Handmade Gifts: Painted Wooden Bead & Clay Statement Necklaces

I have two handmade projects that Liv and I created together to share with you today. Much of my focus for handmade gifts this year had included involving Liv in a special way so that they are kid-friendly and something that we can tackle together, and this was definitely one of those projects! I had a few pictures of this necklace on a friend so that you could see the drop and color of leather cording more clearly but I seem to have overwritten the files!

Liv and I spread out our paint supplies one weekend afternoon and carefully covered several dozen small wooden beads (much like these – mine are all about 1/2″) with paint.

She painted hers to match the sunset (love that) and I went more of a gradient in all pinks.

We let them air dry for a few hours and then carefully strung them on leather cording with flat gold washers.

Here’s a quick tutorial on how to create a double slip knot so that your necklace can hang at any length (I love them long, but they’d also be pretty higher up on the neck).

Here’s a shot of one of Liv’s, she styled it herself when she saw what I was up to :).

Yay for handmade gifts! I’ve been on a bit of a necklace kick because of a sudden urge to diy these. Here’s my first stab at two different similar handmade versions and here’s another giant bauble tutorial with clay that is equally kid-friendly. 

Next up Liv and I used clay to roll out giant beads. A thick embroidery needle (or similar) works well to poke a hole in the clay and then we let dry for a couple of days (you’ll want to be sure that you’re using a drying clay as opposed to the newer kid-friendly clays that don’t harden). We made roughly two dozen beads and about half of them cracked (not sure what we did wrong there) but make extra for sure!

I love the way Liv’s turned out. Happy girl!

PS lots more handmade gift ideas right here (here are a few kits that are fun to put together – camping!, cocktails! – and a yummy sea salt that’s perfect for the holidays).