A perfect easy craft activity that the kids will love!!  We did these today and it was definitely a success.

I’ve been inspired by these awesome J Crew animal necklaces, and decided that I need to make some with the kids.

 

So here’s our kid friendly DIY project.

Materials:

1.  Plastic Turtles (you could also use dinosaurs, zoo animals or whatever they have available.  I have seen lizards that would be cute too).  Amazon sells them HERE

 

2.  Screw Eyes – I bought mine at Joanns (with my 40% off coupon)

3.  Paint and Brushes.  We tried a few acrylic paints out, and surprisingly my favorite brand was the cheap brand “craft essentials” that I picked up at Joanns.  It covered really well.

4.  Clear Sealant.  This is optional, but if you want a nice shiny coat and protection from chipping, it would be a good idea.

5.  Cord. We used stretchy cord similar to this

If you want to match the jcrew necklace closey, you can buy ball and chain necklaces suppliers from ETSY

 

Step 1:

Paint your turtles (don’t my shirtless boys, they were ready for a swim.

Step 2.  Once your turtle is dry, screw in the screw eye.  This was hard for the kids to do, so I did this step for them.  Simply decide where you want to have the ring, and then poke the sharp end into the toy and screw it in until it’s tight.

Step 3.  If you want to add the clear sealant you can do this now (or before the screw eye goes in, it doesn’t matter.

Step 4.  Cut the stretchy cord long enough so it can fit over their head and tie a single know like this:

And all done!  My kids really enjoyed this.  Taylor has a friend participating and she said she loves her necklace!