Lucky Fortune bracelets collectibles review

Crack ‘em, Wear ‘em, Find your Luck and Share ‘em ! Welcome to the wonderful world of Lucky Fortune, the latest range of collectibles from WowWee (the makers of the top-selling Fingerlings brand) that are designed to look just like fortune cookies. 

Inside each pack, you'll find a double-coloured fortune cookie that you can crack open to reveal its secrets : a cute charm bracelet, along with a paper fortune for good luck. You also get a Collector’s Guide which can be folded up as a Fortune Teller toy and the packaging also doubles up as a key chain with a little compartment for special keepsakes. I love the way everything is reused and recycled, to keep waste to the strict minimum.

The bracelets are very cool and will appeal to tween and even teen-aged girls (here at The Madhouse, both 14 year old Juliette and 17 year old Sophie approved !) plus, of course, any boys who want to gift them to their girlfriends and friends. There are 100 different bracelets to collect, with four levels of rarity, as well as a coveted Ultra Lucky real gold-dipped four-leaf clover to add extra excitement. The charms are regrouped into five categories, covering happiness, friendship, love, success, and adventure. They sound like the perfect life goals to me !

 Available from June 2019, Lucky Fortune retails at £4.99 each.

Lucky Fortune by WowWee is distributed by Jazwares in the UK.

https://luckyfortune.wowwee.com https://www.facebook.com/luckyfortune.wowwee/

Disclosure : We received the product in order to share our honest review.

Body Jewellery Shop earrings review

Last month, I was accepted onto an Etail PR Blogger Network campaign for Body Jewellery Shop. They are a UK-based company founded in 2000, who stock a wide range of body jewellery for all of your body piercing and ear piercing needs. I'm not big into body piercing so I raced past all the belly bars, labret studs, flesh plugs, tongue ticklers, stretching gear and other things with names that made me shudder and headed into the safer ground of the earrings department.

Even once you're in the ear piercing section, you still have a huge number of choices. Did you know just how many different places on your ear you can have a piercing? (And if you did, can you name them all?!) You have the choice of auricle, conch, daith, helix, lobe, orbital, pinna, rook, snug and tragus. Wow, I never dreamed there were so many !

I said to Sophie that she could choose some designs and her first choice was this pair of dice earrings. We chose the dark blue ones but they come in a wide range of colours. They are made with UV material so they'd look very funky if you go out clubbing. They are made of silver with a simple to fasten butterfly clasp.

The second pair were these simple, classic pearl stud earrings. They're timelessly elegant and they're discreet enough to be worn on all occasions, whether at school/work or on a special occasion. They are also made of silver with an easy-to-attach butterfly fastener.

Both pairs come in at a bargaintastic £1.99 and if you spend £10 or more, you'll be eligible for free postage. Can't say fairer than that !

Disclosure : We received the products in order to write an honest review.

myStyle Design & Make Shrink Design Jewellery kit review

I think I got just as excited as the kids when the opportunity came up to review a Shrink Design Jewellery kit from myStyle Craft. I used to love this stuff when I was a kid - it used to be called Shrinkie Dinkie back in the eighties and the last sheets we bought were called Fantastic Plastic - and there's just something so magical about watching your pictures shrink into miniature but otherwise identical designs in the oven.

I'd never thought of using it to make jewellery though, but it's a great idea.

The kit contains everything you need for creating seven pieces of jewellery (plus any extras you come up with by yourself), including necklaces, earrings and bracelets.  Inside the box, you get plenty of Shrink-Plastic sheets for the projects, plus 30 Jump Rings, 3 Clasps, 6 Clamshell Clasps, 4 Earring Hooks, 240 Seed Beads (in 3 colours), 1m Plastic Stretch Cord, 3m Black Cord, a Mini Hole Punch and a 32 Page Instruction Manual.

I showed Sophie some of the designs suggested on the box. Lots of them would appeal to quite young girls.

But the instruction manual also contains templates for some edgier, slightly more grown-up designs that would appeal to tweens and teens.

Sophie said she had her own idea though ...

Did you guess ? I did ! One Direction of course ! If you want to do writing, you'll need to do mirror writing so that it will come out the right way round on the finished design.

Time for the moment of truth - into the oven for a couple of minutes.

Sophie couldn't watch, because I'd warned her that the plastic might curl up and stick to itself.

Sure enough, it wasn't looking good and we feared the worst.

But I told you it's magic ! With just a little bit of patience and faith, if you leave it in the oven a little longer, when it's fully shrunk, it all flattens out again. You can place it under a book as soon as it comes out of the oven if you want it to be totally flat.

