Well, it’s the end of another school year (PHEWF!), and my babies are all home for summer (HUZZAH!). But we had one last box to tick before bidding goodbye to third grade: our teacher gift. Ever since I saw the best teacher gift idea EVAH, I’ve been thinking about heading up the effort for one of our kids’ teachers.

And our moment came this end-of-year! Here’s how you can make a fantastic class charm bracelet too!

First, send home a note to your class families (through sealed notes with the kids so teacher doesn’t see) inviting anyone who wants to participate to select and send in a special charm (in an envelope marked with your name to be sent back home with your child), then grab some jewelry chain, a lobster closure, jump rings, and a charm at the craft store and set to work with your jewelry pliers.

*TIP: If you don’t want to make your own bracelet from scratch, you can find a plain chainlink bracelet to get you started!

Estimate the length of chain you will need against one of your own bracelets and attach the lobster clasp to one end (and–not yet attached in this photo–a ring for the other end).

Remember when you open a jump ring to do it by twisting one way and the other, not by pulling it apart (which will warp the circle). I do this by holding one side of the opening with my jewelry pliers and pushing the other with my fingers or thumb).

Then you are ready to start attaching the charms using jump rings.

And it is so fun to see the fun variety of charms the kids choose!

[I had a couple of charms come in that were sliders, so I whipped out some E6000 and added a jump ring to each.]

Figure out how you want the charms laid out.

You will no doubt get some big, some small, some colored, and some plain silver charms; space them out so the bracelet will look and feel balanced.

Attach each charm with a jump ring.

It will come together so nicely!

I put it in a cute little pouch (so cute and simple–I’ll post a tute next week), then I tucked the pouch into our made-over jewelry box from Wednesday, and it was good to go!

When they gave their teacher the gift, the kids were all so excited  to point out which charms they’d chosen! Wheeeee!

Well, I hope your school year went well! Anyone out there do a class or individual gift? See or use any good ideas? Do tell!!

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