KAYA Personalised & Hand Engraved Jewellery

Posted on October 10, 2017 by Fiona Martin

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KAYA jewellery is personalised and hand engraved in London to produce pieces that mean something between family or friends. There are also lots of pieces for generations to share such as matching mother daughter jewellery such as bracelets and pendants. Personalised jewellery for mums can hold a special birth month coloured gem of their child or names or initials. With such a wide variety of items available there really is something special for everyone and they’d make particularly lovely gifts.

I chose the Silver Infinity Mum Bracelet to try out which comes with discs attached to the infinity sign, each engraved with your children’s initials. Having two children, I have two discs to represent them. I think this is a really lovely idea and is a piece I can wear everyday. It came presented in a pretty box along with a cleaning cloth and is a generous size for my wrist.

I really like the bracelet and is something I can wear anytime. Also every time I look down at it I have a reminder of my children by seeing their initials which I think is a lovely touch to have on a piece of jewellery. KAYA offers some really unusual and different pieces of personalised jewellery that you don’t see elsewhere such as the three generation sets and the mum rings are a particular favourite of mine with pretty gemstones in to reflect your children’s birth months.

With such a lot of pretty personalised jewellery available you are sure to find your favourite so I am pleased to be able to offer one lucky winner a £40 voucher to spend on jewellery at KAYA – any piece of their choice!

Just fill in the Gleam form below:

£40 KAYA jewellery voucher

All reviews are my own and my family’s opinions and we received the product in order to write an honest review.

Bead-Kids Bracelet Kits – Review

Posted on April 30, 2016 by Fiona Martin

Bead-Kids offer bead making jewellery kits, ideal for parties, party bags and gift ideas. We were sent the Dolphin Friendship Bracelet kit for 8yr old Miss M to try out and see what she thought.

bead kits The kit comes in a handy little box, that’s divided into sections and keeps everything separated and easy to find. The box being transparent makes it easy to see what you get and where it is. I like that the packaging is minimal but recyclable, we will definitely keep and use the little sectioned box for other craft bits.

bead kits 2 The kit contains enough materials to make three friendship bracelets, each with their own charm. There are three lengths of suede cord, three silver charms, a small bag of silver beads, organza bag and instructions. The pieces are all of a good quality so do make a lovely bracelet that girls will love to wear.

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Miss M couldn’t wait to get started, threading the beads and charms onto the cord. We then needed to follow the instructions to tie the knots at each end. We did get a little confused as to which diagram we were refering to, but I soon worked it out and showed Miss M what to do. She then had a go herself on the other bracelets.

bead kits 4 I think the finished bracelets look fantastic and great for young girls to wear. Miss M is thrilled with hers and has picked the blue fish one as her favourite!

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The organza bag that comes in the set makes a nice place to store the bracelets or use as a gift if you are giving one away. Miss M has decided to keep her favourite bracelet herself and give the other two away to her two best friends at school, as they are friendship bracelets after all.

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All reviews are my own and my family’s opinions and we received the product in order to write an honest review.

Silver Charm Bracelet from The Charm Works

Posted on April 10, 2016 by Fiona Martin

The Charm Works offers a vast range of silver charms and bracelet variants, there really is a choice to suit everyone and they certainly don’t disappoint on the presentation. How could I not want to see what was in this pretty looking parcel that arrived through the post, even though I’d picked out my choices online, it’s always intriguing to see if the product looks as good in real life particularly with jewellery. InstagramCapture_965726b4-8ce4-445c-9d1f-07e7230af70a

The website offers a vast array of different charms and in different formats, from traditional, beads and clip ons. They also have a variety of bracelets with something to suit every taste. I opted for the Sterling Silver Cable Chain Bracelet with Heart Toggle.

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The bracelet is chunky but not overly so and feels totally solid, with the bar to fasten easy to slip through the heart and feels secure. All bracelets come gift boxed with a cleaning cloth, great to keep them nice and shiny.

There are many charms available and they are categorised on the website to help you search for suitable designs. I chose an personalised heart which is engraved with my children’s names, a crystal letter of my first initial and a brushed sterling silver star charm.

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All charms come already applied to your bracelet, so it is completely ready to wear when it arrives. You can even choose which order to have the charms positioned in along the chain. The charms are all beautiful and look lovely on the bracelet. This is a timeless piece that can be worn at anytime which is great as it means I get to enjoy it more.

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These would make great gifts for someone, or even if you had a charm bracelet already that you wanted to add too, then there is a multitude of charms to choose from and they are all very competitively prices. I’ve already eyed up a couple more that I’d love to add to mine some time.

Make sure you check out The Charm Works to see what they have to offer, you may be surprised at the choice and great value, and of course as I have seen myself, the great quality that they offer.

All reviews are my own and my family’s opinions and we received the product in order to write an honest review.

MyStyle Shamballa Rainbow Jewellery – Review

Posted on November 6, 2015 by Fiona Martin

Shamballa jewellery has been a trend over recent years and this kit from Interplay to make some rainbow coloured Shamballa jewellery is a great introduction for young girls to learn and make some great pieces.

