The Glittery Hands Box, Mermaid Lagoon! April 2016

I've got the Glittery Hands Box to share with you today! I did do an unboxing on this, on my YouTube channel, so as always if you haven't seen that then it will be at the bottom of this blogpost for you to watch.

The Glittery Hands Box is a craft subscription box, and April's box was the first one! 

This month's theme was mermaid lagoon, so as you can probably tell everything was themed around mermaids! (Get ready to see lots of beautiful mermaid-ey colours!)

For a first box I was very impressed with the originality of it, there were lots of Emma's own designs on things, and she designed the welcome card beautifully! The only part I was a little on the fence about was how much the items in the box varied. 

I rarely dabble in the fabric side of crafts, I have a sewing box and I have minimal knowledge of how to do things. I just don't enjoy it as much as my papercrafts. So I know personally there's a few things in this box that I probably won't end up using.

As far as the papercraft items go though, there was a really nice mixture of things. There was paint, die cuts, ink, a stamp, stickers, paper, glitter and sequins! Lots of things all themed around mermaids that I can think of multiple uses for. I recognised a few of the brands on some of the products too, so I know they will be good quality.

The other bits and pieces though as I said before, I just wasn't so sure on. I will definitely keep the pin wheel in my sewing box, because they will come in handy when I need them. The hair grip, as I said in my video, I have thin fine hair (one of the most frustrating combinations!). Hair grips like this just never stay in my hair, so I'm not to sure what I will do with it. 

There were also iron on glittery stickers, which again, I can't really think of a ton of things to use them on. So I'll most likely RAK them onwards.

Something I thought was a really nice idea, was that Emma has mixed the sequins & glitter herself. So it's not just a mixture you can buy off the shelf. I think it's a lovely way fit them in with the theme of the box, and I absolutely loved the colour combination of the turquoise and dark pink.

Emma had chosen perfect containers for both of them too, I've received glitter in the mail before and it wasn't the best experience.. So to have the glitter in a dinky little tube, secured all nicely, was perfect!

Overall I would definitely recommend this, it was the first box so I had that in mind when unboxing it, but I think Emma has done an amazing job with it! It would make a great gift for any crafter, especially if they are a crafter who likes to try new things. Personally I would still buy one in the future, even though there were a few things I wasn't so keen on, because there's a lot of unique products in there that I was really impressed with. Plus this is the first ever box, so I'm excited to see where things go with it!

If you want to see the unboxing video I did, then you can do so here:

The box cost's £15 + P&P if you subscribe, or £18 + P&P for a one off box.

You can get 20% off your subscription with the code GLITTER12 (Must subscribe before June 1st 2016 though).

Let me know what you thought of this box!

- Daisy X

Japan Fun Box Journaling Page!

If you saw my most recent vlog (here), you will have see the unboxing I did of the Japan Fun Box. Well after opening it and trying all the goodies with my family, I decided to journal a little bit about it because it was just so much fun.

I suppose you could count this as a kind of review at the same time, because I wrote down all my thoughts on the box, in my journal.

I did find this page a lot harder to put together because all the photo's had so many different colours in, but used what I hard available and I'm happy with the outcome!

I decided to use a double spread, as I had quite a few photos to stick in. I printed them off in a few different sizes on my Canon Selphy printer. I decided to have my favourite photos on the outside and then put the other ones underneath. 

I used watercolours to incorporate similar colours on both sides, and kind of bring the two pages together a little better (I highly recommend getting yourself a set of watercolours for journaling, it's amazing what a splash of colour can do to a page!). I went through my journaling card stash and pulled out some that went with the colours in the photos. I then did the same with my washi tape stash. Once I had lots of things in front of me, I went ahead and put the page together!

I used this frame card to go over the bigger photo collage of my dog. I didn't want to stick it down completely because it would have hidden some of the shots, and I didn't want to lose them. So instead I attached it as a flap using some strawberry washi tape (here). I planned to have my photo of the strawberry sweets on the bottom section of the opposite page, so putting this strawberry tape up here helped to balance that a little.

I added two dates to the page (I tend to do this a lot with my journaling pages), the first date is when it happened, so when we all sat down and went through the Japan Fun Box together. Then the second date is when I decided to journal and put this page together.

(Emoji Stickers are from eBay. Thin gold glitter tape is from Cloudy Cow. Triangle Paperclip is from HEMA. Font stickers are from a Lah De Dah set from Hobbycraft. Yellow arrow sticky note was a gift.)

This is the other strawberry section I was talking about. This flap was originally the backing to a pack of stickers, it had a wood effect (which you will see when I show you the inside of the flap) and on the back I decided to cover it with some 6x6 paper which looked a little bit like newspaper print.

I added a photo of my two favourite things from the Japan Fun Box! I knew I'd like the strawberry sweets from the get go, but the Alfort chocolate biscuit things surprised me! As soon me and my brother took a bite we looked at each other and knew exactly what they tasted like. They basically tasted like childhood in the form of chocolate iced gems.

