How to Make Charms for Bracelets: Polymer Clay Hearts, Stars & Smiley Faces from Scratch

You can make your own bracelet charms with polymer clay, a toothpick, and a kitchen oven. That’s the whole supply list. No craft oven, no specialty tools, no prior experience. The shapes you’re about to learn — hearts, stars, and smiley faces — take about 10 minutes of hands-on work each, then 15 minutes in the oven. If you already have a complete bracelet making kit, these charms are the one thing it doesn’t include. This guide fills that gap.

What You Need Before You Start

Gather everything first. I’ve watched kids start a project, get excited, then stop cold because they’re missing one thing. The supply list here is short — most of it is already in your kitchen.

• Polymer clay in 3–4 colors. White, red or pink, yellow, and black cover hearts, stars, and smiley faces. Small packs from any craft store cost a few dollars. Sculpey, Fimo, and Cernit all work — just stay with one brand per project because they cure at different temperatures.
• A toothpick or wooden skewer for making the stringing hole. A sewing pin is too thin — you need at least a 2mm hole for 0.8mm elastic cord, and a toothpick makes that automatically.
• A flat baking surface — a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. No special mat required.
• A smooth work surface — glass, a ceramic tile, or wax paper taped to the table.
• Optional: a rolling pin or smooth glass bottle (for flattening clay), a butter knife or craft blade (for cutting stars), and a damp cotton swab (for smoothing fingerprints).

Polymer clay is not included in our kits — it’s a separate material that requires baking. What our kits do include is everything else: 5,000+ beads, 0.8mm elastic cord, scissors, a needle, a ruler, and a storage box. If you want to see what’s in the box before you add clay charms to the mix, our guide to choosing the right bracelet making kit breaks it down.

How to Make a Polymer Clay Heart Charm

The heart is the first shape to try. It’s the simplest, it takes under 5 minutes of shaping, and it’ll give you a finished charm before you move on to anything more involved.

1. Pinch off a small piece of clay and roll it into a ball, about 8mm across — roughly the size of a marble. Going bigger than that means a heavier charm that swings on the wrist.
2. Roll the ball into a teardrop shape between your thumb and index finger. One pointed end, one rounded end.
3. Pinch the pointed end and fold it down, pressing the two sides together to form the two bumps at the top of the heart. Use your fingertip to smooth the seam where they meet.
4. Flatten the heart slightly so it’s about 4mm thick. Thicker than that and it’ll be clunky on a bracelet; thinner and it might crack after baking.
5. Use a toothpick to poke a hole through the top center — push it all the way through, then gently rotate it to widen the opening. You need at least 2mm for standard elastic cord.
6. Smooth any fingerprint marks with a slightly damp fingertip or a cotton swab. The finished heart should be about 10–12mm wide — close to the size of a pencil eraser.

Set it on the parchment-lined baking sheet. Don’t bake yet — you’ll bake all your charms together at the end. For more on how clay beads work in bracelet design, see our clay beads for bracelets guide.

How to Make a Polymer Clay Star Charm

The star introduces one new technique: rolling clay flat and cutting a shape. Still beginner-level, but you’ll need a flat surface and a straight edge.

1. Roll a piece of clay flat to about 3–4mm thick. If you don’t have a rolling pin, press it down with the bottom of a smooth glass. Two popsicle sticks on either side of the clay act as thickness guides — roll until the rolling pin rests on the sticks.
2. Cut a star shape. Freehand with a butter knife works — five quick cuts. If you have a tiny cookie cutter, even better. Don’t stress about symmetry; stars look fine slightly uneven.
3. Smooth the edges with your finger or a damp cotton swab before lifting the star off the surface. Lifting first and smoothing after usually warps the shape.
4. Poke the stringing hole at one of the top two points. Angle the toothpick slightly upward so the star hangs flat when it’s on the bracelet instead of tilting forward.
5. Aim for 10–15mm across. Smaller than 10mm and you lose the star shape on the wrist. Bigger than 15mm and it starts to feel heavy.

