Mother's Day Jewelry Making School Workshop

Mother's Day Jewelry Making Workshop

Our busiest time of year is always in April, when we make beautiful glass pearl necklaces as Mother's Day jewelry gifts with schools, Girl Guide groups, or adult parties where the moms make their own gifts.

We have been receiving requests already to book these events, which always makes as us happy because it means that spring is coming!

How do these Mother's Day events work?  We attend at the school or Girl Guide group to assist the children in making beautiful glass pearl necklaces with a silver plated heart clasp as a Mother’s Day gift. 

We bring a variety of colours and teach the children several different patterns to ensure that each necklace is beautiful and unique.

We generally come in and do all the primary grades in one day, each workshop is 45 minutes in length.  We provide each child with a special organza bag along with the finished necklace.

The cost is $10 per child.

Glass Pearl Necklace

We have been providing this workshop at schools all over the Greater Toronto Area for the past 5 years.

We cannot wait to get started on all these necklaces!

Memory Wire Birthday Party Package

We are so excited to announce our newest package for girls ages 9 and up.  Our new memory wire consists of gold or silver plated memory wire, glass foil beads in every colour imaginable and silver and copper findings.

We love this package because the girls can get so creative with the colours that they use and the designs that they choose.

A popular bracelet that many girls have been making is a "frozen" bracelet, using different shades of blue, as with white and silver accents.

In this package children are taught the stringing technique.  The package includes beading materials for a memory wire bracelet, instructors for 75 minutes, beading princess tiara, invitations and elegant jewellery storage pouch. 

Purple, silver and blue bracelet

$18.00 per child. For 10 children or more, only $16.00 per child.

 

Rainbow Loom Fishtail Bracelet

How to Make a Rainbow Loom Fishtail Bracelet

The rainbow loom is one of the most poplular gifts for the holiday season this year.  Boy and girls of all ages, as well as adults are loving this fun and crafty toy.  We found a great tutorial that shows how to make the fishtail bracelet, a perfect design for rainbow loom beginners.

You will need the rainbow loom kit which includes a rainbow loom, hook, c clips, and rainbow loom rubber bands.

Pick two colours for your bracelet.

Take your first rubber band, stretch it out into an 8 shape, and put it on the first two pegs of your loom.

Take your next two elastics and put them on top.

Then take your hook and pull the bottom band to the top on both sides.  Then take your next rubber band and put it on top.  Keep pulling the bottom band up and then putting a new band on top until you have reached the desired length of bracelet.

Take the bracelet off of the loom, take out the last elastic and attach the c clip (see video).

And your bracelet is done!

Enjoy your new bracelet and happy holidays.

Make Party Planning Easier with Social Media

Thanks to social media, party planning has become much easier! From intimate, living room gatherings to large-scale celebrations, there's more available than Facebook events (although we still recommend them) to take your party planning online.

Twitter - Twitter's a great resource to find vendors such as venue, entertainment, catering, etc. Looking for something specific? Send out a tweet and there's sure to be someone in your network who can help you find it.  Need to know if the hotel you're booked at for your wedding offers free breakfast? Use Twitter to ask them directly. Twitter is also a great way to get news of your event out. Use it in conjunction with other social media channels to drum up pre-event excitement by using a specific hashtag such as #janstagette. Because anyone can see your posts, remember to use Twitter to chat about the event only and keep the specifics (like address) for the official invitation.

Google+ Events - Google + recently rolled out their Events in June 2012. Offering an attractive, easy-to-use interface, Google+ Events allows you to choose the look of the event, add any information (YouTube URL, ticket seller URL, etc.) and upload photos before, during and after. Once a guest accepts the invite, it goes directly into their Google calendar so it won't be missed!

Pinterest - This addictive online vision board network can be used for much more than sharing those must-have shoes. Use it to create a board of your daughter's "favourite" things and share it with guests who are looking for gift-giving ideas. Or create a board after the event to showcase the gifts you received from your wedding or beautiful decor.

Caroline Pigott is the owner of Flourish, a boutique marketing & social media firm dedicated to helping other women entrepreneurs flourish through such services as social media management, SEO web content, press release writing & distribution and consulting.

For more information, visit www.youwillflourish.com.

www.facebook.com/flourishmarketing
www.twitter.com/flourishtweets

Amber teething necklaces for babies

We at Beading Buds just love jewelry, and are always looking for the latest trends. Nancy Ripton, from www.justthefactsbaby.com, is sharing with us a trend she came across, amber teething necklaces.
Nancy says, we were recently at a mommy event and we saw a mom and her little baby wearing beautiful matching necklaces. We commented on them and were told that it was an amber teething necklace. We were instantly intrigued and decided to do some research. Amber, a fossilized sap from prehistoric trees that grew as far back as almost fifty million years ago. It is always warm to the touch and has been used for centuries for its healing properties. It produces negative ions, eases pain and activates the healing process. This mommy wearing the necklace was from Europe where babies have been wearing these necklaces for generations.
If you are as intrigued as we are and would like to see how to make one yourself, check out this link http://www.ehow.com/how_2099756_make-amber-teething-necklace.html
For more great baby facts, check out Nancy's blog at www.justthefactsbaby.com/blog/

Beading programs and the Canadian children's arts tax credit

We are all so excited about the new Children's Art Tax Credit that the government has recently unveiled. Since we teach lunchtime programs and afterschool programs at many schools in Oakville, Mississauga, Toronto and all over the Greater Toronto Area, we are so happy that the parents of our little beaders will now be able to claim a portion of what they pay for these programs when filing their taxes.

http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/nwsrm/txtps/2012/tt120326-eng.html

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.