October

2017

100+ Chainmaille Designs Back On Our Website!

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Browse Chainmaille Patterns For Sale, For Free Download, Or Just For Eye-Candy & Inspiration!

I’ve started resurrecting the Designs section of BlueBuddhaBoutique.com to showcase all the classic Blue Buddha patterns developed by myself, our guest designers and our amazing chainmaille team over the years.

If a PDF tutorial for a particular pattern is available for sale, the end of the description will include a link to purchase in the Blue Buddha Etsy shop. And, as before, most of the patterns in the “Introductory” section are available for free download, woo-hoo!

There are still a couple dozen more patterns to add, so if you’re looking for something that’s not there, check back in a few weeks/months.

I’ve started reaching out to guest designers whose projects have been repeatedly requested by customers to negotiate new contracts with them (since their old contract was with Blue Buddha the corporation, not Blue Buddha the sole proprietor, heh). Trinity is already available; Dragon’s Eye and Mngwa should be following soon!

In the meantime, there’s plenty of eye candy to check out in the Chanmaille Patterns area of the Designs section:

screenshot of blue buddha boutique website chainmaille designs page

You can click the tabs within the section to scroll through the projects in the various levels, or you can look at everything at once by clicking the “view all patterns on one page” link near the top right.

Additional Updates

In case you missed the announcement in last month’s newsletter, I’ve also added the old Stats and Uses page for base metal jump rings to the “Knowledge Base” section. (It’s not pretty, but it’s there, heh. I know many of you missed this page … so, enjoy!)

There’s still lots of work to do and probably plenty of broken links to fix. If you have comments or suggestions on what you’d like to see next, please leave a comment below or email me [email protected]; I can adjust my priority list based on your suggestions!

October

12

2017

Linkt® Craft Kits Win Multiple Awards!

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ASTRA Best Toys for Kids 2017 and Oppenheimer Toy Portfolio Gold Seal 2017 Awards

The five introductory Linkt® Craft Kits from Neat-Oh! International make it easy for children, tweens and adults to make professional artisan-quality jewelry. In the few short months since we launched, Linkt® Craft Kits have already won several industry awards:

We are honored to have received a Best Toys For Kids 2017 award for our Bubble Loops kit!

This award comes from ASTRA: American Specialty Toy Retailing Association. Products are nominated by toy store owners around the country, so this award means a great deal to us. These shop owners are experts when it comes to selecting quality toys and gifts, especially for the hard-to-please tween market. We greatly appreciate this support from specialty retailers and love that they believe in our product!

Thank you store owners and thank you ASTRA! We’re thrilled.

Hoops and Loops Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Seal Award box

Two Linkt® Craft Kits now in stores have also been awarded the prestigious Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Seal. Both our Hoops & Loops Kit and our Spinning Halos Kit received this honor.

In writing about our Hoops & Loops kit, which makes 20 pairs of earrings, the Oppenheim Toy Portfolio website proclaimed: “Our 12-year old tester gave this a 10, the highest possible score in our rating system!”

Read the full review of Hoops & Loops on the Oppenheim Toy Portfolio website.

Spinning Halos Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Seal Award box

The review of the Spinning Halos kit mentions that the rings are easy to open and the instructions clear. They also found our YouTube videos helpful, so be sure to check out the Linkt® Craft Kits channel as you start to work on your kits!

We worked so hard to create a tween craft kit that makes stunning, real jewelry while providing a fun, engaging challenge–and we’re thrilled that our work is being recognized. Thank you, Oppenheim Toy Portfolio!

Linkt™ Craft Kits was created by Neat-Oh! International, a successful specialty toy manufacturing company, and Rebeca Mojica, founder of Blue Buddha Boutique. Driven by a desire to make this artform accessible to all, Rebeca and Neat-Oh! developed new tools and materials to revolutionize this craft. The product was also named one of the top 5 Innovations Center finalists at Creativation 2017.

