Necklaces for Kindergarteners

 On Monday I was feeling distressed about how little time I have to craft. My daughter decided to fix that by asking me to help her bead a necklace.

Not exactly what I had in mind to do during naptime. This is what we made. She wanted very tiny beads so I mostly did it, luckily we didn't use a pattern.

Tuesday afternoon she comes home and tells her how her friend from landsharks (elementary school cross country) loved her necklace so much. Nan told her she would make her one and bring her it. Hooray! *sarcasm* I got to make another necklace! *sarcasm*

She picked out the beads threaded five on, and gave up for me to finish it. I decided to be more charitable like my daughter and husband and happily make it. It was much more pleasant that way.

 My daughter came home from school on Thursday after landsharks in the morning, with only one necklace so I can only assume her friend loved the necklace.

Mother's Necklace

Remember my mother's necklace? Well my mom wanted one but I am one of seven kids, so I didn't think it would look good, so I told her no. I few months ago I found a style that would work with so many stones.  She has July, June, October, December, October again, September (that's me!) and finishes with August. I fittingly gave it to her for Mother's Day of all holidays. 

It can go short,

Or long.  (Too bad this picture stinks, huh?)

So versatile.

 By the way I added a fourth stone to mine, since I have a January baby now. It was super hard to find fake garnet. I think this design is the best for three stones.  Two wasn't as good, and four is definitely not as pleasing as three, any more than four would be even worse.
Amethyst
Turquoise
Peridot
Garnet

Fabric Bangles

I've wanted to make fabric bangles for about a year, but I have no old bangles sitting around my house. The other day during cleaning, it clicked! My kids always gets those silly rubber band bracelets (you know those livestrong style bands). They are every where in my house. So I collected a few and pulled out my glue gun, and cut thin stripes of calico scraps.

I have to admit after I finished these I wished I had scraps from all of my kids baby blankets.

Birth Stones

I decided before Mother's Day my mother's necklace needed to be updated.
So I picked up some glass looking peridot-- remember I'm having an august baby.  Plus I must be "officially" showing because people come up to me saying, I didn't know you were expecting.

 I guess technically my necklace is backward.
But the first child is Amethyst for February
Second child is Turquoise, so it has two pieces of actual Turquoise.
The third is Peridot like I said, for August, and has three pieces. 
I have no idea what I'll do if I'm still wearing this and have more than four kids, because I don't think I could get more than four beads on a jewelry pin. 

Then I had a million pieces of green glass beads left over from the string I bought, so I thought I would make some bracelets, to herald in my new baby in August.  I felt so motherly in church. HA HA

I loved it, when I showed the necklace to my daughter.  I pointed to the Amethyst and said who is this for?  She said her big brother's name.  (She loves this game and everytime I wear the necklace she tells me who each stone/gem is for.) I pointed to the Turquoise and asked who it was for?  She said "ME!"  I then asked, who is this for?  Pointing to the peridot.  She smiled, and said umm, umm, umm, more smiling.  Then a light bulb went off. "BABY BROTHER?!"  Yup, its baby brother's.  Then she went off, talking gibberish about baby brother, as a pregnant hormonal mother it melted my heart. 

Necklaces from December

After christmas my husband and I spent almost a $100 on beads and other supplies for jewelry. All I have to show for it is this purple necklace. That's not really true, but this is one of the necklaces I made with those supplies.

I also made this turquoise necklace. All the turquoise beads were from my mom's supplies she let me have. But I did buy all the silver after christmas.

Unfortunately the long silver beads aren't the best of quality, and the large turquoise is quite heavy, so after wearing it for a month, my daughter busted the string when pulling on it. When I restrung it I double strung it, hopefully it lasts. Here's crossing my fingers. Miraculously, when it busted we didn't lose any beads.

I've thought for a long time those big turquoise breads were pretty so I tried to find some that were the same but less invasive. Which I didn't accomplish which is why I made the turquoise necklace afterward. These are just little jade beads.

Mother's Necklace

I was out at the store today, so I picked up some Crystals dyed purple to look like Amethyst. I made a new necklace. I think this is way better. It actually looks almost professional instead of bad homemade. I'm a little sloppy when it comes to bending wire, see the bead pins, but these are only about my 4th and 5th attempt. My husband said he liked the double ring look.

