Lava Bead Diffuser Jewelry for Kids

Kids will love making these lava bead diffuser jewelry sets! They make the perfect handmade gift for Mother’s Day, Christmas or any occasion. Put a couple of drops of your favorite essential oil on each lava bead (my favorite is lavender) and you have a personal essential oil diffuser with you all day! 

My daughter and I made these sets together, we made one set adult size and one kid size, and we had a lot of fun at the bead store choosing just the right colors and beads. 

We love making handmade gifts for family and friends, check out our collection of awesome kid-made gift ideas for more inspiration. 

If you want to gift wrap this jewelry in a unique way, I have 4 free printable gift envelopes that are perfect to put your jewelry sets in! These templates are available to my email subscribers as part of my free printable resource library. Sign up to my email list below to gain instant access.

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Make your own lava bead diffuser jewelry

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Start with a bracelet

You will need

• beads in your choice of colors and sizes, I found that having the beads mostly the same size worked well for us
• lava beads
• stretchy bead cord, .5mm or .7mm works best
• craft adhesive (to be used by an adult only!)

1. Cut your stretchy bead cord a few inches more than you need to make it easier to tie at the end. If you don’t know the exact size of the wrist you are making it for, that’s ok, using the stretchy cord allows for a bit of a range.

We made our women’s sized bracelet about 9 inches and our kid-sized one about 7.5 inches. This made them fit but not too tight.

2. Tape one end of your stretchy cord to a table, I find this helps make it easier for kids to string the beads.

3. Design your bracelets and lay out your beads first, making sure to measure the length. We used 3 lava beads for each of our bracelets. Put the lava beads down first and then work your design around them.

4. Once you are done designing your bracelet, you can string the beads. After you are done stringing your bracelet, measure it again just to make sure you have the right length.

5. Tie 2 or 3 knots in your bracelet and make sure to pull tight securing each knot as you go. Or you can use a surgeon’s knot (super easy!), which will help keep it secure. Don’t trim the ends just yet.

6. This next part needs to be done by an adult only. You want to make sure that your knot stays extra secure, so you are going to put just a dab of super glue on the knot. You need to stretch the bracelet out a bit so no beads are touching the knot (like the picture above), dab on the glue and then hold for a minute while the glue dries.

Once the glue is dry you can then trim the ends of your string. And there you go, your beautiful lava bead bracelets are finished!

Now move on to making your necklace

You will need

• beads in your choice of colors and sizes
• lava beads
• stretchy bead cord, .5mm or .7mm works best
• cord for the top part of your necklaces such as leather cord, satin cord or ribbon of your choice
• any embellishments that you want to use like tassels or charms
• craft adhesive (to be used by an adult only!)

1. For the necklace, you will have to decide on the type of bead string you want to use. We used a stretchy colored beading cord, that looks good with no beads on it.

Other great ideas are leather cord, satin cord or ribbon. Any bead store or local craft store will have lots of options to choose from.

2. We used 4 lava beads for each of our necklaces. Again, lay out your lava beads on the table first and create your design around them. The length of your necklace is up to you, and a lot more forgiving than the bracelets.

Our beaded portion of the necklaces ended up being about 8 inches, but yours can be any size you like depending on your design.

Related: Super Cute DIY Friendship Bracelets Kids Can Make.

3. Once you are done stringing your necklace, tie a knot on both ends but don’t trim the ends just yet. You could also dab a bit of adhesive on the knots to make them extra secure. Remember to pull the beads away from the knot and hold the knot away while the glue dries.

4. Measure out the top portion of your necklace cord, leaving extra room to tie knots. Our women’s necklace cord ended up being about 19.5 inches and our kid-sized one was about 15.5 inches after everything was trimmed.

5. Tie the beaded portion to your necklace cord making sure to pull the knots tight. Depending on the type of cord that you used, you might want to put a dab of glue on the knots to help keep them secure.

6. Next, you want to trim the ends of all your strings.

7. If you have any embellishments to put on, you can do that now. I put a tassel on the purple necklace and it looks really great! Any type of charm or initial would also look nice. I used beading pliers for this part, so it’s best if an adult does this.

We had so much fun making these diffuser jewelry sets, my daughter is planning on giving the purple set to her Grandma for Christmas. She loves the pink set so much, she wants to keep it for herself.

Printable gift envelope instructions

• Print out your envelopes. Cut along solid lines.
• Fold along the dotted lines
• Fold over the side flap and glue, fold over the bottom flap and glue.
• Once you have put your gift inside, secure the top flap with some washi tape.

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