Anyways I added some washi tape decoration some stickers, and a little caption on a yellow arrow sticky note.

(Meh heart sticker from Ban.do. "Yay!" sticker from Anke Panke. Totoro sticker from Cloudy Cow)

When you open the flap, this is what is on the inside. I decided to add another little journaling card under here as a flap, because I wanted to make sure I had space to stick down all the photo's I'd taken.

There were a few things in the Japan Fun Box that I wasn't too keen on, and funny enough no-one in my family was up for trying the wasabi nuts!

On the right hand side I attached one of the sweet wrappers to the flap with a triangle paperclip. It had some adorable little characters on it so I wanted to keep on as a memento. It's a really casual way to keep something on a page, but I love attaching things with paperclips.

I attach all the flaps into my journal using strips of washi tape, I know there's multiple ways to do this but I simply have a strip on the front and on the back! I was tempted to add some thin washi or little corners to the photos on this mini flap, but there wasn't a ton of space so I didn't want it to end up looking messy. I think there's enough going on around it to keep your eyes occupied!

For a change I chose to handwrite some little captions straight onto the page. I've not done this in a while (mainly because I've got so many awesome stickers to use in my journaling stash) but also because I'm always so terrified of ruining it! But I've realised that I'm not scared of going into to a project with no plan, so I shouldn't be scared to just try out any ideas I have for the page! If it turns out rubbish and bugs me I can always glue the pages together and try again.

(Typewriter font alphabet stickers from Hobbycraft. Pig sticker from Pipsticks.)

So yeh! That's how my journaling pages turned out for the Japan Fun Box. I've left the journaling on the pages un-blurred so of course feel free to read about it.

Overall I think the Japan Fun Box is very reasonably priced for the amount of stuff you get in it, the variety is great (it's not just sweets and chocolate, there's savoury items too!) and of course it's free delivery which is great. The only reason I wouldn't want to subscribe to the original sized box right now is because of the amount of stuff that didn't get eaten. I would consider the smaller size though as the whole experience was absolutely hilarious. The foods we have in the UK are so different and it was really nice to get a taste (literally!) of Japan!!

If you'd like to check out the Japan Fun Box then you can do so here.

- Daisy X

*Please note, even though the Japan Fun Box was sent to me free of charge, this does not sway my views and opinions. I will always share my honest views on the product and company.

December ScrawlrBox! 2015

I'm sure a few of you will have already seen my unboxing video of the ScrawlrBox (if you haven't, I will add it to the bottom of this blogpost), but I wanted to do a blogpost on it to share some more detailed photos!

ScrawlrBox is a art supplies subscription box! It's full of random art supplies. At first I was a little unsure as to what to expect, how much would be inside and also what would be inside etc. But I really was pretty chuffed with the quantity and quality of the products inside! I was most definitely surprised.

I received seven art supplies and also a few other extras including a postcard, notebook and an adorable mini candy cane!! For £15 & free postage to the UK I thought it was definitely worth the money. I looked up a few of the pens after opening it and the Wink Of Stella Brush is worth around £5 on it's own.

This is the Wink Of Stella Brush (one of my favourites from the whole box!), the ink it completely beautiful and I can't wait to use it to add a bit of sparkle to art/journaling projects! It was a little messy and confusing to set it up and use it for the first time, but after having a look on youtube and following a tutorial I soon had it working.

Inside the box there was a handy dandy little info card with the name of each art supply and also a little information on each. This made it a lot easier to share with you all because I didn't have to find out what they were all called or what they do. The postcard included is beautiful, I love that kind of 'messy but neat' art with paint splatters and such. There was also this sticker which is the ScrawlrBox logo.

The notebook which was include was really nice, it has a kraft cover and plain paper inside. I am yet to test out the paper quality, but from a first look and feel it does seem pretty decent! I knew this box would contain some sort of pen's and drawing supplies but I didn't realise there would be a notebook too, so it was a nice little bonus.

On the back of the info card they include a challenge for you, which involves you creating something using just the supplies in the box. They give you a word to work with, and this month's word was 'Crystal'. I thought this was really unique and something I will most definitely have a go at! I'm not sure if I'll film a video for it yet, but we'll see!!

Along with the Wink Of Stella Brush pen, my other favourite in the box was this ZIG Millennium pen. I was completely blown away by just how fine the tip was! I knew this size of tip existed, but I'd never seen one close up before. I know I will get a lot of use out of this, whether it's in a art project or when I journal, the teeny tip will come in handy.

So that was a close up look at my December ScrawlrBox. Overall I was very impressed with it, I think it's a great way to grow your collection. There's such a massive selection of art supplies out there, this is such a nice way of trying new supplies you might never pick up. There's a few in here I don't think I'd have chosen in a shop, but after testing them out I now can't wait to use them!

 If you want to watch the unboxing, you can do so here:

Don't forget to check out the website here if you want to subscribe! Remember it is free P&P to the UK, and only £15 per box!

- Daisy X

*Please note, even though this box was sent to me free of charge, this does not sway my views and opinions. I will always share my honest views on the product and company.