Snakes Alive! [And A Giveaway]

My PC seized up on Tuesday afternoon. That meant that whilst Bob was fixing it, I had to find other tasks. Options- ironing, or preparing more craft materials for Zone [our Sunday Children's Group] Crafts beat ironing every time! I didn't fancy sewing any more finger puppets. 

But I did fancy making a snake. There's a great shipwreck story involving Paul and a snake in Acts 27/28 which I want to tell them. We made dozens of milk-bottle-top-snakes in 2011, at the Kirby Muxloe Holiday Club [for pictures and tutorial click here]
I am preparing crafts for 20 children in each storybag. That would require 600 bottle tops and a load of champagne corks.

A few years back, a friend gave me a large tin full of wooden  'macrame beads'. I knew I had a jar of assorted coloured beads, and a tin of pound-shop shoelaces. With a large bead as the head, and a small foam bead at the end before the know, I was confident I could make a snake which would be simple enough for the children to copy.

I cut shoelaces in half, stick goggle eyes on large beads, and prepared 20 strings. Then I spent ages counting out the beads into little bags - I had a smaller number of painted beads to vary the colours of the snakes.
At last my exemplar was done and the bags were all packed. 
And Bob had fixed the computer. It's definitely on the way out, but I'm inheriting one from Liz shortly so that will help.

Bob is very pleased- I have just depleted my stash of wooden beads by 30%. I've used up all my coloured beads, large and regular sized, so only natural wooden coloured beads left.

If anyone reading this would like any oval macrame beads [approx 15mm long, 15mm at the widest part] please email me and I'll gladly pop a jiffy bag full of them in the post to you. You need about 15 beads per snake. Or you can use them with cord for more macramish purposes [MacRamish sounds like the name of a Scottish Crofter]