Cute Magnets

The chocolates ended up being a big hit at B's job especially considering that a few years ago the company decided to jump on the healthy band wagon and allow only healthy snacks in the vending machine. Being that most of the staff is female.. well, you know, haha... needless to say, the chocolates sold out quickly! We decided we are not going to sell these online just because we are not sure how to ship them without them melting, so for now, they will just be sold at craft shows and B's work.

Another one of our new projects is magnets. I love making these, they are so easy and fun. All you need is some glass gems, some decoupage, magnets, and some pretty paper or pictures. I'm going to try making some of these with my kids' school photos to see about possibly making custom magnets for people. Here are a few of the designs that we have made so far. I've had a difficult time getting good photos of these because everything reflects off of the gems.

Hugs, Love, and Smile magnets

Various Designs

We are going to sell these online in groups of 3 however, when we are working at craft shows, we will sell each one individually so that people can pick and choose the ones that they want.

I've spent a big part of this week taking photos of of the merchandise we have so far and editing the photos so that they are ready to go up on Etsy. Pretty soon, hopefully within a few days, our Etsy shop will be up and running and ready for business!!

Who Loves Chocolate??

B had the idea of making candies to sell. These will mostly be sold at craft shows and flea markets but we may make an attempt to sell packages of them online as well (not sure about that one yet). Last weekend we spent a day working on our first attempt at making these candies. Here are some photos:

The beginning...

Our first batch of white chocolate. We planned on adding some color onto the shoes and other molds but our first attempt at adding color didn't turn out but we think we figured out the trick and will try it again soon.

This is how they will be packaged.

The back.

Milk Chocolate.

These will look much better when they have some color added into the purses. We are planning on getting some other molds to use as well. Who doesn't love chocolate???

Pony Bead Bracelets and Charms

Once I got the hang of friendship bracelets, I worked my way up the ladder to bead bracelets with basic pony beads. I made a few of these when I was younger; I even made an awesome necklace for my husband before we got married and he still has it! My second grader made one in school so these are not difficult to make obviously, but it's fun to play around with designs and add other beads or charms into the mix. These are a few basic pony bead bracelets that I started out with

Playing around with charms

They were kind of difficult at first. I would make some that ended up being too long and then some that ended up being too short. I think the short ones would work for kids. Again, if you are interested in any of the products posted on the blog, email us! 

In The Beginning: Friendship Bracelets

I liked the idea of making bracelets but wasn't exactly sure where to start. I began with the easiest and a maybe still popular bracelet: the friendship bracelet. Believe it or not, I had never made one before in my life.. not even as a teenager, lol.. I liked how they looked but had no idea how to make them. I decided to dive in and bought a beginners "kit". I started out with the simplest ways to make them and am slowly learning new ways. I would like to make more intricate friendship bracelets in the future. I'm learning most things via youtube videos, to be honest; they have everything! .. and trying things as I have the time to sit down and work on them. It can be difficult in the beginning making bracelets. Sometimes you don't know if you did something right or wrong until you are almost finished.. so if you did something wrong, you just wasted time and supplies! I'm learning from my mistakes though, hopefully.. and learning some of my own tricks. We will probably attempt to sell these in packs of 5 or 10 online, but in person, customers will be able to pick and choose. All of this is a big learning process. I know we won't always make the right decisions but hopefully we will learn by them. We are not claiming to be experts on any of this. We just learning as we go and hopefully we will get support from others along the way.

A few of the different types of friendship bracelets; some with charms or beads and some without.

As we learn and make new merchandise, I will post pics on this blog so that you can watch us grow and blossom!

Greeting Cards and Note Cards

My mother and I have always enjoyed scrapbooking and the more we got into it, the more things we discovered that we could do with our creativity. We began making our own Christmas cards and sent them to family and friends for the last few years. We always got a lot of compliments on them. We worked one craft show that B's church was having and sold almost all of the cards that we had made. We enjoy making cards but didn't want to do just cards all the time and it was more of just a hobby than a money maker. 

After giving it a lot of thought and coming across lots of crafting ideas, we decided to start this little side business. The first things we have made are greeting cards and note cards. The greeting cards have cute little sayings on the inside while the note cards are left empty on the inside to leave room for notes (duh). Here are a few of our creations:

Sympathy Card

Thank You card

Mother's Day card.. hoping to get more of these made soon in time for Mother's Day

Dream note card

Once we get our online store up and running, we will sell our greeting cards and note cards in sets of 5 assorted cards. If anyone is interested in these cards or the others that we have (we have lots, these are just a sample!), feel free to email us BandDNovelties@gmail.com