Flower Bib Necklace

Tools:

Glue gun
Jewelry glue
Chalk
Scissors


Materials:

11 black or/and gold fabric flowers
9 beads
1 sq foot black felt
2 feet black ribbon

Chase away the winter blues with this beautiful and fun necklace.
Arrange the flowers on the piece of felt the way that you would like
your necklace to look. Take the piece of chalk and trace around the
roses and then cut out cutting inside the chalk line. Remove the top
rose on each end of your arrangement. Cut the ribbon in half and glue
one end on each side. Then glue all of the flowers onto the piece of
felt, try not to make the design too uniform. Then using the jewelry
glue attach a bead to the middle of each flower.

If you would like to make your own flowers, check out our past post from
January 2011.

Festive Holiday Jewelry - Swarovski Drop Earrings

The holiday season is approaching which means it is time to add some sparkle to your jewelry. These super easy to make earrings will add just the right amount of shine to any outfit and are also the perfect gift for any special ladies in your life.

Material:

2 ball headpins
2 10mm Swarovski crystals in jet black
2 sterling silver french ear wires
2 4mm sterling silver round beads

Tools:

Chain nose pliers
Round nose pliers
Side cutter pliers

Take one of your headpins and thread on one of the 10mm jet black crystals and then one of the 4mm sterling silver round beads. Then, using your round nose pliers make a simple loop. Completely close the loop. Then take one of your sterling silver french ear wires, open up the loop at the bottom of the ear wire, take the pin with the beads on it that you just created and place on the opened loop at the bottom of the ear wire and close.

TIP: If you love jewellery, you can use this technique to make hundreds of different earrings, just use a different size and shape of bead each time.

Children's Hairclips and Accessories by Baby Wisp

My daughter recently had the honor of being a model for Baby Wisp and
as a proud mommy I just had to share about this amazing company and
their gorgeous products.

Baby Wisp is a Canadian company dedicated to bringing you quality and
stylish accessories for your little princess. Started by a fellow mama
who saw the need for unique hair products, Baby Wisp
(www.babywisp.com) carries tons of products, from clips to hats to headbands, to tutus, but my personal favorite product that they carry is their latch clip. This amazing clip will stay in baldie babies hair, it will actually hold in just a wisp of hair.

Baby Wisp ensures that the glue in their clips is are non toxic (& use
sewing wherever possible to reduce use of chemicals) and source many
of their hair clips from dealers with conformity certificates
(conforms to Children's Product Safety Commission rules for safety in
children's products) or get their own certificates from accredited labs. They are committed to lead-free products by periodically and random
sampling our clips for laboratory testing with CPSIA certified labs.
They can stand firmly behind the quality and content of their
products.

Above is a photo of my little girl wearing a tutu, headband and flower
all designed by Baby Wisp.

Memory wire bracelets a perfect after school project

A new school year is fast approaching and the Beading Buds are so excited about our brand new 8 week after school program that we will be running at several schools in Richmond Hill, Oakville and Mississauga and other parts of the Greater Toronto Area.

And to continue with the "back to school" theme, we are sharing this article about the developmental benefits of beading with children.

http://www.ourkids.net/blog/the-value-of-beading-for-children-12900/

One of the projects we will be teaching at the after school program is a memory wire bracelet which can also be worn as a necklace, below is a tutorial showing how to make this memory wire bracelet.



Materials:
Memory Wire
Beads

Tools:
Wire cutters
Needle nosed pliers

Take your memory wire and measure so that it loops around your wrist two times and then cut using your wire cutters. Taking your needle nosed pliers, make a loop at one end of the wire. Using your bead board, make your pattern, it is usually best to use 4 beads and keep repeating them, or just make it totally random. String your beads until you have about about 1/2 an inch of wire left and then make another loop using your needle nosed pliers.

Enjoy the rest of your summer, and we look forward to bringing you lots of fun beading projects for the fall and winter season.

How to make a Bangle Bracelet

Materials:
20 gauge wire (appx 12 inches)
2 tube beads
1 focal beads
12-14 other beads depending on size of beads and width of your arm
1 clasp

Tools:
Round nosed pliers
Chain nosed pliers
Side cutters


With the weather so hot out, it's a great time to stay indoors and
make some beautiful jewellery to match all your summer dresses.

Lay out your design. Make a wire wrapped loop in your wire by making a
90 degree bend in your wire about 2 inches from one end of the wire,
then taking the 2 inch piece in your hand, wrap it around the base of
the bend to make a loop. Then using the chain nosed pliers wrap the
wire around several times (see video). Trip off the left over wire
using your side cutters. Now string your beads onto the wire
following the design that you laid out. Once you are finished
stringing the beads, make another 90 degree bend on the remaining end of the bracelet. Slip the clasp onto the wire and then wrap the wire around the base several times to make another loop.

Beaded Wire Looped Necklace

Materials:
24 gage wire
6 large beads
14 small beads
1 lobster clasp
1 jump ring
2 crimp beads

Tools:
Flat nosed pliers


Take one of your large beads and thread onto your wire, move bead
about 4 inches in from one end of the wire, that will be your starting
point. Take one end of your wire (the working wire) and pull back
through the bead (see video). Pull the wire tight to hold the bead in
place. Now thread one of the small beads, move it along the wire
until it is the desired distance from your large bead (approximately
one inch) and do what you did with the large bead, feed the working
wire back through and pull tight to hold the bead in place. Continue
doing this for the remainder of your necklace, spacing all the beads
about 1 inch apart, doing the pattern of two small beads, one large
bead, two small beads, etc. Attach the clasp to one end of the wire
using the crimp bead. Attach the jump ring to the other end of the
wire using the remaining crimp bead.

Make a Beaded Bookmark for Father's Day

This is a great beading project for Father's Day.

Tools:
Scissors

Materials:
1 foot of ribbon or leather cord
8 beads (3 small and 5 big)
Clear nail polish

Measure out 1 foot of ribbon or leather cord. If you are using ribbon, fold each end in half and using the scissors, cut off the end of the ribbon diagonally to form a "v" shape (see video). On one end make a knot about 3 inches from the end, string the three small beads, and make another knot. On the other end make a knot 4 inches from the end, string the 5 larger beads, and make a final knot. Dab a little bit of nail polish along the ends of the ribbon to keep the ribbon from fraying.

Happy Father's Day!