So I may have mentioned that my family loves all things Disney. My mom and I made these super adorable DIY Disney necklaces for our last trip and I am still getting compliments on them. My youngest daughter is obsessed with jewelry and loves to wear these necklaces all around town. And not to toot my own horn, but who wouldn’t? They’re so super fun!
Before our trip we knew that we wanted to make some custom jewelry that both the kids and adults could wear, and finally after countless hours spent by my mom and I pouring through Pinterest and YouTube tutorials trying to figure out how to make small clay princess charms (was never gonna happen!), we had an epiphany.
Why not use Squinkies?! Umm, hello genius idea…so glad you’re here but could have used you about four hours ago before my brain went numb from over Pinteresting.
That’s a thing. Be on the lookout.
Do you know what a Squinkie is? Yeah, I am surrounded by little girls, so I had been indoctrinated. They’re basically very small rubber like toys. You can find them in all sorts of characters and animals, but they have a nice selection of Disney Princesses. They also come in different sizes and they seem to be stocked all over the place. My mom and I found our princesses at a combination of Target, Walmart and Michaels.
After we had purchased our Squinkies I went online and found coordinating beads. I bought them all on eBay for next to nothing and I was able to find some that went well with the theme (i.e: roses for Belle, starfish for Ariel). Then we just gathered a few simple supplies and were on our way.
Supplies:
Squinkie (we chose the larger size)
coordinating beads
jewelry elastic
eye pins for jewelry making (found mine at Michaels)
super glue
small binder clip (optional)
When making a necklace with elastic, I like to attach a binder clip to one end, leaving enough room hanging out that I can tie a knot when the necklace is complete. This is a totally optional step, just makes my life a bit easier.
To make your Squinkie into a charm, you will need to skewer the poor thing with an eye pin. I chose ones that were nearly the length of my Squinkie and then pushed firmly from the top of the head down through the body. After it has been pushed down, gently pull it up about half way out of the body and add super glue around the pin. Push back in and let sit for a couple of minutes until dry.
In the meantime, decide on a layout for your beads and string your necklace to the halfway point. Assuming that your Squinkie charm is now dry, add it to the center and continue stringing. Once done, tie a small knot and slide it through a bead to conceal it.
Here are our completed necklaces. Each one took about 15-20 minutes to make.
We really fell in love with them and all of the girls on the trip (my mother, mother in law, both of my daughters and myself) were wearing them all through the parks. There were many compliments and questions, but I think that the Cast Members seemed to like them the most. Here are a couple shots of us showing them off at Disney World:
Emmalynn wearing Rapunzel
I’m wearing Tinkerbell and my mother is wearing Belle
Emmalynn getting some extra attention from Pocahontas while wearing the Ariel necklace. Pocahontas was quick to point out that “my friend is on your necklace!”
I know that my poor Barrett looks like he is hating life in that photo, but here he is a quick second later…doesn’t look quite so grumpy now!
If you’re looking to add a bit of original personality to your Disney vacation wardrobe or are just wanting to make some fun jewelry for a little one in your life you really cannot go wrong with these sweet necklaces. They ended up costing about $6 each to make, so much less than what you would find at the parks. And think of all the possibilities with the plethora of Squinkie selection.
What do you think? Would you or your little one love to wear these on your Disney vacation? I’d love to hear from you!
Linked up at Practically Functional
Awww….what an awesome idea!! So, so cute!! We are beyond the Disney Princess days here :-(, so I definitely think I need to gift some little friends.
VERY cute! I’ve never made any sort of jewelry before though. What kind of search on eBay did you do to find the right kind of beads? It would probably take me forever to find them! Thanks for sharing a great idea, my daughter would FLIP and I’d have a blast wearing too!
Hi Jennifer, I actually found one shop on eBay that sold a variety of beads and searched through their inventory and ordered almost all of my beads from them. It worked well for me since I was short on time and needed a US seller who could combine shipping and get them to me quickly. I would be happy to give you the name of the shop that I used if you would like to email me at downhomeinspiration@gmail.com. If you were searching, you can try search terms like bubble gum beads, search by color or if you are looking for something in particular (ie: the rose or starfish beads) just plug that in to the search bar. Hope this helps!
These are so cute! I really want to make these for my four year old daughter and her friend for our trip to Disney this spring but I can’t find Squinkies anywhere. I’ve looked at Target & WalMart in the toy section. I looked at Amazon but they are really expensive there. Am I missing something or looking in the wrong place?? Also, can you send me the name of the shop you used for the coordinating beads?
Thanks so much!
Wynn
Hi Wynn, Squinkies are one of those toys that seem to be moved around often and can be hard to find. I recently saw some at my local Michaels as well as Target. Toys r’ Us has them normally as well, but make sure to look on end caps. Amazon normally has a pretty good selection as well, but they can be a bit pricey on there. As for the beads, I purchased most of them from this eBay seller: http://www.ebay.com/usr/giovinezza?_trksid=p2059210.m2749.l2754. Hope this helps and that you have a spectacular trip! I can’t wait to get back to Disney World!
Hi there. Where did you buy all your supplies and how do you call them? Please help! Thanks.
Hi Cherry, as mentioned in the post, I got my supplies from multiple sources. Michaels, Target, eBay, etc. The small characters are called “squinkies.” Hope that helps!