Craft review

Oh Happy Day card kit | Review

- Stacey 1 Comment
Oh Happy Day card kit review

Before my mother-in-law fell ill and passed away a few years ago, she was a keen card maker. Prior to Jacob making his entrance to the world, I often sat down to help her when we visited. By doing this, I managed to build up my own collection of handmade cards! Back then I found card making to be such a relaxing pastime, and also the gift of a handmade card and the thought, imagination and individuality that goes into each one is so appreciated.

When I was contacted to see if I would like to review the Oh Happy Day card kit from Stampin’ Up!, I thought it would be a great opportunity to reminisce about those times with my mother-in-law and also get my creative head on. The different thing about this kit is that it has all the items to make a stack of pre-determined cards, so although it is still creative and handmade, it is something that can be done a little quicker under instruction rather than free thinking.

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Review – Hobbycraft wooden advent calendar

- Stacey 5 Comments

Even as adults, hubby & I still tend to have a chocolate advent calendar – you know, we’re still big kids! We’ve forfeited them this year though as we both eat enough chocolate as it is. For the last couple of years I’ve really fancied a wooden advent calendar (either pre-made or DIY) but have just never got around to getting one. I was recently given the opportunity to review a DIY wooden advent calendar from Hobbycraft so I excitedly jumped at the chance as I haven’t gotten crafty since last Christmas!

I received a tree shaped advent calendar and some supplies in order to complete the calendar:

I didn’t have a couple of other colours I needed for some of the drawer designs I had in mind so I had a look through my own (limited) supplies. The advent calendar is much bigger than I was expecting it to be (it is 50 x 44 x 7 cm) but it means the drawers are plenty big enough to fit plenty of treats inside! 
The calendar doesn’t need priming or anything, the acrylic paint will go straight on with pretty much one coat so it didn’t take long to paint the main part. The drawers were the most time consuming, but I wanted them all to be slightly different – if they were to be all the same colour it wouldn’t take long at all. The other time consuming part was waiting for the paint to dry between adding detail & glitter as the paint did take quite a while, so I completed the calendar in two evenings (4-5 hours in total, so it could probably be done in one day). 
Considering I don’t really do a lot of crafts, I’m quite impressed with the finished calendar (any untidy parts you might spot are by my helper, the husband!):

I’m still not exactly sure what I’m going to put in it yet. I was thinking of Christmas activities to coincide with our Elf coming to stay, but I might put the odd treat in there too. 
The plain wooden advent calendars from Hobbycraft are priced at £15 – I think this is a brilliant price for the size and it’s very sturdy so will last & last. Other supplies can be purchased from Hobbycraft too. I definitely recommend having a go!
My rating – 5/5

Disclosure
I was sent these products free of charge to review. All thoughts & opinions are honest & my own.