How to make a cupcake cell phone charm & GIVEAWAY!
Remember my post about the yummy girls’ night out (aka Cupcake Conference) and my brief mention about the awesome swag? Well, inside those fun little swag bags was a fun little gift bag with the tiniest of cupcakes—or should I say cupcake cell phone charm.
Believe it or not, I made that “sweet” little charm specifically for the Cupcake Conference. In fact, I made 60 of them. I made 60 of them and did so without any jewelry making or beading experience other than Fruit Loop and pasta necklaces on a string. Just like the conference, the idea started on Twitter with @ryles and @sahans and somehow ended with me looking lost amidst the jewelry supply aisles in Roberts Crafts. But it was well worth the numerous outbursts of “what the crap am I doing?”
These cupcake cell phone charms may not be the most awesome cell phone charms ever, but they were handcrafted by a non-crafter and made with lots and lots of love (and only one or two swear words at most). The love more than makes up for their “uniqueness,” right?
If you’ve ever felt the desire to make a charm of any kind, I thought I’d share a mini tutorial of how I made the cupcake cell phone charms for the conference. Keep in mind “beginner” is a bit of an overstatement. Also keep in mind I worked on these babies very late at night so the pictures aren’t the best. And I don’t have a ton of them because, well, I was making 60 charms and I didn’t have time—or an extra hand—to mess around with the camera. Here goes!
How I Made Those Super Nifty Cupcake Cell Phone Charms
1. Ordered super cute cupcake lampwork glass beads (thanks, Ryley!) from Oriental Trading Company. While waiting for those to arrive, browse eBay for cell phone strap lariats with a lobster clasp (less work for you) like these.
2. Hit your local craft store for the rest of the supplies (aka “findings”). You’ll need:
- Head pins: I went with the longer ones because I wanted/needed to leave room for error
- Small red beads: That cupcake needed a cherry!
- Silver flower beads: These have a specific name but I can’t remember it, but I thought they looked like cute cupcake plates or wrappers
- 11/0 Japanese-made seed beads, white: You can choose whatever color you’d like. These come in small vials and are the tiniest of tiny beads.
- Small jewelry making kit: Though not a necessity, I found having the multiple pliers in a kit like this one (top of page) was super helpful. (Don’t forget your 50% off coupon—comes in handy when investing in craft kits for conferences!)
Here’s what it all looked like late one night on my dining room table:
Charm supplies clockwise from left to right: Cell phone lariats with lobster clasp; small red glass beads; silver flower beads; cupcake lampwork glass beads; head pins; 11/0 seed beads. Tools from left to right: needle-nosed pliers, round-nosed pliers,flush wire cutters.
3. Google a decent tutorial on how to make a cell phone charm. I found this post to be the easiest for my non-crafty brain to grasp.
4. Take your headpin and add the following beads in this order: seed, silver flower, cupcake and red. It should look like this:
5. Here comes the part that was a bit tricky for me, but after about 50 of these charms I had it down: making a head pin loop. The post above didn’t have enough detail so I found this YouTube video (ignore the cheesy background music and skip the 23-second intro):
Another option is after bending the head pin at a 90-degree angle as shown, don’t trim it but rather hold the round-nose pliers in place and use the other hand to wrap the head pin around the pliers, then trim. I say do whatever works best! Just make sure the loop is large enough to fit around the lobster clasp.
6. Once you have the head pin loop done, the charm is only one step away from become a cell phone charm! Snag your favorite color lariat and attach it to the charm using the lobster clasp. Voilà! (You still think I’m nifty even though you now know how easy it is to make these charms, right?)
And once you’ve done steps4 through 6 59 more times or so, you’ll have a collection of cell phone charms that looks something like this:
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Now for the giveaway part!
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I am giving away three cupcake cell phone charms to ITRML readers!
To enter:
Leave a comment telling me your favorite cupcake flavor. Are you a chocolate love through and through? Or do you prefer something a little fancier like grasshopper or turtle?
For extra entries you can do any/all of the following. Please leave a separate comment for each one you do (each one earns you an extra entry). Just like the FotoFly giveaway (did you enter yet?!?!) I like options so I’ve given you A LOT of them.
~ “Like” ITRML on Facebook
~ Follow ITRML on Google Friend Connect (sidebar) and/or subscribe to ITRML
~ Tweet about this giveaway and leave the URL of your tweet
~ Update your Facebook status with a link to this giveaway
This giveaway will end at midnight on Tuesday, October 19th. Good luck!
