Easy Junk Journal Charm From Old Jewelry and Beads / Removable Journal Charm / Easy Bookmark DIY

Hello, welcome back to my channel Thrifty Day. My name is Leah. I'm the creator behind Thrifty Day. Today's episode is going to be a tutorial and I'm going to show you how I make this removable journal charm. So grab all your beads and your supplies. You will need some twine. I got mine in the jewelry section at Michael's. I also have some wooden stamps and spoons. These are kind of more unconventional items, but I will show you how I add them onto my journal charms. So I am just using hemp twine and you're just going to want to get a long sort of length of it. I think I probably use at least 24 to 36 inches. I like keeping my tails really long and keep in mind that we will be tying a lot of knots in this. So even if it seems really long at first, that is fine. You can trim it later and you will need two lengths of this twine that are the same length. And honestly, you can use any jewelry making twine. This is just what I use because it comes in multiple colors and it's really easy to work with. So once you have your two lengths of twine or embroidery thread or whatever you are using, make sure they're right around the same length. That will help in the process. Once you have both of those lengths, then you're going to want to find the middle and create a loop right at the end because we're going to put that loop right through the paper clip. You're going to want to put that loop right through the top of the paper clip that doesn't hold the paper and pull those tails right through. I hope you can see what I'm doing there. And honestly, that's the hardest part. So once you have that done, you are in business. And I like to put little knots at the beginning when I'm making a journal charm. That way those beads don't slip up onto the paper clip. You could probably use the same technique if you use the metal hardware that you actually put on the journal too. And then just tie the beads in that way. I just like putting them on a paper clip because I like my journal charms to be removable. So at this point, you will have four tails, which means you will be tying four knots. And I just tie them about a quarter of an inch away from that paper clip. And now we have the base to begin making our charms. Now in this video, you will see I'm not just using beads. I'm actually using a lot of little unconventional items. So I have all of my little jewelry making tools. And I am not a measurer and I am also not a jewelry maker. So I don't know all the names of these fancy little tools, but they're like needle nose pliers and things like that. So I also have this vintage spoon that I got for a dollar and I'm going to keep that little receipt from the estate sale that I purchased it out so I could put into my journal. And I like using unconventional items because I feel like it makes the charm a little more interesting. So the first thing I'm going to do is use this little glass vial that I've had in my collection for a bit now. And I'm actually going to add some moss and a little mushroom bead that I had in my little jewelry collection. I'm going to add that mushroom bead in and then I'm going to add the moss right on top of it. So everything I'm working with is really tiny. Hopefully you can see that little mushroom in the moss. And I'm going to add some E6000 right to the cork top. Now, the reason I'm doing this is that cork is snug, but since I'm going to be hanging it onto the journal charm, I want to make sure that there's no way that this little glass vial is going to open again. So I'm going to add some E6000 all around the cork and I stick it into the glass vial and there will be a little bit that kind of pokes out. So I just wipe it down. E6000 dries completely clear. And while I am working on the other charms, I'm going to set this aside and come back to it. That way it can completely dry before I put it onto my journal charm. So now at this point, I'm just sort of doing an inventory of all the things I brought to my workspace and I can't exactly decide what's going on. I really wanted to put, I have this little tiny gnome, but he just wasn't fitting anywhere and he's made of resin. I can't really get a good eye hook in him. So I just decided to put him away and I'll save him for another project. How cute is that little glass jar? It's vintage. So I'm going to use my spoon. I also know I want to use this ladybug stamp. It's really important to me. There's a really sweet little story behind it. This vintage ring, my mother-in-law dropped off a whole bag of jewelry. I thought that would be fun to use. And so I'm just sort of cleaning up my workspace, deciding what stays and what goes. So at this point, I have a couple of items that will need a eye screw. You can get these eye screws at any hardware store. I get the tiniest ones I can find. Sometimes you can even find them in the jewelry aisle. I think they probably sell them in sets on Amazon. I've never looked, but I'm sure you can get them there. I have this little tiny hand drill. I got mine at Michael's, but that was years and years ago. Not sure if they still have it. It came with a whole bunch of different size attachments. So that's what I use. I drill right into the wooden stamp. And once I have it started, then I get my tiny eye screw and I just screw it right in. It has little teeth that sort of clamp into that wood. And then I get my needle nose pliers and I make sure it's nice and tight. So now on that wooden stamp, I have a tiny little hook