Anthro Inspired Ribbon and Beaded Necklace

Only 17 days into January and I am already starting Christmas and birthday presents!  YAY!  Might actually get everything made this year!

Last night, instead of just lounging around and watching television I decided to be productive!  I had been to Joann’s earlier and picked up beads and ribbons for an Anthro Inspired necklace by Flamingo Toes (one of my new favorite sites!). 

I followed Flamingo Toes’ tutorial step by step.  The only changes that I made/thoughts I had were as follows:

• Instead of stringing cord, I used Soft Flex wire
• My necklace only used ten strands like hers, but I think my beads were smaller than hers so it looks even less “strandy”
• I bought a strand mix that was $3.99 with a coupon.  My bead total was $2.00 for enough beads to make about 1.5 necklaces
• I didn’t bother pressing the ribbon once I had turned it…mainly because it was 11:00 at night and I was feeling lazy

I definitely plan on making half a dozen of these for birthday and Christmas gifts.  I was so impressed at how similar they looked to the original Anthro design and how beautiful they look on.  Flamingo Toes’ tutorial is comprehensive and easy to follow.

Get beading!

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Beaded Lanyards

Note from Debbie :  I just thought I would share my great collection of lanyards (most of which have been made by Jen) and how they are stored. These pegs are right by the back door to the garage. The last thing I do on my way out the door on the way to work is grab a lanyard that matches the day’s wardrobe, snap on my photo I.D., and grab my purse.

Beaded lanyards are a great way to showcase that obnoxious name badge that you have to wear at work.  I made piles of these this year for Christmas for my mom and my son’s teacher.  Both of them have to wear name badges all day at their jobs and I thought that beaded lanyards would make a fun gift!  Even if you have never beaded jewelry before, you can do this quickly, easily, and with only a few tools.  There are tons of tutorials on the web for lanyards and jewelry.  They all include a few basic things while at the same time leaving room for lots of creativity.

What you need:

a crimper

wire cutters

2 crimp beads

a key ring

2 jump rings

beads of your choice (For the lanyard in the example, I used multicolored beads that were a little bit bigger than seed beads.)

Soft Flex beading wire (sold on a roll)

1.  Gather all of your supplies and choose your beads. 

2.  To get started, cut at least 36inches of Soft Flex beading wire.  You want your lanyard to be 32 to 36 inches long, depending on preference.  String a crimp bead on to the wire, string on one jump ring, and thread the wire back through the crimp bead.  Use the crimping tool to close the crimp bead.  You can find directions on how to use the crimping tool in the package it came from as well as by doing a search for “how to close a crimp bead“.

3.  String your beads.  For the lanyard in this example, I used multicolored beads that were a little bit bigger than seed beads.  By choosing multicolored beads, I eliminated the step of designing a pattern.  I just strung the beads in no particular order and it looks great!

4.  Before closing off the other side with a crimp bead, check the length.  You want the lanyard to hang below the bust.  I recommend at least 32 inches but no more than 36 inches.  Once you are satisfied with the length, repeat Step #2 on the other side so you have a long string of beads that look like this:

5.  Take your key ring and string it on to the jump rings (which are really just teeny tiny key rings).

I also attached the lanyard hook in case the recipient needed one.  That being said, most badge holders have a clip that the user can loop over the key ring.

I made a pile of lanyards in all different shapes and sizes: large wooden beads, small pink beads, red beads that resembled rocks, and more! 

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Tags: Arts and Crafts, Jennifer, Jewelry