Each kit, priced at $20, has everything you need to complete multiple projects in a single box. You can make up to 20 pairs of earrings, or 5 necklaces, or 5 bracelets—mixing and matching metal and silicone rings in a variety of colors so every single piece is different.

Support small businesses! Purchase Linkt® Craft Kits at specialty retailers across the US/Canada or in the Blue Buddha Boutique Etsy store.

For updated information and to find out when new designs for
Linkt™ Craft kits are available, follow Linkt® Craft Kits on Facebook!

Have fun, get Linkt®!

Buy Linkt Craft Kits on Amazon.com:

Bubble Loops

Spinning Halos

Bonding Bracelets

Hoops & Loops

Maille Bonding

LEGAL NOTE: Some of the links in this article are affiliate links, which means I earn a few pennies for any transactions you make on Amazon after following those links. Any little bit helps keep the lights on, so I appreciate your clicks and purchases very much. Thanks for supporting independent artisans and small businesses!

September

24

2017

Linkt® Craft Kits on QVC – Linkt Chainmaille Jewelry Craft Kit

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Athena Necklace Kit – DIY Chainmaille Necklace – Available from QVC

The brand new Linkt® Crafts Kit design–Athena Necklace–is now available on QVC.

To watch the on-air demo and purchase your kit, visit the Linkt Chainmaille Jewelry Craft Kit page on QVC.com, or search for product T35214 on the QVC website

The kit features a tool, instructions and enough supplies to make 7 separate necklaces in different color combinations. This kit was made especially for QVC and has a few metal colors not available in any other Linkt® Crafts Kit product. This is a Level 1 Apprentice project, perfect for people at all levels including those with no prior experience.

Linkt® Craft Kits was created by Neat-Oh! International, a successful specialty toy manufacturing company, and Rebeca Mojica, founder of Blue Buddha Boutique. Driven by a desire to make this artform accessible to all, Rebeca and Neat-Oh! developed new tools and materials to revolutionize this craft. The product was named one of the top 5 Innovations Center finalists at Creativation 2017. Another Linkt® Craft Kit design, Bubble Loops, won a Best Toys for Kids 2017 award from ASTRA (American Specialty Toy Retailing Association).

For updated information and to find out when new designs for Linkt® Craft kits are available (yep, we’re already working on the next collection!), follow Linkt Craft Kits on Facebook!

Have fun, get Linkt™!

BUY YOUR KIT TODAY!

July

24

2017

Linkt Craft Kits Now Available!

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The Hottest New Tween Craft Project Helps You Make Stunning, Real, Metal Jewelry

July 2018 UPDATE: To find available kits, try searching for Linkt Craft Kits on Amazon or follow the links at the end of this post.

These 5 kits introductory kits from Neat-Oh! International make it easy for children, tweens and adults to make professional artisan-quality jewelry.

Use Linkt® Craft Kit’s patent-pending tool to help you link metal rings together, creating a stunning piece of real jewelry faster than you think. The metal is soft enough that you can bend the rings by hand, but strong enough to make lasting jewelry. Kits include crystal-clear instructions, materials to make five bracelets in a variety of colors, and a bonus charm and a patent-pending layout tool.

Linkt® Craft Kits was created by Neat-Oh! International, a successful specialty toy manufacturing company, and Rebeca Mojica, founder of Blue Buddha Boutique. Driven by a desire to make this artform accessible to all, Rebeca and Neat-Oh! developed new tools and materials to revolutionize this craft. The product was named one of the top 5 Innovations Center finalists at Creativation 2017.

Each kit, priced at $20, has everything you need to complete multiple projects in a single box. You can make up to 20 pairs of earrings, or 5 necklaces, or 5 bracelets—mixing and matching metal and silicone rings in a variety of colors so every single piece is different.

For more info, see my previous blog post introducing Linkt® Craft Kits.

LInkt Craft Kits chainmaille bracelets, necklaces and earrings in a variety of colors

For updated information and to find out when new designs for Linkt® Craft kits are available (yep, we’re already working on the next collection!), follow Linkt Craft Kits on Facebook!

Have fun, get Linkt®!