A favorite childhood memory for some may involve doing a craft or learning a new hobby. If you are looking for a craft to do with younger teens, or to relive your own summer camp days, consider making friendship bracelets. Friendship bracelets are a relatively safe and mess-free jewelry that you can learn (or re-learn!) in an afternoon. Some people say that the bracelets symbolize friendship between the maker and the wearer. Like a good friendship, these bracelets are durable. Traditionally, you give a bracelet to a friend, and the friend wears it until the bracelet falls off on its own.

Making friendship bracelets is an ideal craft project for beginners, but has something to offer experienced crafters too. Friendship bracelets are inexpensive to make and require relatively few materials. It's simple to learn the basic patterns. As you get more experienced, you can move on to advanced patterns or even try designing your own! Read on to learn how to make a friendship bracelet!

These are the supplies you'll need to make your first friendship bracelet:

1. Thread: Embroidery floss is the most common type of thread used for making friendship bracelets.http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-friendship-bracelets.htm Choose different colors to form a design as you make your bracelet.
2. Scissors. These need to be fairly sharp to cut your embroidery thread.
3. Something to hold your project in place. You'll be pulling on the threads, so attach them to something firm. You can tape them down, use a clipboard, safety pin them to your pants or even tie them to your toes!http://www.makingfriends.com/jewelry/bracelet_klutz.htm A desk or a table works well too.

You will also need to choose the design and colors of your friendship bracelet.

Choose Your Pattern: Two simple patterns are a round bracelet, also called the Chinese Staircase, and a flat bracelet, also called the Candy Stripe.http://www.wikihow.com/Make-the-Chinese-Staircase-Bracelet

Choose Your Colors: About 8-10 strands make a reasonably-sized bracelet. You can make each thread a different color or include one color more than another that will show up in a pattern as you create the bracelet.http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Friendship-Bracelet

Cut Your Threads: The threads should be from 25 inches to 3 feet long, depending on the pattern and the desired finished length.http://www.makingfriends.com/jewelry/bracelet_klutz.htm

Tie Threads Together: Line your threads up so the ends meet. Tie the threads together in an overhand knot, about 3 inches from the ends.http://www.how-to-make-jewelry.com/friendship-bracelet-instructions.html

Attach Threads: Attach your threads to something stable like a bedpost or clipboard.

There is only one knot you'll need to learn: the double half-hitch.http://www.geocities.com/hbernb/knots101.html

To make this knot, you tie one thread (we'll call it Thread A) around another thread or set of threads (we'll call those Thread B).

This knot comes in two versions: right-handed (forward) and left-handed (backward). http://parentingteens.about.com/od/activitiesorteens/ss/friendship1_2.htm

1. Tie a right-handed double half-hitch by wrapping Thread A around Thread B twice. http://parentingteens.about.com/od/activitiesorteens/ss/friendship1_2.htm
2. Start with Thread A to the left of Thread B.
3. Hold Thread B taut in your non-dominant hand.
4. Pass Thread A in front of and to the right of Thread B, leaving a small loop. (Like a number "4.")
5. Bring the end of Thread A back in front of Thread B and through the loop.
6. Keep holding Thread B taut and pull on Thread A until the knot is tight.
7. Repeat.

For the left-handed version, reverse direction. Start with Thread A on the left and pass it in front of Thread B and to the right.

To make the flat bracelet:

1. Tie your leftmost thread around each other thread, moving from left to right.
2. Repeat knot until you reach the end of the row. You will have a horizontal stripe in the color of the first thread.
3. Choose the leftmost thread and repeat steps 1 and 2. This will create a second horizontal stripe.
4. Repeat steps 1, 2 and 3 until the bracelet has reached the desired length.

To make the round bracelet:

1. Tie your first thread around all other threads.
2. Repeat knot until you have a long vertical stripe in the color of the first thread.
3. Choose a new thread and knot it around all other threads.
4. Continue until the bracelet has reached the desired length.

When your bracelet has reached the desired length, or when you run out of thread, you're done! You can finish by tying off the bracelet with a simple overhand knot. http://www.how-to-make-jewelry.com/friendship-bracelet-instructions.html Though nothing else is required in order to make a friendship bracelet, one of the following ideas can also be used to make your bracelet more unique:

1. Braid the threads together to make it thicker, like a bangle.http://parentingteens.about.com/od/activitiesorteens/ss/friendship1_5.htm
2. Divide the remaining threads into groups of 3 or 4 and make small braids.http://parentingteens.about.com/od/activitiesorteens/ss/friendship1_5.htm
3. Add beads to the ends.http://www.how-to-make-jewelry.com/friendship-bracelet-instructions.html

Tie the bracelet around your friend's wrist and tell your friend to make a wish. According to superstition, the wish will come true when the bracelet falls off.http://www.ehow.com/how_2215524_know-meaning-friendship-bracelets.html