The Pink Muse: DIY: Arm Candy from Recycled Beaded Jewelry!

: Credit: Angie Wong Arm Candy from weheartit.com

I noticed that this "arm candy" fashion is really trending nowadays. When I was around 8 or 9 years old, I remembered I used to make lots of bracelets from my mother's bead arsenal since she's working for a home decors company. I would make an assortment of bracelets with several color combinations way before I was aware of the latest accessory trends. So I had this random idea this rainy Tuesday morning to make my own arm candy from my old, broken bracelets and my bead stock. If you want a simple arm candy (you can make lots of these and pile them up), here's a simple tutorial how. Note: All of the materials I used in this tutorial are recycled.

: Prepare the recycled stuff from your dusty shelves *asthmatic cough*

Things you will be needing are:

1. Recycled nylon string, plain string, or rubber string - I used my old guitar nylon string, which was pretty thick and hard to knot in the end. I recommend using a thinner type of string.

2. Old broken beaded jewelry - if you have a broken bracelet with interesting bead patterns, then perfect! You can use it to make your new arm candy.

2. Scissors - any kind of scissors will do, as long as it's sharp enough to cut a string.

3. Other beads you can use for setting a pattern - if you don't have these readily at home, you can buy lots of these in garment stores and craft shops in department stores since they are used for scrapbooking and embellishments for clothes.

Procedure:

: Cut the string 0.5-1 inch less than your fist's circumference

STEP 1: Close your first and encircle its widest point using your string. This will be the diameter of your arm candy. Deduct 0.5-1 inch from the actual circumference before cutting to prevent it from becoming too loose later on.

STEP 2: Get your old bracelet and cut the string to release the beads. I bought this old bracelet from Pagudpud beach last year, it's made of asymmetrical pearls. I'm not sure if the pearls were real, but they looked like it, so I bought them anyway. It's sad that it got broken too soon, but I'm still happy because I can use it in this tutorial.

: You can buy cheap beads from craft stores and garment stores! :)

STEP 3: Get your other beads supply to set a pattern for your arm candy. You can buy cheap beads in craft shops and garment stores. I chose to use the small subtly pink beads on the upper right portion of the bead box along with the pearls. I really love color pink!

STEP 4: Start inserting the beads according to your planned pattern. You can use as many beads as you like. You don't even have to set a pattern, and that's the greatest thing about DIY stuff. You're ultimately free to set any color or bead combination that you like. But as for me, I used a pink-and-white color combination to match this arm candy with my sheer and feminine clothing.

STEP 5: Once you're done filling in the whole string, secure it with a double knot (you can triple it to be sure) and cut the loose ends. Be sure not to cut it too close to the knot or else it will get loose too easily.

: Voila! Subtle pink and white arm candy.

STEP 6: And voila! Your arm candy is finished. It's best to make several of these arm candies with different patterns but same color theme so you can stack them and let them be a part of your daily accessories. You can also try braiding different colored strings as a variation to beaded arm candies.

Hope you liked this DIY Idea! :)

Here are some of the arm candies I really like:

Gold is really making a comeback! Plus the arrows and the "love" charm is really adorable.