Activity:
Hair Ornaments
For holiday parties, there’s nothing like something sparkly to complement a young girl’s hair. This year, help your daughter craft this striking beaded barrette. She’ll get valuable practice in sequencing and patterns, and she’ll also create a festive hair ornament she can keep for years, or even pass along as a gift!
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What You Need:
- Plain metal clip barrette, about 2-1/2” long
- Star jewels in holiday colors, about 3/8” in diameter
- Pack of small sequin stars in holiday colors
- Pack of seed beads in holiday colors
- Craft glue
- 8 feet of beading thread, with a beading needle, for stringing seed beads
What You Do:
- Explain to your child that you will create a “sparkly barrette” with two sections: stars glued in a row on the top metal surface of the clip barrette, and then a bright section of “danglers” on the end, which will hang off the end of the barrette once it is in your child’s hair.
- Set up a work station with the beads, craft glue, thread, barrette and needle easily accessible. One tip: beads tend to roll, which can be quite frustrating. Try placing a flannel sheet on a tabletop to keep them in place!
- Your dangly section will be the first project. Start by cutting 4 sections of beading thread, each 2 feet long. Loop one through the end of the barrette, and tie it off, like this:
- Now repeat this step with the remaining three sections. You will now have eight single strands of beading thread hanging off the end of your barrette, each 12” long.
- Take one strand. One by one, string the threads through your needle, and then string your beads, alternating every few with the star sequins.
- When you have strung about 4 inches (less if this is for a small child, more for a bigger one), tie a knot at the end. Don’t cut it yet, though! Skipping over the first seed bead, use your needle to pull your thread back through about 1” of beads. Then cut the thread. This will make sure that your beads do not fall off their string!
- Repeat this step with the remaining seven threads.
- Now you’re ready for the final stage: decorating the top of the barrette! Pull out your star “jewels,” arrange them in a pattern, and then use craft glue, or hot glue, to fasten them down. Let the barrette dry fully—you do NOT want hair stuck into it!—and then wear it with pride.
