Bracelets DuJour: Tutorial

Can Tab Bracelets

We collect Can Tabs at our house. We don't drink a lot of drinks from cans, but when we do, we try to save them. Our schools collect them for a local Ronald McDonald House.

Today I was at a Hallmark Store shopping for a birthday gift, and I spotted a Can Tab Bracelet for sale. I couldn't believe it! It occurred to me that I had never made these before but I wondered how hard it could be. NOT HARD AT ALL, apparently.

I made two and I will show them both here. The tutorial is easier to see using the elastic thread, so you'll see that first.


You will need to cut off about 2 feet of string and 20 to 25 Can Tabs - washed clean.

Take your first Tab and thread the string through the top and bottom holes. I tied it so that it would be easier to manage, making the Can Tab on the end immovable.


Take your second Tab and, keeping the rough side together with the rough side of the first Tab, thread the string through that one.


Then, alternating sides and overlapping (like brickwork), you need to add another Tab. See how I have the lower Tab, rough facing up, and the top Tab (rough down) is sort of off to the side? That is where the next Tab will go.

Place it rough side down next to the top Tab. Then, cross feed the string, like you thread a sneaker. Making an X.


Then you just keep doing it...

I found a random green Can Tab. How cool! I have no idea what it is from...


And then I had some interference...

He really wanted to play! I was holding the Tab chain for a picture.

Then it looks like this:

And this:

Then I made the one with the blue ribbon. Make sure you leave enough ribbon (at LEAST 2 and a half feet) because the ribbon is not stretchy like the elastic string used in the first one.



I hope you give these a try. They are so simple - Using my phone, I took photos of the ones at the store and was able to make them myself. Though they used a different material (wire, it looked like, wrapped instead of crossed) they look similar. My teenagers love them. The ones I saw at the Hallmark Store had a bead attached to them, so maybe I'll try that next.

The parties I'm linking to are below, so go check them out! I am going to indulge myself Wednesday night and take over the computer just so I can go and see what fun things everyone is making.

I hope you get the chance to be creative today!

Flowers for your Sweet

Silk Flower Tutorial

For this project you will need silk fabric scraps. I used pieces of an old shirt. You just need a small amount, so you can buy some pieces or, if you are feeling adventurous, you can go to Goodwill and look for silk shirts.




The list is as follows :

Silk Fabric
A Candle

A Match
Scissors
Glue Gun
One Bead
A length of Ribbon

Cut out graduating circles of the silk. These do not even have to look like nice circles, they can be oblong and have square points along the edge.

Light the candle.

Taking one of the silk circles, holding it shiny side up, hold the fabric over the candle flame. Don't hold the very edge over the flame, but a centimeter or so from the edge. I found that if you hold the cut edge over the flame, the fabric doesn't turn and roll up. As I said, hold it a little toward the center, away from the edge.

If you do burn the fabric a bit, you can just cut it off.

After I had done it a little, I decided I liked some of the singed edges, so I didn't worry about them as much. Maybe it was the color I chose.

Once you have used the flame to curl up the edges of all of the circles, use the glue gun to place a dot of glue in the center of the largest circle. Place the next sized-down on top. Continue doing this, and on the smallest, place the bead on top, with the thread hole turned sideways so it won't be seen.

At this point you will have to decide if you are going to use it as a pin or a necklace or sew it onto a pillow.

I finally glued mine onto a ribbon and my daughter wore it to school on her wrist the next day. I made another for myself and I wore it around my neck as a choker.

I saw this craft online on Makiablog.com, and I couldn't find the sight to find out what kind of fabric was used... so I want to thank my sister-in-law Karen (a Master Sewer!) for letting me know that silk would work.

I hope you get the chance to be creative today!