Bead Cup Tutorial

I was washing some clear plastic cups to put in our recycling bin, but then it occurred to me that I could use them for a cute little craft. So instead of throwing them away, I kept them.

Today I made them a lid and filled them up with beads. These make cute party favors, or work nice as little gifts on a trip, or when your little girl is sick.

I have a shoebox around that I fill with little gifts and fun things like this, and things I find at the dollar store. When the kids are sick, or when we go somewhere where they need to be entertained, all I need to do is get something out of that box. It works great!

Anyway, back to the bead cups! I made these bead cups and took some pictures during the process. Have fun!

The containers I used were empty containers from Crystal Light and yogurt.
Basically any small clear container with a flat edge on top works.

Wash and dry the containers thoroughly.
Some of them may have an expiration date printed on them, make sure you remove that too.

Trace the top of the container onto cardstock.

Fill the container with beads. I put bigger beads (for smaller hands) in the big cup, and small beads in the small Crystal Light cup.

Then, I added some pipe cleaners to the big cup, and different lengths of wire to the small cup. I found that pipe cleaners work GREAT for little kids. Once the bead is on there, it doesn't tend to slide off so easily.

Next, I decorated the cardstock circles I cut.
(Wait to put on the rhinestones, or other bulky embellishments, you'll see why.)

I used Elmer's white school glue to attach the lids to the cups.
I found that it helped to put the cups upside down while drying, to make it stay in place.
In order to do that, I had to peel off the rhinestones I already attached in the picture above.
So that's why you had to wait on those!

And there is your adorable little gift!

I linked up to: