V. Paperie May 2017 Box

          I got the V. Paperie box last week but didn't open it because I had another box I wanted to review (Papergang). I kept looking at it but stopped myself from opening it until it was time to review it.

          For me the V. Paperie box was all about the cards and this box did not disappoint in that respect. I could also spy two things that I usually enjoy when it comes to stationery: pens and notepads.

          This pen looked rustic and funky so of course, I loved it. the only gripe I have is that there is no way to retract the nib of the pen. It has black ink.

          The notepad has a pretty design on it; unfortunately, it either didn't survive the trip or it didn't survive the Kuwaiti customs. The notepad fell apart but it is still very much usable I just have to keep the ribbon around it when I am done using it.

          The reason for the box, three greeting cards. The first says "Thanks", the second says "Congratulations" and the third says "I'm grateful you're my mum". Very pretty!

          Finally, a soy candle. It smelled flowery. I'm not a big fan of candles but I know someone who is so, I'm going to give it away as a gift.

          Even though I liked all the items in the box, somehow I felt disappointed in the contents. I can't put my finger on why that it. It just felt a little off to me, and not like the previous boxes I had gotten from them. Still, all the products are good quality and will be put to good use.

Papergang May 2017 Box

          I wasn't sure what I would get in this box; I had seen a few unboxings, which was what made me go try it out on CrateJoy. The box was just beautiful on the outside. 

          I saved the box to be recycled for some art project. The products were beautifully wrapped in some baby blue tissue paper, nice and snug.

          After I unwrapped the blue tissue paper the first things I saw were some stickers and what looked like a planner. There was also a welcome note and on the back of that was information on what is included in the box. 

          I loved that they included the price of each item so you know what the net worth of the box is. I think unless the item is handmade all boxes should do that. The sticker sheet was very cute, and it was an extra because I just could not find it on the information card. I'm going to use the heck out of the stickers because they are actually things that I would put in my journal.

          Next up are the greeting cards. There are two of them; one says Happy Birthday and the other says Thank You, designed by OHH DEER and AMY LESKO, they were printed in the UK and costs 5 pounds which is about 6.44 dollars.

          The weekly planner has the same cover as the outside of the box, which I thought was crazy cute. The planner itself is not dated, which I like, and it was designed by OHH DEER. It was printed in the UK and costs 9.95 pounds which is around 12.82 dollars.

          The curator of the box also included a Riso printed Calendar for the month of June. This is great for people like me who like to have a month at a glance page in their journals. I love all the adorable pictures that are on it. 

          Finally, there was an A5 notepad designed by AMY LESKO which retails for 5.95 pounds (7.67 dollars) and a pencil designed by OHH DEER which retails for 50 pence (64 cents). I love me some notepads and pencils!

         So the total cost of the subscription is 9.95 pounds (12.82 dollars) and if you add shipping it is 11.90 pounds (15.33 dollars). The total cost of the items in the box is around 21.40 pounds (27.58 dollars) and I'm not counting the items that had no price like the stickers and the paper calendar. So this is good bang for my buck, and it is items I know I'm going to use.

          One more thing, on the back of the box there is a drawing for an origami that you can do by yourself if you are so inclined, this month it is a rose.

Holly Journals May Box 2017

          I think that Holly Journals is fast becoming my favourite of all my subscriptions so far. The content is always fun and original and always usable. This box is no exception. 

          The first thing you see when you open the box is the set of prompts for May, a note from the curator of the box and the information card.

 

          The next thing I saw was an envelope full of goodies. There were stamps, some stickers for travelling and a paper clip shaped as a plane. 

 

          A beautiful necklace was wrapped in some bubble wrap as well as a charm to put on the journal which had a camera and a passport on it. They were both super cute.

 

 

          Next came the two pens. The first is a Sakura Gel Pen (colour white) and the second is a ball point pen. They will get a lot of use from me.

**I'm kind of glad I read the information paper otherwise I would have missed it, a mini pencil.

 

          No box is complete without some candy and this month it was peppermint.

 

          Finally, the reason for the box. It is a work of art as usual. I'm always surprised and excited by the bits and bobs included as scrap pieces in the journal. 

 

   

I LOVE THIS JOURNAL. 

Spotlight Stationery (April 2017)

          I was waiting for this box to arrive. I've loved everything in the February and March boxes and I really wanted to know what weird product was in this box. I wasn't disappointed. 

          As usual, Kuwait customs were not nice to the tissue paper. 💁 This month's theme is Flora and Fauna.

     Spotlight Stationery is one of the few box subscriptions that I get that does a personalised envelope and I really like it. The envelope had a collection of very beautiful and cute postcards.

1. The one with the leaves is by Elena O'Neill

2. The Space Wrestling Flyers is by Adam Forster 

3. Humorous Animal Character is by Yion Lim

4.  The Eleventh Hour is by Emily Clout

      

          The next two things go together. They are the Longtree notebook and Card. They both have very bold colours (two of my favourites in fact) and feature silhouettes of flowers and seed heads. I really enjoy the pocket notebooks as I go through them fairly quickly so I am always happy to see them in a box. With this card, my stash is growing nicely with different sorts of cards.

         These pencils are Rossi pencils. They are wrapped in Italian paper and are decorated with a peacock feather pattern. I'm almost afraid to use them, but use them I will...I go through pencils at an alarming rate.