Sophie hadn't wanted to punch holes in her 1D masterpieces in case it made the plastic split but we will definitely be making some of the projects from the book next ... maybe with a 1D twist on them. We think infinity sign earrings could be very cool and Union Jacks are another design that we're thinking of trying.

The great thing about the kit is that you can follow the instructions to the letter or let your imagination run free and come up with some totally unique and personal designs. If you need more inspiration, you can download additional printable designs from the Interplay website.

The kit is designed for children aged 8+ and will need adult supervision to use the oven and maybe cut out the designs. Younger children could help out with colouring and drawing pictures on the plastic sheets for older children to transform into jewellery though.

star rating : 5/5

RRP : £9.99

for more information : http://www.interplayuk.com/mystyle/shrink-design-jewellery

Disclosure : We received the product in order to write an honest review.

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Amazing Bling with Meaning ! #RealEffectBlogComp

Having spotted news on The Diary Of A Jewellery Lover blog about an exciting blogger competition, I popped over to have a look at The Real Effect Jewellery's website to see what I'd think. I'm not actually that much of a jewellery person - I never usually wear any apart from ear-rings, my wedding ring, my engagement ring and a necklace that belonged to my mum - but I have to say, I was impressed, not just at the pieces on offer but also the prices.

I'm not overly keen on bling for bling's sake, I like my jewellery to have a sentimental value too. As I mentioned, I always wear a necklace that belonged to my mum and my favourite earrings are little blue evil eye pendants that remind me of our recent trip to Turkey. I love the fact that there are some really special designs in the Real Effect collection that can be used to pass on a heartfelt message. When I gave birth to Sophie, our first baby (but she's certainly not a baby any more !), Madhouse Daddy bought me a lovely bracelet to say thank you for giving him (us) such a fabulous gift. This silver baby shoe pendant necklace would be ideal for giving to a new mum to welcome a new addition to the family - rather than add another tiny outfit to the new baby's already overstuffed wardrobe, pamper the new mum instead and give her a lovely keepsake that she'll cherish forever ! It costs £43.95 but looks like it should have a much heftier price tag.

As a mum-of-three, this pendant also leapt out at me. It features three hearts, one to represent each of my children, and I know I'd always smile when I looked at it, knowing the secret message hidden within the beautiful sterling silver and stone design. Even without the hidden meaning, it's a beautiful pendant that any woman, whatever her age, would cherish. It costs £46.90 which only works out at just over £15 a child - an absolute bargain if you ask me !!

If you fancy popping over to see what takes your fancy, do let me know which pieces appeal to you - I'm nosy like that ! It's the perfect time to start dropping less-than-subtle hints about what you'd like for Christmas from your other half, so you might like to "accidentally" leave the page open on your tablet or laptop !

Disclosure : This is my entry in the #RealEffectBlogComp

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4M Cool Colour Wristlets review

House of Fraser Denim Challenge

Shamballa Fire Jewellery kit review

4M Cool Colour Wristlets review

Sophie and Juliette both love craft kits so when we were given the chance to review a kit from 4M, we jumped at the chance. We received the Cool Colour Wristlets kit, which is suitable for ages 8+.

The box is quite small but contains everything you need to make 4 wristlets. I like the fact that this reduces excess packaging and also takes up less space on the bedroom shelf. The back of the box clearly shows the contents of the kit : 4 lengths of plastic thread, 4 little charms, 4 chains, 4 jump rings, 4 clasps and a safety pin.

The only thing you need to add is a bit of sticky tape, a ruler and a pair of scissors. We tipped everything out and cut the thread to the right length.

Sophie is a dab hand at making scoobies (or scoubidous as they're called in France - I didn't know they originated in France !) so I thought she'd find these really easy. You use the safety pin to attach the chain to a cushion (or, in Sophie's case, her onesie !) then push a small piece of thread through and make it into a loop with sellotape. Then you thread the longer piece through and basically make a scoubidou, finishing it off with a jump ring, a charm and a clasp. The instructions weren't very clear though and Sophie ended up tying herself up in knots, rather than the thread !

We have since discovered this video tutorial which makes it easier to understand what to put where. We'll have to have another go because at the moment, the project has been abandoned half completed in favour of the easier bracelet kits that we've received lately. Having had a look around at a few other reviews, lots of people seem to be saying that it's very fiddly until you get the knack so this is definitely better for older children with good coordination and lots of patience ! We will persevere though because the finished bracelets look great.

star rating : 4/5

RRP : £9.95

for more information : http://www.greatgizmos.co.uk/cool-colour-wristlets-making-kit.html

Disclosure : We received the product in order to write an honest review.

