Easter Gifts for Children at A Cup of Sparkle

Children's gift for Easter, Handmade Easter Egg Earrings

A Cup of Sparkle is offering more colors than ever for Easter. Put on these adorable Easter earrings for kids or adults on Easter Sunday. Birds nests earrings now comes in cherry red and robins blue pearls as well as white freshwater pearls. These cute Easter egg earrings makes great gifts for kids, and adults for Easter and they are perfect for springtime!

Handmade Easter Jewelry

For A Cup of Sparkle blog readers, use Coupon Code: EASTER2012  to take advantage of free shipping anywhere in United States. 

Looking for more Easter gift ideas, visit A Cup of Sparkle handmade jewelry and accessories shop to see more of the colorful birds nest Easter jewelry.

NEW Coral Jewelry in A Cup of Sparkle shop!

Colorblock Coral Necklace

Coral Bouquet Necklace

Salmon Coral and Green Necklace

Chunky Gold Bracelet

New Handmade Jewelry Packaging Tutorial

Remember my previous jewelry bags tutorial? As the spring and summer times are approaching, I wanted to use a lighter material for my shop's jewelry packaging rather than felt. While I was visiting my mom in Turkey this winter,  my mom, my aunt and I designed and made these new jewelry bags for A Cup of Sparkle customers.

When we went to the fabric store, I couldn't decide on the color of the fabric... All the colors looked so great! So; I picked variety of colors: red, black, white, yellow, pink and green. The fabric is very shiny, smooth and pretty!

My mom made the bags using her sewing machine and we made tiny flowers to embellish the bags. We used a cheap yo-yo maker tool I bought from Joann's to make these flowers. We used leftover fabric scraps in the house.

Making these flowers are really fun and simple. Below is my mom demonstrating how to make the flowers for you:

Last, we added tiny red sparkling gems on top of the flowers and a matching ribbon. It was a bit of hard work to make each bag but; they turned out so beautiful.

Aren't they look cute?

Now, all of the A Cup of Sparkle jewelry and accessories comes in these colorful jewelry bags. I am extra excited to place my handmade products in these special packaging for Mothers Day presents. I hope you will all enjoy them as much we enjoyed making them.
Special thanks for my mom on this project. She spent 2 full days to sew the bags. THANK YOU MOM!

Most Entertaining Games for Grown-ups

Do you play any board or card games? I and my husband enjoy playing games when we have guests over. I compiled my favorite board and card games for you today. Playing games are a really great way to entertain guests. I like these games specifically because they are not complex and can be played with 4 or more people. They are super duper fun!!!

Best Board Games: 1. Farkle, 2. SET, 3. Settlers of CATAN, 4. OKEY

Farkle is a very easy game that you can play while watching a movie; we do that quite often with my husband actually. SET can be a bit competitive and eye-tiring, but it is great fun! We recently bought the Settlers of CATAN for our house and I think it was a great purchase. This board game requires more strategy and of course, some luck :) And finally, OKEY is a game that I learned to play while I was very young. Turkish people love this game. The boards we own is a gift from a family friend in Turkey. It traveled with us on our last trip from Turkey this January. Okey is very easy-to-learn. It is a great choice if you have extra time to burn while it can take long time to finish it. One of the greatest things about this game is you can play in teams with two couples.

Do you have any favorite board/card games? I would love to check them out...

Go and wake up your luck.

St. Patrick's Day is approaching real fast... A great occasion to put some greens on whether you are Irish or not. Green is such a great color and there are so many natural gemstones in the shades of green. My favorites are turquoise and jade. Above are some of the green jewelry from my shop accented with silver. Four leaf clover pendants are definitely the symbol of this occasion that is meant to bring luck to those who wear them!

I hope you will enjoy my St. Patrick's Day collection and it will bring you luck!

Green St. Patrick's Day Jewelry

Do you have any plans for the St. Patrick's Day? I know that there is a big parade, an Irish festival and St. Patrick's Day Dash in Seattle on March 17th and March 18th. I am going to do the 4 miles run that day... I am still working on my outfit for the run. I will make sure to share if I end up making something special. Let me know, if you have any ideas...

Lots of love,

-Melike

Easter Chicks: Fun cooking activity for kids and adults

Easter Cooking

I have a fun cooking tutorial today for you in preparation for Easter, made of potatoes. Are you ready to make the cutest chicks you ever seen? I have to warn you beforehand though. You will have hard time eating them afterwards :)

Here is what you need: Potato, pepper, salt, carrot, butter, lettuce

Step 1: Boil and then, mash potatoes - I didn't use milk to make it easy to roll later.

