It's a Charmed Life

 WARNING! MAJOR STASH BUSTING PROJECT AHEAD.

Clean out your toy box, junk drawer and under the couch cushions to gather toys, game pieces, keys, coins, anything and everything that might look good on a necklace. Drill small holes in Scrabble tiles, dominoes, dice and small plastic baby dolls (just to name a few).

Before you begin you must buy two small needle nose pliers. Your fingers will thank you. They are available at Walmart, Michaels and even the Dollar Tree. You will also need a 20" chain, 24 gauge wire, jump rings and beads.

Through trial and error I discovered that it was best to attach charms with jump rings. Some items needed loops to connect to the jump rings.  Not one for plain twisted wire, I found a way to add beads. After all, what's a necklace without beads?

Thread a 4" piece of 24 gauge wire through the hole. Fold back about 1 1/2". Slip a bead over both ends. Loop the top of the longer wire over and push the end back through the hole. Grab both loose ends with needle nose pliers and gently but firmly, pull, making sure to leave a small loop on top. Wrap above and below the bead. Voila - a tidy looking domino charm.

Drill through the center of thick items like dice.  Place a bead on a head pin then thread on the die. Top it off with another tiny bead and curl the end. 

Lay out the chain arranging the charms until you are pleased. No need to stage all the charms yet. I think it's probably better to be symmetrical at this point, varying long dangling items with short ones. Find the middle of the chain and attach your center charm. Add the other charms every other link or so to begin.

Fill in with additional charms until the necklace is as full as you like. It depends on the chain and the size of the links, but in this case, I put a trinket in each link leaving the last 2 1/2" on either end empty for comfort around the back of the neck. Thirty to forty charms nicely filled the 20" length of chain. Finally, add a clasp.

This looks heavy but because most of the charms are wooden or made from plastic, it is surprisingly lightweight.