Hey Little Magpie Haul, January 2016!

Sooooo Hey Little Magpie had another sale recently, with up to 50% off. I couldn't resist taking a look, and ultimately that lead to me filling my cart and checking out. OOPS!

But I did get some really nice bits and pieces, there was so much stuff available and it was a rush and a half to get it in my cart and checkout before things sold out. When there's a sale on, people go crazy!

(12x12 sheets were 44p each) 

So the first load of stuff I picked up was paper & cardstock, I got lots of 12x12 sheets and 6x6 pads. With the 12x12 sheets I was tempted to get the whole paper pad's of, but I knew I had a lot of 12x12 pads already and I'm kind of running out of space to store them (yup, I'm a paper hoarder). So instead I went through and picked out odd sheets that I liked the look of. 

A lot of the sheets I chose were yellow patterns, and I also got a lot of sheets from the Office Suite collection by Fancy Pants Designs. I could have probably bought the whole paper pad of this collection because it was beautiful, but I held back and just picked out my favourites!

(6x6 pads ranged from £2.49 - £2.99 each)

The 6x6 pads I got were these, from left to right there's the We R Memory Keepers Hello Darling, Chickaniddy Crafts 365, Basic Grey Prism, and Crate Paper Craft Market. I love picking up 6x6 pads, I tend to use these for Pocket Letters or projects where you need lots of different patterns to choose from. It's a lot easier to have five 6x6 pads on the desk at once, rather than five 12x12 pads!

Also it's nice to get a taster of the types of paper in the pad, and if I really like them I can always hunt down the 12x12 version!

(Both stamp sets were £7.49 each, and the alphabet stickers were £2.74)

I picked up a couple of stamp sets I hadn't seen before, I'm always hunting down alphabet stamps because it's great to have a range to choose from when you are crafting, I also liked how this one came with additional symbols too. The arrow phrase stamps I thought would be just perfect for journaling! I could either stamp them out on separate paper and cut it out, or stamp straight onto the page.
I got some alphabet stickers, these were a bargain because you get six sheets in the pack, and each sheet is a different colour.

(Amy Tangerine Rise & Shine Ticket Memo Pad, £1.49)

This was a bit of a gamble because the photo's on the listing didn't really show much. It was called a 'ticket memo pad' but it didn't say how many sheets were in it and you couldn't tell from the photo. But I took the price into consideration and the fact that it was an Amy Tangerine product, and thought that whatever they are and however many they are, they are going to be pretty. I was pleasantly surprised and wish I'd picked up a couple more! For the price you got six different designs, and four sheets of each. They have perforations at the top so they can be ripped out the pad easily, and of course the designs are just beautiful! I think these will come in very handy in my journals, they remind of my journaling cards and I'll probably end up using them in a similar way.

(Dear Lizzy Fine & Dandy Thickers, £2.49)

I decided to grab some Alphabet Thickers, I've never had Thickers before but I've seen them about and always wanted to try them! Seeing as they were on offer I thought I may as well get some.
I loved this style it's bold but not too sharp, like the corners are very slightly rounded off. You get quite a lot in a pack and as they are Thickers they are obviously kind of foamy so slightly raised. Of course this means they won't be the best Alphabets to use inside flat journals, but they will be great for other Happy Mail projects etc.

(Project Life Weekly Edition & Project Life Textures, £2.49 each)

I couldn't not grab some journaling cards especially when there were so many pretty ones available. I decided to go for these two packs, which were something a little different to the style I usually go for. The patterns and colours are a lot bolder, the designs on them are a more 'real life' style. I'm glad I went for some a little different, even though I might find it harder to use them because they aren't what I'm used to. It will be nice to have the option of using a different sort of colour scheme etc.

( We R Memory Keepers Love Notes, £3.99)

This set of journaling cards were more the style I usually go for, kind of an airy fairy colour scheme with lots of flowing text. I grabbed this set because I'm moving in with my boyfriend this year, so there's going to be more time spent together, more dates and more time to appreciate one another. I will obviously want to document some of the good times in my journals so it's going to be nice to have some journaling cards that can go along with that! I thought this pack was a complete bargain. There's 100 cards in the pack, a mixture of two sizes and they all have such fun designs.

(12x12 sheets range from 44p - £1.75)

Last of all I got some 12x12 sheets of stickers and journaling cards that can be cut out. I did get a couple of sheets of some of these as they were just so pretty.
The on on the far right is acetate with gold foiling, so it will look beautiful layered on top of other papers.

I also really liked the grey sheet of mini journaling cards, they are a lot smaller than the usual journaling card size, so for my dori journaling they will fit in there great.

I got a sheet of pink alphabet stickers, I've had these in other colours before so I know they are great to use.
I also got a sheet of decorative stickers (the sheet with the 'hello' brown tag on & flower etc.), these were just super pretty, and I didn't want to miss out on them.

If you are from the UK I highly recommend checking out Hey Little Magpie (of course they ship elsewhere too, but being a UK based business their shipping prices are great).
The shipping is always super quick, and the range they have is great. I usually only purchase stuff when there's a sale one because I don't reaaaalllllllyyyy 'need' anymore craft stuff yet haha, but if they are going for a good price I can't help but place an order!

My total for everything came to around £50, that's shipping & tax included. Which I thought was actually really good for the amount of stuff I got.

- Daisy X

(I bought these in January, which is why this blogpost is titled with 'January')

DoCrafts Scrap Book Set Review

As you know I recently did a blogpost reviewing and sharing the DoCraft Mini Card & Stamp Set (here), overall I wasn't mega impressed by it. Today I have the Scrap Book set to share, and I just want to say.. TEN times better, I'm totally in love with it!

