Bread Tie Jewelry

You know those plastic bread ties - not the wire ones - that hold a loaf of bread closed? Can you imagine how many of those you've thrown away in your life? You wouldn't have been tossing them if you had known just how cute the jewelry you can make from them are. The plastic tabs, square or rectangular in shape, can be turned into necklaces, bracelets, and more, using just a few inexpensive craft supplies.

There are so many ways to make jewelry from the flat, plastic bread ties. When you paint them first, and then add desired accents, no one will be able to tell that the jewelry is made from bread tabs. The square bread ties end up looking like charms and the rectangular types resemble dog tags. Before you get started decorating the tabs you'll need to cover up the slits that allow you to put the tabs on the bread. A simple piece of clear tape works fine; put one on each side of each tab. Cut the tape to just go across the very top of the bread tie, and wide enough to go below the edge of the slit.

Use your choice of paints to create a charm-type of necklace. Use a metallic color, like bronze or gold, for an elegant necklace. Or, paint the tabs black, and later add unusual white lines, to make a zebra stripe charm. Choose the color(s) you want and paint each tab, front and back.

Instead of paint you can use scrapbook paper to make the necklace, bracelet, or other jewelry piece. Scrapbook paper allows you to create a theme for the jewelry. Just trace around one bread tie, and glue a tracing on each side of the bread tie.

Although you can make each charm by just painting it - like with the above-mentioned, zebra design - you can add other embellishments to give the charms more dimension and interest. For example, glue a different color of fake jewel onto each bread tie to make an elegant design. Or, glue on small stickers, then coat over them with a clear-coat (even clear nail polish), and spell out your name. Other things you can glue to one side of each tab include tiny wooden shapes, jewelry charms, or even beads.

When you're finished designing the bread ties you can easily hang them on a chain when you use jump rings. The tiny, individual rings are opened with needle-nose pliers, then closed by the same means. Poke a hole in each bread tie charm, slide the ring through it, as well as a link in the chain, and squeeze it closed. Or, for a cheaper version, use a piece of cord as the actual necklace, hang the charms on small pieces of cord, then slide those onto the necklace.

Use the embellished bread ties to make different types of jewelry. Glue some ties together, dangle some off of others, and otherwise combine the charms - and other things - to make the jewelry pieces you want. Everyone will comment on the bread tie jewelry but no one will know the truth!