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!

We recently did a bollywood themed beading birthday party where the girls made tikka headpieces.  It was such a fun party and it really goes perfectly with the theme of beading.  The party was such a hit, that we are adding this theme to our beading party packages.

Here are some tips and tricks to help you throw your own amazing bollywood beading birthday party.

A cake for a bollywood birthday party should be very colourful with lots of bold colours. 

If possible use edible beads.  The goes well with the theme of beading and the theme of bollywood.  Use lots of gold and silver to make the cake look magical.

Every party needs a few themed crafts to keep the guests busy.  A simple and fun idea with big impact is to use sticker gem beads to decorate around the girls eyes.  Purchase some henna tattoos and have the girls apply the tattoos to each other while you are doing the face stickers.  Finally, another fun use of stickers gems is to buy flip flops for each guest and have them decorate them with the sticker gems.  This also becomes a fun take home loot bag. 

Another craft that we love is to have the girls create a Tikka.  We will soon be offering kits and packages on making your own Tikka, but in the meantime, check out this link for making a diy tikka headpiece click here.

Now that the girls are all blinged out with their eye jewels, henna tattoos, new slippers and tikka headpieces, it is time for the girls to do something active. 

Purchase some glass bangles for each child.  This can also become part of their take home loot bag.  Put on a bollywood music video and let the girls have some fun dancing along.

For  more ideas and bollywood themed birthday party inspiration, check out our pinterest page click here.  We hope you enjoyed this blog post about bollywood birthday parties.  If you have any suggestions of your own, we would love to know about them in the comments below.

My 6 soon to be 7 year old daughter has been asking for a slumber party for her 7th birthday.

I don't think that her friends (and their moms) would be ready for that yet, and I don't think I am ready to have 15 7 year olds sleeping at over at our house. 

So I decided this year to throw her a mock slumber birthday party so she can have still have some slumber party fun.

My daughter is really into American Girl and Baby Alive dolls, so to go with the theme of the party, we are asking each guest to arrive in their fanciest pajamas and to bring their favourite doll.

After the guests arrive, our first activity is going to be beading of course.  Each girl is going to make matching necklaces for herself and her doll.  We are going to do our Beading Buds package I.

After that we are going to make and eat our own pizzas.  For some additional fun activity ideas check out our pinterest board here. 

Next we are going to have some slumber party fun.  We are going to make facemasks, paint nails, give the girls and their dolls makeovers using make-up and give the girls all the best hairsyles that we can dream up.   We will also play some sleepover party games.  For ideas click here.

Finally we are going to end off the party with a movie.  Since we are having this party in November, it should be dark early enough for the girls to feel like it is a real slumber party.

I am so excited to start putting all the pieces of this party together.  We will keep you posted to see how it went!  Visit our pinterest board for more mock slumber birthday party fun.

This time of year winter themed birthday parties are so popular.  We love how pretty and magical this theme can be, with sparkly silver and blue decor, cakes and winter themed activities. 

We have snow princess beading party package that is ideal for a winter wonderland party, a Frozen party, or any other winter themed party.

Here are some ideas to  help you make your winter themed party amazing.

For inexpensive but big impact, gather up branches and spray paint them silver, then add some glue and silver glitter.  These branches can be placed all over to give the room a magical feel.

Another fun idea is to make your own paper snowflakes and hang them from the ceiling.

Blow up silver and baby blue balloons, cover the top of the balloon in glue and add glitter, and then hang from the ceiling.

Finally, use silver holiday decorations to help with the magical feel.

There are so many fun desserts that you can have at you party that help to tie in the theme of beading with the frozen winter wonderland theme.  Macaroons look like beads and they can be frosted in silver and blue.  You can have blue cupcakes with little beads on them, and you can take marshmallows and dip them in blue jello powder and cellophane wrap them.  The marshmallow looks like a bead, and is a great lootbag idea that is inexpensive, simple and perfectly themed.

Our snow princess kits are the perfect addition to any  frozen winter wonderland theme party.  The kits come packaged individually for each child with a variety of blue and white glass pearls and a stunning heart clasp starting at $6 per child.  The activity takes the girls about 30 minutes to complete is the perfect lootbag.  For more information, click here.

