Hama Beads
Midi Hama Bead Give Away
9th December 2011
First of all, I’ve horribly late on my prize drawing of the Corolle doll but using my patented testing method of getting the girls to shout out a number and seeing who I actually heard, Aileen is the winner!!!!
To get back on track, this next give away is running until Tuesday night only. This week we are giving away two large Midi Hama Bead Craft Kits, our staple product, the very first product I ever sold from my fledgling business in my kitchen cupboard, all those years ago.
I’ve picked two lovely kits, both worth £12.95 and both will come with a voucher worth £10 to spend at CraftMerrily. You can click on both images to find out more about them.
You might also enjoy my recent round up of the free Christmas Hama Bead patterns on BeadMerrily and the various Christmassy sets we also sell. All the Merrily shops will be posting out for Christmas until the 21st December, unless we get snow 
To enter (UK only) leave a comment below. If you tweet the competition, leave another comment, if you facebook it, leave another. If you blog a link to PoP or PlayMerrily, leave more comments.
I will draw the competition on Tuesday 13th December at midnight and the winner will have one week to send me their address.
Posted in Hama Beads | 
Tags: midi hama bead craft kits | 
47 Comments »
Maxi Hama Bead Giveaway
14th November 2011
It’s been a while since I’ve had a child in the house who wants to play with Maxi Hama Beads (3+), more is the pity, but we keep a box of them here anyway, for visiting small people or because just occasionally they hit the spot for one of the big kids in some indefinable way. Maxi Beads, which are far chunkier than the ordinary Midi Bead size, are lovely for young fingers. I’ve used them for so many things – threading beads, counting tools, sorting tools – and then of course there is the added bonus of actually using them as intended. When small people are very little, they don’t tend to remember and need them ironing either, which is a great money saver and as they get older, they make glorious toys, being strong and chunky, or wall decorations.
This is Josie using them at about 18 months, under supervision of course – she loved them from a really early age.
My lovely friend Josie the Bigger recently reviewed some for me – you can see how much 3 year old Kai enjoyed them over at Sleep is for the Weak.
To enter (UK only) leave a comment below. If you tweet the competition, leave another comment, if you facebook it, leave another. If you blog a link to PoP or PlayMerrily, leave more comments. I have two sets to give away to a lucky winner.
I will draw the competition on Saturday 19th November at 12pm and the winner will have one week to send me their address. If we get lots of entries, I’ll add some PlayMerrily gift vouchers in too 
Posted in Hama Beads, Uncategorized | Tags: hama beads for small children, maxi hama bead review, maxi hama beads, my first hama beads | 60 Comments »
Hama Bead Designs for Autumn
16th October 2011
From time to time me and the girls get creative and start making pretty things with Hama Beads again. This is a good time of year for spooky and autumnal designs, so we’ve been beading merrily over the last few days.
The girls had fun making things, most of which I still need to take some pictures of. I loved this leaf by Maddy though.
Over on BeadMerrily, I’ve put some updated Hama Bead Seasons Pictures up on a post there – all the patterns are free, as usual. There is also a Hama Bead Halloween Screen on there, which was designed a few years ago and badly needed to come out of the archives. We’ve got some spooky new designs coming up, but I think the girls will be wanting to do these rather fabulous 3D Spooky Hama ornaments too.
As regular readers of the blog will know, we make our living from our online toy and craft sites. We’re always grateful for customers who buy from us thanks to the blogs and if you put “beadmerrily bag” in the comments box, we’ll send you a little pack of free beads to go with your order
Along with all those freebies, here is a 3D pattern Maddy designed the day before Freddie was born. It is available to download free from BeadMerrily or you can purchase it for ??1. All proceeds will go to Hinchingbrooke SCBU.
Posted in Hama Beads | Tags: free hama bead designs, halloween crafts, halloween hama beads, hama bead autumn patterns, hama bead pictures | 2 Comments »
Royal Wedding Easy Kids Craft in Hama Beads
26th April 2011
When I was at school, one of my teachers used to call me “the late Miss Taylor” – as you can see, I’m not renown for being on time or early, so my Royal Wedding craft is suitably too late to actually drum up sales. Ah well
The girls did these designs today; I’ll do better pictures tomorrow, but I wanted to put their efforts up to be seen. My Union Jack isn’t finished though – ran out of blue at home!
Maddy rather wonderfully did the figures (Kate’s dress being an excellent opportunity try out the new Hama Bead Pearl Colour and the fabulous heart with kate and Will on it. She also did the crown with the veil attached.
Fran did the Hama Bead Bunting, which we are gong to string up (made on large hexagon pegboards with holes for ribbon) and the flags.
Amelie did the Union Jack themed cupcake 
and the blue bunting shape with a K on it (I took the photo backwards!)
Josie did the penguin in a wedding dress. Every Royal Wedding should have one
We are, of course, always grateful for the sales we get from readers of the blog. CraftMerrily (and PlayMerrily) support the family entirely and we really appreciate our customers.
Posted in Arts & Crafts, Hama Beads | Tags: easy royal wedding crafts, free royal wedding bead designs, hama bead bride, hama bead bunting, hama bead princess, royal wedding crafts for kids, royal wedding hama bead patterns, will and kate | 5 Comments »
Dragon & St George’s Day Hama Bead Patterns
24th April 2011
These are images from various Hama Bead kits available at CraftMerrily. With grateful thanks to DKL (our first and still our favourite supplier) and Hama DK.
I got all behind this year and didn’t make any new ones of our own. I do love the Crocodile and Dragon boards though. Must do more for next year
Posted in Hama Beads, Uncategorized | Tags: dragon designs for hama beads, dragon patterns for hama beads, free hama patterns, hama bead dragons, st georges day hama bead designs | Comments Closed
Hama Bead Easter Bunnies
22nd April 2011
I can always rely on Maddy to come up with some brilliant Hama Bead patterns for me and she really went for it this time. Maddy, you are a complete star
We are just going to stick these together and hang them up now
Other offerings include Josie’s chicks
and her rabbit
Maddy’s adaptation of a chick breaking out of an egg from one of the Inspiration books
and a set of card topper designs, also by Maddy.
These join all our other free Easter Bead Patterns on BeadMerrily, a Hama Bead Design Resource from CraftMerrily
Posted in Arts & Crafts, Hama Beads | Tags: easter crafts for children, easter hama beads, free hama bead designs, hama bead easter bunny, hama beads, midi beads | Comments Closed
Easter Hama Bead Designs
18th April 2011
Maddy made this last year, the day before Freddie was born. It’s kind of a funny thing, now. I love it though.
The girls have made various things over the last week, to help me out with some new pages on BeadMerrily, home of all things Hama Bead-y.
This is from one of the Mini Bead books. Fran made it up in Midi Beads. It’s big, but it really works well. They’ve done other things too. I want to make Spring and Easter things to hang from the magnolia trees.
Over at BeadMerrily, I’ve put together some pages to inspire you:-
There are patterns of rabbits, ducks and chicks made by my friend Shazann.
Lots of designs to do on the Egg Board. We’ve got a money saving Hama Bead bumper pack that includes the board.
Designs to make on the Flower Pegboard.
Some Hama Bead Easter and Spring Designs from around the internet.
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