When fellow homeschooling mother, Gloria, approached me about reviewing her children’s ebooks, I was more than happy to help out these young entrepreneurs. Plus, I thought the books looked really neat and that my kids would enjoy the activities in them.
Julia, Gloria’s daughter, has written 3 eBooks {you’ll have the chance to win one at the end of this review} on how to make jewelry, and Mark and Steven, Gloria’s sons, have written 7 ebooks on how to make your own duct tape weapons and armor {I’ll tell you more about that later this month}.
Out of Julia’s 3 ebooks, I chose to review the book, How to Create Easy, yet Exquisite Earrings. Her other two ebooks are, How to Create Beautiful, Beaded Bracelets, and How to Create Noticeably Noteworthy Necklaces. My daughters (ages 4 & 6) do not have their ears pierced and we don’t plan on allowing them to get them pierced anytime in the near future. However, they do like to wear earrings and play dress-up (we have some cheap, plastic clip-on earrings, and sometimes they will clip barrettes to their ears), and when I saw that you could easily make any of the earrings in the book as clip-ons, I thought that this would be a great project to do with my girls.
This 30 page ebook will teach you how to make 7 different styles of earrings. Julia provides step-by-step instructions plus photographs to make this an enjoyable project for any newbie beader. If you aren’t new to beading, then perhaps this book can offer you some fresh design ideas or new techniques.
In the introduction of the book, Julia tells you what tools you will need to make your earrings, and at the end of the book Julia gives tips on making clip-on earrings more comfortable, where to get your beads, organizing your beads, and selecting the color of your beads.
The day after I received and downloaded the eBook, my husband and I (yes, my husband) headed to Michael’s to get our supplies. We found an inexpensive tool set (wire cutters, needle-nose pliers, round nose pliers) that also included a small bead storage case, clip-on earring hooks, and we selected several different kinds of beads (don’t forget to use your Michael’s coupons).
When we got home, my husband and I had an earring making party with our 4 and 6 year old daughters. My husband used to work in the jewelry business, so he felt right out home making the earrings with us. We made 3 pairs of earrings – one pair for Mommy, and one for each of the girls. The girls selected the beads they wanted for their earrings, stringed them onto the headpins and Mommy and Daddy did all of the cutting, clipping, and bending. We played it safe and made the first style demonstrated in the book – The Basic Earring. I had no idea that making an earring could be so easy, and my girls were thrilled with the results and keep asking if we can make more. Now I need to take them to the store to pick out more beads!
The book was very easy to follow and the pictures that accompanied the steps were very beneficial and appreciated! This eBook provides a unique project for a mother (or father) and daughter to share, an easy place to start for anyone that has wanted to give jewelry making a try, or could even be used as an art project for your homeschool. In my opinion these projects could be done by an 8-10+ year old, depending on your child’s abilities. Once we get a little more seasoned with earring making, maybe we will move onto necklaces!