We have a huge bucket of them that I got from a rummage sale and she'll spend hours making necklaces for me.

And then sometimes this happens and they don't seem like such a good bargain after all.

Since she loves beads, and I love American flag crafts, we combined the two and made an American flag magnet from pony beads.
We used:
1 large craft stick
Fishing line
Red and white pony beads
Blue star beads
Tape

We made 9 strings of beads (tying the first bead to the fishing line to hold the others on). Five were alternating red and white with 13 beads total and four were 7 pony beads with 3 blue star beads on top.

I taped each string to the back of the craft stick and then used a little hot glue to make sure they were secure. At first I hung it from a ribbon but then we decided it needed to go on our fridge, so we glued some magnets to the back.
What do your kids make with beads? I need some ideas to use these things up so I don't have to keep picking them off the floor.
P.S. Make sure you don't do this craft with children who would put the beads in their mouths.