Tag Archives: hunkydory

Oops, I did it again!

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Well, so much for no spend! I’ve gone and done it again. Another Facebook Marketplace haul of crafting goodies that I just couldn’t resist. It’s like a massive crafting lucky dip. This one was a bit further away from my house, so I roped hubby into driving me there as we could call at B&Q on the way home!

There were three huge boxes in this haul which I have managed to condense into two with a few larger items on the side! So first up is this large box of papers, card stock and card blanks with envelopes. There is so much in here, lots from Create and Craft but also some from Lidl, a set of mixed inserts from Hunkydory and a 12×12 paper pad possibly from the Range. It’s hard to work out where to start with it all. There is a set of diecut sentiments from Craftwork cards and two storage boxes full of stickers and peel-offs.

This box took a long time to go through. And it did involve a little bit of rubbish, but I put together a lovely collection of stickers and papers that I wouldn’t ever use, to give to the local primary school – I thought they would be ideal for the last week of term fun making.

So after the joy of papers, I was stunned to find this Paper cutter. It’s from Lidl and hasn’t even been opened! I’m intrigued as to what I can do with this and if anyone has one already, do let me know how you find it.

There was also this little manual die-cutting machine. This is from Aldi and has been well used. It included all the plates too. I have been wanting to get myself a smaller machine to keep on my desk for cutting out sentiments instead of having to get out my Big Shot. So this is perfect. It seems to cut really well to, and I expect this will get a lot of use.

The smaller of the two boxes is packed with smaller bits and pieces. There are fancy scissors, washi tape, toppers, dies, a few stamps, ink pads, glitters, ribbon and adhesives.

I spent hours going through all of the loose toppers and a lot have gone to the primary school, but I’ve kept loads for using in my pop-up boxes as I have a few to make in the coming weeks. Don’t you just love the box though? It’s such a pretty box with handles and a lid too, so I’m definitely going to find a use for this once I’ve used up everything inside it (will that ever happen?)

The floral tin contains lots of little dies. I don’t know which companies have made them, or even what they all are yet, but there is a really good collection here. There seems to be quite a few floral ones and there is an alphabet set from The Works which I already have, but I can’t believe how many there are and that set is my only duplicate!

Finally there are six Hunkydory Little Books and I’ve never seen any of these before. Some are in well used condition with lots of loose pages, but I’ve managed to get them together and can’t wait to make up some of my £1 cards with these, particularly the Christmas ones.

So what do you think to this haul? I’m pretty impressed with the amount and variety of items. I certainly have a lot to get stuck into as well as another pile of boxes with nowhere to store them! So I really had better get a move on with using things up.

No more spending for a while I think. Have a great week.

Happy crafting

K x

(No Parkrun still too sneezy)

Another Great Day

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What a week it’s been. I’ve just calmed down from my Bury Show wins and received my Hunkydory magazine. Having a quick flick through and I’ve only gone and won the sketch challenge from the last magazine!

Talk about thrilled and flabbergasted! So I have a nice little prize to spend on their website. I think I’m going to save it up for the Christmas goody box, but you never know as they are bringing out lots of lovely new products all the time and I might just cave from my no spend Summer!

Here’s a close up of my winning card. It was made using the Dreams of Spring collection which I’ve been trying to use up and this design was a great stash buster for some of the little bits left over. It’s a 6×6 scalloped edge card blank, silver mirri and cardstock from the kit. I loved the scalloped circles and they were all far too nice to put on top of each other. I thought this large circle in particular was very pretty. I used a corner rounder on opposite corners to tie in with the scallops and a leaf shaped sentiment I had left.

I really enjoyed putting this together, so much so that I made another one for a friend moving on to a new job.

What do you think?

Time to get cracking on the rest of the kit I think!

Happy crafting

x

It’s Hunkydory Goody Bag time

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Last week was Hunkydory Fest, with lots of great fun live shows as well as some extra special festival prices and the best part of any festival – the goody bag!

For £20 they guarantee at least £50 worth of products, and like their larger goody boxes, these include new products, not just old stock. So what did I get?

I did order some of the card blanks, so I could get free delivery and every order got a festival wrist band too.