The kit comes with a handy sectioned box to contain all your beads and accessories while you work, making life a little easier. Included are various beads, rainbow coloured cord as well as various clasps, wire etc. enough to make various pieces including bracelets, earrings and a necklace.

We started making a bracelet which I started off for Miss M, although I was actually surprised at how easy it was to do, I thought it might be quite a complicated pattern to do, but no, just a placing one thread over another and looping it through. Miss M soon got to grips with this and happily completed the bracelet on her own adding beads appropriately along the design. The set comes with a safety pin to use to attach the top of the bracelet to something whilst working on it, and we used the edge of our sofa bed which worked well and meant the bracelet hung down nicely allowing Miss M to easily see the pattern and keep the threads straight.

You can vary the designs of the bracelets by adding beads at different places and there are also accessories to make earrings and a necklace. Miss M made me some earrings, as her ears aren’t pierced, which I was really impressed with. She used some wire which she twisted around and threaded some beads on too.

Overall I have to say I’ve been impressed with this kit. I didn’t realise how easy it was to make Shamballa style bracelets and this is a great introduction as to how it is done and the possibilities of styles you can make. Miss M had great fun making her new bracelets!

All reviews are my own and my family’s opinions and we received the set in order to write an honest review.

Beados Gems Designer Studio – Review

Posted on July 24, 2015 by Fiona Martin

Beados Gems Designer Studio from Character toys is a great way to turn your Beados designs into something useful. Young girls love jewellery and 7yr old Miss M is no exception. Having used other Beados sets before, she was keen to try this and make something she could wear.

The set does require minor assembly when it comes out of the box but does create a work station that stores all of the beads in separate sections at the top, and a tube which dispense the beads onto your template. Included are packs of coloured beads, a water spray bottle, 2 templates to hold the beads, picture templates and accessories to turn the designs into jewellery.

Miss M was very impressed with this and excited to fill it up with beads. To dispense the beads into the tube you can turn the circular part until the colour bead you require is at the front then press the button on top and it lets a bead come down the tube. Keep pressing until you have the required number of beads.

Once you have finished your design, you need to lightly spray it with water, which magically adheres the beads together, then leave alone until completely dry.

When dry you can carefully slide the designs from the bead template and they are then free to do as you please. On the ones we wanted to use for jewellery we had some backing pieces to stick on using a squirt of water. The bracelet flowers also required careful assembly and can get a bit sticky if you over water, something I had to keep reminding Miss M who loved to squirt the water sprayer! Once everything is dry you can pop the pieces into the ring and pendant holders and wear your jewellery. What is a nice idea is that you can easily swap the designs in the ring and pendant by simply popping them out and putting a different one in.

Here are our finished jewels:

This is a great craft set for a young girl, with which they will have lots of fun and enjoy creating. I think this would make a lovely present at either birthday or Christmas time.

All reviews are my own and my family’s opinions and we received the products in order to write the review.

CRA-Z-ART Crystal Craze Gem Bracelets – Review

Posted on March 5, 2015 by Fiona Martin

CRA-Z-ART Crystal Craze Gem Bracelets is a jewellery making craft kit from Character toys. Aimed at ages 6+, it was perfect for 7yr old Miss M to have a go at.

The kit consists of materials to make 15 gem bracelets each using a strip of sticky gems, a piece of coloured cord, a button, some glue and metallic thread. Miss M was eager to open the box and get started and even asked to do the vlog for me – see at bottom of post.

Each CRA-Z-ART Crystal Craze Gem Bracelet is made by attaching a button to a piece of cord then taping the cord to the table you are working from to keep it flat. Then place a row of sticky gems along the cord before winding the metallic thread around the bracelet, placing the strand between each gem as you go. Finally to finish of tie a knot allowing enough room for a button hole to fasten.

Miss M did require some assistance in finishing off the bracelets in order to get get the correctly sized button hole at the end. We didn’t realise that you need to cut the gem strip a little shorter in order to do this otherwise you run out of cord. Once we worked out how to do the first one, the following ones were easy.

The finished bracelets are shiny and colourful and fit Miss M perfectly. She was able to put them on and off herself easily so she was very happy and enjoyed making them too.

Here is a video showing you a bit more about CRA-Z-ART Crystal Craze Gem Bracelets:

All reviews are my own and my family’s opinions and we received the product in order to write the review.

Cool Create Cool Bandz – Review

Posted on August 7, 2014 by Fiona Martin

Cool Bandz is one of the latest range of craft kits from the Cool Create brand allowing children to make, decorate and laminate fun paper bracelets to wear themselves or giveaway to friends.

The kit consists of:

1 bracelet maker
24 pre designed wrist band strips
12 clips
1 sticker sheet
1 sticker sheet
1 gem sheet
1 roll of adhesive tape

Miss M couldn’t wait to get started and began by separating the pre designed strips and picking out her favourites. You can then add any of the stickers and gems to decorate them further. Some even have a space to write on and she did one with her name, one for Mister B and one for Mummy!

Once you have decorated the strip, you place it in the laminator. You can then easily pull the strip through and it gets cleverly covered by the roll of tape giving it a shiny, more durable finish. You then pop each end in the little hole punch slot and press down on the purple button to make a hole in each end. The ends then simply clip together with one of the plastic clips that just snap together.

