Beaded Backpack Charms

Backpack charms are a great way to personalize your back to school bags. It’s fun and easy to create your own, and each one can be totally unique!

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How to Make Beaded Backpack Charms

All you need are a few basic supplies and your creativity to make your own DIY Beaded Backpack Charms. Let’s get started.

Materials

assorted clay beads
number and/or letter beads
small charms
lobster clasp
20 gauge wire
round nose pliers and wire cutters

My clay beads, letter beads, clasps, and charms all came in this kit from Amazon.

Image contains two trays of beads, assorted silver charms, silver wire, gold spacer beads, and lobster clasps.

Instructions

Create a small wire loop.

Using your round nose pliers, grab the end of the wire and wrap it around one side of the nose to form a loop. Leave a bit of open space to slide a charm on in the next step.

Image contains Amy’s hand holding a pair of round nose pliers forming a loop from silver 20 gauge wire.

Add a charm.

Choose the charm you’d like to have dangling at the bottom, and slide it onto the loop you just created. Once the charm is in place, use your pliers to make sure the loop is tightly closed.

Image contains a teal gem charm attached to a silver wire loop.

Cut your wire.

Cut the wire slightly longer than you want your finished backpack charm to be. (I suggest somewhere between 3-4.” You can always cut off the excess at the end.)

Add clay beads.

Start threading clay beads onto the wire in any pattern and color scheme you like. Feel free to add spacer or decorative beads, too.

Image contains Amy’s hand holding a piece of wire with various shades of blue and teal clay beads threaded on it. A blurred tray of clay beads is in the background.

Add letter/number beads.

This is a great way to personalize your charm, using a name, graduation year, school acronym or name, or any other message you like.

Image contains a piece of silver wire with blue and teal clay beads and letter beads spelling the name, “AMY."

Finish adding clay beads.

Add clay beads on the other side of your word/message to complete the charm.

Form a wire loop at the top, and cut off any excess wire.

Image contains a pair of round nose pliers making a wire loop at the top of a beaded backpack charm.

Add a lobster clasp to the top loop.

Now your charm is completed and ready to attach to the zipper pull of a backpack or other bag!

Image contains a backpack charm with the name “AMY” in the center and assorted blue and teal clay beads on either side.

Here are a few ideas to inspire you as you come up with your own unique designs. I think the pencil made from black, brown, yellow, grey, and pink beads is particularly fun for back to school.

Image contains five beaded backpack charms made from various colors of clay beads, letter and number beads, and dangling charms.

These charms are simple to create for yourself, and they also make great gifts for students, teachers, and anyone else headed back to the classroom.

Image contains three backpack charms made from clay beads, letter and number beads, and dangling silver charms.

Crafting Tips

While you can collect all of the supplies individually, it’s even more convenient and cost efficient to grab a kit! This Quefe one from Amazon contained clay beads, letter beads, charms, and clasps, as well as spacer beads, so it had almost everything I needed.
If you aren’t interested in working with wire, you can also use string or twine as the base for this project, as long as it’s thin enough to fit through the holes in the beads. Just tie large knots at the top and bottom to take the place of the wire loops.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long should my backpack charm be?

You can make your charm any length you like! Most of mine are between 3-3 1/2”, but feel free to make yours in your own style.

How do I open and close the wire loops?

Using your round nose pliers, grab the end of the wire and gently twist it away from you. To close the loop, twist the end back toward you and into place.