Granny Charms

Saturday was spent at French General, learning to make bracelet charms with instructor Robin Howes.
 
There are few things more satisfying than spending time with good friends, pretty things, and some really big hammers. 
 
We learned to solder (scary stuff), drill holes, punch, wire wrap, beat metal into submission and more. I'll admit that I had to be talked into taking this class, but it turned out to be a lot of fun.
 
The vintage bingo tokens became my inspiration. I dug through the box until I found 13, 18 and 21 - the little girls' birthdays. 
Leanne's name was too long to stamp, so I just used her initials.

Then it was just a matter of adding things that had meaning for me - their names stamped in metal, buttons and bells and bits of tape measure;  
 
sparkly rhinestones and pennies for luck. As you can imagine, everyone's project came out very differently.
 
I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out - even after I almost set fire to the bingo chips with the soldering iron. And I think the little girls will have fun playing with it, finding things that have meaning for them too.