Back-to-school season is upon us and while you may need to hit the shops for some notebooks, pencils, and other school supplies, these DIY charms feature materials you likely already have at home! Kids will love crafting their own custom charms to deck out their backpacks. They can even make a few extras to give to friends on the first day!

Mini Cake Charms
These triangular foam makeup sponges from the dollar store come in the most perfect pastel colors and make adorable little slices of cake!

DIY French Knit Monogram Brooch
Everyone loves a good monogram! Making these customized charms is SO easy – they may look tricky but before you know if you’ll have a whole alphabet on your hands.

DIY Luggage Tags
Gather up some spare plastic toys laying around and make these customized charms for all your adventures. No one else will have the same tag, so you’ll be able to pick out your backpack from the crowd right away. Use extra odds and ends, pom poms, and beads to make them even more special!

How to Turn Earrings into Backpack Charms
Statement earrings have been super trendy for a while now, but did you know you can easily turn them into backpack charms? Some statement earrings can be pretty oversized, so if you’re wanting to wear them all day long (or don’t have your ears pierced!), you can still show off some cute shapes as these backpack charms.

DIY Yarn Backpack Buddies
Rocket-off to school on the first day than with these trusty backpack buddies! You read that right, we’re talking yarn monsters! These soft, friendly, quirky little guys are the perfect way to make the kids’ backpacks stand out from the rest. They’re tons of fun to make, and they make the ultimate sidekicks for making new friends on the school bus.

Mini Ice Cream Charms
Make-up sponges strike again! These blob and teardrop-shaped ones are absolutely perfect for mini ice cream cones. They come in the best sorbet shades (flavors!) too, don’t you think?

How to Make Perler Bead Monograms
Perler beads are a classic craft that we can’t get enough of! Add some simple stitching on top and you have this quick monogram project that you can pin all over your backpack!

Glittery Good Luck Charms
Make your own good luck charms using air-dry clay and glitter! We used the night sky and fortune tellers as our inspiration for these glittery blue charms. They might just bring you a little extra luck on an upcoming test or exam!

Pipe Cleaner Embroidery Charms
Not only does this project help build sewing skills but you still get a really fun end result, too! The plastic embroidery canvas acts as a sort of blank stitching card for kids to get creative and make whatever designs and shapes they like. The finished pieces can be pinned onto a backpack to be playful DIY backpack charms.

Silly Spool Totem Pole Backpack Charms
Design your own totem pole with this fun painted spool keychain project! It’s a great way to carry around some custom icons that mean a lot to you. Just choose some of your favorite animals (or invent your own!), then get painting. Clip the finished spools all over your backpack!