Blueberry Cove Beads Subscription Box Review – November 2016

Blueberry Cove Beads is a beading subscription from Canada. Every month they ship beads and supplies and post a challenge incorporating one or more items from the box. If you choose to enter the challenge, you share photos of your project and may win your next month’s box free!

My Subscription Addiction pays for this subscription. (Check out the review process post to learn more about how we review boxes.)

The Subscription Box: Blueberry Cove Beads

The Cost: $27 ($22 for the subscription + $5 shipping)

The Products: A curated selection of beads and findings centered on a theme.

Ships to: U.S. and Canada

Check out all of our Blueberry Cove Bead reviews and the Craft Subscription Box Directory for more great craft supply and DIY project boxes!

Keep Track of Your Subscriptions: Add this box to your subscription list or wishlist!

There isn’t a traditional information card with this box. This month the challenge is to make a necklace with some of the charms in the box; the theme was “Renaissance.”

A note on prices: Items like this can come from a variety of different suppliers at many price points depending on how many you buy, etc. Even different colors of the same size and shape of glass beads are priced differently due to materials needed to make the colors! So I have opted not to provide prices in this review.

Please note that no directions are given and you have to supply your own needles, stringing materials, tools, and findings. Also, note that you will receive this towards the end of the month or the beginning of the next month if you live in the U.S. since it is shipping from Canada.

Red (Acrylic?) Crackle Beads

White Firepolished Rondelles with Partial Metallic Coating

Green Firepolished Faceted Rounds with Partial Metallic Coating

I will talk about these all as a group since I used them all together. I think they were meant to be accent beads but while I was trying to decide what to make for this month, I kept thinking back to these. I like how they are all close to the same size but slightly different in shape and finish. They looked good with some gold-tone accents.

Black X-Shaped Beads

These are a good color that will go with a lot of different things in my stash. And I definitely don’t have anything like them.

Cameo Cabochons

I have been wanting to get back into beading around cabochons, for example, to make hair barrettes. These will be good for practice. Note: the one on the right looks fine in real life, those are lights reflecting off it (not white spots).

Lavender Teardrops

These are actually a lovely shade of lavender (my background for beads is cream-colored but I need it to keep beads from rolling everywhere). I saved a bunch of patterns for wire-wrapped earrings with stones/beads like this so I need to go back and find where I saved them because these would be perfect for earrings and they would look good with copper, which I am hoarding.

Clear Lampworked Beads with Copper Accents

I’m debating what to do with these. I get a lot of lampworked beads in similar sizes in subscription boxes in pairs.  I may string them all onto a ribbon and make knots between them. My grandma has a necklace like that and I think it is lovely.

Silver-Tone Fleur de Lis Charms

These would work well in a charm bracelet with other silver-tone charms. (Sorry about the cat hair. The kitties kept walking across while I was trying to take pictures.)

Blue Lampworked Beads

See, another pair of lampworked glass beads! This ribbon necklace is going to happen sooner rather than later.

Gold Lock and Key Toggle Clasps

These are cute and clever. And clasps are always appreciated. I often raid my stash for clasps from other bead subscription boxes (or past months of this subscription) to finish off my work.

Gold Cross Charms

I’m not so into religious imagery, but I have a fair number of religious relatives and I can easily see working these into a gift for one of them.

Gold-Tone Spacer Beads

I used most of these in my necklace, as well, to extend the length of the green beads.

Miniature Treasure Chest Charm

This is very cute. I have a lot of one-off charms and I think I will have to make a bracelet out of them.

I originally intended to make this longer but ran out of the green beads. Oops. Anyway, it was choker-length on me (I have a pretty thin neck) so it will still work. I recently bought a couple of green dresses I think this will look nice with.

Verdict: I did not calculate a value here but if you divide the total cost + shipping by the number of items, you are paying slightly over $2 an item. I think that is fair – there were a lot of fancy lampworked beads this month, a generous number of accent beads, and quite a lot of metal, and those are usually expensive (especially if you buy at retail prices in small amounts).

What did you think of the November 2016 Blueberry Cove Beads? Do you subscribe to any beading or craft boxes?