Messy Box Review

As I am sure you all know by now, I love paper and a good subscription service! Also being a big fan of the girls over at A Beautiful Mess I was very excited when they announced 'Messy Box'. I have had two boxes now so I thought it was about time I told you what I thought about it so far.

Lets start with the basics, if you live in the UK you will pay £15.75 (approx) every month if you sign up for 12 months like I have. This includes international shipping and all taxes etc. Which I think is a pretty sweet deal as I ended up paying £14.00 in Post office and customs charges alone for a parcel I had shipped from the U.S. recently.

You will in essence receive:

-

6 9x12" pattern pages
journalling cards 6 3x4" 6 4x6" and 12 3x3"

Then also a selection of embellishments, like brads, alphabet stickers, washi tape, transparencies, die-cuts, stamps etc.

Of course the idea is that you would also buy a 'Messy Book' album to use with all these items, but that isn't totally necessary.  You can use any album you already have or just use the paper and embellishments for your own paper crafts as you choose. 

So here is what I think of the box so far, I want to love it, and I do love parts of it. I think the price is great, I think the quality and quantity of products is just perfect, not too much and not too little, easy to use up all the bits in a month of paper crafts in time for the following month to turn up. 

So far each month has a theme, which is a nice easy way to co-ordinate your pages. The only thing I think that is stopping me from absolutely loving it is that its not quite 'A Beautiful Mess' enough for me. The first box was a little more what I was expecting, and we are only on box two so it is hard to judge completely but this second box is a little soft for my taste. I am looking forward to a bit more of the signature style I love from these girls in future boxes. This is why I signed up for this box over some of the others out there. I guess I was hoping for more of the 'personality' and design I have seen in their 'Happy Mail' boxes to be evident in the Messy Box.

The other slight niggle (that I kind of expected) is the time it takes to arrive. I know it is because of the cheaper shipping and the fact that I'm in the UK but it is a little frustrating to see all the pics on Instagram of the box that I know I wont be getting for at least 10 days later. Maybe that is just the impatient paper-crafter in me though?

So if you love 'A Beautiful Mess' and want to get into an easy, fun photobook/ journalling/ scrapbooking system. I would highly recommend this subscription, even though this months theme was not my favourite, I will still be able to use all the pieces. I think it is absolutely worth the money and the quality of the products is fab. The joy of receiving a box of goodies every month is pretty lovely and it is a great way to build up a stash if you are new to these kinds of paper crafts.

I do hope that this review may have helped some of you who were thinking about subscribing. You can sign up at the A Beautiful Mess shop and keep an eye out on their blog for ideas and inspiration with their Scrapbook Sunday posts.

Sammy xxx


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Crafty Creative's Birthday Box

As you may know we are big fans of a box full of crafty bits and bobs. Earlier in the year H's link for the week highlighted some of the great craft box subscriptions out there, so when we were contacted by Crafty Creatives to test drive their Birthday box we jumped at the chance!

Box 13 (the floral birthday edition) is different than the norm - usually lots of different crafty bits and one or two kits, but as it is a special box you get five kits as well as few extra goodies. The art card usually features a different artist each month with an illustration that ties in with the theme, this month it was a collage of Crafty Box fans with their boxes, so cute!. Every month there is a different theme, previous themes have been: Floral, Nautical, Oriental, Gothic, Nostaliga, Icy, Woodland, Spots and Stripes, Steampunk, Blues, Glamour, The Treat Box (sweets and cakes) - a bit gutted we missed that last one!

Anyway, onto the box.  It arrived promptly as promised, in a cute pink plastic postage sleeve housing the small but perfectly formed box (which H instantly wanted to re-use as a storage box).

We were greeted by a Thank You note from Claire and Isobel with an explanation about what the box contained. Then an instruction leaflet with a guide to all the kits enclosed with great pictures of the finished products, more about that in a minute.

Now to the fun stuff... we got a crepe paper streamer, a polystyrene ball, a roll of stem tape, a roll of wire, two packs of seed beads, a small reel of coloured wire, flower stamens, a stocking, some wooden buttons, a hair clip, a hummingbird pendant, a heart shaped cabochon, some paper flowers, a felt square, two pieces of card and a birthday balloon, wowzers! 

After unpacking all the goodies we got to work, can we call it work? Play, we got to play!

First we made the felt flower

Next we made the stocking flower

Then the French beaded flower

(Sammy ended up using beads from her own stash to make this one because she knew wanted to give it to her Mother-in-law as a gift so she made it in a colour she knew she would like)

After that it was the paper rose hair slide

Lastly it was the crepe paper rose ball, which Sammy made into a little tree

(The stick, bow and bucket were from her stash)

All in all we really enjoyed making these little kits, we found the instructions to be very easy to follow. The mix of projects was great, some easy and some more difficult to work up to if you are new to crafts or the particular techniques needed.  If you get a little lost with the instructions or are like Sammy and love a little video, you can head over to their Youtube channel and watch how-to's to give you a helping hand.

What we liked....

Sammy: I would say that as a very experienced crafter myself, it was nice to re-visit some ideas that I haven't had a go at for a while. I made six giant rose ball trees for my friend Kelly's Barbie party last year. It was a great way to focus, by having the kit it made me sit down an craft for a good two hours. As someone who always has a lot of projects on the go it was very satisfying to sit down and finish five things in one sitting. The products in the kit were great quality, I do feel that these boxes are good value for money. 

H:  The kit items are really easy to do and simple instructions for mere mortals always help.  They make great little projects to do after work or for a craft club perhaps.  I liked that there were a few other bits included to make your own things, like the hummingbird pendant which would look lovely on a wedding card or the heart pendant which I think will become a brooch.

What we didn't like...

Sammy: Not a lot, the only thing I could pick out that wasn't my favourite was the colours of the products. We got Pinks, corals and reds, which are not my personal choices, but I can give the finished goodies away as gifts to my friends who like those colours so that not a big issue.

H:  I am not a big fan of florals and so this kit was not the perfect kit for me.  However, you could use your imagination and make some other fun things from the supplies.  For example: you could make animal ears using the stocking flower items, by attaching them to a headband; using the crepe paper for gift wrap will always be a winner or perhaps customise a top with some of the beads left over from the beaded flower kit.

It's difficult for us to say, not having tried one, how fun the regular non-kit heavy boxes would be, but who doesn't love a box of delicious crafty goodies delivered to your door, right? From the quality and presentation of this box we can tell that trying it out for a few months would be fun, whether you are a new crafter or a more experienced one. As a new crafter it would be a great way to build up your stash. As an experienced crafter there is a great Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest community to share your projects with like-minded creatives. 

What do you think? Fancy giving it a try?

The lovely girls at Crafty Creatives have offered our readers an exclusive discount code 

CRAFTYLLM 

 the first 10 of you to sign up will get 25% off your first box!

How sweet is that? Head over to their website now and sign up before we beat you to it! 

Info:

The cost:  boxes are £10 + £2.95 p&p per month

Gift options available - 3/6/12 months - great for Christmas!

No contract - cancel when you want

At the moment subscriptions are only open to UK residents, but they are looking to ship within EU countries soon and if you are in the States or Canada you can add your info to their mailing list for updates http://www.craftycreatives.com/craft-box-sign-up.html

H and Sammy xxx

Disclaimer: We were sent this box for free as a blogger promotion, but we did not (and never do) guarantee a positive review in exchange for a product sample.