           In every Spotlight Stationery box that I've seen so far, there was one product that made me go hmmmm. This pen was it. I kept trying to figure out how to open it and why it had a rubber tip at the end. Turns out you just extend it, exposing the writing tip and the rubber end can be used as a stylus for a smart phone or a tablet. The pen is made by Zebra.

      Finally, we have a notebook. The notebook is created by Lizzie Barker and it is called Creature Candy Notebook. Every time you purchase any product from Creature Candy, including these Creature Candy notebooks, 10% of the sale price goes to six different British wildlife charities.

You can subscribe to Spotlight Stationery on CrateJoy or you can find them on their website.

**The purchase of this stationery box includes a donation to Gloucestershire Young Carers, a charity which provides a range of services for young carers and their families. 

OwlCrate Review April 2017 Box

          Every box from OwlCrate we get the theme of the coming box, so I knew from last month that this month's theme would be Head Over Heels. The box arrived a little late for me thanks to Aramex and Kuwait customs but that is okay. Let's get into the box.

          I love this postcard. It is really pretty and has all the elements of what is OwlCrate and what it means, plus there are a few hints in this of what is in the box. The back of the card has all the stuff that is in the box.

          This is the first thing that popped out of the box after the squiggly worms. It is a loose leaf tea called "Anna and the French Kiss" from The Tea Spot. I'm not big on tea but I gave this tea a try because it smelled like chocolates. I liked it and I'm going to enjoy the four more cups that the packet will give me. I might even go check out the other kinds of teas they have.

          The second thing that caught my eye was the candle. I learned that there were three different candles inspired by three different couples from books and the one I got smelled divine because it smelled like coffee. The candle is from Novelly Yours. It is supposed to be coffee, pumpkin and chocolate but honestly, it is mostly yummy coffee.

          The next item in the box was a Pride and Prejudice inspired fabric headband, which was created exclusively by Storiarts. My hair is too short for this and I'm not much for headbands BUT I do know someone who will kill for something like this so it is going to her.

          I love the trinkets that are usually in the OwlCrate box. This is no exception. It is an adorable keychain that has a quote from the book Simon Vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda and on the back, it looks like an oreo. It comes from Bookworm Boutique.

          This booklet is a sneak peak at the book Umberland by Wendy Spinale. There isn't really anything on it in the information card but on the inside of the booklet, the author explains how she loved that her previous book was featured a few months back on OwlCrate so she is sharing a sneak peek of the second book in the series previously shared.

          This print was designed by Evie Bookish, and it is a quote from the A Court of Thorns and Roses Series...I've never read the series.

          And now we come to the reason for the box. THE BOOK. I'm happy with this. I don't know the author, and I've never heard of the book. I'm hoping that I will love it as much as I loved the book from last month's box.

          As usual, the book comes with a letter from the author, which was really sweet and the collage on the letter was cute and fun. It also came with a bookplate and a funny sticker.

         

         

          No OwlCrate box is complete without the obligatory button and a sneak peak at the theme of next month. I can't wait for next month's box!

Cuttlebugs and Xyrons, OH MY!!!

          I wasn't sure if I was going to write about cardmaking. Do people really want to know about this stuff? In the end, I decided...oh well, might as well do it I already wrote about bookbinding.

          I've always loved writing snail mail and part of that was making my own stationary and cards. For the most part, I used markers, stamps and stencils.  After a while, I got bored. I needed to shake things up and so off to YouTube I went. I found the world of embossing and adding dimension to cards by having raised parts. I did my research on the machines that do that and finally settled on two machines: the Cricut Cuttlebug and the Xyron Create a Sticker. The Cuttlebug embosses and cuts shapes while the Xyron makes stickers out of anything. I'm going to tell you a bit about each and then show you what I did with them so far.

1. Cricut Cuttlebug: (From Amazon.com) "The Circuit Cuttlebug die Cutting and embossing machine offers a versatile and portable option for Cutting and embossing a wide variety of materials. The only machine that can emboss, the Cuttlebug gives professional-looking results with clean, crisp cuts and deep, even embosses. It works with the entire line of Cuttlebug embossing folders and Cutting dies. It's also compatible with most leading folders and dies. Go beyond paper and cut and emboss materials including tissue paper, foils, acetate ribbon, thin leather, and more."

2. Xyron Create a Sticker Max: (From the manufacturer) "Making your own stickers is as easy as turning the knob. The Xyron XRN500 Create-a-Sticker applies an even layer of adhesive to the back of any flat item up to 5 inches wide. Use it instead of glue dots, household glue, glue sticks or other adhesives."

          So the Cricut Cuttlebug comes with an embossing folder and a die cut that says Thank You. I decided to use what came with the machine before I went all out and bought different dies and embossing folders. I wanted to see how easy it was to use and whether or not it really is as useful as it seemed on the internet. Well...I tried it out, then I used the Xyron to make parts of the card into stickers to stick on the base card (I like to build cards in layers).

          Without further ado here is what I came up with, the white part of the card I did with the embossing folder and I coloured the Thank You using some alcohol markers. The Thank You and the white part I ran through the Xyron machine and then stuck them on some black cardstock that I had in my stash.

          I'm very happy with how these simple cards came out and I've ordered some new dies and embossing folders. We'll see how that turns out. As to the Xyron, that has seen a lot of action in my Omni journal where I'll turn elements that I want to stick into my journal into stickers and add them. I love both these machines!