Add desired amount of salt, ground pepper and butter while meshing the potatoes

Step 2: Roll two different sizes of balls from mashed potatoes: one for the body and one for the head of the chicks. 

Step 3: Put the head on the body and shape the chicks with your hand -- this is where creativity kicks in! Just have fun using your fingers...

Step 4: Cut the carrots to make the mouth of the chics. You can have the mouth open and closed. It is a bit simpler to make it closed. Tomatoes also work well instead of carrots.

Step 5: Use ungrounded pepper for eyes or small pieces of black olives

Step 6: Now, it is time to decorate your serving plate. You can cut lettuce, or use any other green vegetables you have to make it look like grass. Place your chicks on top of the greens...

WA-LA ...it is time to serve your meshed potatoes! It will make an awesome Easter dish that you can prepare with kids. It will also make a great appetizer for any lunch or dinner party.

Thanks for stopping by at the A Cup of Sparkle kitchen.. See you next time!

A Cup of Sparkle is on Vacation!

It has been a crazy couple weeks full of hard work to finish all the Christmas orders. I wanted to share at least one of the custom designs of a birds nest post earrings and brooch I made for a customer, which represents 2 and 4 children in gorgeous purple colors eggs. I wish I took photos of all the custom jewelry I made. Unfortunately, time was running too fast for me to finish everything on time.

Custom mothers jewelry with 2 eggs and 4 eggs representing children

I will be traveling for holidays so; my Etsy shop, A Cup of Sparkle jewelry and accessories will be closed until I come back on January 5th. I am looking forward to sharing my new collections with you when I return. I will be shopping for lots of new and unique beads and materials during my trip.
I will be also putting lots of new craft tutorials to my blog in the new year, I promise!

I hope all of you are doing well; enjoying the Christmas music, the lighted trees and the joy of upcoming holidays. Lots of love and sparkle...

P.S. I will be traveling to France, Italy, Switzerland and Turkey. Please come back to check out some photos from all those cool places I will be visiting...

Cookie Decoration Party: Fun Christmas Activity

Christmas time has so much to offer...  This is the time of the year when families and friends gather together, which I love most about Christmas. Office parties, tree decorating with family, gift-wrapping with friends, children and neighbors, dinners with family, and many more new years organizations to get-together. Here is one of those get-together I was at yesterday: Cookie Decorations Party!

 

 Every year, we get together for a Cookie Decoration Party to decorate a huge variety of cookies. This is the 3rd one I have participated so far. Everyone brings a bunch of cookies and we all decorate them together. At the end of the night, everyone get to pick cookies from a big selection of decorated cookies and take them home. We have an awesome hostess who supply so many colors and shapes of sprinkles.

This is our workspace I took a shot of after we are done... It looks quite messy, isn't it? :)

And,  these are some I made ...

Have you ever gone and organized a cookie decoration party? If you have not, I should tell you that it is the most sweetest party you can imagaine!!! I highly recommend it...

Farm fresh organic eggs: New Dalmatian Collection

Birds nest with eggs

The nest on the left looks almost real, don't you agree?

A Cup of Sparkle dalmatian jewelry collection is handcrafted with speckled eggs that is definitely a wearable art inspired by nature, which are also one of my favorite gemstones among all the colorful pearls and bead eggs I use in my nest jewelry.

Dalmatian Collection by A Cup of Sparkle: Birds nest necklaces, brooch pins, earrings

The dalmatian collection is handmade with sterling silver wire and jasper gemstones. You can find unique pendant necklaces, brooch pins and earrings of this design: all made with farm fresh organic eggs... All of the designs can be also customized with different number of eggs.

A Cup of Sparkle will be open until the end of the week to get custom orders. If you are still shopping for Christmas holidays, there is something for every mommy or nature lovers. You can visit my online Etsy store to purchase any of this new collection by clicking here.

Silver post earrings by A Cup of Sparkle

Let's follow the sun... A trip to Bora Bora Islands!

Now, it is December and I think it is time to travel some place warm. Let's pack up sandals, a beach towel, swimsuit, sunglassess and head to Island of Bora Bora in the Pacific Ocean... oh, don't forget to take some sunscreen!

Such a happy place with beautiful weather... Over the water bungalows are the most fulfilling, and dreamy places you can stay in.  There are so many activities you can do in this island... eating delicious seafood, snorkeling, golf or just relaxing laying in a hammock. This place is meant to be the center of the romantic universe! 
Don't you agree?

Take what you need.

Photo via Pinterest

Hello to all of you! I hope you had a fabulous Thanksgiving and had so many memorable moments with your family and friends. Thanksgivings are extra special for me since my husband proposed me on Thanksgiving day.
I wanted to share this cool idea with you.. please take what you need ... Have a fantastic week and enjoy the last days of November!

