Tutorial!

Here's an idea for a quickie, handmade gift or stocking stuffer you can crank out pretty quickly. Everybody loves a holiday fruitcake, right? Only this one is...a necklace! It will last almost as long as a real fruitcake! This is a great project for medium sized children, too. You could also shorten the string to make a Christmas tree ornament or leave off the string and put a magnet on the back.

Here's what you'll need. The silver tin is the shell of one of those bulk hundred in a bag tealights. You know you have some lying around. The little colored bits are seed beads.

First, poke a small hole in the metal tin with a pin or a nail. I put mine on a cardboard tube while I punched the hole so I wouldn't crush the tin.

Now put a piece of thin wire through the hole like this so you can attach a string later.

Push a ball of polymer clay into the tin. It take about half a package to fill one tin.

Now pick some nice preserved fruity colored seed beads and push them down into the clay. Use a toothpick or knitting needle to really get them down in there. If you stick them in lying on their side, the holes won't show.

After you get all the fruity seed bead bits in place, you can bake it according to the polymer clay instructions.

Let it cool, then brush on a couple of coats of glossy polyurethane (just like real fruitcake!). Add a string and you're finished! Delicious!

No, don't eat it!