Mother's Ring

I would love to have two rings, to make up a mother's ring for my right handed ring finger, one with an Amethyst, and one with a Blue Topaz. That is not in the budget for mother's day anytime soon so instead, I made this. I need better stones, these are just cheap glass, but it was good for a first attempt. Leather would probably also be better than this cheap stuff. I think I will also do Turquoise next time for December. I love it. It makes me feel so connected to my children. As if their constant crying doesn't?!

Trendy Star

Here is one of my new necklaces. I felt like I needed my trendy starfish. It was at all the stores, so I ended up buying it.

I love this necklace. Its thin, blendable, but colorful, its glass, metal, and pearls.

Family Reunion Girl Prizes

For some crazy reason my mom and I made necklaces for all the girls in my family over three. Here they all are. I am pretty proud of them, because I came up with the design myself. My mom wanted pendents that said Integrity or family. But instead they just random virtues.

Here is the one I made for myself, it does actually say family.

My two nieces got birds on theirs. Because birds are trendy right now.

Here they are all packaged up ready to go.

Popular in the Neighborhood

These were the most popular thing at bring your own lunch to the picnic table in front of the apartment building, among the children other than strawberries.

They are bracelets that my son and I had made earlier in the morning. Since both of his parents bead, he thinks it's pretty cool. (Even though his dad doesn't bead to be cool, he does it to be frugal.) Not to mention I've had a few nursery leaders tell me he is very skilled at stringing beads. He was very excited to make bracelets with me, since I don't let him touch my beads. (These are clearly child friendly.)
They are very easy to make I give him pipe cleaners because then I don't have to tape up the end of his string, and then we just bent the ends of the pipe cleaners around and fed them back through the beads. It was great!

Crappy Picture

This is a crappy picture, but I wanted to post another picture of the necklace I made. I used two different types of turquoise beads, lapis beads, and silver rods.

But as a bonus here is my cute daughter, even if her face is out of focus, its shows her fuzzy hair.

Silver Glass

This is my new favorite bracelet. I'm definitely a fan of the silver look over the gold. I am planning on making a matching/similar one for my daughter, but needed to get a new front post. So that will have to wait.

Leftovers

The beading craze continued, even after my mother was gone I made this. The beads were leftover from baby bracelets. My husband thought the necklace looked like a fishing lure.

Blue Necklaces

I told you it was a beading craze. This is not the end.

Beading Gifts

During my mom's and I beading craze. We were beading at my grandmother's house, and my grandma asked why we never made her anything. So I made her this. She said she loved it and wore it around the house the other night, because she never goes anywhere but church.

Then in a previous beading craze at my grandmother's house, one of eleven sister in laws happened to also be at my grandmother's house and expressed a desire to own a bracelet beaded watch. For her birthday my mom and I made one. You might notice an overlap in beads.

The back of the watch-- the toggle, a phrase I think my sister in law will think is cute.

Joy

I recently made this necklace. I picked out joy, to remind me to have joy in motherhood, to not get bogged down with laundry, dishes and noise, but to enjoy my fat fingered children. (I love fat sausage fingered children.) Every time I look in the mirror I see joy, and it helps the day go on.

Just to prove I'm embracing motherhood. Here is the firetruck with an arrow picture.

I really do love my children, I just need a reminder of how fun they are sometimes. I don't want them to grow up and me realize one day I let it all slip away.

Found

I found the lost pacifier clip! Like my husband said my son put it in a completely logical place. Inside a jewelry box I never look in. My daughter hasn't used pacifiers in what seems like an eternity for a baby life. But here it is.

A jewelry box made for a ring, a jewelry box I didn't even know this could fit in.

Here is my matching bracelet, I used the left over silver beads. Once again I love wearing this bracelet!

Matching Accessories

I decided about a month ago my daughter needed fancy pacifier clips. I made two, and my son lost one and it is still lost, I'm beginning to doubt we'll find it even when we move. Here is the non lost one. I love it, unfortunately my daughter does not love pacifiers, she use to like them sometimes, but even that is a stretch these days.

I had left over pink coral from the pacifier clip and paired it up with left over 6 mm light pink pearls from the birthday present necklace, so I made this bracelet. I love it, wear it non stop since I made it.

Doesn't every mom and daughter need matching accessories?!

Mother Daughter Braclets

These are my catch up jewelry posts. I wanted to my daughter to have a bracelet for her baby blessing. I begged my husband to make it for me, and he obliged. I designed it though. Four little 2 mm pearls in between 4 mm red coral. To match the holly berries on her dress.

If you look close you can see both of our bracelets.

This makes it easier to see.

Luckily I got my own too.