My children were so excited to sign up to the Summer Reading Challenge. They are two little bookworms and love nothing more than making a den and reading. The Summer Reading Challenge gives them a little boost to carry on reading when school is out for the summer holidays and they are so pleased that our local library has re-opened so they can get their hands on more books!

We were recently sent some Aquabeads to craft with. My daughter just loves a little crafty afternoon and was so pleased to have something new to craft with. It’s been almost too hot for home learning the last few days and we’ve spent a very happy afternoon or two making some colourful bookmarks for her to use.

Crafting fun with Aquabeads

Have you heard about Aquabeads? They are small beads which can be used to make all kinds of patterns. The best thing is that they fuse together with a spray of water so it’s a great craft material for kids who like independent crafting and more importantly, it’s MESS FREE! We were sent a selection of Aquabeads products to craft with, which we were really grateful for as this period of lockdown has seen us use up a lot of our craft supplies.

New Aquabead star beads

We received the new Star Bead Studio as well as two smaller refill packs, the Star Friends Set and the Star Beads Refill Set, perfect as my daughter can get through a LOT of beads. She was so excited when the parcel arrived. We hadn’t heard of Star Beads before but they are bumpy beads, we’re not really sure how else to describe them. We’ve used the plain beads and the jewel ones but now Aquabeads have added STAR beads to the range for even more fun! They are quite easy to pick up, although a plastic bead picking up tool is included with the Star Bead Studio.

Make a colourful bookmark with Aquabeads

There were loads of templates for crafting inside the Star Bead Studio, as well as a template tray, loads of beads and a water sprayer. My daughter dived right in as she’s had a few Aquabead sets before. She emptied all the packs of beads into the star-shaped tray, which has a handy lid so you can store your beads safely.

She picked some of her favourite designs and was so happy to make them up. The Studio is simple to use. You just choose the design you like and slip it under the tray then place the correct bead on top of the design. You can fit quite a few designs onto the tray. The beads hold together with a few squirts of water. You can flip them out of the template tray and leave them to dry, allowing you to make more designs on the template tray.

We really loved playing with the star beads. We customised some of the summer-y designs to make fun bookmarks for Summer but there are downloadable template sheets for children to use as inspiration too. My daughter made the cute pineapple but added a colourful border of blue to make it larger.

We also customised the flower design, changing the colours and adding a border to make it into a bookmark. The aquabeads are really strong and make great bookmarks.

There are loads of designs to make but it’s fun to come up with your own ideas too. Many of the designs can be tweaked and turned into useful items. Take a look at #AquaLockdownCrafts for more inspiration!