There were a few small items in the bag, including some glue and a pack of glue dots. Then a fantastic background stamp set and a lovely roll of diamond sparkles gem stones (Aurora Borealis). I’m not a big stamper, but these stamps look really useful so I must have a go at doing more than stamping a few sentiments. The gems will be really useful. Finally for the smaller items, there was the little square book of Vintage Journeys. This is a matt finish pad of 20 different images (6 of each) and they are gorgeous. Lots of reminders of holidays past – Rome and Paris, as well as some lovely vintage images of campervans and cameras. This is definitely one I need to start crafting with. This little pile alone would cost over £20, so all the rest of the bag is essentially FREE!!!

Hunkydory are well known for their topper sets and there were a few included here. The Swan Lake and Sit Back & Relax are from the Topper Favourites range. I think both of these will be useful for family and friend’s cards.

Next were the Just married topper set (including 2 pieces of patterned and foiled cardstock) and the deco-large – Go Ape. I have the full deco-large kit with this in, but I’m ok having it duplicated. I think it’s a fab image (although at a push I might have preferred the red panda!)

These are another decoupage sheet of a princess tiara and a butterfly – not really my style, but I’m sure there will be someone out there who likes these images. But I love the bicycle stepper card and this will be fun to make.

Finally came a collection of cardstock, both shimmer glitter card in lavender and a full collection of pearl patterned card. I didn’t have any of these in my stash already, but I do have other collections of the patterned card packs and they are great for backgrounds.

So all-in-all I’m pretty happy with this little lot. It’s a goody bag and you have to be willing to take the chance with what you get. Whilst I wouldn’t necessarily have bought some of the items, it does mean I go outside my comfort zone with some of them and I get to have a try of something new (stepper card). I have seen a few bag openings on the internet and there have been a few quite like this bag, but not everything is the same. The people who ordered more than one bag do seem to have got a good mix of things, although all are along the same lines. In my opinion it’s worth the risk in what you get because the products are of great quality and it’s a nice surprise to get in the post (and who doesn’t want that once in a while?!)

Time to get on with some actual crafting as I have a few things coming up in the next couple of weeks.

Happy crafting

x

(Parkrun was Clarence, time 49:18 – it’s a mud bath!)

Hunkydory Orders

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After my ‘no spend’ decision going to pot after less than a day, I thought I’d catch you all up on the other recent Hunkydory orders that have arrived in the last couple of weeks.

First up was an order from the sale. I was after a stock up on some mirri card as I’ve been without any full sheets of rainbow mirri for some considerable time. As the price was too good to miss, I added in some gold too – I use it all the time these days and only have a couple of A4 sheets left.

As the paperpads were half price, I added in this shades of browns and greys. It’s a colour selection I didn’t already have and I think it will go nicely with some of the animals, wood and more masculine themes I have in my stash.

I then went a bit mad on inserts and papers sets as they were great value (reduced from £9.99 down to £1.99). I don’t actually have all the corresponding kits for these, but I do have some of the little books and even so, the papers are so lovely, they will work in their own right.

Finally for this order were a few essentials – isn’t everything essential though really?! And who doesn’t need a spider web stencil?! It was so lovely I just couldn’t resist it.

My other order was from their Club birthday event and included the new set of Delightful Die-cuts which covers sports, birthdays and music. These will be so very useful for all the pop-up boxes I make and it means the image quality will be better than having to print out from the internet. I’ve also picked up the most recent club gift bundle – Moonlit Moments. The colours of this kit are so vibrant I can’t wait to find an event to make use of them. I’m not sure why I didn’t take pictures from this order, but I’m sure they will pop up on some makes soon.

I do love the quality of Hunkydory products, they really are lovely to work with and last a long time too. I’ve had to place an order during their current Hunkydory Fest, just so that I can get the limited edition wristband (it would be rude not to) and that’s including one of their festival goody bags – I can’t wait to see what I get in that one.

Happy crafting

x

(No Parkrun last week – had a lie-in instead)

Home Alone

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Where has this week gone? It’s half term and I’m at home on my own as the others have gone camping in Scotland – I hope the weather hasn’t been quite as wet as it has been here! Camping isn’t for me. With major hayfever reactions, sleeping on the ground is not ideal, along with the fact I can’t stand the thought of being in a tent ( I feel like I’m going to be buried alive in one). So I’m looking after the cats and pottering about the house (as well as doing a favour for a friend looking in on her house whilst she’s away).

