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Score big with this easy pony bead baseball keychain craft. Perfect for team spirit, summer camp crafts or a low-cost yet heartfelt gift for your favorite baseball player or team, you'll hit a grand slam with this one! Celebrate one of America's favorite pastimes with a pony bead baseball keychain made from pony beads and cord. The same pattern also works for softball and makes a fun project for Little League, T-ball and other youth teams.
Add your finished baseball or softball to a keychain, keyring, bag or backpack, make several for teammates and coaches, or use them for team and school fundraisers and knock it out of the park. These beaded baseball keychains also make fun giveaways and party favors for baseball and softball events, festivals, team parties and end-of-season celebrations.
If you make this project please share your photos with us. With your permission we'll add it to the page and credit it to you.
Your craft scissors may cut jewelry wire or pipe cleaners, but that doesn't mean they should. Wire can nick and dull the cutting edges of ordinary scissors, making them less effective when you go back to cutting paper, ribbon or fabric. Wire cutters are designed to handle metal and are a much better choice for jewelry wire and the wire core inside chenille stems. Save the scissors for the materials they were meant to cut—and they'll stay sharp much longer.
10 - Red Pony Beads (Used for the baseball stitching.)
41 - White Pony Beads (Used for the baseball.)
1 - Key Ring
OR
Lanyard Hook
2 yards of cord or lacing. A cord approximately 1mm to 2mm thick helps the finished baseball hold its shape. Monofilament cord, metallic cord, jute, hemp, leather cord, rattail cord, shoelaces, ribbon, paracord or strong jewelry cord are possible choices. We used white jute cord for our baseball. Alternatively, you can use a thinner cord and weave a little wire or a pipe cleaner into your keychain baseball to help it keep it's shape that way. Either way works just fine but you can experiment with it to see which method you prefer.
Monofilament Cord
OR
2mm Metallic Cord are two cord choices.
Scissors
Ruler or Measuring Tape
Craft Glue
Beading Wire
OR
Pipe Cleaners
1. Find the halfway point of the cord or wire you are using and attach it onto the key ring using a lark's head knot (shown in the photo).
2. Begin threading the beads onto the cord following the pattern. To prevent your baseball from sagging, we compensated in the following way: Thread onto your cord 1 bead more than half of the beads that will go on that row. For example, for a row of 7 beads, you will thread on 4 beads. Using the same cord, thread it through the corresponding bead from the last row and then back through the middle bead before continuing on with your row. The diagrammed image below may help you understand what we mean. You can click on the image at the bottom of the page for a larger, better resolution photo.
3. After finishing the pattern, tie a double knot or surgeon's knot in the cords at the bottom. Apply craft glue to the knot to prevent it from unraveling during use. Let the glue dry before trimming away any excess cord.
4. (Optional but recommended to keep your baseball looking its best.) Weave your wire or pipe cleaner through the first row of your beaded baseball keychain to make it stiffer and help it hold its shape.
Seed beads or E beads can be used in place of pony beads to create smaller versions of this baseball keychain.
The illustration below uses green and blue to show you how each cord side is threaded into the beads. Your cord, of course, will be all the same color. This same weaving method is used for many pony bead keychain patterns.
