enjoy with your child as you create designs and make creations together.
If using a kit and having all the right materials on hand for jewellery making is your thing, then we have some amazing, high quality kits that we stock at what2buy4kids. We make sure the kits are both appealing to kids, easy to use and, most importantly, good quality. Jewellery making kits ensure that your end result is lovely jewellery that kids (or their recipients if it’s a gift) would be proud to wear. There’s still plenty of ways to be unique and individual when using jewellery making kits, no two pieces will even be the same when you follow your creative instincts and have fun pulling the pieces together.
For younger kids, you can’t go wrong with Melissa and Doug’s wooden bead sets. With their sturdy cords, easy-to-handle beads and gorgeous designs, kids will love making necklaces, bracelets, or even keyrings.
Once they’ve grown out of wooden beads, there are glass or plastic beads and even charms to experiment when making jewellery. Kids are bound to enjoy the My First Beading Kit and the Fairy Charm Jewellery set.
Older kids will love more sophisticated materials and new styles to experiment with when making jewellery, so our friendship bracelet kits and shamballa fire jewellery are sure to delight. They’re also great presents for that hard-to-buy for tween or teenager who still loves being creative and wants to show off their individual style.
Of course you don’t need a kit to be creative, there are many ways to make jewellery from everyday items. Here is a list of ideas for jewellery you and your child may enjoy trying:
- Pom Pom bracelets or necklaces: Imagine a string of colourful, fluffy pom poms as jewellery! All you need is a pile of yarn, a pom pom template and a sewing needle and thick, stretchy cord to sew them together.
- Button jewellery– you can buy buttons from a craft shop or you can have fun collecting buttons or cutting them off old clothes. Special buttons can make the jewellery quite sentimental.
- Washi tape Bangles: You can find old bangles in most charity shops, or even at the bottom of your old jewellery box! Buy a few roles of Washi tape (if you don’t know this paper-based tape already, look it up because it’s sure to be your new favourite craft material) and twist the washi tape around and around the bangle until you’ve covered it completely. And there you have it, new bangle! Nothing wrong with a little re-using and recycling old jewellery when you’re being creative!
- Safety pin bracelets: All you need is a pile of safety pins, small beads that fit the safety pins and stretchy elastic cord. Decorate the safety pins with the beads, making lots of different patterns (or the same pattern if you prefer) then use your elastic cord to string the top and bottoms of the safety pins together. Knot securely and you’ve got a fantastic bracelet unlike anyone else’s!
- Experiment with String: String is a really useful tool when making jewellery. It can act as a chain (you can hang anything off a string, from shells to buttons to even pasta!) or you can plait or knot the string to make designs and patterns. Weave in beads or buttons or even charms to make it more intricate. We searched for string jewellery on Pinterest and came up with lots of good ideas. Whether you’re 2 or 52, you’ll find amazing jewellery to make that starts with only a simple piece of string.
As with any activity with kids, it’s not always just the end result that is important. What you’ll enjoy when sitting down to make jewellery with your child, is the time you spend together, and the confidence and creativity you’ll see blossoming as you both try new things. It’s a great lesson to teach; that the effort put in to a project like this results in a special trinket that you’ll treasure and value because you’ve made it yourself. A beaded/button/safety pin bracelet made by your child may not be worth as much money as a diamond bracelet, but its sentimental value will far out weigh anything else you’ll ever own!
Lisa is the managing director of what2buy4kids. Lisa’s wish is to make your job of finding a gift for the children in your life easier, or help you to take some of the time and frustration out of the search for that special gift for kids.