Polymer clay is colorfast and lightweight once cured — it won’t bleed color onto elastic cord or pull the bracelet to one side.

How to Make a Polymer Clay Smiley Face Charm

This is the one kids get the most excited about. It takes a bit more detail work — you’re adding small pieces of clay on top of a base — but the result is the charm they’ll actually want to wear tomorrow.

1. Start with a flat circle. Roll clay to about 3mm thick, then press the open end of a pen cap or bottle cap into it to punch out a round disc. This gives you a clean edge without needing to cut freehand.
2. Pick your base color. Yellow is the classic smiley, but I’ve seen kids make green ones, blue ones, and one that was sparkly purple with a monocle. Any color works.
3. Roll two tiny balls of black clay — each one about the size of a grain of rice. Press them onto the upper third of the circle for eyes. Keep them symmetrical by placing them at 10 o’clock and 2 o’clock positions.
4. Roll a thin snake of black clay, about 1mm thick and 8mm long. Curve it into a smile and press it onto the lower third of the circle.
5. Press all details gently. You want them to bond during baking, not flatten into the surface.
6. Poke the stringing hole at the top center, straight through.

One thing I noticed teaching K-5 art: kids under 8 often skip the mouth and just do eyes. That’s fine. Two dots on a circle reads as a face — it’s charming, it’s theirs, and it’s faster. Let them make the call.

How to Bake and Finish Your Clay Charms

Most polymer clay packages specify 275°F (135°C) for 15 minutes per 1/4 inch of thickness. Your charms are 3–4mm thick, which is roughly 1/8 inch — so 15 minutes covers it. Always check the label on your specific clay, because brands vary.

1. Place all your charms on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Not directly on metal — the bottoms can discolor.
2. Put them in a preheated oven. Don’t use a microwave (uneven heat) or a toaster oven (hot spots). Your regular kitchen oven is the tool here.
3. After 15 minutes, turn off the oven and let the charms cool inside for about 10 minutes, then move them to a heat-safe surface to cool completely — another 10–15 minutes.
4. While they’re still slightly warm, check the stringing holes. Sometimes they partially close during baking. If so, push a toothpick through again. It’s much harder to reopen a hole once the clay is fully cooled and hardened.
5. Optional: brush on a thin coat of clear nail polish or water-based polyurethane for a slight sheen. Let it dry completely before stringing.

For a full walkthrough on stringing the finished bracelet — beads, cord, and knots — read our how to make bracelets with beads guide.

How to Attach Your Charms to a Bracelet

The charm threads onto the elastic cord exactly like a bead. That’s it — no jump rings, no pliers, no special findings. Here’s how to make it sit right.

1. Thread the charm onto the cord before you add the last few beads. Slide it to roughly the center of the bracelet so the weight is balanced.
2. If the charm feels heavier than the surrounding beads, add one small bead on each side of it. This stops it from sliding around during wear.
3. Finish with a double surgeon’s knot: loop the cord twice, pull tight, then loop twice again and pull tight a second time. Tuck the tail end inside the nearest bead hole.
4. Stretch the bracelet gently a few times to test the knot. If it holds after 10 stretches, it’ll hold during wear.

If a charm feels too heavy for a stretch bracelet — some kids make theirs quite large — consider using it as a pendant on a cord necklace or a keychain instead. The same technique applies; just swap the elastic for a longer cord.

Common Mistakes (and How to Avoid Them)

Frequently Asked Questions

Once your charms are baked and cooled, you’ll need beads, elastic cord, and a few tools to string the full bracelet. Our all-in-one bracelet making kit includes 5,000+ beads in 48 colors, 0.8mm elastic cord tested to 5,000+ stretch cycles, scissors, a needle, a ruler, and a storage box — everything except the clay you just baked. See what makes beaded bracelet making worth the time →