Button bracelets

My Squirt is not feeling well and doesn't want to eat or do anything. It's so hard when little people are sick. Especially when nothing really seems wrong but they just aren't themselves. Like me, she is an early riser and likes to be doing something first thing in the morning. Today however, she stayed in bed until 1:00p.m., only moving to the couch after I promised a movie.

To pass the time, we I made button bracelets with How to Train Your Dragon playing in the background. The process is simple, and there are about a million tutorials out there for how to do this. This is the way I approached it.

Cut a long piece of beading wire, I started with about 12-14 inches. Standard bracelets are 7 or 7.5 inches depending on thickness, but if you cut the wire too short to start with there will be guaranteed cursing while things fall off and fly around the living room.

Using a crimp ring, pass one end of your beading wire through the end loop in a 1-1.5 inch section of chain. This is a good place to use up bits and pieces left over from other projects or clearance sale costume jewelry. Pass the wire back through the crimp ring, pull it as tight as can be, and squeeze the crimp ring with your pliers.

Thread buttons on one or two at a time until you've got an inch or two strung. Take the loose end of the beading wire and slip it through the buttons until it's completely hidden. Keep adding buttons until you've reached the desired length.

Thread on another crimp ring and either a soldered jump ring or the end of the clasp (I did one with a link and one with just the clasp). Pulling as tight as you can to get the ring/clasp as close as you can to the buttons then squeeze the crimp ring with your pliers. Trim the wire tail to about 1 inch long and feed the tail back through the buttons. If you used a spring ring on the end of the bracelet, add the clasp now.

 I wanted something neutral but Squirt wears a lot of bright pink and other colors so we did one of each. Surprisingly after measuring around our wrists they turned out almost exactly the same length, which means we are finally to a place where we can share some things! I would worry about that but I buy nicer things for her than for myself so honestly I think I'm the one who benefits most from this :)

Button bracelets are fast, easy, cheap, and quite customizable. Plus, if you ever tire of them just snip the wire and use the buttons for something else. This would be a great activity for an older child's birthday party or rainy day activity.