We are always on the look out for cool crafts for tweens to make. Lots of older kids love to craft, they are just looking for more challenging and more interesting crafts to make. We tried our hand at making colorful, beaded, and patterned 80's inspire friendship pins before. These cool friendship pins are a great summer craft project for tweens to make.
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This time around, I wanted to take our 80's friendship pins and update them for today's kids.
If your kids are like my kids, then they text their friends. Sometimes they use lingo that I don't understand...making me feel pretty old. So, when I was planning out this updated friendship pin craft, I took inspiration from all the awesome phrases kids use today.
Here's a little help with some definitions...
- fam - the short form of "family" or your very close friends (would make a great Mother's Day gift too)
- it's lit - this one means that something is super awesome - it's on fire
- squad - your closest friends are part of your squad - we might have said they were our crew
- GOAT - Greatest Of All Time - I'd consider Oprah to be GOAT
- BFF - Best Friend Forever - this one is pretty self explanatory
- Bruh - short form of "brother" - another easy one
- Woke - this means that you are "awoken" or aware of social issues
- FOMO - Fear Of Missing Out - I think we all feel this way sometimes, right?
Those are a few of the terms that we brainstormed together. If you are wondering what some of the other text short forms are that your kids might be using, check out this quick and easy rundown of popular teen (I'd argue tween too) slang.
Once we had our list of words we could use, we set about making the friendship pins.
How to Make Friendship Pins with Letter Beads
safety pins
letter beads
colorful seed beads
jewelry pliers
The first step is to plan out the letters and beads you want to use. It is always helpful to work on a piece of felt when you are working with beads. The felt creates a work surface that stops (or slows down) any beads that are trying to roll away.
Now that you have your plan, it is time to open up the safety pin. So, because you want to be able to open and close the safety pin without having all the beads falling off, you actually need to stack the pins on the side of the safety pin that doesn't open. This is the secret to a totally awesome safety pin craft. To do this, use the jewelry pliers to uncurl the safety pin.
The pin doesn't need to be opened up and be perfectly straight, in fact keeps some of the curve. Keeping the curve will help you know where to bend it after the beads are in place. Make sure it is uncurled enough so that the beads fit. Working with the pliers can be challenging. Take your time and I promise you will figure it out.
Feed the beads onto the pin. It took a couple of tries to get the letters pointing in the right direction. How many beads you use, will depend on the size of your safety pin. Our pins ranged from 1 ½" to 2" in length.
When the beads are in place, it is time to curl up the safety pin. Again, use the pliers to twist and crimp the safety pin around until it is back in its original position.
Once the friendship pin is made, it is time to pass it along to friends. This is the best part, sharing the love with others...right?
These safety pin friendship pins can be clipped on anywhere. It is always fun to put your friendship pin on shoes - just like we did in the 80's.
I like the look of these pins on a jean jacket. My kid likes to put her pins on her school backpack. Wherever you decide to put it, once it is in place use the pliers to crimp the pin closed. This will ensure the pin doesn't fall off.
I love how these pins turned out. This is a great craft for tweens or craft for teens - challenging enough for older kids. What do you think? What will your kids put on their friendship pins?
Other cool crafts for tweens...
Get crafty with the recycling bin and make a beautiful egg carton wreath
If your tween communicates in emojis, then these salt dough emojis will be fun to make
Make sure you are following along...
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