Chasing Cheerios

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

"Thing Finder" Necklaces


I love the Bug Catcher necklaces made by Whimsy Love, and I decided these necklaces would be great gifts for O and I to make for her cousins and friends for Christmas.

We decided to call our necklaces "Thing Finder" necklaces since we recently read Pippi Longstocking and have enjoyed being "Thing Finders" when we go on walks. To make these necklaces you need stretchy elastic cord, plastic toy capsule, beads, and a thumbtack. I adapted the necklace a little (from Whimsy Love's tutorial) to make it a little safer...I'm paranoid about the possible strangulation hazard of O having things around her neck. I decided to use thin, stretchy elastic cord instead of beading cord. It's not as durable, but I think it will break easily if it gets caught on anything. Therefore, eliminating the risk of strangulation. To make the necklace, I started by puncturing holes in the lid of the plastic capsule with a thumbtack. I made 2 of the holes bigger than the rest and threaded the elastic cord through these holes (this was the most difficult part of the process) making the elastic cord equally long on each side. We then started putting the beads on the elastic cord. Once each side was full, I tied the two sides together, and it was done!

These necklaces were so easy and so much fun to make. O lost interest fairly quickly, but she did help enough to have a little ownership in the process which was my goal. O and my niece both LOVE their necklaces, and I hope the other little girls and boys will love theirs, too.

4 comments:

  1. What a great idea!
    I'm posting some Christmas crafts and gift ideas this month too! Have you made O a fabric mailbox? I made one after seeing it on a website. You can see it
    http://mymontessorihomeblog.blogspot.com/search?q=gift

    Homemade gifts are GREAT!

    Thanks for inspiring!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh, trust me...the boys WILL love them. I bought one from Nikki's girls a few months ago for my 4 year old boy and he likes it alot!

    ReplyDelete
  3. This is such a wonderfull idea LOVE IT .. Can't wait to make one with my kids !

    ReplyDelete
  4. We made these with my children today...thanks for the sweet idea!

    http://beinglds.blogspot.com/2010/01/children-love-serve-one-another.html

    ReplyDelete