Little Girl Beaded Pins

• Beaded bobby pins make an easy and inexpensive project for girls aged 8 years old and up.
  
  CraftyChica.com is an online crafting blog with easy to understand beading instructions for hair accessories. Kathy Cano-Murillo, the blogger, suggests using 36-inch gauge wire for your beading along with needle-nose pliers with nippers (fingernail clippers also work). Give smaller children help with the wire cutting. Cano-Murillo files the wire ends to make them safer.
  
  Try this system for beading with children. Wrap the wire around the round end of the bobby pin several times tightly. Align the wire parallel to the top of the bobby pin. Have the child add a bead. Make the bead snug and wrap the wire around the pin once more. The child adds another bead. Continue in this manner until you can't fit any more beads. Wrap the wire several times around the end. Cut both the wire ends closely to the bobby pin and file.
  
  

Formal Beaded Hairpins

• Don't spend hundreds on expensive hair accessories and jewelry for your next formal event. Make your own simple hairpin as an elegant addition at the next black-tie event, wedding or high school dance.
  
  The quality of beads makes a hairpin worthy of a formal. Beading shops seem to multiply daily. Search out Swarovski crystal beads, seed beads and glass beads for your formal hair accessory.
  
  Swarovski's faceted, round rondelle beads look beautiful on hairpins. These crystals cost little but give a great effect. Swarovski also offers Czech glass beads, rhinestones and seed pearls which look expensive.
  
  Don't count out gemstones when you make your bead purchase. The process of beading a hairpin is the same, as above, for gemstones and pearls. For seed beads, however, bending the wire straight up (vertically) makes the project easier.
  
  Some simple variations when beading gives the creation a more polished look. Try using two wires instead of one for a braided look. Wrap both wires around the curved end of the bobby pin and slant the wires in opposite directions. Add one bead to one wire and wrap the wire tightly around the pin. Follow, by adding another bead to the other wire and wrapping this wire tightly around the pin. Butterflies and other designs are possible with two wires. Experiment and soon you will have enough hairpins for every occasion.