Children love to make and have things with their name displayed. We used building bricks in these key chains to create unique, one of a kind personalized gifts for friends. The actual activity of beading is great to develop fine motor skills and develop a sense of patterns for younger children and older children can work on their tool skills.
Time: 7 minutes per key chain
Age: Any Age (adult participation level will vary)
Level: Medium
Materials
Hot glue or other strong bonding glue
Drill a small hole in a building brick. Cheaper, non-Lego brand bricks are easier to drill a hole into. An adult will need to do this step.
Thread a piece of craft wire through the hole and knot. To do this, fold the craft wire over on itself 3-4 times.
Lay out the name of the person you want to put on the key chain.
Thread coloured beads and the name beads on the wire starting from the end of the name.
For younger children, it helps to direct them to hold the wire in the right hand and string the beads with the left. It is difficult for them to visualize a name backwards, so if they are simply picking up the bead from the already spelled name and putting it on, they are more successful!
This is a great place to work on patterns. What colours are going to be repeated? When do they repeat?
Loop the wire around a pencil or dowel to connect onto your key ring.
Fold the loop over and slip in the key ring.
Wrap the wire back down it's length to the first bead.
You will most likely need to cut off excess wire with needle nose pliers or wire cutters. Tuck the wire into the first bead. It may be necessary to glue at this junction if the beads are not tight to the wound wire.
Add other bricks if you wish. We decided to glue ours but you could always add 2-3 bricks and leave them unglued so that the shapes could be changed!
Enjoy your new personalized key chain!