Once Miss M had made the first band with my guidance, she was off making all different designs for each of us. Mister B eagerly watched picking the strips and stickers he wanted Miss M to use for his band. Miss M at 6 yrs old is the perfect age for this, she could create them independently and sat happily engrossed making bracelets with her little Cool Bandz machine for much of the morning.

This is a fun creative toy that young girls will love. There are plenty of patterned strips to keep them occupied although I would have liked to have seen a few more clips and gems included in the kit. You can also use any paper strips of your choice, so if you have some pretty paper, or fancy drawing your own design, you can and then place it in the sticky tape laminator to strengthen it and turn it into a bracelet.

My children had lots of fun creating with the Cool Create Cool Bandz, a great indoor crafting activity that’s fun, keeps them occupied and lets them make their own jewellery!

All reviews are my own and my family’s opinions and the Cool Bandz was sent to us in order to write the review.

Cool Create Daisy Chains Crafting Fun – Review

Posted on February 26, 2014 by Fiona Martin

Cool Create Daisy Chains is a fun new craft set aimed at young girls who enjoy making jewellery. Miss M loves anything craft related, so she couldn’t wait to get started when she saw the box.

The kit contains:

1 flower making unit
30 fabric flowers
20 flower beads
10 round beads
1 picker/hair clip
4 clips to join jewellery

The kit is designed to allow you to make flowers that are daisy chained together and turn them into jewellery and hair clips. The flower making unit is cute and gives assistance in putting the flowers together by layering petals, beads and stalks, then using the picker tool to lift the petals over the stems to create the flowers.

Miss M who is 6 immediately grasped the concept of building the flowers, although they can be a little fiddly, but she was trying to rush. By going slowly and carefully the flowers all came together more easily. Once each flower is made you can chain them together to form a daisy chain using the flower making unit to assist you.

The daisy chains can then be joined in circles of varying lengths to make bracelets and necklaces or even a daisy chain to wear around your hair. The picker tool can also be used to make a hair clip by attaching a flower to it.

Miss M thoroughly enjoyed the Cool Create Daisy Chains and once she got started she didn’t want to stop. It was great to see her sitting making the daisy chains independently once she got to grips with what she was doing and only required minimal assistance from me. She loved picking out the different petals and flower centres and had them all lined up ready to make although she did get a little frustrated that the petals didn’t stay at the top of the stalks.

The flowers can be taken apart after and used again if you so wish although I would have like to have seen some more stalks, petals and beads in the box so more things could be made at a time. Miss M was only able to make one bracelet, necklace and a hair clip which she loved doing but wanted to carry on.

The set is aimed at ages 4+, which is about right but would probably require more assistance at that age. I loved it because Miss M enjoyed this on her own once she knew what to do and she really enjoyed making the daisy chains, in fact when I asked her opinion she said “I love this, it’s so much fun”, which I think says it all!

All reviews are my own and my family’s opinions and we received the craft kit in order to write the review.

Disney Princess Cinderella Musical Jewellery Box

Posted on November 5, 2012 by Fiona Martin

Most little girls love being princesses, dressing up as them and wearing replica jewellery so the Cinderella jewellery box from Disney Princess is the perfect place to store their jewels as well as being a pretty box to accessorise their bedrooms into the perfect princess boudoir.

The Cinderella jewellery box, although made of plastic has been beautifully designed with lots of detail. The main body of the jewellery box is shaped like Cinderella’s pumpkin carriage with intricately designed wheels with a pink ribbon on the centre. The outside of the jewellery box is very ornate including a very pretty lace effect across the lid with small pearl like beading around the edge. On top between a couple of blue scrolls is a silver coloured Cinderella shoe which is detail that Miss M loved. Around the edge of the carriage is a pretty pink ribbon effect and on the front of the carriage is a Cinderella button that is used to open the jewellery box.

Upon opening the Cinderella jewellery box a glass like Cinderella and Prince Charming start twirling around in the centre along to music – This was Miss M’s favourite feature of the box and she loves to open the box again and again to watch the figures dancing around and listen to the music. Around the centrepiece figures are two pink trays to store jewellery on and these swing open to reveal 4 storage compartments. There is also a mirror on the inside of the lid.

The Cinderella jewellery box also comes with some jewellery which Miss M was thrilled with. There is a blue beaded charm bracelet – the charm being a Cinderella shoe and a large blue heart shaped ring. Miss M couldn’t wait to try these on and even did the bracelet up herself! They are a lovely addition to any little girls jewellery collection and Miss M loves wearing them each day ( I had to refuse for school!!).

Overall we really like the Disney Princess Cinderella jewellery box and think it is the perfect accessory to any little girls bedroom. Not only does it have great storage for all their jewellery but looks great on a shelf and plays appealing music to any young princess. This would make a lovely Christmas present and gets Miss M’s seal of approval with a big thumbs up!!

Please watch Miss M’s quick overview of the Cinderella jewellery box:

All reviews are my own and my family’s opinions. We are not paid for reviews although we do receive the product to try out and enable us to write the review.