Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Seeing Rainbows & Rubber Bands!

H all and happy Tuesday! I was doing some thinking over Thanksgiving when my daughter and I were enjoying some crafting time. I thought that every now and then, I really need to share our crafts here! There are so many moms and grandmas out there that have a sweet little girl in their life that they love to spend time with -- so why not share what we are doing and maybe give you some crafting ideas? From now on, I'll just put them under the Crafting label here on my blog!

So, today, I'm going to share a fun new book my daughter and I stumbled upon with patterns for one of the new crazes -- the Rainbow Loom! Have you seen those crazy rubber band bracelets that all the kids are wearing these days? This fun loom is a hit in our house and we've literally given it away as birthday gifts for tweens about a half dozen times! And, on top of that, now the kids in my daughter's class are "putting in orders" for bracelets for her to make them! Too fun!

So, now when we buy the loom as a gift, we'll be putting this book with it! It's called Totally Awesome Rubber Band Jewelry. We found it on Amazon HERE and it has more than 12 different project ideas for you to try!


This is what the Rainbow Loom looks like right out of the box. They give you a crochet hook, some bands and then the loom. We bought our loom at Michaels. At Hobby Lobby -- they have one called the Cra-Z Art Ultimate Rubber Band Loom. 


FYI... Michaels sells single color bags of bands that we've stocked up on and we've bought an organizer to hold all the bands as well! (It was only a couple bucks, which makes it nice!)


So, what I loved about this book is the fact that the instructions in the book are so very visual. They not only give you different color schemes as inspiration but then give you step-by-step instructions that are very easy to follow! My daughter needed my help for the first bracelet of each pattern and then she was off and running on her own.

She started with a simple "Fishtail" pattern here....

And then, followed the instructions for how to add beads. This was fun because she used some small pony beads I had stashed in my craft room (and didn't have a use for). I hadn't seen folks add beads, so that was a fun pattern from the book that we've loved! 


 And... this is her in action! :-) Here she's making the Triple the Fun Bracelet from the book!
And, this is what she did in just ONE afternoon!

What fun! We thought this would be a fun post to share because of the fact that we know this would make a FUN Christmas gift as well! The loom and the book add up to a little less than $25 for the two. Add in some extra bands (about $4 a bag) and an organizer ($2.50) and for a wee bit more than $30 you have a gift that is sure to be a hit with a girl in your life!

Hope you enjoyed this post and I'll be back soon with more crafting fun! 
~Julie


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5 comments:

Maria Rodriguez. said...

WOW!! this bracelets are the "thing" to have for girls, my granddaughters love them. This is so much better than video games, this keeps the girls entertained and creating and designing, what's not to love about that!! Thank you so much for sharing this awesome organizing idea for all of this little rubber bands. Great gifts don't have to be expensive to be fabulous!!!

The Rubber Maid said...

How amazing when you think about using rubber bands to make bracelets. You go Ellie! the Nana

Leslie Miller said...

Like mother, like daughter. I know you and Ellie have always done crafty things together and I've enjoyed seeing your projects in the past. It's amazing to me how you manage to find time, but you're a good mom and that's what good moms do. Thanks for sharing this, Julie. I really enjoyed it and it's a great gift idea!

Oma said...

My 8 yr. old and 6 yr. old granddaughters have the Rainbow Loom and are having a blast with it! I am the proud owner of 2 bracelets that they made for me. Their mother and I have both bought more bags of rubber bands for them & I have a feeling that Santa might put more in their stockings come Christmas Eve. This is a great toy for them as it teaches them to concentrate, and is good for honing their fine motor skills.

Stacy Morgan said...

Ellie you are doing a great job, and I miss that smile of yours. Fun braclets girlie...