Creating A Lovely Home

If heavy rain is preventing your children from spending time outdoors and they are bored, show them how to make decorative chimes with colorful beads by completing the steps below. This rainy day craft will allow your children to express their creativity, and the finished chimes can be enjoyed daily once they are hung up on your home's front porch.

Materials

• newspaper sheets
• wooden beads (You can buy these from a company like Mayer Import Co Inc Imitation Stones.)
• craft paint
• small, shallow trays
• cups of water
• thin paintbrushes
• acrylic craft spray
• colorful twine
• scissors
• wooden dowels
• power drill
• thin rope
• hooks

Painting Beads And Applying Craft Spray

Lay out sheets of newspaper across a table. Place small, shallow trays that are filled with different colors of craft paint and a tray filled with beads on the table. Set a couple cups of water and thin paintbrushes next to the other materials. Allow your children to take their time painting the beads however they would like. Once the beads are covered with paint, wait for the paint to dry. Afterward, apply a thin layer of acrylic craft spray to each bead's exterior. The craft spray will prevent the colors of the paint from fading.

Stringing Beads And Securing The Twine To Dowels

Cut several pieces of twine that are varying lengths. Tie a knot in one end of each piece of twine. Show your children how to add beads to one of the pieces of twine. Encourage them to mix and match colors to create strings of beads that are unique or that display a pattern. Use a power drill to create holes that are evenly spaced apart through each wooden dowel. Insert the unknotted end of each piece of twine through one of the holes. Secure the twine pieces by tying knots in each one's end.

Leave one hole on each end of each dowel empty. Use these holes to create a handle to hang the chimes up with. Cut thin pieces of rope. Insert each end of one of the pieces of rope through the holes that are on either end of one of the dowels. Tie knots in the ends of the rope. Create a handle with the other piece of rope in the same manner.

Hang up the finished creations from hooks that are secured to your front porch's ceiling. You and your children can enjoy looking at the colorful chimes and listening to the clanging of the beads when the twine pieces move around in the wind.