Blueberry Cove Beads Subscription Box Review – January 2019

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.)

About Blueberry Cove Beads

The Subscription Box: Blueberry Cove Beads

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

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

Ships to: US and Canada

Blueberry Cove Beads January 2019 Review

Blueberry Cove Beads shipments always center around a theme. This month’s theme was “Mermaid’s Realm”:

There isn’t a traditional information card with this box (i.e., you don’t get an item list). The card typically contains a photo or piece of art on one side and information about the theme on the other.

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 if you live in the US since it is shipping from Canada. (Blueberry Cove Beads uses the Chitchats shipping service so now you can track your packages, though!)

Blue Ceramic (?) Beads

There were really a lot of lovely accent beads this month, including these. I took advantage of that and made a simple bracelet. No fancy beadweaving necessary, I just strung them to show them off (see below).

Fish Scale Cabochons

These have foiled backs and I think they’re pretty. You’ll need glue to hold them in place, and potentially also settings (or at least a flat surface). These could be fun in some bead embroidery.

Antiqued Brass Finish Fish Charms

There were two types of sea life charms this month (you’ll see the others below). These fish are pretty cute and have a lot of interesting textural details. They’re also light enough to work for earrings or a charm bracelet.

Goldtone Accent Beads

I thought these provided a fantastic contrast with the purples and blues and greens of the month so I used most of them to separate out some of the larger rounds.

Oval Beads

I don’t know what these are made of but they are fairly similar to the blue ones up above. At any rate, I love the details on them and I think they really contributed to the bracelet I made this month.

Purple, Gold, and White Rounds

I am again not sure what these are made of, but I thought they looked good with some of the other fancier/accent beads this month, so I added them to my bracelet.

Chinese Crystal Rondelles

This is a lovely color and you get a lot of them. I had several design ideas where I used them, but so far I haven’t gotten around to following through. In any case, these will look great with some other Chinese crystal I’ve been hoarding.

Shell (?) Rounds

These are almost like one-holed buttons; they’re bigger than a quarter for some size perspective. I’m going to raid my stash for other shells (I have a whole organizer and am working on a second of just natural materials excluding stone, and there are a lot of choices for companion beads there).

Drilled Shells

If you were wondering, the drill holes in mine are through the narrow part at the end (I tend to think of it as “the bottom”). These would work as simple pendants or I think they would be pretty good as purse charms.

Matte Finish Chinese Crystal Rondelles

These are a bit smaller than the others but are a good size for bead weaving (plus, a ton are available). They match my current color palette pretty well and I’m sure they’ll turn up in a bracelet or necklace one day soon.

Lampworked Bead

There was only one of these and it was in protective packaging. It arrived intact so I guess the packaging did its job. This formed the centerpiece of my bracelet (see below).

Antiqued Brass Starfish Charms

Here is the second set of charms. Handily, the finish matches the fish from up above (that is not always the case) so they could be used together. I have a large collection of sea life charms in my stash and getting these is spurring me to come up with ideas on how to use some of them.

Two-Tone Accent Beads

These are rounds that I think are meant to be supporting players, so to speak. You get a lot of them and, while they have an interesting color scheme (kind of reminds me of sand and water), I don’t think they’re really the stars of this box, but they will be good to have around for summer designs.

Here is a bracelet I made using all the fancy accent beads, some of the gold tone beads, and a few small spacers from my stash (included to slightly increase the strung length). Sorry about the weird lighting in the second photo, that’s just how it is in my dining room! This is very simple but I think it nicely shows off the included beads.

Verdict: I did not calculate a value here because it is hard to find similar items when you don’t know the precise materials the beads are made from (I do wish there was more information on the card that comes with the box, in case I find something I’d like to order more of).  There were 13 items (if I counted right) so you are paying about $2.08 an item once you factor in the cost of shipping. I like the cool colors and cute sea life images from this month’s selections.

To Wrap Up:

Can you still get this box if you sign up today? No, your first box would come in February. However, sometimes leftover monthly boxes show up in the Blueberry Cove Beads shop and they occasionally have sales, too!

Value Breakdown: At $27 for this box, including shipping, you are paying $2.08 per item.

Check out the Craft Subscription Box Directory for more great craft supply and DIY project boxes or see my other Blueberry Cove Beads reviews here!

What did you think of the January 2019 Blueberry Cove Beads?  Do you subscribe to any beading or craft boxes?