National vice-president of the Society [...] No related posts. Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.]]> Parents that celebrate their children’s First Holy Communion spend about £900 on the day making, according to a survey, the religious industry worth more that £50m. But those young 9 and 10 year olds only receive about £324 in gifts in Ulster well below the average in Ireland of £411.

National vice-president of the Society of St Vincent de Paul (SvP) John Monaghan said the parents spend that so that their children do not stand out among the others. We suggest injecting a bit of sanity back into the equation he added. It has taken from the sacrament and focused on the show business. There are many who truthfully cannot afford the expense.

Before the recession it was common for parents to hire bouncy castles, limousines and other extras to splash on their children. Plus they splashed out in expensive suits and dresses. The spending had come down by 17% over the past two years maybe order is on the way.

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Back in 2006 Lisa Pugh started FingerPrint Jewellery to let out the inner artist hiding in this mother of two. Since then she has become one of the countrys foremost designers of bespoke jewellery and keepsakes.

Her pieces are made from pure silver and are of course all [...] No related posts. Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.]]>

Highly personal and unique Jewellery

Back in 2006 Lisa Pugh started FingerPrint Jewellery to let out the inner artist hiding in this mother of two. Since then she has become one of the countrys foremost designers of bespoke jewellery and keepsakes.

Her pieces are made from pure silver and are of course all hand-made, uniquely each item sports a childs drawing, footprint, fingerprint, doodle or lots of other possabilties, she can also further personalise your custom piece to your specifications.

By using a combination of traditional jewellery making techniques and modern metal technology, the designers ensure the prints or drawings are recreated perfectly and turned into beautiful pieces of jewellery that can go on to become family heirlooms.  In less than 28 days and from just £18 your prints and designs can be turned in to pure silver charms that can be worn on a bracelet or necklace or made into a gorgeous pendant on a keyring or scarf pin.The possibilities are endless.

For something a little more quirky, ”Little Picassos” are a truly unique way to treasure your child’s mini master-piece forever in solid silver. Your child’s artwork is miniaturized and then lovinglyrecreated as an original piece of jewellery. They make a wonderful memento of a child’s early years.

The story behind FingerPrint Jewellery…
All her life Lisa had always been an extremely creative and artistic individual, with a flair for making handcrafted unusual gifts, which she sold to gift shops in her local area alongside her career working for BT.

When Lisa left her full time job to start a family she was constantly looking for unique ways to mark special events and milestones in their life. With her boys growing up so fast, Lisa wanted to make a keepsake that would be truly individual and capture the essence of their childhood so she put her creative skills to work and created a necklace with both Harry’s and Charlie’s fingerprints on it. Little did Lisa know what a stir this would cause. Everywhere she went other parents would ask her where she had got her necklace from and how they could get one made.

“Other mums started telling me how they wanted to capture the ages and stages of their baby or child’s growth and it was clear there was a real gap in the market for bespoke and stylish keep-sakes. I felt this was the perfect opportunity to indulge my creativity, by offering a gift that is as unique and individual as their child, I could fulfill my dream of developing a business around my love of design.” Says Lisa.

Over the next few years Lisa began making bespoke pieces for parents alongside running her successful Tumble Tots franchise. By 2006 she was so inundated with request from friends and other parents that she decided to finally take the plunge and sell her Tumble Tots franchise to help finance the launch of FingerPrint Jewellery.

How Fingerprint Jewellery Works….

Highly personal and unique Jewellery

After the successful launch in 2006, Fingerprint Jewellery grew very quickly to become the market leader in bespoke keepsake jewellery. Demand for Lisa’s jewellery exceeded all her expectations and she soon realised she needed to pioneer a way for customers to be able to take their own prints at home so that she could manage all her orders efficiently.

After months and months of research Lisa developed two mail-order kits that allowed her customers to take their child’s prints at home in a matter of minutes. The first kit is for taking the fingerprints and is a specialised impression putty designed to pick up the finest detail in even the smallest of fingers. The putty is extremely soft to the touch and totally safe to use. Once the prints are taken, the putty hardens and stabilises so that it can be posted back.The second kit is for the Ten Tiny Toes impressions and is a special inkless wipe which magically captures a child’s hand or footprints onto sensitised paper. This method was developed for use in maternity hospitals in America and is totally safe and totally clean! Hand and footprints appear like magic on the paper and can simply be posted back.  With a little added magic from Lisa, the hand or footprints are miniaturised to fit the chosen item of jewellery and recreated as though they were imprinted directly into the silver!

5 Years On…
To meet the high demand for her designs in 2010 Lisa decided to train up a highly skilled team of designers across the UK to offer a more personalised service.  Trained to Lisa’s extremely high standard at the FingerPrint studio in Hertfordshire, the designers are then able to showcase the jewellery at local events, shows and private parties, meet with customers and provide a face-to-face print-taking service.

“The designers own and operate their own FingerPrint Jewellery business without the uncertainty usually associated with business start-ups and with all the benefits and support of being part of a well respected and renowned brand.” Says Lisa

Bucking the global recession, 2010 was a great year for FingerPrint Jewellery, experiencing 65% growth over the previous year. The company was also a finalist in the ‘Best Business Website’ and ‘Creative Innovation’ categories in the Hertfordshire Business Awards.

What’s Next…
Lisa plans to take on more carefully selected designers throughout 2011, making the personal service even more widely available.

Lisa has also introduced a gorgeous Cluster Ring Necklace that can be customized with a variety of charms for a really unique look. Plus the much anticipated Pandora Charms, these custom charms can be added to any Pandora bracelet, giving it a truly special and personal touch.

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The survey which was conducted by The Children’s Mutual [...] No related posts. Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.]]> The financial squeeze may be affecting the parents of young adults ages 18 to 30 more than others, as figures suggest that 28% of the parents of the group known as ‘Babygloomers’ have paid their children’s debts or at least given money to help them out.

The survey which was conducted by The Children’s Mutual included 1500 parents and showed that most parents have not anticipated such costs placing their own finances in potential jeopardy in order to help out their kids.

In fact, around 66% of the parents stated that they already have reduced their day to day living costs in order to help out an adult child or expect to adjust them in the future.  Adjustments include shopping for food economically, reducing heat and light usage within the home, and selling their cars.

Chief executive of The Children’s Mutual, David White, stated that the figures show that parenting is expensive and that 18 does not mean financial independence anymore, with16% of parents expecting their children to stay dependent on them past their thirties.

White continued to comment that most people they questioned offered one basic word of advice for those with young children currently, save money now.  Over half of the group interviewed stated that if they were aware of how much it cost to have an adult child they would have tucked more funds away than they did.

He cautioned that the figures are a warning to parents that 18 is no longer the age at which a child becomes dependent and that parents need to plan for the future for a much longer period of time now in order to survive.

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