Jewelry Theme Birthday Ideas

We are often asked by mothers what theme should we do for my daughter's party.  If the birthday girl is 8 or older, we always suggest that she go with the theme of "beading party".  We suggest that the children paint wooden jewelry boxes or make candy kabobs and the mothers often hand out candy jewelry.  The painted jewelry boxes or candy kabobs make a great take home gift and are a great alternative to the traditional loot bag.  We also suggest that the mother make a jewelry box birthday cake or cupcakes with real rings or ringpops placed on top as a decoration.
 
For the younger children, where it is all about THE THEME, we suggest a "Fancy Nancy" party, a "Sophia the first" party or a tea party using one of the above themes.  Both these themes are perfect for 5-7 year old girls.

Fancy china for a Sophia the first tea party.

We are doing a "Sophia the first" beading party for my 6 year old daughter's birthday this fall.  We are going to decorate everything in purple, hunt down vintage china from thrift stores for the girls to use, hand out fancy headbands and feather boas, serve fancy treats and make fancy jewelry that Sophia would love to wear. 

A necklace perfect for a Fancy Nancy
or Sophia the first party.

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.

Beautiful Maruti Beads from India

Maruti Beads

Recently through the “beading grapevine” we heard about Maruti Beads, an online bead store owned by Maruti International (India) that sells high quality hand crafted Maruti, Kashmiri and Lac beads.

What are Maruti, Kashmiri and Lac beads?  We were wondering the same thing, all that we knew was that we had never seen anything like it, each bead that we saw was an exquisite piece of art decorated with embellishments such as mirror chips, seed beads, silver plating and rhinestone.

We asked Maruti Intl to provide us with some more information about these unique beads and they were kind enough to not only provide us with the info, they also sent us a few of their beautiful beads so we could see for ourselves what all the fuss was about.   They sent us samples of their Kasmiri beads, Maruti beads and Lac beads.

Maruti Intl told us that each individual bead is handmade on their premises in an artisan’s studio by a select team of master craftsmen, who learned the skill by generations before them.   When we asked them to tell us a bit more about each type of bead, this is what they told us.

Pandora style Kashmiri Beads

Kashmiri beads are made from a mix of marble powder and manufactured resin. Also known as “Bollywood” beads, Kashmiri beads are hand decorated and use a variety of materials for embellishment.  I almost want to say that these beads remind me of the Pandora style beads but the holes are smaller and they are much more detailed.

Maruti Beads artistically blends the beauty of Kashmiri beads with silver plated side caps to culminate in a one of a kind creation exclusive to Maruti International.  

Lac beads are a time-honored Indian bead, handmade in a traditional manner passed down through generations by expert artisans.  Lac is a substance secreted by a tiny insect called Kerria lacca.  Lac beads are made from a mixture of Lac and marble powder, ornamented with silver plating, seed beads and rhinestones: detailed with metal elements, mirror chips and various embellishments.

After spending a couple of days wondering what I should make with these beautiful beads, I decided to make a bracelet so I could highlight all of their detailing.

Our bracelet made using beads from Maruti International

Maruti Beads is giving away $60 of their Kashmiri, Maruti and Lac beads mix (www.marutibeads.com/bead-mixes/maruti-kashmiri-lac-bead-mixes) every month to a lucky winner of their social media share/follow contest (www.marutibeads.com/blog). 

I know I’m going to enter this month!

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.