PS:Remember this? Similar idea on a piece of paper; spreading smiles...

Celebrating... A Cup of Sparkle's 1st Year!

 Happy 1st Year Anniversary to A Cup of Sparkle!!!

I want to thank all of you for your support and making it such a great year! I really enjoyed getting to know many of you. A year ago today, I opened my jewelry shop. It made me so happy to hear your stories, to see the cute baby pictures you send and hearing great news from some of you who just learned that they are expecting. It has been always a great pleasure for me to be able to make something for moms and share your happiness.

I also want to thank all of my blog readers for your feedback and comments on my blog. Your lovely comments has always been one of the greatest power of inspiration for me and I wouldn't be able to do this without you... I am very much looking forward to A Cup of Sparkle's second year.
I am spreading some sparkle love over everyone on my Etsy shop with great offers to celebrate my first year. Thank you again from bottom of my heart!

Lots of love,

-Melike

Personalized Mothers Jewelry

Personalized mothers nest necklaces were lately one of the most popular jewelry in my shop. I have been personalizing these cute nests for A Cup of Sparkle customers, most of which are going to be gifts for moms for Christmas.

Mothers Jewelry - handmade nest necklace

Nest necklaces with one, two, three and four pearls comes in similar sizes using various sizes of pearls. If you are looking for a special and unique gift for your mom, mother-in-law or grandma, you might consider these handmade sterling silver necklaces. They all come in special handmade packaging ready to give as gifts for holidays.

This one below is my latest custom necklace with 7 eggs. It is going to be a gift for another special mom for her birthday. It is the highest number of eggs I have ever used in my birds nest designs. I didn't know whether it is possible to make with seven eggs, but I guess it can be done.

 Doesn't that look cute?

Nest necklace with 7 pearls representing 7 children

Tiny post earrings for holidays

Pyrite handmade post earrings, gift ideas for Christmas

Tiny post earrings is great for those who favor small, elegant earrings. Small studs can be worn every day to almost every occasion. Lately, I have added new colors and gems to birds nest collection for holidays. Lots of sparkles, green and reds perfect for holidays... These will make great handmade gifts for Christmas that is also perfect if you are on a low budget.

 

Birds nest shaped silver earrings are made with silver wire hand woven into a ball shape and has 3 cute gemstones. Posts secure the earrings comfortably in place. You can personalize your nest in any color you like with precious stones like garnet, pyrite, pearls, turquoise and jasper. Petite and stylish, the perfect companion to any outfit. You can wear these earrings as a pair or individually, if you have more than one piercing.

Matching necklaces of this nest earrings are also available in my shop. Please indicate the colors of your choice with your purchase and feel free to contact me for any request for matching custom necklaces.

Robins nested blues

NEW robins blue keychain accessories are available in beautiful turquoise blue colors. I have been in search for beads that looks just like the robins egg and I think I finally found them... These birds nest keychains come in one, two, or three eggs representing your kids or anything else that you like. They are really  for everyone who loves nature.

Robins nest handmade key chains

The beads are made of glass and oval shaped just like real eggs. They make very unique and special gifts for moms, mother-in-laws, grandmothers, etc... This keychains are part of A Cup of Sparkle Christmas Jingle Collection and they are limited.

Handmade accessories for moms- great gifts for holidays

I hope you liked them! They all come with two cute charms; one of them is a heart and the other is an animal of your choice; ladybug, bird, turtle, dragonfly, bee... You have so many options to customize this unique keychains.

How to make mosaic artwork with glass - A Tutorial for Beginners

Hello my dearest readers and HAPPY MONDAY!!! I learned to make mosaics couple weeks ago at a class held by a mosaic artist in Seattle. Her name is Laura Wright. It was such a fun evening... Laura was so kind to open her house for this class. I thought I will share with you what I made and what I learned.

My A Cup of Sparkle Laboratory walls were quite naked so; I thought I will make a cup with sparkles... and write my jewelry shop's name with glass.

I made this mosaic artwork  on a 8"x12", 1/2" thick wood board.  I used black, red, soft pink, white colors of recycled glass and mirror for sparkles. The corners are pre-cut square tiles.

Materials: Recycled glass, wheeled glass nippers, substrate, adhesive-thin set/concrete or a tub of pre-mixed AcrylPro ceramic tile adhesive, sanded grout, a plastic knive for spreading, a cup to mix the grout, tile cleaning sponge, bucket of warm water for cleaning the grout on the mosaic, gloves for grouting and a picture hanger to hang your finished mosaic.

