Crafty Days

We've been working on bead jewelry again this week. 

This is what Megan made.  She chose glass mushroom beads to make a bracelet and matching earrings.  The earrings are a little heavy, so she wants to save those for special occasions. 

This is what Sami is working on.  She chose Swarovski crystals in red, simple beads in clear and blue, and eventually she will add a clear and blue heart pendant.  Sami is very meticulous and is taking her time finishing her project.  I can't wait to show her finished project.   

I used multi-colored beads, but I'm not sure what they are made of...I just thought they were pretty.  Polymer, maybe?  I added some odd and end glass beads in between.

Beading is a fun project, but can quickly turn expensive if one isn't disciplined when picking out beads.  I had a couple of tools left over from years ago when I wanted to do beading (but never got around to it), and we now have the metal thingies (pins?) to connect the beads.  Now the only expense is buying the beads and being careful not to buy too many.

Jewelry Making and Library Time

The girls had library story time yesterday.  For the last couple of weeks, the kids have been coming up with various ways of reporting on inventions.  Some have made things and some have done power point presentations.  Some have had hands-on demonstrations.  Each homeschool kids did their own thing. 

Megan talked about the history of Lego bricks.  Who knew that Lego's were originally called "automatic binding bricks"?  When she was preparing her report, she wanted to sit at the computer and type it herself.  She's always been a natural speller, but it still surprised me when she sat down and just started typing away without needing spell check.  She was scared to talk in front of the kids, but she did it and was proud of herself.

Sami struggled for three weeks on what to do.  She is such a perfectionist that she convinced herself that she needed to make an original invention that worked for her report.  I finally got her focused after two weeks of struggling, so she ended up making a solar panel windmill from a kit.  Sami was very scared to talk in front of the other kids also, but she showed her windmill in a show-and-tell fashion.  We were both pleased that she was able to do this after all that she's been through in the last few weeks.

That afternoon, the library had a bead class where we got to make our own bracelets.  The hardest part was choosing what beads to use.  After the beads were chosen, the rest kinda fell into place.  Sami, in her perfectionist way, took over an hour to choose her beads and then another hour putting it together and taking it apart to try and make it perfect.  She was so frustrated, but she stuck with it and finished it.  I'm using my 40%off coupons at Hobby Lobby today and get the girls some more beads so that they can make some more jewelry at home.

 

Mine is on top, Sami's is in the middle, and Megan's is on the bottom.  Megan got done early and had time to make a pair of matching earrings.