Mostly-Failed Friendship Bracelets

For the Easter egg swap, @Kwality570 said she’d like some “old-style friendship bracelets”. How perfect! I had just received (by mistake; the vendor sent me the wrong thing and told me not to bother sending it back) a bag of supplies and instructions for making friendship bracelets.

I’d never made any before, but since I often see them categorized as kid’s crafts, I assumed they must be very easy to do.

WRONG!

I spent literally a whole week, trying and failing to make an acceptable-looking friendship bracelet.
Some of my failed attempts:

They just looked so sad…

Finally, I gave up on those techniques and just fell back on more familiar craft modes: crochet and macrame.

For inspiration, Leann had shared a picture of a group of bracelets, including one with a central eye/evil eye charm. Not able to find that exact one, I ordered a more stylized eye charm to use in my bracelets. But then I received word that delivery would be delayed; too late for the swap.

Darn! I really wanted one of the bracelets to have a focal point like that. After a bit of stash-shopping, I remembered the chunky butterfly buttons I’d claimed from @thanate during the fall Shop the Swap market. Yay! Just the focal point I needed.

Here is @Kwality570’s action shot of all the bracelets. The butterfly is the star of the show, of course.
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The bracelets turned out great. I laughed when you said you thought they would be easy because friendship bracelets are considered kids crafts. I felt the same way and tried them and failed miserably. Miserably!
The butterflies and Beads made your bracelets even more beautiful. They turned out amazing.

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These are great! LOVE the butterfly!

I wonder if maybe kids’ bracelets aren’t so wonderfully wrought, either, but kids don’t care so much about that as the act of sharing with their friends?

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Wow, this turned out beautifully! The butterfly is the perfect choice.

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I must have made the super simple braided ones back in the day, not the patterned beauties. I was just thinking about how I see bracelet looms at the toy store, but I think they had those or at least a kit when I was young. Not the same, but it reminds me of when I used to play Cat’s Cradle. Fun times.

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The butterfly was the perfect centerpiece for the bracelet!

I don’t know how kids make those either…lol…nothing wrong with sticking to what you know best and can execute well…it is a beautiful piece of jewelry!

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That’s a great use for that pottery piece, looks really nice.

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