Make:

I decided to revisit the article I did earlier this summer on cellphone charms. I realized that there probably are some better tips, techniques and ways of finishing jewelry. The three charms all vary from easy to medium difficulty. They are pretty fast to make and you only need to go visit your local bead store or your own jewelry and craft box for the supplies.

One of the things that made this project go fast is the cellphone charm holder from jewelrysupply.com. Some bead shops may have this available or you can try those elastic black ponytail holders and use a crimp bead and ring. Just make sure that the holder or string you use will fit through the hole on your cellphone when doubled through. (Please refer to the previous article for more details on different options.)

Here are the 3 main tools you'll need to work with (pictured from left to right):
A wire cutter, a flat nose plier and a round nose plier.

Charm #1
Level: Easy

Supplies:
cellphone charm holder
1 charm

For our first charm we decided on creating something simple. This could be a charm from anything you already have: a vintage charm, button, necklace charm. Find something you like that's been lying around and use it.

Pictured here we have a vintage carved elephant charm, a silver firefly, and a green horn. We decided to go with the green horn since it was a great color for this fall.

Step 1: Open up the jump ring on the cellphone charm holder with the pliers. The key is to open the jump ring
with one hand twisting toward you and the other hand twisting away.

Step 2: Insert the charm through the jump ring. Close up the jump ring with the pliers using the reverse twisting direction as above.

Voila! You are done with your first charm!

Charm #2
Level: Medium

Supplies:
cellphone charm holder
large bead
small bead
crimp bead
jewelry wire (49 strands is the strongest kind)

Chose a nice size for the large bead but nothing too heavy or clunky that you'd end up hurting yourself with when you pick up your phone. We loved the look and shape of these teardrop glass beads. We went with the middle pink stone for the next charm creation.

A view of the supplies and the chosen large pink bead and a small complementary black bead.

Step 1: Cut off a piece of wire approximately 6" long and insert it through the large bead.

Step 2: Hold up both strings of wire with the large bead in the center. Take the small black bead and string it through both wires.

Step 3: String the crimp bead through and crimp with your flat nose pliers 1/4" up from the black bead. Make sure the crimp bead is tight to secure all the beads.

Step 4: Open up the jump ring on the cellphone charm holder and insert the jump ring through the opening created by the wire in between the crimp bead and the black bead.

Step 5: Cut the excess wire off at the top of the crimp bead as close as you can so no excess is visible.

Here's the finished charm modeled on my P900.

Charm #3
Level: Medium

Supplies:
1 skull charm
1 pom-pon

3 small beads
2 head pins

1 sewing needle

We loved the idea of the juxtaposition of skulls with pom-pons, two big trendy things for fall. We could have gone totally goth with black, but decided to cheer it up with a pink pom-pon and small pink beads.

Here's all the supplies you'll need.

Step 1: Insert the sewing needle through the pom-pon to create a hole.

Step 2: Insert 1 small pink bead onto a head pin.

Step 3: Insert the pom-pon onto the head pin. You may need to slowly take out the sewing needle and edge in the head pin to get the pin through the pom-pon. This is the tricky part!

Step 4: Wire loop the head pin with your round nose pliers as close as you can to the pom-pon in order to create a ring so that we can attach the charm onto the holder . You can make different sized ring holes depending on how far up and down the head of the pliers you move. We want a small ring hole, so measure out from the pom-pon approximately 1/4" of wire.

Step 6: Now take a head pin and insert one small pink bead, your skull bead, and top it off with another small pink bead.

Step 7: Repeat Step 5 to wire loop a ring hole for the charm. Make sure it is close to the top bead (1/4" again).

Step 8: Open up the jump ring on the cellphone charm holder.

Step 9: Insert the pom-pom charm and the skull charm into the jump ring and securely close.

All done! If your charm is long enough you can probably even use the pom-pon as a screen cleaner.

Here's all the charms we made attached to our own phones.