DIY Christmas Gift - Girls Bracelets

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving day! Ours was pretty nice, very calm and quiet. I even took some time over the weekend to put up our Christmas tree. I love how it looks now. Well, overall I just love Christmas. So talking about it has everyone started with the Christmas gifts? If not here comes a wonderful option that Megan from One plus one equals Six was nice enough to share with us. It's an awesome idea for handmade gifts for girls. It's actually a great way to include your children in the activity.

Here is Megan's story of how she and her girls created these pretty necklaces and bracelets:

"Hi I'm Megan, visiting from One Plus One Equals Six and I'm very excited to be here at Estylo Jewelry sharing one of my projects with you. I am a mother to four loud and lovable children, who enjoys cooking, crafting and who is also trying to create DIY decor for our brand new house. With Christmas only weeks away here is a quick jewellery project that the children can help you with and it would be perfect for the gift-giving season.

Over the weekend I was going through a couple of boxes when I located a few of last year's Christmas presents. I started packing up some for our stuff from the rental two days after Christmas so it was easy to choose the gifts that would travel easily, especially as we were leaving our rental in early March. So while I was going through one of the boxes I found a few small presents the girls had been given and I thought that it would be good to swap these over for some of their old and tired toys.

In one of the boxes I found a beading kit that Uncle Nathan and Aunty Renee had given Mackenna so I hid it away so that the girls and I could work on it during the week while Mackenna was at home and not at Kindy. So that is how I managed to do my first ever craft project with both my girls today. Just after lunch I sat down with both the girls and I showed them what I had for them to do.

I was greeted with smiles, happiness and loud voices. There were ten little bags of various wooden beads and three lengths of pink elastics, so I promised the girls a necklace each and a bracelet. As the girls are only eighteen months apart they have to do everything the same, this means they eat at the same time, they each the same food, they have the same coloured plastic plates and they generally want what the other has even when we only have one of them. Mackenna will regularly tell strangers that they are 'twins' and people generally believe them.

So I spilt the beads up evenly so each girl had the same number and coloured beads. I asked each of them to choose a few larger beads and we made these beads the feature of the necklace and bracelet. I had to help both of the girls thread the beads on as the activity was aimed at older children. The other thing I had to do was to stick a large needle into each hole so that the girls could thread the elastic through the beads to create their necklaces and bracelets.

I held the bead while the girl's threaded them.

Viveca's pushing the elastic into the bead.

Mackenna having a turn.

I didn't fill the elastic with a whole heap of beads because I wanted to save some of the beads for the bracelet. I threaded the remaining beads onto the elastic, I then measured what size each bracelet needed to be and I knotted them so that they wouldn't fall off their arm. The girls are very happy with their handy work and now they are running around showing off their special jewellery.

This is what the finished pieces look like and I'm glad we did this together because it meant that each of them got some one on one time with mummy and they even got to make their own special necklace and bracelet.

Mackenna's Necklace.

Mackenna's Butterfly Bracelet.

Viveca's Strawberry Necklace.

Viveca's Lady Beetle Bracelet

Viveca likes her pieces so much that she wore them to bed and Mackenna has put hers in a plastic bag so that they don't break. Maybe mummy might be able to make herself something pretty one day."

Thank you so much Megan for sharing this wonderful gift idea! And how great that the kids can participate on this. I'm sure that any little girl (and some not that little) would love them as gifts. Please remember to visit Megan's blog to see more awesome DIY projects, recipe ideas, etc.

Hope you enjoyed it and till next week!

Sandra.

**Important: The original post and all images are property of Megan from One plus one equals Six. To see original post go here**

Real Wedding - Blue and Silver

I love getting pictures of the weddings where I was involved with the jewelry. It's always so nice to see all happy people, having fun, beautiful settings and overall the beautiful brides. So I got a lot of pictures from this  gorgeous bride from Maryland who ordered the bracelets for her bridesmaids. I spent at least an hour enjoying all the pictures and looking at the beautiful setting of the wedding. Her theme color was blue with silver accessories and white flowers. Very romantic and perfect for a summer wedding. Here are a few pictures.

I just really love to see so much happiness. This bride and her bridesmaids just looked so gorgeous!

A couple of close ups to the bracelets:

White Pearl Bridesmaid bracelet here

Suggested matching earrings:

Bridesmaid Pearl Earrings here

Pearl cluster Earrings here also available in white

Simple Pearl studs here

If you want to see more blue wedding ideas make sure to checkout our board on Pinterest! Hope you enjoyed the pictures as much as I did! Please note that for privacy purposes the name of the bride is not being disclosed. All pictures unless specifically specified are property of the bride and can't be copied or duplicated.

Hope you all liked the pictures!

Sandra.

DIY Christmas Gift - Friendship Bracelet Tutorial

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Hope you have a wonderful day with your family and/or friends! We have been waiting for this day for a while now. Even though we don't celebrate this holiday in my country, now that we live in the US we have adopted their traditions and really enjoy them.

So if you have some time today, after having the yummy Turkey dinner, make yourself cozy and start making some awesome Friendship Bracelets to give to your friends this Christmas. Just follow this step by step tutorial provided by Isobel from SeriMarea. She describes it just so easy and she has some other wonderful bracelets in her shop. So if you don't have the time to make them yourself head over to her shop and grab some before it's too late!

