Last weekend we did such an amazing 10th birthday party in Markham, Ontario.

This mom and the birthday girl choose a mermaid theme.  The decorations were amazing.  From the netting on the table, to the themed decorations everything looked incredible.  The birthday girl did the friendship bracelet package.  We brought lots of turquoise and blue mermaid themed coloured beads, as well as all of the colours that we usually bring.  Some of the guests choose shell and starfish themed charms, while others choose our very popular best friend charms.

It was such a fun afternoon that our instructor said she forgot that she was working, and felt as if she was one of the guests at the party, which is always the ultimate sign of an amazing party!

Thank you for having us at your party, we had the best time.

In ten years of providing jewelry making birthday parties, we have been to many dance themed birthday parties.  This is no surprise since many of our little beaders dance and often invite their whole dance group to their birthday parties.

When doing a dance themed party the first thing you do is design your invitation.  There are so many beautiful dance invitations, but the tulle invitations are our favourite, and here is a video showing you how to make it.

The decor for a dance and/or ballet themed party is so beautiful.  Lots of pink tulle, gold sparkles, and ballet dancer cutouts.  You can make pink tulle table skirts and chair covers to make the party even more magical.

Food at a dance and/or ballet themed party is all pink and cream with gold accents.  Pink cupcakes with gold sprinkles, pink macaroons, parfaits, white bread with pink cream cheese, and pink lemonade.

Activities for your dance themed party can include musical chairs, hot potato, or freeze dance to ballet music, making bracelets using pinks and creams with a dance charm.  Decorating your down dance bag, or the girls can create their own dance and preform it at the end of the party.

We hope we inspired you with our dance party ideas.  Comment with any ideas of your own.  Have a great party!

We are often invited to attend at residences for seniors in the Toronto area to help them make beautiful jewelry. We love these workshops and always leave with a smile on our face knowing that we have brightened somebody's day, made new friends and the residents are so proud of their creations!

Jewelry making is an amazing tool to help with fine motor skills for seniors, but many seniors do have limitations and so we have come up with a few tips to make beading easier and more fun. More information on developmental benefits of beading with seniors.

Tips for beading with seniors:

1)  Bring a sample of what they are making.  Seniors are very visual, and it is easier for them to pick their colours and style of beads once they see a completed version of what they will be creating.

2.  Use beads with large holes.  Some seniors may struggle with their eye sight and eye and hand coordination and beads with large holes make things easier.

3.  Use brightly coloured beads.  Seniors love beads with bold and bright colours, they are also easier for them to see, so therefore easier for them to pattern and design with.

4.  Use a string that is easy for them to use.  Our favourite string is tiger tail, because it is stiff, it is easy for them to string beads onto.

5.  Use a clasp on their project that they can open and close themselves.  The first time we ever did a workshop with seniors we used lobster clasps.  At our next session the seniors told us they were not able to wear what they made because they could not put it on, of course we switched all the clasps to toggle claps and to this day, that is the only clasp that we use with seniors.

Click here for more information on our workshops with seniors.

As the mom of two girls, we have beaded together from the time they were 2 years old.  My girls loved to sit on the floor of my beading room stringing all the pretty beads while I prepared for parties and school workshops.  Now that they are both in school, teachers often comment on their highly advanced fine motor skills, and how neat their writing is.  I am convinced that this is because of all of the fine motor benefits of beading with toddlers.

For toddlers and preschoolers, picking up beads as well as threading the beads onto the string helps with their grasping.  Various sizes of beads promote different grasps. Larger beads often promote the "3-jaw chuck" grasp, similar to holding a large pencil or marker.  This helps with the child's pencil grip when they start school, and helps them to write neater and for a longer period of time.  It also helps them to dress themselves and to use buttons which is so important for when they start school. 

Smaller beads encourage children to use their pincer grasp, thus strengthening the small muscles of their hands.  It also helps with in-hand manipulation skills.  Many components of making a beaded craft increase strength and coordination in the small hand and finger muscles. For example, picking a bead up from the beading tray, and then manipulating it in one's hand until it is pinched between your thumb and finger, involves translation, shift and rotation movements of the bead within the hand.