that I can pass my cording through. So at this point in the video, I realized that somehow I did not record myself putting the eye screw into that little wooden mushroom. I hand painted that little wooden mushroom. I don't know what happened to that footage, but the exact process I use on the wooden stamp, I used on that little wooden mushroom toadstool that I hand painted. So I'm so sorry about that, but it was the exact same thing. I use the exact same eye screw, the exact same hand drill, and I just put a little eye screw right into the top of that wooden mushroom toadstool. So now I have all of these beads that sort of coordinate and I'm going to start stringing them onto my journal charm. Now, the really fun part about purchasing beads, all of these were purchased at Joann's, is I really try to find beads that complement each other, but are not matchy matchy. So I really like these sort of wooden looking beads and I mix them with square sort of mossy glass beads and then I also mix in some toadstools and some orange tones. I try to make it as interesting as possible. Now you're going to see me here tie on the spoon. I just do a few loops right around the base. I'm so sorry, I'm almost out of frame there too. I didn't realize when I was filming, but I'm just going to tie it just around the spoon a few times and then I'm going to tie it in a knot. I'm going to tie a couple little knots and then after it is on the spoon and I have the spoon nice and knotted on, then I tie another knot just beneath where the spoon is. You'll be able to see better once I hopefully get in frame a little bit. And another fun tip when you're creating these journal charms is don't be afraid to add a few beads and then tie a knot. Add a more dimensional item and then tie another knot. That way they're separated nicely. I find they dangle and hang a little bit nicer on your journal spine and again I'm so sorry that I didn't realize I was out of frame here. My camera is up above and I can't really see it. I promise you I will get a little bit better as the video goes on though. So now since I have such a large piece on one of the tails, I just add some more basic style beads throughout because I will save some of those other more sort of special pieces for the other four tails. I try to make sure everything is equally dispersed to create a more eclectic look in my journal charms. So now you're just going to watch me continue to add beads onto all of those tails. Like I said, I'll do anywhere from two to four beads in a row and then I will tie a knot to separate them so they don't all fall on each other and just look like long strands of beads. It's also important to note that once you get down far enough on one of your tails and you think that you're about done, like I do here, see that's about how much I'll put on one of the tails, tie two knots at the bottom just to make sure it's nice and secure. Now as I move on to the next tail, I do try to make sure I vary what I put on in relation to what I already have made. So if I already have a green bead at the top, I'm going to try to avoid using that in this tail and maybe use those green beads a little further down. I hope that makes sense. If you have any questions, please feel free to leave them in the comments below. I'm really hoping that perhaps visually you can get better instructions at what I'm doing. It's really hard to sort of explain because it's very just sort of a creative process making these journal charms. Another tip to make sure that your journal charm is eclectic and pretty when it's hanging on the spine is to vary the lengths at which you string the beads. So if one tail is a little bit longer with the beads, make the other one have a little bit less beads and maybe be a little bit shorter. That way they're not all hanging at the exact same length. I don't know how to communicate that well enough, but I really, really don't think matchy-matchy is the way to go. I think it looks much more eclectic when you have different items at different lengths. So now I'm adding that little wooden toadstool with the eye screw and as you can see I just put it through the eye screw, I tie a knot to make sure that it doesn't move around on the cord, and then after I do that I tie another knot just below it so that the beads don't sort of, you know, hit the mushroom toadstool. That way it's its own little part in the journal charm. See, as you can see there it's just hanging right by itself. I did the same thing with the vintage ring. I just put that cord right into it, tied a knot, and then tied a knot right below it. So I really encourage you to be as creative as possible. You don't have to just use beads. I think what makes these journal charms even more special is when they tell a story. So I love that each one of these pieces are very special. That spoon I found as my husband at an estate sale. The ring is from a bag of junk jewelry that my mother-in-law brought over. That toadstool I painted myself. The journal charm can tell as much of a story as the layouts you do in the journal. So just remember that when you're creating. I also found these leaf beads at Joanne's and they came already strung on to like metal rings. It sort of looked like a bracelet. So I had to deconstruct them because I didn't really want to use the silver jump rings that were on them. So I just take a few off and then I put my own gold jump rings on them. So now when I add them to my journal charm, I'll just do the exact same thing that I did with the other eye screws. I'll just put the cord