I had every intention to get through my order book and start work on the kit picked out for me by Crafty-Teen, but the week has simply flown by. I must make up for that this afternoon and tomorrow before they get back home again and the washing mountain re-appears. What I have managed to do is catch up on Lauren’s craft hauls and her finished challenge as well as all the Hunkydory shows. I’m expecting a delivery today from them as they were celebrating the 11th birthday of their craft club last week, so with double discounts and points available, it was a no-brainer to pick up some things I’ve been wanting for a while. But you’ll have to wait and see what they are. This week they are doing a Craft festival with extra shows in the afternoon, so I’m all crafted up with lots of inspiration. I could do with setting up a computer in the office though so I can watch and craft at the same time.

So as I’ve nothing new to show what I’ve been working on, I thought I’d show you what I got when I got hold of a couple of the goody boxes from Hunkydory a few weeks ago.

I was a little disappointed when they arrived as they weren’t in the best of condition from the courier. But they have made a change to their deliveries since this, so I shall see how things come in future. The goody boxes are done a couple of times a year one for everyday and the other for Christmas and I love that they include recent things and craft tools, not just old stock they are trying to get rid of. These were £30 each and they guarantee that each one will contain at least £80 worth of goodies. Just look what I got this time….

It’s a great way to try out something a bit different and I’ve put off trying the craft markers as they are a quite expensive for a whole set. I was thrilled to get a pack of the markers in one of the boxes as well as a lovely set of into the wild decoupage. There were lots of topper sets with cardstock as well as some dies, stamps, glue and gems, plus the whole set of moonlight fairies! Anyone for a Fairy card this year?!

So I have lot here to have a go at. If there’s anything you’d like to see me work on, just let me know. But I’m off now for a spot of lunch watching some more HD TV!

Happy crafting

x

(ParkRun was Oldham, time 46:13)

Back to a Crafty Challenge

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After a very stressful and distressing week last week, I’m pleased to say I’m feeling a little better. It’s been tough to get refocused as my craft space looks over the devastation, but I am calmer this week . So it’s back to some crafting!

A few weeks ago I discovered a lady on YouTube doing some crafting challenges. I found her when Hunkydory were doing their goody boxes and she had posted some unboxing videos. I watched several of these on the internet so I could decide if I wanted one (or more) this time around. The ones I enjoyed watching most were by a lady named Lauren, so I subscribed to her channel (Lauren M & Co) and found she does lots of unboxing of craft orders, as well as some crafty makes and challenges set by her partner/son/subscribers. Anyway, I was really struck by her weekly challenges set by her partner and I think I might have to have a go at something similar in the future.

One of her other challenges though is to work through an entire kit / paperpad and see how many cards she can make with it. This is something I really need to do as well. I have so many papercraft kits and embellishments that I’m running out of storage space. I’d made a card for a friend’s daughter using some toppers from a very old Hunkydory kit and decided that this would be a great kit to use up. It’s the Dreams of Spring kit and it’s been in my cupboard since around 2013! So it’s well overdue using up.

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It’s a massive kit and I have used some of the concept cards from it several years ago (baskets and rocker cards pictured). There was still a lot left though – 5 foiled aperture cards, 3 foiled decoupage sheets, 3 collage elements sheets, 10 sheets of toppers and 14 sheets of cardstock – so plenty to go at there!

I started out with the aperture cards, just to get me back into the swing of crafting, simply adding a few gems, bows, flowers and sentiments. One of these as already gone to celebrate a young lady’s birthday.

Next I decided to work through each die cut sheet as they came out of the pack. I also set myself the challenge of using up some of my stash of card blanks ( I have lots in a range of sizes) and I wanted to make some different style cards as well. It’s taken me a few weeks so far but I’m almost at the end of the kit (does that mean I can restock?!) It’s been quite good fun to use up so much co-ordinating card, colours and patterns and I’ve really enjoyed finding matching gems and ribbons to add some interest.

To help me on my way I used the inspiration sheet for a few of my earlier cards. What do you think? They’re quite large cards and so used large pieces of the card and papers. I’ve liked how this kit is foiled in silver as I usually use gold, so this has also helped to reduce my stack of silver mirri card.

Once I was into my stride with the cards and what to do with the toppers, I was able to make quite a few cards reasonable quickly Looking through my cards and envelope drawer I found some aperture cards and twisted easels, both of which I had never used before. These were trickier to use as they required some precise measuring (Cat Hollis over on Hunkydory has a trick for doing triangles to fit, but I can’t, for the life of me, remember what it is). I enjoyed making these and choosing the stoppers but they do leave awkward pieces for the scrap box. I’m quite please with how they turned out for my first attempt.

