Rainbow bead jar

A nice easy candy-free make for a gift, party favour or St Patrick's Day celebration.

This necklace in a jar contains a hidden compartment meaning you can layer your beads in a rainbow pattern, yet still include the thread/elastic etc required for the kit.  I've included some 'gold' lucky charms too.

You will need:

A lidded jar (old jam jar is fine, but any with a non-transparent lid)
Coloured beads
Cardboard tube as tall as your jar (kitchen roll, or wrapping paper tube, or a toilet roll tube if your jar is small)
Glue
Necklace making supplies or elastic

I saw this idea quite a bit on Pinterest before Christmas as a way of hiding gift money inside jars of candy, but I thought it would work well with this project too.

Place your tube inside the jar, making sure you have enough space around the sides to drop in your beads. Mark it level with the rim of your jar then cut it slightly below this line so your lid will screw on tightly over it.

Glue into place at the bottom of the jar to prevent it from moving around.

This tube now serves two purposes - it means you can hide bits inside AND you don't have to use anyway near as many beads to fill the jar - win:win!

Drop your beads in carefully, one colour at a time in the rainbow order.  You can give a gentle tap to get them even, but don't shake!  Keep layering until you have filled your jar.

Tip: If you accidentally drop beads inside your tube, you can retrieve them by using a piece of Blu-Tak on the end of a pencil, or use the hoover nozzle with a sock over the end!  That way you don't have to tip them all out and start again.

Pop your bead wire or elastic and the secret gold charms inside, pop on the lid and your done!

This craft was featured on a Google Plus hangout on Rainbow Crafts.  Please watch the video for loads more brilliant ideas and inspiration, and check out the blog links below.



Red Ted Art: Waldorf Maths Gnomes, Rainbow Fairy Peg Dolls, Rainbow Pinata Cake 
Kids Chaos: Origami Cranes, Rainbow Paper Bunting, Paper Hearts
Zing Zing Tree: Paper Plate Collage, Drip Paint Art Rainbows, Needle Felt Rainbow
Domestic Goddesque: Rainbow themed party ideas, pompom initial letter ornament, rainbow crown
Me: Rainbow Peanut Butter Chocolate Bark, Rainbow Fruit Skewers, Rainbow buckets