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Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Popsicle Stick Bracelets


My daughter loves playing dress-up, and most of all, loves jewelry of any kind. Sure, you can find all kinds of kids' jewelry for cheap, but sometimes you also get what you pay for...meaning lots of tears after a necklace or bracelet breaks after 5 minutes of wearing it. So, if you're wanting cute kids' jewelry that costs you almost nothing, then these popsicle stick bracelets are perfect! Plus, it's a fun way to spend an afternoon and keep the kids feeling creative.


To Make Popsicle Stick Bracelets, You'll Need:
Popsicle/Craft Sticks {I got mine from CraftProjectIdeas.com}
Emery Board or Sandpaper
Acrylic Paints
Paint Brushes {I got mine from CraftProjectIdeas.com}
Glitter Glue {I got mine from CraftProjectIdeas.com}
Acrylic Jewels {I got mine from CraftProjectIdeas.com}
Craft Glue


Step 1: Place popsicle sticks in saucepan filled with water*. Bring to a boil and simmer for 20 minutes. Remove from heat and let sit for another 20 minutes {You could also place the popsicle sticks in a bowl of water and let sit overnight}. This will make the popsicle sticks pliable and easy to work with.

*You may have a few sticks break or split while trying to bend, so prepare to have extras as backup.

Step 2: Start working the popsicle stick into a circle*. If you use larger craft sticks, you can fit them into the opening of a drinking glass to keep the round shape. My daughter's wrists are pretty small, so I ended up putting the sticks into the inside of a toilet paper roll.

*If they start to dry while you are working with them, they will most likely break or split. So, just get them wet again as needed. Hot water works better than cold water.

Step 3: Let the sticks dry overnight. Remove from glass or toilet paper roll and try them on your child's wrist. You don't want to make bracelets that don't fit! If they are too small or are bent weird, you can re-wet them and start again or adjust. If you have small splinters, you can smooth them out with an emery board or sandpaper.


Step 4: Time to paint! For little kids, these brushes worked great and I didn't have to worry about my nice brushes getting ruined. They are the perfect size for little hands! I also like to use plastic Tupperware lids for acrylic paint projects. It peels right off and works great as a nice little palette for the kids to paint with.


Step 4.1: Paint the outside of the bracelets in any colors you choose. You can paint the insides if you want, but with a three year old, that's a little more of a mess than I'd like to deal with... Let dry completely.

I also wanted to give Christy's Cuties a shout-out for making the adorable apron!


Step 5: Add glitter {of course!}. Glitter glue in tubes worked great for little hands. Sure, it got a little messy, but she had a lot of fun being in control of this part! She wanted to use every color of glitter in the package, and we even made a few shapes {like the heart in the picture above}. It was a great learning activity covering colors and shapes. You can leave the glitter on thick*, or paint a line and use a brush to even it out for more coverage. Let dry completely.

*If you leave the glitter on thick, be sure to keep an eye on it as it can {and will} run! It will also take longer to dry.


Step 6: Bling it up! This is another opportunity to talk about shapes, colors, and sizes. The package of acrylic jewels had a good variety to choose from, and it was fun to let her make her own decisions to personalize the bracelets. Glue the jewels on with craft glue, or use E6000 {with a lot of ventilation!!} for a better hold. Let dry completely.


Now you're done! These were so fun to make, and would also be a great gift or party activity.
The possibilities are really endless for personalization.


Thanks again to CraftProjectIdeas.com for sending us craft supplies to play with!

Would you like to comment?

  1. Too cute! You need to submit those babies to stylegawker!

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  2. My youngest daughter always saves her Popsicle sticks to use for crafts. She'll be thrilled to see this fun craft! Pinning...thanks for sharing, Lindsay! :)

    Brenda @ChattingOverChocolate.blogspot.com

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  3. Oh these are so lovely! I'm going to have to make these for my daughter! (She's so into dressup)Thanks for sharing! :)

    -Stephanie
    http://crazylittlelovebirds.blogspot.com

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  4. i love this! thanks for sharing i never knew you could bend Popsicle sticks! 8D

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  5. These are soooo cute!!!
    Thanks for sharing.

