Make Your Own Sacrifice Beads

Supplies Needed To Make Sacrifice Beads

• 3 feet of silk cord (The string must fit through the bead twice. Avoid the plastic “gimp” string and definitely do not use anything elastic. You can also use ribbon, which is shown at the end of this post. You can use yarn, but I like a slicker string better. If you use yarn, you’ll want to put a piece of clear tape round each end to keep the yard from unraveling and make the stringing easier for children.)
• a key ring (or St. Therese medal) 
• pony beads (this is a good kind of bead to use because you need a bead with a large hole)
• crucifix (you can order them in bulk from Autom for just 0.19 each!)
• clear fingernail polish 

I also have step by step directions for duplicating your own Saint medals and crucifixes, so if you’re feeling extra crafty you can make your own of those as well!

Sacrifice Bead Kits

How To Make Sacrifice Beads

Pull the 2 ends of the string tight, and it will attach the string to your St. Therese medal or key ring, leaving 2 strings dangling down.

You can lay out 10 pony beads and decide the order you want to string them in. I am going to make a pattern with pink, purple, and white beads.

Take your first pony bead, and put one string through one side, and one string through the other side. 

Pull both ends of the string and the pony bead will start sliding up towards your medal. 

Keep pulling the 2 strings in opposite directions until your bead goes all the way up to the top.

Now do the same to another bead- 1 string going in each side of the bead.

Keep repeating this step until you have 10 beads on your string. Then leave a space, and tie a knot by wrapping the string around your fingers and putting the ends of the string through the hole. This knot needs to be big enough to hold the pony bead in place, so make a double knot if you need to. 

Place your 11th bead after this knot, then make another knot right under that bead. That bead will stay in place.

Now you’re ready to attach your crucifix! Just lace one string through the crucifix and then secure it with a square knot. Trim the edges, but not too close to the knot. Leave a little extra to prevent it from coming untied. 

To make really sure it stays in place (because this string is very slick) you need to do one of the following:

Secure your knot at the end by doing one of the following:

• Painting the knot with clear fingernail polish
• Burning the ends of the string with a lighter (a job for grown ups)
• Put a dot of glue on each side of the knot

That’s it- you did it! You made your own sacrifice beads! We also made one with ribbon, and it worked beautifully as well.

Here is the completed ribbon sacrifice bead string, and it holds the beads in the same way. Very pretty!

We made lots of different colors and combinations of sacrifice beads! Check them out!

St. Therese Resources For Kids

You’ll find all of my St. Therese resources for kids here.

 

 

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