Shopping My Stash - Brads!

Ever look at your hoard of craft items and think, some of this stuff I haven't touched in years? Well this is what happened to me. Being the sort of person that doesn't like throwing things away I have made it my goal to use these bits up!

So I started with brads.

This is the first 4 cards of the stash shopping. I also used some older papers and some new stamps and Eclips machine, as I found this was the easiest way to use things up is if you experiment with something new!

As I was a little out of my comfort zone but I don't think they are too bad!

Hannah x

Saving Money shopping - 85% saving

I have a new love in my life... Coupons! I have been hunting them down and looking for the best deals. There is no way I could large shops with tons of them, it would take way too long, but picking the bits up little by little I have made some successful savings. BUT remember its not a saving if it is not something you would not normally use!

Yesterday I went to Sainsburys to pick up a couple bits so here is a break down of what I got and Prices:

• John West Steam Pot - £2.69
• Shape peach and passionfruit yoghurts x2 - £1.50 each 

Total cost - £5.69

Of course I had a few coupons for this and there was some offers too, so these were what I had for savings:

• Sainsburys Brand match from previous shop - £1.32
• Sainsburys Brand match from previous shop - £1.00
• coupon £1 off any two shape yoghurts - £1.00
• Coupon £1 off any steam pot - £1.00
• Two for £2 on shape yoghurts - £0.50

Total of coupons/savings - £4.82

This meant that I got £5.69 worth of goods for a mear 87p! That 9p an item. As you will know I can't eat couscous but this was brought for my dad to try and from the machine I got another 50p steam pots and double nectar points on fuel, which is handy because I need to fill up! 

Why not give it a go

Hannah x 

11th Birthday Card

I had the challenge this week of creating another boy card! I am terrible when it comes to boy cards but I think I kept the ribbon and glitter under control (maybe!).


This card was for my Dads colleagues son, he was turning 11 and my Dad said he was at their house that day so I told him it would be rude not to take a card! (any excuse to get crafty!) I didn't have much time so I decided to spend more time colouring than paper layering but I think I'm happy with how it looks!

This is what I came up with:

Products Used:

• 5x5 Card base
• Paper Cellar 6x6 pad in 'Checks'
• Party Time Cling stamps in 'Cookie'
• A number of pro markers
• purple Card Candi
• stickles in 'Gold'
• Circles and Scalloped circles nestablities
• Blue Cardstock

Hannah x 

How do they do it?

It is a complete mystery to me how Ebay sellers in Hong Kong, China etc. offer products so cheap. I know they ship them straight from the factory but even with shipping these items were 99p each!  (The animal post-its were 4 for 99p). As an online retailer myself it really does amazing me considering how much we pay to ship products in the UK! surely that doesn't cover the costs of the fuel!

Either way why not take advantage of these great deals, particularly when you can collect nectar points too!

I'm not going to tell you everything you buy will be amazing quality but what would you expect really?

I have not yet been brave enough to buy clothes from these sellers but I have brought many stationary and other household items, most of which I've been very pleased with.

Today I wanted to share the post-it notes I purchased for my filofax, after looking for hours in shops I have always thought post it notes were overpriced, I don't like to pay much for paper I write on and throw away, so I gave ebay a shot and this is what I got.

Some of these sticky notes are slightly smaller than I imagined but that is not an issue, the main thing is they stick! I have brought many sticky notes in places such as pound shops and they don't stick to the paper you want them too!

What kind of things do you like to buy on ebay?

Hannah x

Excel centre craft fair

Last week I went to the craft fair in the Excel centre in london, this was a very daunting prospect for me due to suffering anxiety but when my grandparents invited me I could not pass up the opportunity and I had a fantastic day!

I met so many crafters and jewellery makers like myself and I found the whole thing so inspiring, and of course you cannot go to a craft fair without buying some new crafty things!

A few of the stall holders didn't give me a card so I can't tell you where I got them and even worse I can't repurchase any of these items!

I first brought a large collection of items from Art of Crafts. This included two packets of card candi, a flower die set to use with my cuttlebug, these georgeous owl stamps and then I found the bargain bins! And I couldn't resist, I found a couple of embossing folders, one with stars and one with squares. Then I found a Joanna sheen stamp which I forgot to photo before mounting but it features two boys at the seaside and other small seaside based stamps. 