    Kay Dell Whitlock

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  6. LOVE! That is so amazing! Thanks for sharing!

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  7. This is so neat Lindsay! Thanks for sharing! I just want to know why these were not around when I was a little girl. ;)

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  8. What a cute little craft! Popsicle sticks are the best! Stopping by from Plucky's blog hop... nice to meet you! :)

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  9. Very cute! She is one stylin' little girl ;)

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  10. Love these!! I can't wait to make these with my little girl!! Thank you for sharing..


    Jess Perry
    www.discoveryourhappy.com

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  11. Love these! I'm definitely going to try these out with my girls! Thanks for the tutorial!

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  12. These are super fun! I remember doing this with my Girl Scout Troop! :)

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  13. This is such a cute idea! I will definitely have to try this out with my niece! Thanks for sharing! Pinned this!

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  14. These are so cute. How fun!!! I have a link party called Wednesdays Adorned From Above Blog Hop and would love to have you share this and any other posts with everyone. It runs from Tuesday night through midnight Sunday. Here is the link to the party.
    http://www.adornedfromabove.com/2013/02/wednesdays-adorned-from-above-blog-hop_26.html
    Debi and Charly @ Adorned From Above

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  15. These would be perfect for a girls birthday craft! I have ton's of Popsicle sticks, so I will definitely be trying. Pinned! Hope to see you at True Aim.

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  16. Adorable! I have seen these done before and we actually did soak them in water and curved them, but that was about it for some reason.

    Anyway I know the ones we did see were not embellished as cute as yours!

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  17. I love this idea! I clicked on your link because I had no idea how you got the popsicle sticks curvy, haha. Learned something new:)

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  18. This is such a great idea! I had no idea that you could make popsicle sticks bend by boiling them! I would love to invite you to link up at our Share It Saturday linky party. We have lots of creative ideas submitted each week and you would fit right in! http://www.sugaraunts.com/2013/03/share-it-saturday-9-and-our-week-in.html

    Hope to see you there!

    Colleen at Sugar Aunts

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  19. wow that is cool! we will be getting some popsicle sticks asap

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  20. That is so darn clever! My daughter would have loved this when she was younger!
    Hope you can stop by the enchanted oven!
    xo,
    Lisa

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  21. Thank you so much for linking up your fun bracelets! I never thought to use water to bend the sticks before. What an inexpensive way to make cute jewelry. I've featured your project in this week's A Crafty Soiree. Please come by and check it out when you can and share more of your creative talents with us!

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  22. You have got to be kidding me. This is the best idea I have seen!! I cannot believe I did not know about this until now. My daughter will be in LOVE. We are starting a link up party on Thursdays (today:), and we would love for you to join us with this post and/or any others you would like to include. We are at allthingswithpurpose.com. Hope to see you there!!

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  23. These are SO cool!!! Just pinned this to make later. - Jessica (cutesycrafts.com)

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  24. We love this project so much, that we are featuring your post tomorrow on Share It Saturday. Stop by and visit if you like. www.sugaraunts.com. We will also be sharing with our FB and Twitter followers and pinning to our Share It Saturday Group Pinterest board. If you would like to check it out, here are the links:
    https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sugar-Aunts/406711342711382
    https://twitter.com/sugaraunts
    http://pinterest.com/karyntripp/share-it-saturday/

    We love to connect with our featured bloggers, so if you would like to follow us or like us on any of those outlets, just leave a message and we will be sure to follow back.

    We hope to see your posts back at Share It Saturday again, we love your ideas :)
    Colleen at Sugar Aunts

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  25. super duper nice.. I didnt know.. that popsicle sticks can bend.. hummmm... something to try for sure!! :)

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