Back to School Bracelets

This time last year we were feeling all the emotions of Olive starting elementary school.

We were nervous, anxious, excited and there were lots of unknowns.

This year feels different. 

The back to school routine suddenly feels familiar and routine.

We know what to expect with her school, her new routines and many of the expectations of elementary school.  We are so excited to get to know and to see all the things she will learn this year.  Olive is about 95% excited about first grade.  I think she'll be 100% excited after the back to school open house.  We've had a wonderful summer together, but it's always a tiny bit sad to go from being together full time to her being away for the day.  We'll all adjust fine, I'm sure.  Then we'll be busy into our back to school routines in no time.

I thought I'd share our BACK TO SCHOOL BRACELETS with you today.

The idea behind Back to School Bracelets are that we each end up with a stack of bracelets to wear at the start of school to help us feel extra loved, comforted and remembered during the school year.  I tell Olive that I'll pray for her and her school year when I look at my stack of bracelets.  She says she'll feel hugs and kisses from home when she's feeling nervous about all the new things at school.  It's comforting to both of us.

We started this tradition last year and it was so fun!  We all love to craft and this tradition seemed like the perfect opportunity for us to craft.  You just needs beads, string and some time to DIY together.  There are no special tools are skills involved.  I promise!

Supplies:
3 or 4 bags of beads - we like shapes, pretty colors, animals and letters.
1 pkg of  1.2mm elastic cord
*All of our supplies came from Hobby Lobby

We made a mix of 16 kid and adult bracelets and still had some leftover supplies.

This elastic cord is wonderful!  It doesn't fray, the knots are really secure and our bracelets from last year are still in really good shape.

Directions:
Open all your packages on a large serving platter with an edge on it.  Head to an area with carpet or a rug to keep the beads from bouncing away and start making bracelets.  Measure wrists leaving room to tie knots.  For the kid's bracelets I tie the knot around a bead.  It just seems like it's easier for them to lace more beads on with a bigger knot around a bead.  I just tie 2-3 regular knots for my own bracelets.

We always do kid bracelets and a set for me.  We talk ahead of time about what we'd like to spell out on our bracelets.  Unfortunately, the letter beads pictured below had holes that were too small for our string.  I swapped them out for other ones a few minutes into the project.  So pay attention to the bead hole openings when you're selecting your beads.

Fletcher isn't going to school this year, but he was pumped to make bracelets with us.

We really like this Tree House Studio bead brand.  The beads are under $3 a bag full price andn they are really great quality.  We were thrilled to find unicorn beads this time.

I opted to do my kid's monograms, JOY and a fun rainbow heart bracelet.

Olive picked out words or initials for everyone in our family.  She came up with her own patterns and designs for her bracelets.

 I like really uniform, patterned bracelets and Olive prefers for every bracelet to be unique.

 Here's my set from 2018.  They're still in great shape.

Would anyone in your family heading off to school appreciate making back to school bracelets?? 

I have a feeling we'll be continuing this tradition for years to come. 

Maybe we'll even make off to college bracelets one day - ha!