Craft Chronicles

What to Do With the Bar You Remove When You Add an Extender Bar to Your Pens or Keychains

If you make beadable pens or keychains, you probably have a little collection of those original metal bars left over after replacing them with longer extender bars.

Don’t throw them away! Those little bars can become useful craft supplies all by themselves.

I recently discovered a simple way to give mine a second life: use the leftover bar to extend beadable earrings!

Turn a Leftover Pen Bar Into a Longer Beadable Earring

Sometimes beadable earrings are cute, but the original beadable section just isn't long enough for the design you have in mind. You may want to add more beads, create a longer statement earring, or simply have more room to play with your design.

That's where your leftover pen bar comes in!

The bar that you remove from a regular beadable pen when you add an extender can be repurposed as part of your earring design. With the proper jump rings and hardware, it gives you a longer area to add beads and create a completely different look.

Before: The original beadable earrings are shorter and have limited room for your design.

After: By using the leftover bars, you can create a much longer beadable earring with more space for beads, charms, colors, and different themes.

And the best part? You're using something you already paid for instead of buying another craft supply!

Other Ways to Use Those Leftover Bars

Once you start looking at those little metal bars as craft components instead of leftovers, there are quite a few things you can experiment with:

Mini keychain dangles: Add beads to the bar and attach it to a keyring with a jump ring.

Bag charms: Create a beaded drop and attach it alongside acrylics, tassels, or other charms.

Zipper pulls: A shorter beaded bar can make a cute decorative zipper pull for bags, pouches, or craft cases.

Beaded ornament drops: Add holiday beads and a charm to create a dangling accent for ornaments or gift packaging.

Bead-display samples: Use the bars to create small bead combinations when you're testing new mixes or showing customers what certain beads look like together.

Charm add-ons: Make several little beaded drops ahead of time and keep them ready to add to keychains, lanyards, or other projects.

Craft-swap extras: Turn your scraps into a small finished dangle to tuck into happy mail or a craft-swap package.

Just make sure that whatever hardware you use—jump rings, caps, hooks, and connectors—is secure and compatible with the threading on your particular bar, especially if you're making something that will be worn or carried around.

Save Your Craft Scraps!

This is one of the reasons I love crafting: sometimes the piece that looks like a leftover can become the beginning of another project.

So the next time you replace the regular bar in your beadable pen or keychain with an extender bar, put the original bar in a little container instead of throwing it away.

You may be surprised how many earrings, dangles, charms, and other creations you can make from your stash.

♻️ Craft Tip: Keep a small container labeled “Extra Beadable Bars & Hardware.” When you need a quick project or want to experiment with a new idea, you'll know exactly where to look.

Happy Crafting! 💙💜

Tamika Sending Smiles

Smiles in Every Package!