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House of Fraser Denim Challenge

House of Fraser Denim Challenge by cherylp59 

House of Fraser are inviting bloggers to put together a funky look based around denim, so I decided to come up with an outfit that would be perfect for the Christmas and New Year party scene.

For the jeans, I picked the Tommy Hilfiger Rome slim because they look smart enough to be worn on a night out but also incredibly wearable and comfortable. The cut is flattering too and could be dressed down for work or glammed up for a special party.

I love the contrast of the sheer Biba Embellished peasant blouse, worn over the top of a Jane Norman Slinky metallic vest, which suggests an almost goody-two-shoes exterior with an inner rock chick lurking just beneath the surface !

If you're wearing jeans for a special night out, they need to be glammed up with killer heels and these L.K. Bennett Harley court shoes are perfect, especially as the sparkly metallic finish echoes the metallic vest top.

The White Stuff Big Flower Necklace adds a flash of festive colour, whereas the metallic belt, diamante and pearl hair clip and Swarovski Tyra bracelet add a bit of necessary bling. The Lulu Guinness Lips metallic clutch is great fun, ties in with the metallic accessorising and is perfect for fending off unwelcome kisses under the mistletoe !

That's me all set for the Christmas party at work then !

Disclosure : This is my entry for the House of Fraser Denim Challenge - to find out more or enter, head on over to their blog.

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Interplay My Style Pick 'n' Mix Jewellery kit review

We've been lucky enough to review several products from Interplay's range of craft kits, and each time we have been really impressed with the items that the girls manage to create. We've successfully tried making Japanese Best Friend Dolls, Union Jack cushions, Shamballa jewellery and I'm sure there are more that my search box isn't picking up on ! This time, Sophie's eyes lit up when I handed her the Design & Make Pick 'n' Mix Jewellery kit.

First she unpacked all the contents and was very impressed with the huge amount of felt strips and other assorted odds and ends.

 I wasn't going to count them all, so I checked on the box - there are 120 Felt Strips x 8 colours, 170 Felt Squares x 8 colours, Toothpicks, Organza Ribbon, Stretch Jewellery Cord, Black Jewellery Cord, Jump Rings, Clasps, Clamshell Clasps, Ear Hooks, and the all-important 24 page colour instruction booklet, showing you step-by-step how to make it all. The contents are enough to make eight pieces of jewellery, including necklaces, bracelets and earrings.

It's actually quite a simple kit to use (compared to some !) because it relies on self-adhesive felt that you roll and press into the Licorice Allsort shapes.

Even with her poor bandaged thumb, which made her a bit cack-handed, Sophie managed to create this fab pair of earrings without too many problems - I just helped her open and close the little metal jump rings but she did all the "sweet" making herself.

Once her thumb has healed up (she somehow managed to cut a great gash in it when we were out doing St Martin celebrations last week - no idea how, just by running her hand across a metal barrier), she will definitely be coming back to this kit to make the rest of the jewellery. She thought it was great fun and the designs are really funky.

star rating : 4.5/5

RRP : £12.99

for more information : http://www.interplayuk.com/mystyle/pick-n-mix-jewellery

Disclosure : We received the product in order to write an honest review.

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Madhouse diaries : Sweet Beets !

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Shamballa Fire Jewellery kit review

Shamballas were hugely popular last year - the Madhouse Mini-testers spent lots of their carefully saved pocket money buying more and more of the sparkly dangly bracelets and even at school, kids of both sexes and all ages came to class wearing them (and annoying me by clinking the balls on the tops of their desks every two minutes !). Well, they may not be such a huge craze any more but there are still quite a few people wearing them and Sophie's eyes absolutely lit up when we received a Shamballa Fire crafts kit from Interplay.

She made some space on the table and excitedly unpacked everything.

You get lots and lots of exciting little bits and bobs :

2 Silver shamballa beads

3 Royal blue shamballa beads

3 Baby blue shamballa beads

20 Imitation glass pearls

Plastic coated jewellery wire

8m of black cord

Jump rings

Clasp

Clamshell clasps

Ear hooks

Safety pin

Colour instruction booklet

Carefully following the instructions (luckily it has lots of pictures with the step-by-step guide !), we cut and laid out all the pieces of cord then started tying ourselves up in knots !

Within a few minutes, I'd confused myself (but I was multitasking so not really concentrating !) and delegated the task to visiting Madhouse Nanny ! 

