Friendship Bracelet Nostalgia Featuring the Beads of Friendship Collection

Hello, crafty friends! This is Emily Leiphart and I’m thrilled to be back on the Spellbinders blog, featuring the super fun Beads of Friendship Collection inspired by Taylor Swift. I’m old enough that I remember making all kinds of jewelry to adorn my ears, wrists, and sneakers. I loved making bracelets and earrings for myself and all my friends. The embroidery floss bracelets obviously took a lot of time but were so worth it and I still have some of my bracelets from the late 80s and early 90s! I also go crazy for hand dies so when I saw this collection, I knew I had to have it. I had so much fun creating with these products and I have a feeling I will be using these forever. I love being able to customize each card giving these products maximum versatility, and the uplifting sentiments are the best! Who wouldn’t love to receive one of these cards? My first card features one of the big heart and one of the hands from Bestie Heart in Hand. These hands are big and make for fantastic clean and simple designs. I die cut the hand from sand cardstock, then three bracelets and beads using a combination of dies from Bestie Beaded Bracelets and the customized sentiment from Bestie Alphabet Beads Press Plate & Die Set. I die-cut the beads in various shapes and I love the big variety offered by the die set! There are so many and I had so much fun selecting the colours and shapes that I was worried it would take forever to assemble. I could literally sit for days making these bracelets and that’s why there are three on the wrist and not just one or two! I impressed the Fog cardstock panel using the Starshine Background to add texture but not take away from the other details. My second card features the layered Heart Hands that create a symbol of love and support. It’s absolutely adorable and I will definitely be using this a lot, possibly even over-using it! This time, I used a paler skin tone since it’s featured on a juniper background. The bracelets and beads are included in this set and I didn’t use the shadow dies for this, instead opting to layer the bracelets for more colour. I also added a few of the beads as confetti on the base panel. The sentiment from Bestie Sentiments was heat embossed with Matte Silver Hot Foil on dragonfruit cardstock and layered on silver glitter cardstock. Admittedly, this last card featuring Bestie Beaded Bracelets and Bestie Alphabet Beads took a considerable amount of time to assemble but it was so worth it! I just love the metal pieces which make these bracelets look so real like I could pluck them off the card and wear them. I cut two pieces of white and Fog cardstock, taped them together, and cut them down to an A1 panel for my base. This provides a nice contrast to the colorful bracelets but also some visual interest since the card is so simple. I did stacked two layers of the strings so the bracelets would have more dimension. I just love the letterpressed sentiment and smiley faces. Imagine all the song lyrics or poems you could express on your cards with these sets! I hope you find plenty of inspiration from these cards made with the Beads of Friendship Collection! This beautiful and versatile collection will ensure that you have hours of fun creating. Thanks so much for stopping by today! You can find more inspiration on my blog, Instagram, and YouTube channel.

Other Supplies

dragonfruit, poppy, gold coins, juniper, almond, sand, cocoa and espresso cardstock; silver glitter cardstock, mini scoreboard