Review and Giveaway: The Taffy Box

I’ve always loved jewelry, especially pieces that are handcrafted. Over the years I’ve had several favorite pieces but since having become a mom (and with the resultant weight gain – or at least lack of weight loss), I’ve found that I wear less and less of it. Not because I don’t want to – but mainly because they either no longer fit in general, or just don’t fit with who I feel that I am nowadays.

However, I now have a beautiful new piece that I can wear to proudly show off, thanks to The Taffy Box!

What it is:

The Taffy Box is owned by a creative mom of four and military wife who’s found that no matter where her family is stationed, selling her handcrafted jewelry online provides a “business without boundaries”. Within the shop, you can find an assortment of one-of-a-kind items such as earrings, bracelets, necklaces, key rings – and even a baby’s first spoon or a wine stopper. She also makes custom pieces as well, such as the bracelet that I received, with my daughters’ names on it:

Here’s my take on it:

When I opened the package, I saw a cute little box, along with a hand-written notecard and several pieces of taffy. I thought that was such a ‘sweet’ (lol) touch!

I found out after opening the little box, that it’s handmade from paper – and instructions for making this type of box were included inside, along with the bracelet. It’s not often when you buy something and the packaging is as as customized and pretty as the actual item itself – but this little box is still sitting on my shelf. 

Along with the origami instructions inside, was the bracelet, of course – wrapped in plastic, with instructions for polishing it (and a tiny polishing square as well), I know that my camera definitely doesn’t do this piece of jewelry justice, which is why I included the photo above of the bracelet itself, but you can see how well it fits and how pretty it is when worn:

I love the extra little heart charm hanging off the side – it goes perfectly with the stamped hearts on the tag itself. My girls have such fun seeing their names on my wrist, and I enjoy showing it off when I’m out and about. I’ve always wanted something that’s ‘mother’ oriented, and this is absolutely perfect.

This particular bracelet is made from sterling silver plated over brass – although many items in The Taffy Box store are pure sterling, and custom pieces can be requested that way as well. I do have an allergy to ‘cheap’ metal (another reason I don’t wear much jewelry), but have had absolutely no problems whatsoever with wearing this piece – and don’t expect to since both silver and brass are metals that I can wear without trouble.

While I was looking around on the site, I happened along the answer to where the name ‘Taffy Box’ came from and thought it’s a wonderful story:

I also work at a food pantry and teach preschool. The Taffy Box started as an actual salt water taffy box that I had from a beach vacation. It was empty, so I filled it with all my bagged and priced creations to take along with me to work at preschool, or when I visited friends, or had get togethers, so they could “shop” from the box! The name sort of stuck, and then my pieces took on names of taffy flavors – Yum! ♥ Love that taffy!

The bottom line:

I can’t stop browsing through The Taffy Box – the pieces are so beautiful. I’m also wishing I hadn’t let my pierced ears close up a few months ago, as her earrings are gorgeous. Whether personalized or not, the items are each unique and you know you’re wearing something so very different from what you’ll see on anyone else walking down the street or at the playground.

Where can you find it?:

The Taffy Box is located at http://www.thetaffybox.com, and the Etsy store is at http://thetaffybox.etsy.com. Items range in price from $7 or $8 up to around $20 or $30. You can also check out her other Etsy shop at MothersPreciousGems.etsy.com, where you can custom order mother’s name bracelets, special occasion jewelry for weddings or christenings, etc. as well as cancer awareness bracelets in several different styles.
Plus she sells her overstock supplies at TheBeadBox.etsy.com so if you are in need of crafting supplies, head over to take a look!

Would you like to try it?:

Courtesy of The Taffy Box, I have a $15 gift certificate toward any item in the store to give away! If you are interested in having one of these beautiful pieces for your own, here are the rules:

1. Enter by checking out the The Taffy Box and leaving a comment on this post to tell me what your favorite piece is.  Please don’t just say ‘choose me’, or your entry will be discarded.
2. The contest will run until Tuesday, September 30th at 11:59 pm EST. The winner will be selected through random drawing, contacted by e-mail, listed on this post and also submitted to PRIZEY.Fetch. US entries only, please.
3. Please leave a valid e-mail address or other way to contact you! If you don’t wish to leave your e-mail address, please make sure that you leave a unique name and check back with PRIZEYWinners to see if you won. If the winner hasn’t responded within 3 days, an alternate winner will be chosen by random drawing.
4. If you’d like an extra entry or two, you can either subscribe to my RSS feed (click on the orange icon in the upper right sidebar), or mention this contest on your blog with a link back to this post – or both. Please leave an extra comment on this post for each of the extra entry options that you choose, letting me know – for a total of 3 comments if you do both extra entry options.

Good luck!

THIS CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED – the random number generator has chosen comment #57 as the winner:

Congratulations to Jen@The Most Important Work who said, “I love monograms, so the hand-stamped monogrammed earrings caught my eye. So cute!“! I will be e-mailing you shortly to work out the details.