Stampin' Up Hip Hip Hooray Designer Card Kit

It's always very special to receive a handmade card from a loved one.  Knowing the love and effort put into creating a card especially for you makes it a wonderful keepsake to treasure.  However, if you are anything like me, you may struggle to think of creative ideas or find it hard to execute any ideas that do bubble to the surface.  Sometimes, I just need a little help to get my handmade mojo into the swing of things.  That is why, when I was sent a Stampin' Up UK Hip Hip Hooray Designer Card Set to try out, I knew it'd be the ideal kit to get me crafting cute, fun and stylish cards (that were also quick and easy to make!)

The Stampin' Up Designer Card Set compromises of 20 printed card bases (10 each of 2 designs), 5 sticker sheets, 20 envelopes, 1 sheet of Stampin’ Dimensionals, 18' Whisper White Twine; 10 mini paperclips; 3-piece Hip Hip Hooray Stamp Set & clear stamp block and 1 Basic Grey Stampin' Spot mini ink pad.  It also comes with an instruction sheet with guidelines on making the card designs. You can make up a whole batch of 20 homemade greetings cards for special occasions.

The first thing to do is to make up the stamps, sticking the self-adhesive rubber stamps to the backing sheet.  Bar one small mishap where we put one on upside down, we achieved this pretty easily.  The stamps say "Hip Hip Hooray It's Your Day", "Just For You" and "Thanks" making the kit pretty versatile.  The instructions give you a technique where you can mask off some of the big stamp so you can use either of the phrases on its own, with or without the pattern that divides them.  This brings even more versatility to the product.

I loved the quality of the cards with their spotty or lined designs.  The sticker sheets are really impressive as the pieces are made from strong card that peels away from the backing.  They stick securely and look very professional on the finished items.

We chose to make one of the more simple cards for our first try, which was very easy to do.  The patterned card made it very easy to line up the stickers to get a good finish.  Then it was just down to using the stamp to print the message onto the card.  OK, at this point there may have been a little nudge that caused a little smudge on the ink, so it wasn't a perfect result, but it wasn't bad for a first attempt.  Once you start, your confidence grows and you learn techniques that you can then apply to future projects.

Stampin' Up sell a whole array of paper crafting products and kits, including some seasonal things, which are really fun. (I love the Halloween range!)  There are products for all levels of crafting expertise from beginners (like me!) to the more experienced crafters.  The kits are a great starting point for those new to crafting and are also a great idea for craft parties or for gifts.

The Stampin' Up products are sold through independent demonstrators as well as online.

Hip Hip Hooray Designer Card Kit is £17.95 and makes 20 lovely homemade cards with envelopes, (and of course adds three versatile stamps to your collection).

Stampin' Up - Hand Crafted Goodies For Halloween

Bubble Bubble Toil and Trouble

Treat your little goblins this Halloween with Stampin’ Up!’s Ghoulish Googlies sweet bags. Simple and easy to make, they are the perfect trick or treat gifts to help put a personalised touch on your spooky celebrations. Fun for all the family to get involved with, these are ideal for customising with all of your favourite treats.

For £15.95 you can buy a bundle to make 10 treat bags to keep the ghosts and ghoulies away!

We were sent a set of bags, stampers, ink and glue dots so we could make our own bags ready to use for Halloween, packed with some yummy chocolatey treats.  The kit we received contained everything needed to make ten beautiful hand crafted gift bags.  The Halloween themed stampers feature cute, spooky characters that will be fantastic for all sorts of Halloween craft projects, beyond the gift bags.  They made lovely clean, ink prints with super detail.  the stick on googlie eyes and the autumnal coloured thread really do complete a very professional looking finish.

I was so impressed with the quality of the products and the design was excellent.  I also liked that the ink stampers fitted back into their plastic box for storage.  We were very pleased with our end result and can't wait to give out our gorgeously ghoulish gift bags stuffed full of Trick or Treat goodies!

Stampin' Up also sell a huge selection of inspiring craft products and sets for all seasons.  Their Christmas range is wonderful with kits for making hand crafted cards, gift bags, decorations, gift wrap and labels that  will be fun to make and lovely to share with loved ones (who will be delighted to receive them).  

All Stampin’ Up! products are available via a network of demonstrators. Visit www.stampinup.co.uk for more information and to find your local demonstrator.

Get Creative Paper FX

The Upcycling Craft Set for Young Fashionistas

Paper FX from Flair is a fun set that is perfect for tweens who are into fashion and crafts.  Paper can be woven and crafted to create accessories, handbags, pencil cases and belts.  It is a great way of upcycling old magazines, wrapping paper and glossy paper into a unique and fashionable accessory to glam up an outfit or spruce up a bedroom shelf.

The look created depends on the paper used.  You can go for glitzy and glam, soothing pastels or paintbox bright, to create items that match your personality and your mood.  New accessories can always be made from old mags so a new handbag is only a weave away!

Kizzy received one to try out.  The idea was really appealing to her and she was keen to grab her back catalogue of Girl Talk magazines to upcycle into something funky!

The set included a weaving machine, some tools and an instruction booklet plus a tube of paper glue.  All you need is an old magazine to get started.  A special device allows you to easily tear pages into strips which are then put into a scoring machine which makes it easy to fold and glue the strips ready for weaving.

The weaving machine itself allows you to fix the vertical strips to hold them securely under a plastic cover.  A dial allows you to lift alternate strips to feed in the horizontal strips.  A dab of glue secures the strips in place. The process is repeated to create the woven rectangle.

Kizzy enjoyed weaving the strips to create a colourful woven rectangle made from her magazine.  The effect was quite good with all the bits of the magazine worked together into an artistic creation that we decided would be a coaster.  With the edges trimmed, tucked in and glued it looked quite good.

The Paper FX set certainly kept Kizzy very entertained.  It wasn't overly complicated to make the woven rectangles.  There are instructions for creating all manner of fancy items such as pencil cases and purses, but to be honest I cannot imagine being able to make them out of the paper strips using paper glue.  I'm sure that if you put your mind to it and used PVA glue to stick and strengthen the structure it would be possible, but it would take a lot of skill and dedication.

Kizzy is more than happy making these coasters for everyone and she is loving getting creative with her old magazines. It's proving a good way to keep her busy.  She said  "It is really fun but a bit tricky and fiddly at times.  On the whole though I think it is really good to make things from my old magazines!"

Paper FX is available from good retailers with an RRP of £19.99.  It is suitable for girls aged 8 and up.