DIY: Cuff Bracelets from Bangles (3 Types)

What happens when you have bangles and beads lying unused around your house? You make cuff bracelets! And de-clutter at the same time. And end up with some cool new arm candy.

Cuff bracelets are cool. Cuff bracelets from bangles? Cooler 😛

These cuff bracelets are great because they are simple, customizable, and best of all—adjustable without any annoying lobster clasps.

MATERIALS:

• Bangles (Thin enough to be cut with cutting pliers and bent; thick enough to stay in bent shape)
• Beads (with holes big enough to thread through your bangles)
• Small piece of linked chain (about 1 inch in length)
• Cutting pliers
• Glue (depending on where you live, get a strong glue that can stick metal to metal. Please make sure to follow the instructions of your glue of choice)
• Optional – Clothes pins for drying your cuffs (yup. you’ll see)

TYPES:

1. Subtle Spiral

STEPS:

ONE. Using your pliers, carefully cut your bangle at one point.

TWO. Pull the two ends apart from each other as shown, so they move to the opposite directions. The distance between the ends really depends on you.

THREE. Thread one bead into one end. Holding the bead right at the end so the edge of the bangle doesn’t jut out, glue the bead in place. Make sure you apply glue onto both holes of the bead.

FOUR. Repeat step three with the other matching bead. Keep aside to dry by hanging it from a clothesline (or any line) using a clothespin, and you’re done!

2. Spaced Out

STEPS:

ONE. Cut off a portion of your bangle (about a quarter of the whole length. Your choice) with pliers.

TWO & THREE. Bead in one bead into one end of the bangle and glue in place. Repeat with your matching bead on the other end. Again, make sure to apply glue onto both holes of each of your beads to make them more secure!

FOUR. Set aside to dry before wearing,

3. Bangle & chain

STEPS:

ONE. Cut your bangle at a single point.

TWO. Pull apart the ends in opposite directions till there’s about one inch of space between them.

THREE. Take your chain and thread in the first link into one end of your bangle. Keeping it just at the edge of the bangle, hold it in place so it doesn’t slide off. Now with a generous amount of glue, glue it into place. Set it aside till it is completely dry.

FOUR. Once dry, take the chain and pull it so it’s nice and straight. While still pulling, loop it through the other end of the bangle with whichever link hole ( i dunno what to call them) is closest.

After beading it in, the chain should still have tension and stay nice and tight. Cut off the excess chain with pliers.

Now you can glue this end as well and then let it dry. Voila!

Be careful not to press the ends of the bangle back in or you’ll lose this tension! Even while putting the bracelet on or taking it off you need to keep this in mind if you still want the tension. Cuz you can’t get it back once it’s glued!

Result!

Guys I hoped you enjoyed this simple tutorial and will try it out for yourselves! I had fun making these and ended up making a few more (or maybe it’s cause I had too many bangles and beads lying around my room?) Remember to tag me on instagram if you make any!

Ciao!

Namrata. ♥

Simple Pearl Necklace Tutorial

Hi!

This is my first blog post ever (excitement) and I’m glad it’s a DIY! I came up with this simple DIY necklace that I think anybody can easily create. It’s pretty, versatile, and only takes about ten minutes to make.

Funny that I’m doing this post since I’m not really a big fan of pearls and I’ve always shied away from them. They’re just not really my style. But I’ll admit, they do look good when worn right.

Onto the tutorial…

MATERIALS:

• Pearl chain – about 14 inches in length. If you don’t have one, you can bead in pearls onto string and create your own. I’ve realised that it’s better to use one with lil spaces between each pearl. This makes it easier to style later, and generally better looking. If you’re making your own, you can create one or two knots after beading each bead to get that space.
• Two strips of black satin ribbon – Each strip should be about 22 to 24 inches in length. Cut one strip and use it as a guide for cutting the second. Keep in mind that you’ll have to have a little extra so you are able to easily tie a bow/knot without losing length in your necklace. So don’t worry if you’ve cut too much. You can always trim off any excess later.
• Fabric glue (forgot to include this in the picture above).

Important: I have chosen these measurements for my necklace, but you can definitely use your own measurements. You can use more pearl chain or ribbon and make the necklace whatever length you want it to be.

For my necklace, I actually used a little too less ribbon, so it turned out to be more of a choker. But I still like it. So the lesson learned is: Do not forget to leave extra ribbon length so you can tie off your necklace easily! (I kinda found it hard to tie mine).

STEPS:

One. Get your pearl chain (which is already connected/tied at the ends to create a circle) and one ribbon strip. Loop the ribbon through the pearl necklace.

Two. Repeat with the second ribbon on the opposite side of the pearl chain.

Three. Now you can carefully lift the necklace and place it around your neck to check the length. Once you’re happy with your desired length, you can go ahead and stick the ribbon together near the pearl as shown above. This is to make sure the ribbon doesn’t slide off. But, if you’re not happy with the length:

– you can either snip off some ribbon if you want the necklace shorter (duh), or

– do this trick if you want more length even after cutting (that’s right, there’s hope even after cutting ribbon strips that are too short!) : On one side, pull the ribbon end as if you were removing it. This is obviously going to make the ribbon ends of the same strip uneven. Keep pulling till you’ve got the length you want. Glue the ribbon together where the short end touches the parallel side to keep it in place (I hope I didn’t make this simple step sound complicated).

Four. You’re done! Wasn’t that easy? You can now try out your new necklace. When you wear it, be sure to tie a secure knot/bow that’s also easy to unravel. Also, dab on a bit of clear nail polish to the ribbons’ four ends, ’cause you don’t want that unravelling! (There’s a mistake in one of the pictures above showing the steps . Let me know in the comments if you found it :P)

I found four ways you can wear this necklace:

1. Parallel layers – Adjust the pearl chain after wearing it (by sliding it around the ribbon loop you created) to make the layers parallel to each other.
2. Crescent – Adjust so the bottom layer is a little longer than the top one to create that crescent shape.
3. Peter-pan collar – Before wearing, twist the necklace once. Adjust so you get a nice peter-pan collar. If you want this to stay in place, you will have to dab some fabric glue (or whatever works) between the pearl beads that meet at the centre. And then you’ll have a permanent peter-pan collar look, I must warn you.
4. Twisted – Get this look by simply twisting the whole necklace a few times before wearing it.

I think this necklace will help add a bit of dressiness to any outfit. Here’s me styling it with a plain old denim shirt:

Please let me know if you liked this DIY in the comments below!

♥ Namrata.