Together they soon got to grips with it and started creating a very impressive looking woven bracelet. I would say that the 8-12 age range is slightly ambtitious though - even 11-year-old Sophie needed adult help to work it out, although she has said that now she knows what she's doing, it's actually quite simple.

The box contains enough supplies for you to make five pieces of jewellery (shamballa earrings, shamballa bracelet, 'bling' bracelet, shamballa necklace, sparkly pearl bracelet) and a handy plastic storage box for you to store all your odds and ends in while you create the projects. Sophie has already said that she will make it into a jewellery box once she's finished too.

Sophie has only finished one of the projects so far so I can only show you one finished creation but the others should also come out just like on the box. She's having great fun and this kit will be perfect for keeping her busy during the long summer holidays.

star rating : 4.5/5

RRP : £12.99

for more information : http://www.interplayuk.com/mystyle/shamballa-fire-jewellery

Disclosure : We received the product in order to write an honest review.

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I'm a (marc b.) bag lady !!

You may have noticed the latest badge to grace my sidebar is for e-tail PR - if you're a blogger and you love fashion and competitions, you might want to go and sign up yourselves. They have a whole host of competitions on the go at the moment, including one to win £75 to spend at marc b. & £175 to spend at ASOS. The brief is to create an outfit collage based around one of marc b's new season bags, using ASOS clothing.

Well, this has to be a sign - I clicked through to the marc b. website and one of the new season bags is called Cheryl ! Well, I had to pick that one, didn't I? It's a gorgeous bag actually and would look just as good on the way to work as on a glam night out.

Now, off to ASOS to see what would go with it.

I started off with a fun, funky girl-about-town-on-the-weekend look. I wanted the colours of the sweatshirt and shoes to match the bag, but also for the accessories and sweatshirt design to echo the heart emblem of the bag pendant. I love the trousers that remind me of the Beetlejuice film too !

marc b & ASOS casual look by cherylp59 featuring leather booties

ONLY hoody, £18 / ASOS denim skinny jeans, £35 / ASOS leather booties, £39 / Black handbag, £49 / Vivienne Westwood earrings, £65 / Barbour | Barbour Wax Baker Boy Hat at ASOS, £33 / Vivienne Westwood | Vivienne Westwood Diamante Heart Pendant at ASOS, £95

But the bag is so stylish, it would look equally at home matched with a more dressy, glammed up look for a night out or a day at the office. I love this dress and the bold, striking design of the shoes really makes the look stand out. Again, I've accessorised with heart shaped jewellery to tie in with the bag pendant.

ASOS & marc b smart look by cherylp59 featuring a black bag

ASOS wiggle dress , £60 / ASOS platform heels, £43 / Black bag, £49 / Lipsy charm bracelet watch, £25 / Talullah Tu heart jewelry, £14

Disclosure : This is my entry to the e-tailpr competition, that you can find at http://etailpr.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/win-75-to-spend-at-marc-b-175-to-spend.html

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Profoundly In Love With Pandora - John Greed Blogger Challenge

Being a child of the eighties, I remember that Adrian Mole was profoundly in love with Pandora - Ian Dury even wrote a song with that as the title ! - and, having looked through John Greed Jewellery's Pandora Collection, I have to say that I am too now !

Filled with festive cheer, John Greed Jewellery have launched an exciting blogger challenge that asks bloggers to get their creativity going into overdrive so when they tweeted me about it, I headed off to have a look. The brief is : "Create your dream Pandora Charm Bracelet - using any number of Pandora charms and bracelet - the more stylish/creative/personal the better! The only rule is that it can't be over £250!"

The website explains : "Pandora charms are designed for you to remember your special moments, celebrate events and mark occasions. Show, commemorate and celebrate your love with Pandora" so I browsed through the extensive collection, looking for charms that would have special significance for me.

Profoundly In Love With Pandora by cherylp59 featuring a charm pendant

First up, I needed a blank canvas and I love the colours and simplicity of the Pandora Single Woven White Leather and Silver Starter Bracelet which costs £40.

Off to find some charms that represent the special people in my life :

The Silver Girl charm instantly reminded me of of Juliette because I think it looks a bit like her (£25)

The Silver Chinese Lucky Cat (£30) makes me smile and think of Pierre because there is a house on the way to the shops with a few in the window and he always stops and waves at them all with a huge grin on his face

The Silver Angel of Hope (£30) represents Angel, our angel baby, the girls' little sister and Pierre's big sister who wasn't meant to be

The London Bus Charm (£40) has Sophie written all over it - since our trip to London this summer, she has a passion for everything and anything that represents London and her room (and often herself too) is usually festooned in Union Jack memorabilia

That's the kids done, so I'd better not leave out Madhouse Daddy Mike - he's French so this Silver Frog Charm (£20) is the perfect tongue-in-cheek representation of my dear hubby !

