TPIB: Guitar Pick Jewelry (a recycled craft)

Several months ago, I bought my girls guitar pick necklaces at a local craft fair.  A few weeks later, Christie sent me an e-mail, she had found a guitar pick punch.  I didn’t have to buy the necklaces – I could make my own! And wouldn’t this be the best craft idea ever with my tweens and teens? Why yes, yes it would.

So, I bought the punch and had a program with my library teens where we made guitar pick jewelry.  You can purchase the guitar pick punch at Amazon.com or at ThinkGeek.

In addition to making guitar pick jewelry, I had it set up so that teens can play Guitar Hero in the background.  This helped them manage waiting to take turns for certain steps of the process.  And Guitar Hero – that’s an appropriate tie-in.

Available from Think Geek

Here’s what you’ll need
Guitar pick punch
Discarded magazines
Colored card stock
Clear contact paper
Jewelry findings for bracelets and ear rings
Cording for necklaces
Additional decorative beads
A sewing needle

A Quick Tip
The guitar pick punch is designed to be used with harder plastic items that can actually be used as a pick, like discarded credit cards.  Because the magazine pages themselves are too thin, we found it worked better if you reinforced the image you wanted to make your guitar pick out of by adhering it to card stock on the back and covering it with clear contact paper on
the front.  In addition, you can use a colored contact paper on the back and clear contact paper on the front so you don’t have to wait for glue to dry.

Breaking Down the Process

1.  Provide a template so teens have an idea of what words and images they can select out of the discarded magazines for their jewelry.  By placing the template over the image they will see if it fits or if too much will be cut off.

2.  Cut the image down to a smaller, more manageable size to use the guitar pick punch.  BUT DON”T PUNCH THE ITEM YET.

3.  Cover the front side of your image with clear contact to give it bulk.  The magazine page on its own is too thin and won’t cut well.  Cover the back side with colored contact paper to give it a solid back and to add to the bulk for cutting purposes.  You also want to give the picks weight so they hang correctly. Now you are ready to use the guitar pick punch.

4.  After you have your newly punched pick, use a small needle to put a hole in your guitar pick to attach to jewelry.

5.  Use your various “guitar picks” to make necklaces, ear rings and bracelets using the various jewelry findings you have purchased.  Basic finding can be purchases in bulk from places like Oriental Trading.

This is a great craft to do and clean out your craft supply closet, and it works well right after you have discarded all those older magazines that you are trying to figure out what to do with.

You can have a fun “The Library Rocks” program and play Guitar Hero and do other music inspired crafts.  Don’t forget to have a fun air guitar contest before your event is over.  This would also be a great craft to do while having a book discussion on Guitar Notes by Mary Amato, or any of the music themed books on this Top 10 List.

In the guitar pick jewelry I made, pictured at the beginning of this post, I made jewelry for my Tween daughter using her initial.  I made the necklace, which you see completed, and matching ear rings, which I have not yet finished.  You could also make a ton of guitar pick charms and string them on a charm bracelet.

My tweens and teens loved this craft.  It was inexpensive, quick and easy.

Filed under: Crafts, Music, Teen Programming, TPIB