{"id":7357,"date":"2009-12-23T03:14:23","date_gmt":"2009-12-23T11:14:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/?p=7357"},"modified":"2009-12-23T09:12:16","modified_gmt":"2009-12-23T17:12:16","slug":"last-minute-gift-idea-kids-polymer-clay-backpack-charms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/last-minute-gift-idea-kids-polymer-clay-backpack-charms\/7357\/","title":{"rendered":"Last Minute Gift Idea for 18 Kids – Polymer Clay Backpack Charms"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Kids <\/span>“My polymer clay charms are turning out really cute and I love giving them as gifts.” ~Radeane-F<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Picture this. It’s Thursday at around dinner time. Your 10 year old son announces that he needs 18 friendship gifts for his classmates by the next day… for a Friday morning school Christmas party. What to do?<\/span><\/p>\n

First of all, don’t panic. And secondly, you remember that big bin of polymer clay beads up in the craft room. They are perfect for making cool and unique looking, backpack charms!<\/span><\/p>\n

Normally I’m not the kind of mom to give in to such ridiculous requests at the last minute. But it really wasn’t my sons fault this time. You see he was moved into a new school this year, and was unaware of their tradition of having all the children exchange presents with each other. He just found out about it when one of the kids ended up leaving early for holidays, and gave everyone his gifts the day before the party.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now at the risk of sounding like an overly proud mom, I’d like to share a little story about my son Fisher and his new school situation. Over the last couple of years, he has been very unhappy at his old school. But thankfully a perceptive teacher suggested that he go in for some tests. They revealed that he is actually “gifted” and he ended up qualifying to get into self-paced, accelerated education program.<\/span><\/p>\n

Even though it was hard for him to leave his old friends and the nice school he was at, being in this new situation has made all the difference in the world! He is so happy now, and excited about learning.<\/span><\/p>\n

The reason I told you this story is because it helps to explain why his teacher has all the kids exchange gifts each Christmas. Unlike other programs where the kids move to a new class each year, Fisher’s class is made up of grade 5, 6 and 7 students that all stay together for 3 years. So they kind of become family with each other. Gift giving is a way for them to bond.<\/span><\/p>\n

Anyways… back to the polymer clay backpack charms part of the story. Being the night before the party, it was too late to go shopping. And even too late to make a whole bunch of handmade cards.<\/span><\/p>\n

Well lucky for Fisher (and me), besides all of the finished polymer clay beads I had on hand, there was also a package of small lanyard clips in my studio. So he selected the beads that best suited each of his classmates, and I wired them up into little charms that could be clipped on a zipper, a backpack or even a cell phone.<\/span><\/p>\n

When he passed them out the next day, everyone was thrilled. As you can see in the photo above each one was different. There was a couple of graffiti beads<\/a>, a faux turquoise bead<\/a>, a Jupiter bead<\/a>, a faux leather leaf<\/a> charm, a few different lentil beads<\/a>, some faux pebbles<\/a>, an extruder flower cane bead<\/a> and a bunch of others!<\/span><\/p>\n

This gift giving idea was fast, personal and easy to do. Plus it didn’t break the bank. My teen daughter, Willow, decided to take a few for her friends as well.<\/span><\/p>\n

I think these kind of charms would make a great little fundraiser for Girl Guides or church bazaars. Or maybe the soccer team. You could make up a variety of beads in the school\/group’s colors and have the kids make them up to sell.<\/span><\/p>\n

They also make great last minute Christmas gifts! Phew! Polymer clay safes the day once again!<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
<\/td>\n**************************************************************************************************<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\nBack Issue Video Sale: 15% to 25% December Discount:<\/strong><\/span>
\nMore info here: Polymer Clay Video Gift Certificates<\/a><\/span><\/td>\n		<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n**************************************************************************************************<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

\"Cindy\"Polymer<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“My polymer clay charms are turning out really cute and I love giving them as gifts.” ~Radeane-F<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,2769,1067],"tags":[668,2640],"class_list":["post-7357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bead-projects","category-pct-show-tell","category-selling","tag-charms","tag-children-kids-teachers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7357\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}