There were also three sheets of florals in the kit which I thought would be perfect for making flower boxes. So that’s just what I did. I hope you like them. They are all ready to be personalised for an event or person. I particularly like this one with the floral panels.

I’ve really tried to use up everything and stretch the kit as far as I can , so I’ve made quite a few smaller A6 cards with a variety of styles. These sizes are great for using up smaller pieces of card and also a way to incorporate some ribbon strips. I used an idea from Laurens’s recent project, putting a couple of card patterns together with a ribbon stirp across the join. I think they work well, although I can’t help being reminded of wallpapering with a dado rail! Is it just me?

I’ve also made a few panels using the card scraps I had leftover. I love making this type of card. I die cut ‘Happy Birthday’ sentiments from some more scrap pieces and I think the extra gems really finish them off well.

My most recent make was made using the sketch challenge in the latest Hunkydory magazine (issue 77) and I really like this style, so I can see me making a few more.

Well I don’t have very much of the kit left, just one piece of printed cardstock, a bag of scraps, a few sentiments and a couple of patterned paper shapes. Time to get my thinking cap on – or I could just move on to another kit maybe? I plan to ask Crafty-teen to pick me something to work through next – wish me luck!

I’ll update with the final card total from this kit soon – how many do you reckon I made?

Happy crafting

x

(Parkrun was at Worsley Woods, time 47:05)

Hunkydory Crafts Surprise

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Today I received a fantastic delivery. It’s a huge parcel from Hunkydory Crafts in Preston.

I’ve been watching Hunkydory TV on Facebook Live on a Friday morning after doing the household weekly shop – it’s an interesting companion to having breakfast.

Anyhow, this week’s broadcast was all about their new Diamond Club and special deals for members. I joined the club a few weeks ago when it was launched. It’s a good deal as you get a craft kit with membership and 10% off all future orders. They also do a monthly set of special offers just for the members and this show was demonstrating with some of the products in this offer. It’s great to watch someone using different products and being able to get some hints and tips on how to use them.

In addition to the light-hearted presentation, there are always a few giveaways on a Friday, and this week was no exception. Last Friday was National ‘Give something away’ Day apparently, so for their main giveaway the question was ‘What’s the best present you’ve ever received?’ The presenter then spins a wheel to see what the prize will be. I was thinking what a great prize ‘win the show’ would be, when it landed on just that! They only give a few minutes to get your answers in, so I had to be quick to think of something. All I could think of was the 9th birthday card I still have from my Grandad – he died when I was 12 – but I loved the card so much I’ve kept it with my most precious possessions, along with my Grandma’s wedding ring which is now my wedding ring. Whilst these are incredibly precious to me, I didn’t think they could compete with others citing their children / grandchildren even cars and holidays.

I was wrong! I was chosen as the winner of everything they showed in that hour! Over £300 worth of products I’ve never used before!!

There’s card, papercraft kits, glimmer mist sprays, loads of envelopes and card bags, even a scoreboard and A3 size mirri card. AWESOME!

Great timing for the Summer holidays, crafty-teen can’t wait to have a go with the glimmer mists.

Happy Summer crafting

K x

Christmas Card Collection

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This year I decided to work on a full collection of five or six card designs for Christmas.  I was asked recently to provide the cards for the lovely gift shop Hearts for Homes in Ramsbottom, so this idea of a collection has become more relevant and important.

I’ve had my Christmas craft materials out for a few weeks now and have rediscovered some beautiful papers and patterns.  I found a stack of twisted pyramage with some lovely winter images.  I particularly like robins at Christmas, so thought I’d revisit this style of papercraft.  I’ve really loved the embossed and aperture style cards I’ve been working on this year, so keeping with that I found a lovely couple of embossing folders to work as backgrounds.

The snowflake embossing folder is by Darice.  I think it’s so pretty.  The snowflakes are all different and very delicate.  I think it works well with the twisted pyramage robin.

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My next card style in the collection is the large poinsettia.  This is a Bigz die by Sizzix and it works so well on all types of card, paper and fabric.  Here I’ve used some Kanban papers and combined it with a circular die cut aperture and embossed snowflake background.

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The third design in my collection uses some gorgeous rich cardstock I bought at the creative craft show .  This green is so sumptuous it just cried out to be used with gold mirror card.  I added a snowflake cut using an X-Cut die.  I think the gold ribbon bow and gems set it off a treat.  Don’t you?

