This past weekend we had the honor of being a part of this beautiful First Communion celebration in Vaughan, Ontario.

The mom organized such a beautiful event.  The main colours were blush, pink and gold.  From the cotton candy booth, to the stunning unicorn themed cakepops, cake and party decor, to the activities for the children, every last detail was thought of.  The guest of honor loves to craft, and so the mom incorporated our First Communion Rosary Bracelet Package into the event.  We were so happy when she wanted to put on her bracelet right away and was proudly showing all the other guests.  The children each made a rosary bracelet which then became their party favour.  We also brought a special cross colouring page which the children absolutely loved.

We truly enjoyed every moment of this incredible event, and the mother was such a pleasure to deal with, her organization, attention to detail and kindness made this an event we will never forget.

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!

Lately we have noticed a growing trend in Toronto Girl's Hockey Teams booking jewelry making workshops for their team.  We have provided our services at hockey team holiday parties, beginning of the season icebreakers, and at the end of the hockey season parties. 

We love this idea and ordered hockey charms to go with this theme.  These charms have become our most popular birthday party charms.

Some teams ask us to only bring the team colours, other teams ask for lots of colours, but all the teams request the hockey charm.

To book a jewelry making party for your hockey team, you can contact us for more information.

Last spring, after receiving so many requests for sparkly beads, we decided to create our sparkliest package yet and we are so excited to announce that this package, our fancy bracelet package, is a huge hit!  We are very proud to say that our little beaders are loving it and it has become our most requested package.

One of our favourite parts of doing what we do is seeing the expressions of absolute delight when the guests at our parties see what they are making, and see all the beads and charms that they get to work with. 

Our little beaders (and their moms!) love the wide selection of charms, such as unicorn, fairy, ballet, hearts, snowflakes and even sport themed charms.  We made this package with a girl's hockey theme and they were so excited to have beautiful sparkly bracelet with a cool hockey charm.

Our biggest reward is seeing the joy that our service brings.  If you or your little crafter have a party theme in mind, let us know and we can order charms in to match your party theme.

Thank you to all of our wonderful customers for allowing us to keep doing what we do.

When we book our birthday parties, moms often ask us for tips for planning their jewelry making birthday party.  One of our favourite suggestions is for the mom to make a jewelry box birthday cake.  Here is the perfect jewelry box cake recipe.

Ingredients

Lid:

• 8 whole graham crackers (2 squares each)
• 10 oz. white baking chocolate

Jewelry Box Cake:

• 2 box poundcake mix (preferably Betty Crocker)
• 2 can strawberry frosting
• 1 can Vanilla Frosting

Compartments & Drawer:

• 4 whole graham crackers
• 9 creme-filled sugar wafer cookies
• 1 white gumball

Jewelry:

• Assorted edible jewelry such as rings, necklaces, bracelets, and gumballs
• You also need: 1 icing bag with a small star tip and a writing tip

1. Make Lid: On a large foil-lined baking sheet arrange 4 whole graham crackers, flat sides down and long sides touching. Next to them, add 1 more row, narrow ends touching, to make a rectangle about 10 x 8 3⁄4 in. Melt white chocolate as package directs. Evenly spread over crackers to cover. (If some seeps between crackers, that's OK.) Let chocolate dry overnight.
2. Make Jewelry Box Cake: Heat oven to 325ºF. Coat a 13 x 9 x 2-in. baking pan with nonstick spray. Line bottom with wax paper; spray paper. Prepare 1 box cake mix as package directs. Spread batter evenly in prepared pan. Bake 25 minutes, or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack 10 minutes before inverting on rack to cool completely. Repeat with other box of cake mix. Wrap and refrigerate.
3. To assemble: Carefully invert Lid so chocolate is underneath. Spread top with 2⁄3 cup strawberry frosting.
4. Cut a 2-in. strip from one short end of each cake. Cut a 1-in. piece crosswise off 1 strip. Set aside uncut strip and 1-in. piece for drawer (you won't need rest of cut strip).
5. Put 1 cake layer, right side up, on a flat 14 x 12-in. or larger serving surface, leaving at least 2 1⁄2 in. from front edge of serving surface for the drawer. Spread top of cake with 2⁄3 cup strawberry frosting; top with other cake, right side up. Frost top with 2⁄3 cup vanilla frosting.
6. Make Compartments: Using a sawing motion with a serrated knife, carefully cut remaining 4 crackers in half lengthwise. Frost 1 side using 2 Tbsp vanilla frosting. Put frosted sides, facing in, into frosting around top edge of cake. Set wafer cookies, long edge down, into frosting to make compartments.
7. Reserve 1⁄4 cup vanilla frosting. Place remaining vanilla frosting in pastry bag fitted with writing tip. With shorter edge of frosted lid facing you, pipe name and butterflies on top 3⁄4 of lid (when attached to box, bottom of lid won't be seen).
8. Frost sides of cake with 1 1⁄3 cup strawberry frosting. Carefully lift lid and attach to back of cake, gently pressing to adhere to frosting on cake. Stack filled food cans against back of lid to hold it in place until frosting sets.
9. Make Drawer: Press reserved cake strip A (click here for diagram ) and 1-in. piece B onto front of cake. Frost top and sides with reserved 1⁄4 cup vanilla frosting. Place remaining halved crackers, frosted sides in, around drawer. Coat with strawberry frosting. Press gumball knob in center.
10. Pipe butterflies on sides of cake. Change piping tip to star tip. Pipe stars around lid, top of box and drawer. Let set at least 4 to 6 hours. Remove cans.
11. Fill with edible jewelry.
12. To make rings & earrings: Use frosting to glue assorted rock candy or gumballs to gummy or regular Lifesavers candies.