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You can read more about the inspiration for this site 
I loved my cupcake charm from the Cupcake Conf. So cute!
Whatever DeeDee Wants´s deep thought ~ Halloween Treats
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I love those beads, I ordered them too ;)
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You are seriously a rockstar. These are so cute! I do love Sweet Tooth Fairy’s strawberry cheesecake cupcake.
Kristina P.´s deep thought ~ Every Night Has Been a Dark Knight
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Cutest ever!!! Chocolate through and through with chocolate sprinkles on top! I’m thinking you just might be getting a call from “martha” to do a craft segment on her show!!!
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You are SO talented. Oh and I miss your face.
Kim´s deep thought ~ Did you know
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My favorite cupcake is Red Velvet!
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I like ITRML on facebook.
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Those are awesome, Emily! :D Love ‘em!
So I’m a bit unexperienced in the delightful world of cupcakes. ;) So far my favorite would simply be Betty Crocker’s Rainbow Chip cupcakes. haha :D
We made some in ice cream cones for Sam’s birthday last month!
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You are a genius my friend. One of the cutest ideas ever. And perfectly executed.
Steph´s deep thought ~ Crap My Mom Says
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I thought they were awesome. We all squealed… honest to goodness… when we saw the little beauties during our “Assemble the Swag Bags” night.
@ginabegin´s deep thought ~ This is for you
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YOU MADE THOSE?!?! With as tedious a job that was, I think you are warranted a few swears here and there. They were so cute! My 5yo actually stole (“borrowed”) mine, so I would love to win another one. :)
You truly are a creative genius.
Camille´s deep thought ~ Moms Who Make It Work Lindsey Bivens
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Fluffernutter from Two Sweet in Richmond, VA! Vanilla cake, marshmallow center and peanut butter icing!
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Emily Reply:
October 12th, 2010 at 4:25 pm
OMGosh! The name Fluffernutter has me drooling, let along reading the ingredients. YUM!
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My 3 year old is in LOVE with this charm. I put it on a ball and chain necklase and she wears it EVERYWHERE! I haven’t gotten it back since she saw it! I think I need another one for me! I’m an all chocolate girl. My thought on the matter “if it’s not chocolate what’s the point?” Why waste the calories on vanilla? And I LOVE marshmallow frosting toasted on top! I’m thinking of making my own High Tops this week! Mmmmm!
ashlee´s deep thought ~ Lemon Sour Cream Pie- This week’s treat
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I Like on facebook!
BTW I forgot to say what a great tutorial this is! Very nice pictures and I like the video! Thanks for sharing AND for making ALL THOSE CHARMS! they were a wonderful treat!
ashlee´s deep thought ~ Lemon Sour Cream Pie- This week’s treat
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You want me to pick a favorite flavor? Sheesh. Ok, if I HAVE to pick, I’ll go w/ fresh banana with cream cheese icing. Or vanilla. Or chocolate. Or pumpkin, or…
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And I already like you on FB ;)!
Jeanette´s deep thought ~ Oh Look- Jeanette Has Baked Another Wedding Cake!
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I love mine! It is too cute for words! My daughters love it as well!
Carly´s deep thought ~ Toy Commercials
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Look at you so crafty! Way cute charms!
Lindy´s deep thought ~ 10-10-10
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Emily Reply:
October 13th, 2010 at 11:46 pm
I’m only crafty about 3 times a year. Seriously.
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My favorite flavor is vanilla + vanilla.
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These are so dang adorable!!! You really outdid yourself! Loving mine! xoxo
Quinn´s deep thought ~ The Birth Story- She’s FINALLY Here!!!
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I “like” ITRML on Facebook
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My fav cupcake is anything from Swirlz, Bleeding Heart Bakery or Phoebe’s in Chicago. mmm I love Red Velvet too…
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I sub’d to you in Yahoo reader
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I tweeted abt your giveaway. http://twitter.com/stampylisa
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I am really curious where you get your cell phone lariats. Where can you buy those? I can’t find them in any local stores and the internet charges 10 dollars just for 10 of them.. and then im also making my own charms and going to try and sell them.
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Emily Reply:
October 27th, 2010 at 6:44 am
I found mine on eBay. There are a ton for sale on that site amd some really great prices!
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