Really..... You have got to be Kidding!!

I received this months copy of Simply Cards & Papercraft Magazine in the post yesterday. It has been delayed because of problems with the supplier ( Brexit ?), but they had emailed and explained that. What I really find hard to believe is that they claim their 'biggest kit ever' that came with it is worth £45.99

when I excitedly opened it,  I was confronted with .....

Now, I watch Hochanda and Create & Craft channels on TV, so I am used to seeing overpriced card making kits (Yes, Tattered Lace, I am talking about you!) - but this takes the biscuit.

This 52 piece kit contains an embossing folder only 3 inches square, 3 tiny metal dies ( don't bother, its easier to cut out the plant pot by hand) and a set of very small herb related stamps. There are the names of 9 different herbs in 2 different fonts - so that's 18 stamps for a start. However these name stamps are only 1 or 2 cm long. There are no cards, envelopes, charms, stickers,  ribbons or other embellishments included in this, so called, kit. 

But I shouldn't forget the digital papers and templates I could download - well, I will forget about them as I don't print off background papers on my home printer - have you seen the price of ink cartridges! There is also an SVG cutting file to download, but that is useless too, as I only have a big shot manual die cutter. How can they claim that this is worth £45.99???

Now I can understand why the price has gone up to £6.99 per issue, but really, who are they kidding on the price of this 'kit'. Who, in the real world, would spend nearly 50 quid on it?

The freebies that came recently with Papercraft Essential magazine and Creative Stamping Magazine were so much better (rant over).                                                                                                                                                                                                     

Papercraft Essentials 196

 

This months issue of  Papercraft Essentials Magazine had a lovely Woodland Collection topper pad as its freebie, with some sentiments for Mothers Day included

 

So it seemed a good idea to make some cards with it!

And there are still loads of elements, papers and sentiments left.

Embossing & Glittering

 

Now that I am switching to Nuvo Drops, I decided to try and use up some of the old bottles of Stickles and other glitter glue I have hanging around. So I dug out some embossing folders that haven't been used a while, embossed the backs of some old Christmas cards and spread the different glues across the depressions and left to dry

These have then been used as glittery backgrounds for some more cards.

By using 3 different colours you get a nice varigated effect.

A good way of stretching the imagination and experimenting with a different technique.

and a fun way of passing more time in lockdown!

Old Tattered Lace Magazine dies

 

Tattered Lace magazines can be quite expensive, so I like to make sure that I use their freebie dies as often as possible. This cute elephant dates from April 2019 ( issue  65)  and has been used to make loads of new  baby cards

The pirate die and papers come from issue 71

This purple flower is from a more recent issue, 86. Its supposed to be a wild fuchsia , but to me looks more like a violet!

Three of a kind

 

I made 3 cards yesterday using the Formula 1 racing car image that came in the magazine I bought last month, as you can see they are very similar but with slight variations in layout, colours, wording and backing papers. 

I'm going to be hunkering down this weekend, as the forecast is for snow, which seems a very good excuse to stay in the craft room and make more cards!