We found the recipe here, for great cake ideas check out http://www.womansday.com.

We are in the midst of planning my six year old daughter's birthday party.  Since I am in the children's birthday party entertainment industry, I always feel that we need to come up with something unique and original as well as incorporate some beading fun for all of my daughter's friends.  This year I am also in charge of planning a shower for a very special sister, so I thought why not have a Breakfast at Tiffanys themed birthday shower and bridal shower on two separate mornings but using all the same ideas.

The main reason I love the idea of Breakfast at Tiffanys as a party theme is because it can be done earlier in the day when everyone is rested and full of energy, and you can serve brunch foods which are so much fun and a nice change from the pizza served at most parties.

Party Decor
This is such an easy party to decorate for.  Use the Tiffany blue colour as your main colour scheme.  Tie balloons to the backs of all of the chairs to make them look like pearls and beads.   Decorate with strands of pearls.  Make signs using the guests of honour's name, such as "Chloe & Co.".  Place white bows on the backs of chairs.  For more decor ideas, visit our pinterest page.

Menu
This party theme is perfect for a brunch menu.  A fun idea that both kids are adults are sure to love is a DIY crepe station.  For the perfect crepe station check out this post.  For any cakes, cupcakes or desserts use the Tiffany blue colour and decorate with candy pearl edible beads.  To drink, serve mimosas for the adults, and sparking orange juice for the children.

Dress Code
Both children and adults love to dress up.  Ask guests to wear their favourite little back dress and pearls.  If you are making loot bags and party favours, include a strand of glass pearls, sunglasses or gloves to go with the theme of the event.

Event Entertainment
Since pearls are synonymous with this theme, guests can make their own glass pearl necklaces, check out our amazing diy glass pearl necklace kits.

For more awesome party ideas, check out our pinterest page!  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.

We at Beading Buds love this time of year.  We love all the festivities, spending time with friends and family.  Over the past few weeks we have visited schools all over the greater Toronto area and made hundreds of these glass bead wrap bracelets (which can also be worn as necklaces).  The students had the opportunity to make a gift of love for someone special.  We were so impressed with how beautiful the bracelets are and are so excited to hear how much the recipients love their new jewelry.

One of our most popular beaded projects that we teach is our "three wishes" bracelet.  We have made this bracelet with kindergarten classes, Sparks (Girl Guides of Canada) and church  groups as a Mother's Day Workshop.  We have also made this bracelet at many of our school workshops.  This holiday season, we have been making this bracelet at all of our holiday parties, this bracelet is perfect for boys and girls, moms and dads (even though dads prefer it without a heart charm).

We love the idea behind this bracelet, the idea that the wearer has three wishes when they receive this bracelet.  We also love the simplicity of it, and how easily it can be stacked with other bracelets to have an arm party.

Materials Needed:
48-52 - 4mm glass beads
3 - 3mm silver beads
1 - lobster clasp
1 j- ump ring
1 - heart charm
2 - 2 mm crimp beads
1 - piece of tigertail the length of your
      wrist and then add one inch.
1 - flat nosed pliers.

Directions:
Using the flat nosed pliers and the first crimp bead, attach the lobster clasp to one side of the tigertail . 

String the heart charm, and then string half of your beads onto the tigertail.  String the three silver beads, these beads are the three wishes. 

String the remainder of your beads onto the tigertail.  Using the flat nosed pliers and remaining crimp bead attach the other side of the tiger tail to the jump ring.

Enjoy your beautiful new three wishes bracelet!