Back to school season is upon us. While I don’t know what will happen yet, I have been informed that if (and that’s a big if) we do get to have in person teaching the kids will be required to wear masks in the classroom. They will be able to take them off for eating and a few specials, but that’s about it. In hopes of making mask wearing a little more bearable, I made the girls some diy interchangeable mask necklaces (or perhaps you can call them mask lanyards).
So never in a million years did I think I would do a post like this. But alas, 2020 has been a doozy, so here we are.
My hope with these necklace is that when the kids inevitably play with their masks, instead of falling to the ground, or in the toilet, or in the sink, they will be caught by the necklace. And making them interchangeable means they can choose something different if they want.
After some trial and error, I found a process that worked best for me, and figured I’d share with you.
Supplies:
~Stretchy plastic cord (used for jewelry making)
~ Beads of choice. I had these heart ones laying around, but you could use any beads you wanted. Just make sure they fit on whatever elastic you buy
~Two lobster clasps per mask
~Two barrel clasps (or more if you are going to make more than one necklace)
Create the clasp section
First you are going to create the clasp section of the necklace. Cut a small piece of elastic (about 3 inches) and loop it through the bottom part of the clasp.
Take a bead and put both ends of the elastic through the bead.
Now take your barrel clasp and slip it over one end.
Tie a knot (make sure you go over then under, if that makes sense). Then secure that knot with a little bit of super glue.
Cut the lose ends of elastic and work the bead so that it covers up the knot. Do the same thing for the second clasp.
Make sure that the barrel clasps are attached opposite (so that the female end is on one clasp, and the male end is on the second clasp). That way, if you make multiple necklaces you will only need one barrel clasp per necklace.
Make the necklace part
Take a barrel clasp and tie it into one end of the elastic. Use some super glue to secure it.
And then start beading away! If you really wanted to you could even get some math involved by doing patterns.
The girls and I made a few different necklaces. My hope is that it makes wearing masks a little more bearable. Although, if our district ends up doing totally remote/online learning I will probably end up homeschooling…. something I never in my wildest dreams thought I would say. But that, my friends, is a post for another day.
What is fun about these is you can include words or phrases. For some of the necklaces I put the girls names. But then I also made an MSU one with Go Green! Go White! and a Halloween one with the word Boo! While I hate that I even thought about writing this post, I hope that you may find these DIY interchangeable mask necklaces useful.