Happy party planning!

Jewel Sparkles, one of the main characters from Lalaloopsy, is named after her infatuation with the most sparkly jewels she can dazzle herself with, and that is why beading is the perfect activity to have at your Lalaloopsy party.  With all the bight colours and quirky options, this is such a fun theme.

When planning your Lalaloopsy birthday party, buttons are a fun detail to incorporate to tie everything together.  You can make your own paper buttons and attach to straws, you can add fondant buttons to candy apples (click here) or cupcakes, you can make button cookies (click here) and you can draw button holes onto paper plates to turn them into giant buttons.

Jewelry making is a fun craft activity that keeps the children entertained while they make their own lootbag, for more information on our jewelry party kits, click here.  Another fun lootbag idea is to buy Lalaloopsy cups and fill them with treats and other goodies, you can then cellophane wrap them to have a simple but beautiful lootbag.

There are so many fun cakes and cupcakes that you can do for this theme. 

For more DIY Lalaloopsy birthday party ideas, click here to visit our pinterest page.

We hope you have a great Jewel Sparkles Lalaloopsy Beading Birthday Party.

We recently did a photoshoot with Babywisp to help promote some of the new packages that we are offering. 

On a beautiful summer day we invited a few girls that love crafts and jewellery making, and we spent a lovely afternoon making jewellery. 

The girls did such a wonderful job and their necklaces were absolutely gorgeous.

One of our little beaders brought her American Girl doll to the photoshoot and decided to make matching Frozen Elsa necklaces for herself and for her doll.   We love how she and her doll are wearing matching Babywisp hairclips.

In the past we have done so many American Girl Beading Buds birthday parties where all the girls made matching necklaces with their dolls, and we are always so happy to offer this service.

Another one of our little beaders loves mermaids and so she made a mermaid themed pearl necklace using purple and teal glass pearls. 

She wanted to wear the necklace right away, and has requested that we come to her birthday party to do our Mermaid Princess Package.  She also loved her beautiful Babywisp aquamarine hairbow and has been wearing it ever since.

We had such a wonderful time with our little models, and we hope that they enjoy their new necklaces.

One of the best parts of having a Beading Buds birthday party is that the jewelry made becomes the lootbag, but sometimes moms like to buy something extra for the girls to take home from the party.  Baby Wisp offers great discounts on bulk purchases so you can fill up lootbags with quality products at a reasonable price! Are you one of those moms who don't want to give out plasticky junk or unhealthy candies? Here's a great alternative!! Baby Wisp now offers bulk discounts on products specifically for lootbag goodies! You can get unique lootbag items for a child's birthday party to give out at your little girl's party that won't get thrown out as soon as you give it out.   To see their newest products click here. 

 There are many advantages to having an at home birthday party, and with our fabulous instructors running the party, we make the party even easier!

1)      Child More Comfortable - Younger children or children that are more on the shy side feel much more comfortable having a party at home in familiar surroundings.

2)      Time Restraints - Most party places allocate a certain amount of time for your party and you have to be packed up and out of the party place at a certain time, when you have a party at home, you are on your own schedule which alleviates stress.

3)      Party Decor - You have more control over the party decor, if you are doing a theme party (such as a jewelry making party) you can transform your house to go with the theme of your party.  If the weather is nice, you can host a magical birthday party in your backyard or garden.

4)      Privacy – At many birthday party places, they have several parties going on at the same time, when you have the party at home you ensure that all the guests have a chance to meet and spend time together in the your home. 

5)      No Maximum – Many party places do not allow parents to stay, when the party is at your home, the adults can enjoy the party as well as the kids, this is a great way for you to meet and spend time with your child’s friend’s parents (and the parents can help out at the party, which makes it easier for you!)

Our fabulous instructors make any in home party special.  But we also offer DIY jewelry making birthday party kits, perfect for an in home party or in your backyard.  We also offer virtual birthday parties for anywhere in the world.  Contact us for more information.