So I DO love the rainbow giant beaded bracelets and pasta necklaces that come home school and camps….I DO!  But…do I really wear them?  Um…no (horrible mom admittance!)

Maya had a friend’s birthday party to got to a bit ago, and I was talking with the mom about what to get her.  She really didn’t want more “stuff”, so she said if Maya wanted to make her something, that would be perfect.  Instantly I thought of a bracelet.  We asked what her favorite colors were.  I dug out my boxes of beads from storage (again…totally patting my pack rat self on the back right now!!), and…Maya made her a bracelet.  I helped with the clasp, but she did everything herself.  She picked what beads she wanted to use and strung them along.  Well…I didn’t take pictures of THAT bracelet ha!  But then Valentine’s Day rolled around.  What to give her teacher?  Oh, the box of beads were still sitting out (a week later-whoops!), so…Maya asked her teacher what her favorite color was, and we picked from my stash.  Thankfully, her favorite color was green (mine too!), so I had a few to pick from.  🙂

It’s a little hard to see, but these are an iridescent green “pearl” bead.  The bag that I had them in said $5.50, and we only used half.  So…while it looks like a really nice gift, it didn’t cost much, and it provided a fun activity.  Oh, and Maya had total pride in the fact that she made this for her teacher!!  And…her friend (that I didn’t take pictures of 🙂 ) Such concentration!  I honestly wasn’t sure if it would be too hard for her to do, but she did it! And obviously, had fun!  Which was the total point!!  Well…the end product was kind of the point, but her having fun making it was even better. So…don’t be afraid to have them make things out of real beads.  They aren’t that expensive, and they are totally wearable.  And…if you are like me and went through a total beading phase and KEPT all your beads…SCORE!! 😉