Button and Charm necklaces

  This was the first craft of the Be Brave year at MOPS (hence the feather!).  It is modeled by my son's teddy bear, again, NOT a pinterest perfect photo.

  We ordered chains online, probably came from overseas... give yourself enough lead time for it to arrive, check the review and make sure there isn't reports of them pulling and breaking that way. The charms were a combination of orders from Etsy. Jump rings from Wal-mart. And the buttons were a combination of old buttons from Createforless.com, Oriental Trading Co, a local craft store and a few from our own home stash.  We had leaders bring in pliers, especially needlenose pliers.  If you want to get all "pro" about it, there are jewelry tools you can use, but we made do.  We didn't even go to the step of wrapping the teeth of the needle nose pliers with a bit of tape to prevent teeth marks on the jump rings, but you can if you're worried about it.

Results:  For those ladies who like their bling, or color, or charms, this was right up their alley.  We had so many neat buttons, colors, and charms (lots not even pictured), that there were many options. There are those ladies who perhaps bling isn't their thing, or happened to be holding their baby and trying to work with small parts wasn't possible.... and moms never get to finish things at home.

How to improved: Though our necklaces were ok, I think I would have taken them one step stronger.  They held up to a ladies' use, but a toddler tugging on them, well that is another story.  A better tutorial would have helped us for those ladies never seen or used these materials before.  The necklaces looked great with different sizes of buttons, but that required different sizes of jump rings... and not every lady heard that you use the small jump rings on the charms and small buttons, but large jump rings on the larger buttons. So either written or power point directions would have improved success, if not an all out quick teach to table leaders at a meeting before the day of this craft so that they could assist.   And of course, fewer options is more streamlined for the less crafty individuals, but limits the those who have creativity coursing through their veins like glitter on fire.  Just find the balance.

God bless you and your group as you go out and craft!