through, tie a knot, tie a knot below it, and move on to the next part of the charm. I'm just going to take a quick moment to ask you to do me a favor. If you are enjoying this video, if you find it informative, would you please like this video? That would mean so much to me. It really helps out my channel and I appreciate the support so much. And also if you're looking for additional content, I am on Patreon. I go live every other day. I have free digitals and tutorials. It's a really fun, creative, crafty community. We'd love to have you. I've linked everything down below and my Patreon, every tier does receive monthly mail from me. So I thought I would just let you all know in case you're new here. I really love collecting beads and even as I am watching this video because I'm doing the voiceover, I absolutely love collecting beads. So because of that, I have so many. If you were looking for an organizing video or if you wanted to see how I organize my beads, I did just post a TikTok showing exactly how I organize everything because I know it can be very overwhelming and I know that a lot of times people get very excited about making journal charms and so you end up buying a lot of beads at once and then you think, oh my gosh, what do I do with all of this stuff? So I have that video. I will link it down below if you wanted to find, in my opinion, the easiest way to store your beads. I'm all about easy journaling and, you know, more of a laid back approach. And so I think the way I organize after years of doing it many other ways, I have finally found a system that works for me. So like I said, I'll link that down below and maybe I'll make a whole nother video for here on YouTube because I feel like it could be a longer format. If you're interested in that, let me know because that is something I will make because to me, the way I organize my beads is just the most sensible, easiest approach. So I am coming to the end here. I think I'm finishing up the third tail, which means I just have one more tail to complete. And something I do a lot of and you've probably seen me do throughout the video is I'll constantly pick up the journal charm and look at it on my hand because, as you can see, that shows you how it will hang on your journal spine. So I really like what I see happening here. I like the disbursement of bigger items versus smaller items and the colors of the beads. And so it's important to do that because you don't want to look at it when it's all done and think, oh no, I have way too many greens high or way too many, you know, toadstools low. So that's important thing to remember. Okay, so now I'm going to put that vial onto my journal charm. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to get another one of those eye hooks and I'm going to screw it right into the cork. But because it's cork and I want to make sure this is the longest lasting journal charm ever, I'm going to dip the end of the eye screw into the E6000 so it has a little bit of that E6000 glue and then I'm going to screw it into the top of the cork. This will ensure that even if that cork gets old or loose, that won't happen. E6000 is like cement glue, it will never go anywhere. And once it dries, it's extremely durable. So that's why I put a little bit onto the eye screw and then I screw it into the cork. You should let it dry a little bit before you put it onto your journal charm, but I am impatient and so I am just going to get going. Honestly, E6000 dries pretty quickly so it's not the end of the world. I think I waited about 10 minutes. So you just put your cord right through that eye hook like I did on the previous charms, you tie a knot at the top and then just below it you tie another knot. And now at this point, since this is the final tail, we are nearing the end of making our journal charm. Although at this point I also did realize, oh my gosh I didn't put that little wooden stamp on yet. So I grabbed that and I put that on there because that was very important to me. So I just put that cord through the eye screw and I tie a knot. But yeah, this is it. This is the process. It actually is very simple and that's why I love it so much. This whole process really doesn't take very long either, which is very nice and it's a really fun sort of creative outlet. I think if you bought beads that were brighter and maybe with a little bit bigger centers, it would be a fun craft for elementary school age kids too. So let me know what you think. Let me know where your favorite place is to purchase beads. I am always on the hunt for new beads or new little tiny things. So let me know in the comments where you like to buy your beads. Like I said, I buy most of mine from Joann's. I also go to the fashion district in LA. There's a lot of places that sell beads and it's really fun to buy charms and beads there. But I would love your feedback. This is the end result. And now I'm going to show you how it just goes right into the journal. It goes right onto the paper and it's nice and secure and you can take it off while you create. And it is just such a perfect little embellishment. It also makes a really great bookmark. So if you're not a journaler, if you're a reader, this would be a really fun bookmark and also a really fun present to give this Christmas. So thank you so much for watching. I hope that you were inspired. I hope that you learned something and I hope that it was something that was fun for you to watch. Have a really great weekend and I will see you in my next video. Thanks for watching everyone. Bye.