I’m a sucker for design motifs from the animal world, especially on clothes or jewellery. I’m also not one to shy away from a bit of bling – especially at Christmas time. So when I came across this simple but effective idea for making necklaces I knew I had to try it.

The recipients I had in mind were four of my bestest girlfriends, aged between five and forty two. I saw them this weekend, and we rather naughtily exchanged gifts even though it wasn’t even quite December! But that means I can now share them here without spoiling any surprises – and if you’re on the lookout for fun homemade gifts you’ll still have plenty of time to give them a go.

You will need:

– Small plastic animals

– Tiny eye hooks

– Gold spray paint (or any other colour that takes your fancy!)

– Necklace chain in your desired length (I used 18 inch)

– Jewellery making pliers

– A largish cardboard box

– String

Step One:

Select your animals, and screw in an eye hook to the back of each. You might want to position this slightly closer to the head rather than directly in the middle – mine ended up a bit top heavy!

Step Two:

Spray paint in your desired colour! This was the most complicated (and most fun) part of the process, drawing on my husband’s previous love of model painting to come up with a system that would be quick and mess-free with a perfect finish.

He suggested using a cardboard box with one side cut out and suspending the animals from a piece of string, like this:

This easily transportable frame meant we could paint outside then bring them in to dry, and also could be turned upside down to help us get at every angle!

(Whether you decide to do this in the middle of the night like us is of course entirely up to you).

Step Three:

Once the paint has entirely dried (see the directions on the can), you can attach the chains. I found the pliers handy here to open the eye hook out a bit.

And that’s it! So simple, and rather a lot of fun.

I picked out the elephant to try on, but it was hard to choose a favourite – they all looked super cute!

I have to admit I was rather pleased with the hippopotamus though, if only because it gives me the excuse to sing this song…