Alphabet Bead Keychain Craft

Take your kids to the bead, craft or sewing shop (or your craft supply closet) and have them load up on supplies.

Set up shop by placing all of the supplies on a table.

Have the kids decide what they want their key chain to say. They can choose any sentence with four words or less.

Have them spell their words on a flat surface. Measure the beading elastic against the longest word, double that length and add eight inches. Cut two pieces of beading elastic this length.

Have the kids loop the beading elastic through the key ring so that the ends are of equal length. They'll now have four ends hanging down.

Next, they should slide one bead (but not an alphabet bead!) through all four pieces of beading elastic and fit it snugly against the key ring.

Now the kids can put on the alphabet beads to spell out their sentence. If they choose a four-word sentence, they should string the alphabet beads for each word onto one of the four pieces of beading elastic. If they want to use a sentence with fewer words, they should double up on the beading elastic. For example, if they want to spell out "I love Mommy," they should put the "I" on one string, the "love" on the two middle strings, and the "Mommy" on the fourth string. If they want to spell out "I Love Johnny," it's time for a little mother-daughter chat.

Make sure they put the same number of beads on each piece of beading elastic. If the one word is shorter than the others, they should thread decorative beads onto the string to make up the difference so they're all the same length.

When all the beads are on, help the kids bring all four ends of the beading elastic together, thread them through one bead and then tie a knot at the end. Voilà, a keychain!