These are actually nail pens, but these cannot just be used on your nails, they are also marketed to be used on glass, wood, ceramics, stone and fabrics (that you aren't washing). A sucker for a gimmick I brought myself a set and they are the best nail pens I've used the nip deposits the polish even and clearly and can create some quite intricate designs 

Then I was sucked in by the ribbon devil and brought six strips of ribbon for £5 these are lovely quality and are from crafty ribbons.com. I think you'd agree some of the designs are quite unique.

The crafty beggars stall was run by Debbie Moore's sister and as a result all the Debbie Moore CD's were half price, I don't tend to use CD's in my crafting but this Christmas set was £4 and included papers, stamps and toppers as well as the CD and for that price I couldn't turn it down! Even if don't use the CD the pack was good value.

Hannah x

And in Five Years Time you Might Just Prove Me Wrong...

Who doesn't love a bit of Noah and the Whale! Yesterday (8th March) was James and my five year anniversary! Who would have thought! 

James and I have known each other for nine years, and first met when we were eight years old! That sounds a little crazy to me! 

To celebrate I got James a Ted Baker case and took him out for dinner at a local pub restaurant, and he turned up at the door with these!

How lovely is this beautiful hand tied!

Hannah x 

My Filofax is my Therapist...

Ok, I know technically a Filofax will not 'cure' my anxiety and panic attacks (and sometimes even I don't know what I'm panicking over!). But it certainly does help.

I have owned a personal sized Filofax for three years, but recently it had not been working for me because the rings were too small and it was just overall WAY too small. So I was shopping around and found the A5 Malden on the Filofax website, Im not going to lie, this is a very pricey planner. but I was lucky enough to be gifted this one by my parents for my 19th.

My Filofax is used for all aspects of my life and this includes the work I do for the family businesses, the work I do for HannahMade, as well as my personal life. I also store coupons and vouchers as well as my finances and birthdays etc.

I will be giving a more in depth overview of the sections in my filofax but for now I am just going to show you the basic things I do in my planner.


Birthdays 
Birthdays are very important to me, and where I make cards I need to make sure I remember to make the cards in advance.

Where I have not had my planner that long I have 'up cycled' the sheets that were provided but this doesn't mean I will not be 'Hannahising' my planner and using the address sheets to view Birthdays a month in advance is only temporary until I get chance to type this up, (this weekend hopefully).

Either way I have one of the dividers for birthday's where I can see all the Birthdays I need to cater to in the next month or even two if I need to.


On the day on the Birthday I write that persons name on the top of the day with a little sweetie sticker. This just reminds me and allows me to remember when I need to send their card and gift.

Finances 
I have not got an image for this because this isn't just my finances but my boyfriends too. James and I are very open with what we earn, of course we know what I earn much more because I am on a set salary with bonus income from my jewellery. But where James is a uni student he only works part time so we like to track what we have and where we spend.

Other Dividers
I also have sections for HannahMade, Blogger, diet, groups I'm in the committees of. These will be shown more in depth when I've got it just right!

What My Week Looks Like
As you can see I am using a week per page which came with the planner. I'm not sure if this is the layout I would pick but because I came with the planner I will not waste it!

I have the today ruler book marking this this week isn't very full as my normal weeks are but its not as empty as some weeks. Purple is usually used to write down personal things like meeting friends for coffee, yellow is used to see when James is working, grey is meetings for my groups and pink is HannahMade.

The post-its are used for different topics, this week I have a post-it of what I need to complete this week for one of the family businesses and the other has repairs for people's jewellery. I also post-it shopping lists, other work schedules among many other things I want to do/complete this week.


Accessories
Post-it notes - I use these for everything, absolutely everything. I don't think I could compute without a Post-it here is just a small collection I use.

Pens - I use a bic crystal fine ball point for note taking and writing birthdays. But when I'm in the mood for a bit of colour I always use Staedtler triples fine liner.

What type of planner do use? Do you even use one or think they are useless?


Hannah x

                                                     P.s. Sorry for the change in lighting