How to Make Friendship Bracelets

July 15, 2025 by Sarah White Leave a Comment

This summer I’ve been sharing some fun summery crafts for kids, and while I already shared a couple of friendship bracelet patterns, there are so many out there it’s worth another look.

Bracelets are a great craft for kids because they aren’t that difficult to make but they do take some time, there are lots of possible variations and the supplies tend to be inexpensive and you don’t need a lot.

In my research on making friendship bracelets, I found that some of the easiest ones are known as the Chinese ladder (no idea why), candy stripe and chevron.

You can also call the Chinese ladder a spiral bracelet, as that’s what it looks like when you’re finished. Melanie from Artzy Creations shares a pattern for this one at Design Dazzle. She uses five colors but once you have it down you can use as many or as few as you like.

The candy stripe in three colors I think is the only kind of friendship bracelet I ever knew how to make. Sarah Maker has a good tutorial for this one using four colors.

Chevron is probably my favorite because it looks fancy and makes a nice wide bracelet. You need two strands of each color you are using so it gets big fast, but is also a lot of fun to make. There’s a photo and video tutorial at The Neon Tea Party to get you started. (Here’s another video from Simple DIYs.)

Of course these three basic patterns are just scratching the surface of what you can do with friendship bracelets.

This simple twisted bracelet from Twitchetts is great for younger kids who might not have the dexterity or patience for all of that knot tying. You can also make them with thread or yarn, and add beads if you like. Or try this one from Panda Hall, which is just made with braided pieces tied together. I love the addition of charms to this one.

Make a fun fishtail bracelet with this video from SoCraftastic. If you need more ideas, check out the designs at Marching North and Red Ted Art. Do you have a favorite friendship bracelet pattern? I’d love to hear about it!

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Ghost Craft Ideas for Kids

Ghost crafts are a lot of fun for kids to make and they’re a way to get into Halloween crafting that’s not really scary. Here are some easy ghost crafts for you to make with kids, whether it’s your kiddo at home or a class full.

I love this simple ghost made with a pompom or cotton ball covered in paint and used as a stamp. This one is from Crafts on Sea and you can have kids just hold the pompom or hold it with a clothespin to make it a little less messy.

Use cotton balls and printable facial expressions to make these silly ghosts from Housing a Forest. The post includes the printable templates or you can just add googly eyes.

Little fabric ghosts are a classic, whether you make them with white fabric or fall or Halloween fabric. Buggy and Buddy shows you how to make these little ghosts with a few cute embellishments. Just make one or two or make a garland or Halloween tree full of them.

There always seem to be paper plates lying around, and this paper plate ghost from Crafts by Amanda is a fun one. There’s a printable in the post for the facial features and arms, or kids can draw their own faces (and leave off the arms if you want to keep it simple).

What kid doesn’t love peeling dried glue? Turn that impulse into a craft with these glue ghosts from Friends Art Lab, and don’t miss the tip in the post that helps you turn these into window clings.

This handprint ghost in the window craft from Glued to My Crafts is so cute and easy for kids to make alone or with help. The post shows lots of variations so it would be fun to make these in a classroom and let each kiddo design their own “window” or add embellishments.

These sweet little tissue paper ghosts from Red Ted Art are actually mini pinatas, but you can just make it as a ghost without anything inside if you’d rather.

And you know I love a good kids’ sewing project so I can’t resist sharing these little felt ghost puppets from The Craft Train. Kids can sew them by hand or you can make them out of paper if you don’t want to try sewing them. The template for the ghosts is free to download, and you can also just make little softies instead of puppets if you like.

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