Homemade Gifts ~ Personalized Bell Chime

This was a Christmas gift I made. The person I gave it to loves to collect bells. I thought homemade bells with their last name would be priceless.

Supplies:

2″ Terra Cotta Pots
25mm Jingle Bells
25mm Wooden Round Beads
5/8 in Ribbon
Trim Ribbon
Paint – Colors of your choice and brushes
Alphabet Stencils (if desired)
Hot glue and Hot glue gun
Cotton Twine
Wooden pieces shown are pine 2″ thickness that were cut into two 6″ and two 14″ pieces. You can also buy a round or rectangle plaque at your local craft or home store.
Scissors
Drill

Paint:
1st paint the terra cotta pots and wooden beads the color of your choice.
Take stencils and paint letters.
After paint is dry, place the wooden bead to the bottom of the terra cotta pot. Make sure the holes align, then hot glue them together. Make sure you don’t get the glue in the hole, if that happens you will not be able to run the cotton twine through.
Add ribbon to bottom of terra cotta pot and wooden bead using hot glue to adhere them to the bell.

Bells:
Take Cotton twine and tie it to the top of the jingle bell. Make sure you don’t cut the twine because the twine will run through the the terra cotta pot, wooden bead and continue to the top of the plaque.

Once you reach the top of the wooden bead, tie a knot at the top. Now glue the knot to the top of the wooden bead. This will ensure the position of your bell doesn’t move and rings properly. (Before you do this, test your bell to make sure it rings properly, if it doesn’t you may need to lower the position of your jingle bell.)

Continuing with the same piece of twine, get the desired length of how long you would like to have your bell hang and finally cut the piece.

Plaque:
Depending on the thickness of your twine, find the appropriate drill bit and drill through your plaque.
Run the remaining twine through, tie a knot big enough not to go through the hole you drilled and cut off any remaining twine.

Lastly, drill one hole at right and left side of the plaque you are using. Find the desired length of how long you want the plaque to hang. Tie the knots under the bottom side of the plaque.

Additional Tips:
If using round plaque, adjust your bells to hang at different lengths and this can be used as wind chimes.