The Babushka Charm (£35) reminds me of my home town, Hastings, and the fabulous "From Russia With Love" shop that I used to love browsing in, marvelling at the huge collection of Russian dolls

And the Silver Crown Charm (£25) is the perfect reminder of this fabulous year that is drawing to a close and that reminded us all how Great it is to be British, with a subtle nod to Kate and William's lovely news this week.

Grand total - £245. I saw loads of lovely filler beads and spacers that would look brilliant in between all these charms but they could be added at a later date - it's great to have a gift that you can add to, asking people to buy you a new bead for birthdays or Christmas. The best thing is creating a unique piece of jewellery that has a wonderfully personal significance, packed with memories and hidden meanings that wouldn't mean anything at all to anyone except yourself if they saw it.

for more information : http://www.johngreedjewellery.com/en/uk/page/pandorablogchallenge/

Disclosure : This is my entry to the John Greed Jewellery Pandora Blogger Challenge.

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VELCRO® #101Uses Challenge - #17 Bracelets

I don't know why but Sophie is obsessed with putting things around her wrist at the moment. I think it started with Sillybandz, but now they're out of fashion, she's constantly wandering in from school with anything from hair bands and elastic bands to coloured-in and sellotaped-up strips of paper ! Needless to say, while I was getting creative with my VELCRO® hamper, she was using the reusable ties as bracelets. I have to admit, they do look pretty funky actually !

Disclosure : I received a hamper of VELCRO® products in order to take part in the VELCRO® #101uses challenge.

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VELCRO® #101Uses Challenge - #16 No Eye-Deer !

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Wayvebands review

Last week, I received an email from a lovely mumpreneur asking me if I'd like to check out her new product, Wayvebands. She explained : "As a Mother of two teenage boys, I have been amazed at how addicted they and their friends are to wearing multiple wristbands. My eldest son played In Line Hockey for GB last year and I wanted to have a wristband made personally for him as a memento of his achievement. Eventually I found a company prepared to print an individual silicone band (most only print in 00’s or even 000’s). It cost me over £40, lasted for only 3 months  and all I could personalise were the words, nevertheless all of his friends wanted one. So I set myself the challenge of developing this idea into a business. After many months of research I found no easy solution existed to produce a high quality, totally personalised band. I ditched the idea of silicone, found a supplier of recycled leather and developed a printer that could accurately reproduce designs onto the leather wristbands. Hey Presto…the result is Wayveband!"

I went to have a look at the website and was impressed with the number of different options available. You can choose the colour of the band and the colour and font of the writing. As well as adding your special message, you can select a picture from your computer or phone and add that, either as a centred image, a stretched image all the way round the band or a repeated image all the way round. You can get a patterned Wayveband or even a plain coloured one. They really do have something to suit all tastes and as it's totally personalisable, you can make a really special and unique gift or memento. These would be great as party bag gifts for a birthday party, as a keepsake of a hen night or wedding favour, or you could design one with your phone number on for younger children to wear in case they got lost. It could also be a funky alternative to the medical alert bracelets that some people need to wear. The options are limitless.

I gave free reign to 11-year-old Sophie, telling her to do whatever she wanted. We even sat googling her name so we could find pretty, jazzed up versions of writing her name, with hearts and flowers and kittens and pretty much anything else you can think of. She looked at pictures of Katie Perry, Union Jacks and holiday snaps but in the end, she decided that she wanted something more discreet and, in her words, grown-up so she opted for an understated pink ("but not babyish pink" - she's 11 going on 18 !) Wayveband with her name in peach with the heart-adorned font. She loves it, which is the main thing !

The Wayveband has a choice of fastenings - either a coordinating leather thong (so it looks like a friendship bracelet) or a nickel-plated stud that has a screw back so that you can move it to one of the four positions. This means you're guaranteed to get a good fit.

I love the fact that the Wayvebands are made with leather offcuts (just like the Skeanie toddler shoes I reviewed recently). They also use eco-ink that has half of the solvents of normal ink and recycled packaging. 

star rating : 4.5/5

RRP : approx £7 but you get a discount if you order several

for more information : http://www.wayveband.com/

Disclosure : We received a code to create the Wayveband of our choice, in order to write an honest review.

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I'm an Oasap Fashion Blogger !

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