Make Jewel Encrusted Rings For Your 3-Year-Old!

Dude, you have to be secure in your masculinity and leave all the macho bull s#it behind when it comes to doing stuff for your little girl.  Case in point

I recently made these cool rings for J.  I also made one for eM so that they could have a matching set...

Here’s everything you’ll need:

1.       Multicolor pipe cleaners.

2.       Needle nose pliers.

3.       If your pliers don’t have a wire cutter feature then you’ll need some.

4.       Glue – I tried some AC Moore “craft” glue and it sucked.   eM, as I’ve said many times before, has many wonderful qualities.  She can be, however, a little rough on jewelry.  The glue held the “jewel” on eM’s ring until she actually wore it.  Now there’s a little rhinestone out there somewhere just waiting to jam itself into D’s trachea.  I’ve started using just a few dots of Gorilla Glue on a recent batch of rings.  Be careful because Gorilla Glue expands as it cures.

5.       Jewels.  You’ll find all kinds of stuff at any craft store.  I bought a couple of bags of rhinestones and picked up a sheet of round adhesive stones.

First let your daughter pick out the pipe cleaner colors and then fit them to her fingers.

Next she’ll have fun picking out the stones she wants on her rings.

Use your wire cutter to snip off about a fifth of the pipe cleaner.

Use the needle nose pliers to bend in the cut tips of the pipe cleaner. Careful, if you put too much of a crease in it you’ll make another sharp point.

Next wrap the pipe cleaners around in a tight spiral.  Use your fingers to tighten and flatten them and try to form as perfect a circle as you can.

Drop a bit of glue directly onto the center of the felt.  As I said, I’m using a few drops of Gorilla Glue and it’s working well.  Place the stone in the center so that it’s perpendicular to the finger.

Let it sit facedown overnight.

Have fun making a big deal of presenting the rings to her the next day!  Let her give mommy her ring too.

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