How to Make Beaded Bow Keychains

Learn how to make these easy and cute beaded bow keychains. This is a perfect girls night craft!

You know I love a good craft that’s cute, inexpensive and easy. That’s the perfect trio if you ask me! And today’s craft tutorial totally fits the bill. I’m going to show you how to make these adorable beaded bow keychains. Once you know how to make them, you won’t want to stop! I’m going to walk you through every step, so even if you’ve never done any jewelry making before, YOU GOT THIS!

To start, you will need the following supplies:

Materials Needed

Click on any highlighted item in the supply list for more information. Affiliate links may be used.

You can use any type, style and size of bead for this project, you will just need to adjust the wire gauge and total number of beads used to scale.

Wire gauge refers to the thickness of the wire. The lower the number, the thicker the wire. For example, 12 gauge wire is thick and 32 gauge wire is thin. The gauge of wire you choose depends on the hole size of the beads you’re using. Make sure that whatever combination you choose, the wire can fit through the bead holes twice. Thicker wire is stronger but harder to bend. Thinner wire is prone to breaking if you twist it too hard. And if all of this is too much for you to deal with, just buy the 26 gauge wire and 6/0 beads because I know that sizing will work for this project. LOL.

Instructions

There’s a video tutorial at the end of this post if that’s helpful to you.

Step 1: Cut an 18 inch piece of wire. Find the center, string it through the keychain loop, then twist it once or twice to secure it in place. Be gentle with the wire so you don’t snap it. (This goes for every step of this project.)

Step 2: String about 20 seed beads onto each side of the wire. You can adjust this number to make a bigger or smaller bow, just make sure there are an even number of beads on both sides.

Step 3: String one more bead onto the left wire, then cross the right wire through from the other direction, like this:

Pull that bead tight until it touches the other beads, forming a circle.

Step 4: Wrap the two ends of the wire up and over the keychain loop, then twist them and bring them back down. This forms the two loops of the bow.

Step 5: Add an equal number of beads to each wire until you like the look of your bow tails. I did 14 beads in the example shown. I suggest completing one tail at a time so that all the beads don’t fall off of one side while you’re working on the other.

Step 6: Now that your bow is formed it’s time to finish off the wire ends. Loop the wire around a pair of jewelry pliers, then wrap the wire around the base of the loop twice. Keep everything tight, but not too tight. You don’t want to break the wire.

Step 7: Feed the remaining wire back up through the last bead and pull it gently until everything is smooth and tight. Snip off the extra wire as close to the bead as possible, then tuck the tip of the wire inside the bead so no sharp edges are exposed.

And ta-dah! that is how you make a beaded bow keychain. So stinkin’ cute.

There are a ton of variations you can try with this craft. Try doing a pattern of different colored beads. Add special accent beads on the ends or in the center position of the loops. Use different shapes and sizes and patterns of beads and the possibilities are seriously endless.

This craft is the perfect girls night craft idea. It’s easy and doesn’t take very long to complete and if you just buy a variety pack of beads, everyone can personalize their bow keychain to fit their style. Plus it’s kind of mindless just stringing beads onto wire so you can easily chat up a storm while you work. SO FUN!

Tweens and teens would love these beaded bows too. I’d recommend this craft for anyone ages 10+.