So I did mention briefly in the main blogpost I did on these items, that my boyfriend actually surprised me with this. We are currently going long distance and I asked if The Range local to him had this collection in stock, and in particularly this scrapbook set. He said no they didn't so I believed him and he picked me up some other little bits and pieces instead whilst he was there. 

The next day I received this in the post! Sneaky bugger!

The set comes with a Scrap Book (duh), and then a load of little embellishment bits! Including, pockets, paperclips, stickers and caption tabs! This is obviously the Geometric Neon set, but it does come in the Geometric Mono style too.

The pages are very similar to a Smash Book, each one is a different pattern, and the patterns are completely gorgeous! If you don't want to pay around £15 for a Smash Book, then this is a good alternative for £14.95 you get the embellishments with it too!

The pages are card, so they are a really nice quality and they definitely feel like you'd be able to add a decent amount to them without it ripping or pulling away from the spiral.

At the back of the Scrap Book there is this envelope pocket which is such a nice touch. I think it'll be handy to pop little extras in that I want to add to the Scrap Book right away. I am also tempted to turn it into a separate feature in itself, making a little mini layout to go inside it.

Either way it gives me ideas on how I can use envelopes in my journaling, they definitely add a bit of interest to the page!

Whilst we are on the pocket topic, this pack also came with few little mini pockets to stick in and use! These are so adorable, and perfect to pop on a page to store something you don't necessarily want to be stuck down permanently.

There were are three different designs, and you get two of each. These definitely inspired me to want to make my own out of all the pretty card stock I have accumulated, they look pretty simple to make.

Other than the beautiful colour co-ordinating paperclips that were included in the pack, there is also this little tab/caption pad thingy. Not really sure if this has an 'official' name but yeh! I've seen them about before, they basically have perforations along the edges so you can just rip off the one you need and stick/staple/glue it down. I love that this little pad has a couple aimed towards captioning pages or photos, and also a couple that can be used for decoration.

So my overall thoughts on this Scrap Book set? I love it to bits. It's right up my street with the colours, I love all the patterns that have been used, and it's genuinely a really good quality Scrap Book.

The price is very reasonable and I really hope they bring out more like this in the future!

The only thing I'd say that may be considered a negative, would be that I don't think it's the type of Scrap Book to take bulk very well. Though very similar to a Smash Book, I plan to only put flat things in here. So I won't go over the top with embellishing pages etc. The spiral is the same size, but I feel like the Smash Book's cover is made to hold bulk, where as this Scrap Book's cover is not.

I am very tempted to get the Geometric Mono one, but I can't really spend money on another one right now. Maybe if they are still available once I've filled this one, I'll grab it. But we shall see!

You can purchase this Scrap Book Set online here:

Hobby Craft

Or you can of course take a look at your local craft store to see if they stock them.

- Daisy X

DoCrafts Mini Cards & Stamp Set Review

Today I'm going to share my thoughts on these two packs of Mini Cards & Stamp Set's by DoCrafts.

I got to have a bit of a play with them today and I have mixed feelings about them, so if you are thinking of buying them, have a read through this first!

The cards themselves I have absolutely no problems with. The designs are beautiful, I'm excited to use them in my journals and in any happy mail I send out. Also the gold foil detailing on them is such a nice touch. You get six of each card design in a pack, and six of each envelope. For the price I think this is very reasonable. Above is the Geometric Neon pack, I think these colours are perfect for spring.

This is the Geometric Mono pack, the colours are very different obviously. They do still have the gold detailing though, and they have a different kind of winter vibe going on. Again I really like these, I don't have any problems with them. I actually received seven of the cards with 'dream' on, so I got a little bonus in my pack!

Here's the parts I had a little bit of an issue with... A very messy, sticky, pain in the bum, issue.

So the stamps are clear stamps,  I mentioned in my first look blogpost the other day that I could see the stamps had some sort of greasy substance on them, which I assumed was to stop them from drying out or something? But it had made the cardboard they were attached to go really soggy looking.

After using them, they left my acrylic block covered in this sticky, greasy mess, along with anything and everything they touched! I'm not sure if I did something wrong, or what. But I just couldn't understand why they were sooo greasy? I tried using baby wipes to clean them a bit, and sort my desk out, but they didn't help at all really they just kind of smeared it even more.

I did check the clear stamp that came in the magazine my mum got, which is from the same geometric collection and that was a proper clear stamp which had a plastic back and front.

These ones didn't have anywhere to store them. Usually clear stamps have a bit of plastic to stick to when you aren't using them, but they didn't. I luckily had some spare plastic from other stamps, but if you don't have plastic, I'm not sure how you are meant to store them.

As far as the actual stamps go, they were very good, they are detailed and not too squishy. So they stamped clearly. I used the silver ink, and neon pink ink that came with the packs. Then I also tried my Stazon ink. The 'enjoy' stamp was the only one which didn't fully stamp. The dot of the 'i' wasn't raised enjoy so it didn't catch the ink.

They definitely worked best with the Stazon ink, the others were okay but not really anything compared to Stazon. 

The pink ink didn't really apply to the stamp properly. I wiped it and tried again but it did the same, it stamped clear enough, but again it just wasn't great.

Overall I'd say if you are thinking of getting this pack for just the stamps, consider the fact that they are kind of messy, there's no where to store them afterwards and the ink they come with really aren't the best.

The card are really nice, great quality. The stamp designs are really nice, I can see me using them a lot. But of course I'll be using my own ink and this is after I've found a new home for them and cleaned up the mess they originally made.

I was a little disappointed with these, I did expect a little more from the stamps as I've not had issues with this brand in the past.

You can find the new DoCrafts products online:

The Range

Hobbycraft

eBay

- Daisy X