Stampin' Up! Oh Happy Day Kit

I've always had a creative mind, I love watching DIY videos and I'm in the process of moving items from my memory box into a scrapbook which has been challenging. It never even crossed my mind that I could make cards, especially celebrations that stores don't provide cards don't provide for. I could completely personalise a card and have it exactly the way I wanted. When I received the Oh Happy Day card kit (£31.50)* from Stampin' Up! I thought it would be a brilliant way to get crafty. Since I hadn't heard about Stampin' Up!, I thought I'd do some research to discover who they were. In 1988 two sisters wanted to express their creativity and enjoy meaningful relationships. They created their company to meet new people, share creative thoughts and have fun. Since then, they've done thousands of demonstrations around the world and are living the dream themselves, using their kits to create handmade cards, scrapbook pages, home decor and craft projects.

The Oh Happy Day kit comes with 13 polymer stamps, 20 card bases and envelopes to match, die-cut glittered chipboard shapes, embossed sheets, printed die-cut images, die-cut gold foil sheet, die-cut white sheets, a Basic Black Archival Stampin' Spot, printed colour doilies, Baker's Twine, glittered dots, Stampin' Dimensionals, a Acrylic Stamp Block and it comes in a 'giftable kraft box' too. There are step by step instructions on how to make your cards, with different examples of what you can achieve with each card. The bit that intrigued me the most was the stamps you can make, in a beautiful brushed font that I know many others would love.

I decided to make a card for my friend N, as she had won one of my giveaways as her name was drawn online so I thought a card would go well with the palette she won. I used one of the bigger cards provided, one of the white sheet die-cut pieces and used the Yay! stamp on the outside. On the inner I used the Why, thank you stamp as a thanks for entering my giveaway which I thought was a nice touch. The stamps were incredibly easy to use and I can't wait to get making more cards, and use the stamps in my scrapbook.

Have you tried a card making kit yet?

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How To Make Your Own Flower Crowns

V Festival is creeping up quickly and I've been shopping around for some new pieces to wear to it this year. When shopping on the high street and online there has been an abundance of something I love wearing to festivals, flower crowns. Nothing was catching my eye so I took matters into my own hands and made my own. The good thing about this DIY Flower Crown Tutorial is that you can really make each one to your taste and only the assembling part it crucial to stick to. This is a great step by step tutorial for both adults and children when it comes to making your own festival flower crown.

Step One - Buy The Products

I bought a pack of four fabric headbands from Amazon in yellow, orange, pink and blue for the base of the crown. You could also pick up elastic headbands that wrap completely around or even a thicker band to add more flowers onto them. These four headbands cost under £2 and you can pick them up in a variety of colours. For the flowers themselves I bought all of these from Ikea and chose a few different fake flowers and them chose a few colours that I had in mind. You can buy cheaper flowers in bulk from Ebay or Amazon if you plan on making quite a lot of flower crowns, or you can individually pick them to make each crown unique. This DIY would also work with real flowers but don't go outside to pick them - purchase them from a florist or supermarket. To secure the flowers you need a glue gun and I picked one up from The Range for under £5. I had previously tried using super glue and it just doesn't work well and takes absolutely ages to dry. Using the glue gun cut the time spent holding the flowers onto the band which meant I could start new crowns quicker.

Step Two - Lay Everything Out

Lay out your headband and flowers out and see what colours you think will work together. if you place them on a flat surface you can roughly see how many flowers will need to fit on the band. From something short of a miracle, I managed to buy the exact amount of flowers for each band which I was so pleased with. During this step you can also turn on your glue gun to start heating it up for when you want to start assembling your flower crowns.

Step Three - Making Your Flower Crown

I started gluing my flowers onto the band from the middle of the crown and worked my way either side. You only need to add a small amount of glue to the flower before holding it down to the band and it tries in enough time to get the positioning right but doesn't take long enough for it to become a hassle. You can add as many or little flowers as you wish depending on the look you're going for. Leave a minute in between gluing your next flower onto the band to ensure that it is secured, and wait around 5 minutes before trying it on to make sure there is no wet glue that might stick to your hair. I made four in total and they all look different due to the colours and style of flower. If I were to make some more I would buy a set of all small flowers and a set of large flowers and make two different designs with them as they'd look really good for festivals too.

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