Step #1: Draw your design on paper. We will do an indirect method so; you need to draw the mirror image of your design. Place your sticky tape over your picture sticky side up.

Step #2: Place your glass pieces face down accordingly. Cut the glass to desired shape for your design. If you want to make changes, the glass pieces come-off easily. So; don't worry. This step took me around 3 hours... Writing letters was quite hard, but; FUN! :)

Step #3: Place your adhesive on the wood board (substrate) by completely covering it.

Step#4: Flip your design on the board with the adhesive.

Step #5: Gently tap in each piece using your fingers; especially the smaller pieces.

Step #6: After 30 minutes or so, gently pull away the tape from bottom to top. Move around any pieces that need adjusting.

 

Grouting: Wait 24 hours. Place your mosaic on a newspaper. Fill a bucket with warm water. Put your gloves. Spread your grout well-mixed with water on your mosaic. Cover it very well. Wipe off the extra grout. Wait 5-10 minutes. The grout will dry fast and you can wipe it with a towel until your mosaic looks shiny and smooth. Here is a video that explains the grouting part pretty well.

VA-LAaaa!! Your mosaic is complete and ready for hanging. I hung mine already that matched so well with my red wall paint. I am so happy with it :) Let me know if you have any questions on the tutorial. There are also many youtube videos that might help you visualize what I am talking about. 

Wishing you all a great week!

Let's Travel Abroad together!!!

I love crafting, making things with my beads, crystals,and metal wire in the A Cup of Sparkle Laboratory... There is one more passion in my life that is on fire all the time: Traveling!
I love love love seeing new things, places, shopping in different countries and getting to know different cultures and people So, I thought on Fridays I will talk about places I have been or I want to go and why... I have to confess that my geography is terrible but; I am so exicited to learn more about the world and take you to abroad with me by 'Let's Travel Abroad' Friday posts and photographs. What do you think? Would you want to do some traveling abroad with A Cup of Sparkle? I will be happy if you would stop by on Fridays to be a part of this adventure.

I thought I will take you on an outdoor adventure in Marseille, France tomorrow... A Meditteranean port town just southeast of France. I will see you tomorrow at our first destination in Europe.

Making gifts extra special with handmade wrapping

Handmade gift wrapping for Christmas

Have you started your holiday shopping yet or maybe even packaging your gifts?

One way to make your gifts extra special is to package it in a unique way. It will make your loved ones feel extra-special! This weekend, I worked on my new jewelry bags for my Etsy shop;A Cup of Sparkle. For Christmas packaging, I designed new bags in two different color combinations: Red and green accented with small bows. You can learn how to make these easy and multi-functional felt bags here from one of my earlier posts.

Jewelry bag tutorial

It is very important for me to present my designs as best as I could to you whether you are getting it for yourself or as a gift. I hope you liked this new handcrafted felt bags... All the A Cup of Sparkle jewelry and accessories will come in these bags from October till January.

Water Lily Napkin Folding Tutorial for a Sunday brunch

Regardless of the simplicity of the meal, napkins folded in variety of ways will complement the food, the layout and the occasion in a major way.

Today, I am having some of my girl friends over for a  Sunday brunch. I saw some beautiful lily pads on my walk around the Green Lake yesterday which is the inspiration to today's tutorial. 

I will be demonstrating to create a water lily using a bright colored napkin.  If you decide to give it try, please let me know how your water lily turned out...

Step 1: Fold the corners of the napkin into the centre and press flat.

Step 2: Repeat the 'step 1' a second time.

Step 3: Holding the center points together, carefully turn the napkin over.

Step 4: Fold the four corners into the center again, but do not press.

Step 5: It is time to make the petals of your flowers now! Holding the center firmly, partly pull out the previous fold from under each corner and gently pull them upwards to make the first layer of petals.

Step 6: To create the base leaves of your water lily, pull out the corners from underneath between the petals.

Step 7: Va laaa...  A fresh water lily ready to put a smile on all of guests face when they come. 


TIP: Lily pad napkins can hold a bread roll, a small gift or a small jam cup (like the one in the 1st picture) or seasonal decorations such as cones for winter time.

Best of the week: Etsy Finds by A Cup of Sparkle

Do you enjoy watching the sunset?

Sunset Hanging Lamp by FligreeDesigns, $40

I find lots of enjoyment in watching the sunset. It is such a colorful and fabulous event. If you like the sunset, but; cannot see it that often, FligreeCreations's hanging lamp 'orange sunset' might be what you need for your living areas. This handmade, unique lights will bring your house the still of sunset for a peaceful, romantic mood.

FiligreeCreations is the best of the week Etsy finds by A Cup of Sparkle this week. Congratulations FligreeDesigns!