A Crafty-What-Nots Catch Up!

Hello! You might remember from my post back in October, that I was lucky enough to be asked to review the first ever Crafty What Nots Subscription Box. I absolutely adored the first box and, as you can see from my post, it made an absolute tonne of projects! I still have some supplies from that first one left now! I was so in love with that first box that I immediately bought myself a three month subscription. Then, when that ran out…I bought myself another one! There have now been 4 further boxes since my first review, and I wanted to post a quick catch up post showing you what I have made from the last 4 boxes!

Each box comes with some instructions for a couple of projects, plus you also receive an inspiration sheet with some further ideas on, suggesting ways that you can use the supplies in your box. I have always stuck to the safety of the projects with instructions, or the ones on the inspiration sheet as I haven’t got much experience with papercrafts, but that certainly doesn’t make it any less fun!

The first box after the ‘Floral Pavilion’ was a Christmas box! It was ‘Winter Wonderland’ and it has a wonderful  elegant feel with a strong cream and grey colour scheme. As soon as I got home from work I was rummaging around the box and even completed my first project in an hour before my dance class. It was this lovely wire heart with bells and beads; not only does it look really impressive, but it was also really quick and easy to make! My heart is slightly wonky, but it just adds to the handmade feel and it hangs in pride of place in our living room.

The ‘Winter Wonderland’ box also had the instructions and supplies to make 25 beautiful origami pouches to hang on the tree and use as an advent calendar. Each little pouch will hold a sweet or chocolate and again, they were really straight forward to make but have a wonderful finished look. Me and James made these together and it was so much fun! We didn’t manage to make them before Christmas 2014 but we can’t wait to put them on the tree this year!

Here is a close-up of one of the pouches…how cute do they look?!

Following the ‘Winter Wonderland’ box was the ‘Crafty Christmas’ box and I think this one has been my favourite so far! This box has a wonderful variety of projects and there were so many things on the inspiration sheet that I wanted to make! Me and James kicked things off by putting our origami skills to use once again by making these adorable mini gift boxes! They look super cute and will be great for putting little gifts in for Christmas, either as stocking fillers or table gifts.

And of course, Jenny has already got the gifts to go inside covered! This box contained a packet of air dry clay and a rubber stamp to make some of your own Christmas decorations! I thought it was a great idea to make a little set of three ornaments per box, so I put to use some of the stamps that I got in my previous box too, to make three ornaments in varying sizes. I thought this was a wonderful addition to the box and I even had to locate some more clay as I was having so much fun making things that I ran out! It was fun to try another new craft and I think these handmade gifts look really effective!

But of course we couldn’t have so much fun making presents for others without making a little treat for ourselves too! So I dug out some stamps that I already had in my collection (penguins of course…) to make some decorations for our tree too! I think this has been my favourite item from all of the boxes to date! I definitely want to explore what else I can craft with clay!

Another idea on the inspiration sheet was to make a pyramid Christmas card. I used the tutorial on Jenny’s blog to make this and I was really impressed with how it turned out! I rarely make cards (unless they are cross stitched) and I had never made a pyramid card before but it was really easy and looks really effective! I think I may be making a few more of these before Christmas…

Another project from the ‘Crafty Christmas’ box was this bauble banner. It involved some wooden bauble shapes, and covering them in decorative paper to make into a banner. The trickiest element to this project was stringing them all together! But it was well worth getting repeatedly tangled up with the string for this amazing and colourful bunting to hang up. I even saved one of the baubles to put on the front of a card but I haven’t quite got round to that yet!

The next box was a ‘Chic Noir’ box, and followed a strictly sophisticated black and white/cream theme. The first project that I dived into was a cute mini album it will be perfect for storing little memos in from a weekend away such as travel tickets.

The inside of the album has a little pocket to slide the mementos in, and I decorated the centre page with a little flower. I can’t wait to find the perfect occasion to use the album.

This box added an extra element of variety as it featured the first jewelley making/beading project. This was fun to make and I have worn the bracelet several times already. I’m hoping that future Crafty What Nots boxes will feature some more beads!

The latest box that I received was a Valentine’s themed box. I haven’t had chance to really get stuck into this one yet, and particularly as I had already bought (hangs head in shame) a card, I didn’t have an urgent need to crack out the supplies to make one. I did however jump at the opportunity to try a new craft; quilling! I had one brief encounter of quilling when I was younger at Brownies, but I didn’t have much of a recollection of it. Me and James set to, to make this heart out of the latest Crafty What Nots box and we had a wonderful time! I really want to explore quilling some more now and I have already eyed up a book that I *need* to buy! Jenny has also informed me that she is doing a one off Crafty What Nots Quilling box so I have told her to put my name at the top of the list! Hopefully I will be able to share some future quilling projects with you shortly!

 

These, combined with my projects from the Floral Pavilion box, are all of the Crafty What Nots projects that I have completed so far, but I do still have another 11 from these boxes that I want to do! I’m hoping that I will get chance to complete a few more project before I receive the next box and I’m looking forward to revisiting all of the boxes again! I look forward to receiving my Crafty What Nots box every month and I know that as soon as this subscription runs out I will definitely be renewing it once again!

What do you think of the Crafty What Nots boxes? Which is your favourite of the projects?

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