Crafty What Not's Floral Pavilion Subscription Box

A few weeks ago I received an email from Jenny from Jennysis asking if I'd like to review her new craft box, Crafty What Not's, and I jumped at the chance. I used to subscribe to Crafty Creatives but stopped after their birthday box as I like getting lots of different little bits and one or two kits rather than a box of just kits (I like doing my own thing). 

Last week my box arrived...on the same day as my iPhone 6. My sister waiting in for my phone at my flat and she was so excited when the Crafty What Nots box arrived and when I got in we opened it before my phone! 

It was refreshing to have a different sized box so you get better sized craft papers and lovely that the box had a personal feel, a bit like a friend had sent you a box of crafty presents. Everything was lovingly wrapped and there was so much attention to detail including a lovely handmade card which you could recreate yourself (I'd seen these on the Jennysis blog and thought these looked so sweet).

The theme of this box is floral pavilion but it's not overly floral in my opinion, it's very Cath Kidston.

When you open the box you have a list of what you get and an inspiration sheet which was packed with great ideas on what to make.
 
The box itself contained:

• Pattered paper/cardstock/canvas - 16 sheets of good quality thick paper/cardstock of which two of these were fabric/canvas style sheets. Some sheets had shiny accents, others were iridescent like centura pearl and lots were double sided.
• Card blanks with envelopes, two different sizes
• Flower stamp and acrylic mount
• Flower die cuts (matching the papers)
• Wooden/MDF butterflies
• Lots of gorgeous buttons
• Candi (faux legless brads - I've recently really got into these and these will be added to my collection)
• Two chalk ink pads
• Foam pads - great for use with the Candi (I don't really use small square foam pads and have so many from craft boxes but they are really useful)
• Instructions to make a handbag gift bag/box including a magnetic clasp 
• A personalised notepad (which was a lovely touch) 

I've not managed to make anything with this box so far (due to our cheeky little kittens) but I'm going to make some flowers (like the one below) with the Candi, and will be adding the buttons to my button collection and making some of the button cards on the Jennysis blog.

Each box is £12.50 plus P&P and the promise of products of at least £20 and each box will contain at least one papercraft project and other things such as jewellery making, sewing and other crafts. I think it is a good idea and the box itself is nice but I'm not sure I'd pay £12.50 for it especially when I have a lot of similar things already but it's great for people new to crafting and wanting to get a range of items to try. 

If you'd like to find out more or sign up for the boxes you can visit the Craft What Not's page here

Please note that I received this box free of charge in exchange for an honest review.

Crafty Birthday Card

Now this is kind of spooky...I made the below card at the weekend as a break from Christmas card making and today I've seen Polkadoodles Digi Choosday Challenge is to make a craft related card!

I love the Emma Canning Digis and brought her CD back in August from Polkadoodles and loved the digi I've used in this card as it has a Sizzix Big Shot style die cutting machine in. I coloured it in Spectrum Noirs and framed it using a frame made die cut from foil takeaway tray lids (see one of my previous posts). I used similar dies to the one in the digi to bring it all together then I used felt flowers from Craft Artist as embellishments. 

Back to Christmas crafts now for me - can't wait for the Christmas Wreath making event at Hobbycraft tomorrow. I'll post a picture of our finished wreaths once they're done (I booked tickets for my Mum and I and as we have similar tastes they'll probably be very similar) 

Quick Card

Small card made with a doily coloured with Spectrum Noirs and digistamp from DigiStamp Heaven from Polkadoodles.

Some of my uses of Crafty Creatives packaging

I love the Crafty Creatives boxes and one of the things I enjoy seeing is that months packaging paper/material.

For my valentines day cards I used the Halloween theme box rose material (I only sent one card but made cards for friends and family to give).

This month I loved the polkadot print and used it for my Mum's Mother's Day present (a handmade pin cushion and some flower head pins). I wrapped this with some twine (similar to that in the box this month but I have lots of reels of different colours from a competition) and also used a tag I think was in a past box. No tape needed at all either!

I've used the printed brown paper for small gifts previously too as think it looks so lovely and have used it in my Big Shot with my hedgehog die as it gives a great texture and colour for my hedgehogs. (The picture below shows this on our hedgehog's house sign, he is such a messy hog, he rearranges his cage at night)

What have you used your paper wraps for?

New Auction Style Site for Crafters - Craftbidder

While reading through my copy of Papercraft Inspirations I came across an article on Craftybidder, an auction website for crafters to sell and purchase craft items. It was put together buy a couple comprising of a wife who loves crafting and a husband who loves computers so brings their two loves together.

Their Facebook page describes the site as:
Craftybidder was setup to give UK crafters and opportunity to buy stock, find new projects, and to sell their finished wares. Craftybidder is free to join and free to list items . We only charge a small fee when your item has sold or if you upgrade your listing.


I've signed up and can't wait to use it after Christmas as I'm going to have a good tidy up of my craft bits and I'm always on the look out to buy more craft bits.

You can also set up a store on Craftbidder to sell your finished items. It's a bit like eBay and Etsy all mixed together! I also like the fact you can post items you are looking for.

Another aspect I like is the forum and the spotlight on crafters section. It's got everything in one place.

You can sign up and visit the site by going to: https://www.craftybidder.com/index.php?ref=100357

I'm definately going to get organised and get on there as soon as Christmas is over.

You can also follow Craftbidder on Facebook by searching for Craftybidder.com

Has anyone tried this site already? What did you think?