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I’ve had such fun routing through my crafting arsenal of dies and materials.  I bought this Spellbinders bow die a while back and haven’t really used it.  But it called to me to make Christmas paper bows and add to the front of some cards.  I was reminded of a series of cards I made several years ago with large organza ribbon bows on the front which were very popular with my work colleagues at the time.  I loved making these bows from all the different Christmas patterned papers.  They looked so lovely on square cards, I even made some look like parcels.  My Mum and Dad will be getting one of these and I hope they like it as much as I enjoyed making it.

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These cards take a little bit of time to make so I was in need of making something quick to put in packs and that wouldn’t cost as much to make or buy.  I’d been thinking about doing some cut outs with patterned papers behind for a while now, but never gotten around to it.  This was the ideal opportunity to do some with my snowflake die.  I love this silver holographic paper.  It it so sparkly behind the snowflake.  I think they will look great on my stall at the school fair too.

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As in the words of the great Monty Python, now for something completely different!  I bought this lovely papercraft kit from Create and Craft several years ago and not known what to do with it.  The papers are quite pastel in colour but very fun and wintry too, and the little elements are very cute.  I particularly like the children in their winter outfits.  I thought they were perfect to send to siblings and grown up children.

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For my final card design this year I went back to my love of DL cards.  There is somethigng so elegant about a tall slim card and I just couldn’t help myself in making at least one.  For these I again used a Kanban card kit with some lovely HunkyDory Mirri card.  Simple but elegant I hope you agree

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So that’s my collection for Christmas 2016.  There is a selection available in Hearts for Homes in Ramsbottom as well as in Holts Newsagents in Walmersley.  I will also be selling these directly at the Springside Primary School Christmas Fair and via facebook.

I hope you like them.

Happy Christmas Crafting
x

January Birthdays

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January and February are busy months for birthdays and anniversaries for us. So the beginning of the year is always taken up with family crafting. This year I’ve decided to have a real go at using up some of the numerous card-making kits I’ve bought over the years and see what I can come up with.

The great things is that all the people celebrating are of different generations and have totally different likes.

I started off with my in-laws. I was inspired by a visit to see the Flying Scotsman on our local steam railway and made this card for my Father-in-Law using a Hunkydory kit.

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I followed this with a card for my Mother-in-Law, using another Hunkydory kit, this time the little book of birthdays. Such lovely designs and I just couldn’t help adding some die cut butterflies!

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Next it’s my nephew’s first birthday. So not a card he would appreciate so much as one for his parents! I was given a set of balloon dies and some number dies for Christmas which was perfect for this occasion. This is a great card for using up offcuts of papers.

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I’ve also made cards for my Brother-in-Law, Sister-in-Law and my husbands Best man. The little book of birthdays and male images have been a great investment here!

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Finally for now is my other nephew’s fifth birthday in a couple of weeks time. He’s mad about Star Wars at the moment, so I made him a spaceman card. I hope he likes it.

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Well it’s time to get back to desk, I have my Mum’s birthday and Mum and Dad’s 45th wedding anniversary to make for, as well as Valentine’s Day!

Happy crafting
x

Hunkydory Prize Winner!

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I’ve been a member of the Talkies craft group on facebook for about 18 months or so now, and while I take part as much as I can I haven’t really entered any of the competitions or swaps. However, in October they announced a little competition to make a card from any Hunkydory craft kit. It could be anything, the only rules being you couldn’t use any dies or any other kits, only basic essentials could be used for embellishments, so it was let your imagination run wild with any kit you liked. I thought about entering for a while, but wasn’t sure my simple approach to card making would be up to the intricacies of some of the very seasoned crafters.

In the end I decided to enter one of my cracker Christmas cards made from one of the Christmas kits. It met the brief and I was pleased with the finished card.

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I did leave entering until the very last minute, so later the same day I was astounded to find that I had been judged as the winner! The judge really liked the simplicity of the design and how I used the features of the cardstock to enhance the cracker!

My prize was £30 of Hunkydory products, which I am delighted to say have arrived this morning in the post!  What a lovely bundle it is too.  I haven’t shown it to Alice yet as I’m sure she will want to get her hands on it as it is a full set of toppers, decoupage, concept cards, envelopes, cardstock, and inserts from the ‘Smudge and Mitten’ collection.  So cute, watch out for these cards in the future.

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Thank you to everyone involved in the competition and to Hunkydory for such a lovely prize.

Happy crafting
x