Ok, here is her amazing tutorial, have fun!

1.       To make this Christmas friendship bracelet, you’ll need embroidery thread in dark red, dark green and metallic silver. Cut four strands of read, four strands of green, and two strands of silver. Each strand should be roughly 25 to 30 inches long (63 to 76 cm).

2.       Lay out your threads in this order: red, red, silver, green, green, red, red, silver, green, green. Now secure them. You can knot all the threads together and pin them to a secure surface, you can use a bulldog clip to hold them firm, or you can do what I did here- duct tape the ends of the threads flat behind a piece of cardboard.

3.       Now we will make the first knot. The thread on the far left will be wrapping around the thread next to it (the inactive thread), and moving over to the right. Start by taking the far left thread, and bringing it over the second thread.

4.       Now that you’ve brought the thread over, bring it back under the inactive thread, and up through the loop that you’ve just created.

5.       Pull the until it tightens into a knot, making sure that you keep the inactive thread pulled taut and straight. Don’t make the knot too tight, just make sure it’s secure. You’re halfway through the first knot!

6.       To complete the knot you have to repeat, so pull the same thread back over the inactive thread.

7.       Then bring it back under the inactive thread. Remember to keep the inactive thread nice and taut!

8.       Now pull it up through the loop.

9.       And pull tight- again, not too tight- be firm, but don’t tug on the thread.

10.   Now bring in the next thread along. This one will be silver if you followed my original layout.

11.   Using the same red thread that you just made a knot with, make a second knot around the silver thread. Follow exactly the same steps, and remember that you need both halves of the knot in order for it to work.

12.   Bring the next thread in. This one will be green. Using the same red thread, make a third knot. If your knots are making a straight line, which they probably will, use your fingertip just to nudge them up and down until you have a diagonal line.

13.   Use exactly the same knotting method to knot around the next green thread. Remember to make sure that your knots are all doubled- wrapping the thread around only once won’t work!

14.   Continue using the same thread to knot all the way across the row, until all the threads are incorporated. Neaten it into a straight diagonal line.

15.   Now start on the second row. Take the thread from the far left, and knot it around the silver thread beside it, using exactly the same knotting method as on the first row.

16.   Keep working across the row in the same way as the one before, knotting the red thread around each inactive thread. You will probably find that your knots go horizontal again- just keep nudging them into a diagonal line!

17.   Complete the entire row.

18.   Repeat with the next row, starting with the thread on the far left, which will be silver. Again, remember both halves of the knot, and keep pushing your knots back into a nice neat line.

19.   Now move onto the next row, which will be green. Knot your way across all the threads from left to right. Hopefully by now your knots will automatically form a diagonal line, but you may still want to neaten them a little.

20.   Continue with the next row. You can see the shape of the bracelet starting to form.

21.   Keep knotting, starting each new row with the thread from the far left.

22.   All you have to do is keep following this pattern until eventually your bracelet is long enough!

23.   Now braid off the ends to secure the bracelet. Use the braids to tie it onto your wrist, and your Christmas friendship bracelet is all finished and ready to wear!

Thank you so much Isobel for sharing this wonderful instructions! I'm sure a lot of the readers will enjoy making some bracelets for themselves or for gifts in this Holiday season. I'm for sure going to try making one myself!

A little about Isobel in her own words:
"Based in Dublin, Ireland, I'm a 20yr-old student with a huge love of jewellery! I've been making friendship bracelets and other pretty things for years, but it's only recently that I decided to sell them- and so I started Seri Marea Jewellery! The main focus is friendship bracelets, especially personalised bracelets- I love making something that's completely unique, and exactly what the customer wanted! I also love embellishing and decorating friendship bracelets to make something that has all the appeal of a simple knotted thread bracelet, but also has a little extra edge! I add charms, rhinestones, studs, pieces of mirror, vintage jewellery findings, and (my personal favourite), tiny seed beads to bracelets. Ultimately, what Seri Marea Jewellery is about is beautiful, creative pieces, carefully and lovingly made!"

For the ones who don't have enough time to make them here are a few pictures from the personalized bracelets you can get from her shop:

See you next week and I hope you enjoyed this wonderful DIY Christmas Tutorial!

Sandra.

**Please note that this tutorial and all pictures provided are property of Isobel from SeriMarea and should not be copied or used without her permission. **

What Color is Your Wedding: Purple Inspiration

For this “What Color is Your Wedding“ we have a sophisticated color, perfect for this fall season: Purple! This color is one of my favorites; it’s the combination of red and blue.  Purple provides the stability of blue and the energy of red, so it’s a good balance for your wedding day, don’t you think?

If you are planning a purple wedding, here are some inspiration pictures of this romantic wedding color.

You can see more pictures in our Pinterest board.

Wedding Dress

Purple swarovski earrings by Estylo Jewelry

Groom

Estylo Jewelry Bridesmaids Swarovski Briolette Necklace

 Bridesmaid Dresses, Purple Dress

Purple wedding shoes

Flowers purple cake, Cupcakes, Hydrangea cupcakes, Purple ruffle cake

Estylo Jewelry wedding set

Bouquet of blooms, Purple bouquet

With love tags, Wedding soap favors

Wedding table, Tall lighted vase, Lovely lilacs, Wedding chair bow

Purple wedding invitation

Great ideas, I hope you liked them!

Have a nice week!

Selene