Our daughter isn’t generally what you’d think of as traditionally girlie.

She serves tea to her monsters while having a growling competition with them, has a distinct aversion to a life that doesn’t involve dirt, thinks dolls are silly (she prefers the “human kind” of babies) and is spending next week learning the ins and outs of how to play hockey.

But, if you peek into her surfer girl, Roberto Luongo worshiping, ghost story telling universe, you will discover a woman who digs her bling.

Not just a little splash of colour here or a great hat to pull together an outfit. I’m talking BLING in the form of any jewelry that exists…in the world…ever.

There is no such thing as too many bracelets in her sparkle-filled world.

So, it was no shock that when I asked her what kind of craft was next on her list – making jewelry was right up there.

Beads and 3-year-olds are a tough sell to me, and I have been totally itching to try out some of Diane’s gorgeous papers over at Scrap Book Central. So, I thought paper.

Our house is now filled with jewelry of the funky, preschool, unplastic kind.

I’m sure I’m not the first to make these. But, I will claim originality since this one was entirely manufactured in my head. I admit being overly impressed with myself. But, only because crafting genius is not a label I would ever adhere to myself – EVER.

We made two versions - one of the flower kind and the other for bug lovers and guy types who are a bit less down with wearing a flower on their arm, but need some preschool bling in their lives too.

Here’s what you need:

- Crafting paper (we used some great papers from Cosmo Cricket, Around The Block and Fancy Pants Designs)

- A small hole punch

- Brads to hold it all together

- String or yarn

- Scissors

Note: the flower bracelet is the more involved one to make. So, that will be the focus of the tutorial. I’ll have a quick rundown on the bug bracelet at the end.

Directions:

1. Find a piece of craft paper that has cool saying on it that run across the page in strips like the ones we found from Cosmo Cricket or other designs that run in strips which are easy to cut out. Then, cut out a strip to use for your wrist band. Measure it and trim to fit your tiny person’s wrist, then punch a hole on either end of the band.

2. Next, pick a patterned paper for the flower. Cut your 12X12 sheet in half and then cut 10 strips along the shorter length of the paper. You want them shorter rather than longer.

3. Punch holes in both ends of each strip. You can pile them all together and punch one side all at once, then stick a brad into that set of holes to keep them all together while you punch the other end. If the pile is too thick, divide it in half and try again.

4. Fold the strips over, but don’t crease the paper where it bends, leaving a loop and put the brad through the other set of holes to hold everything together. Then, spread the “petals” out.

5. Punch a hole in the middle of the wrist band and attach the flower and the wrist band with the brad holding it all together (I recommend a piece of tape over the brad afterward to keep it from scraping your kiddo’s arm up).

6. Cut a length of string and pull it through the holes in the wrist band, bringing the ends together and tying them up to keep the bracelet on.

To make the bug bracelet, I cut out a square of bug from a cool sheet from Around The Block, punch a hole through the middle and followed the same directions for the wrist band as the flower bracelet.

These were super fun, REALLY easy to make and, a bonus in my book, pretty.

We get excellent use out of them in the forest, at fashionable events like grocery shopping or doing laundry and, of course, they satisfy a deep need for jewelry.

Now to figure out how to make paper shoes:)