Viking Review

I was recently approached by Viking to see if I would be interested in some items from their website, not being one to turn down a good stationery website browse I agreed.

I was looking for stuff for myself but then spotted a rather large range of  art and craft materials, since we love to get crafty and with my supplies running low I decided to take the plunge and treat the kids.

I chose some tissue paper squares, googly eyes (you can never have enough), feathers, gum paper shapes (perfect for no mess activities), some poster paper and finally some paper chains.

Getting to work on some pictures for the grandparents the children loved sticking and gluing the tissue paper, and the gum shapes are brilliant if you want to do some glue free activities as you just lick and stick.

Several pints of glue later and the kids had created on their own some fabulously colourful artwork.

With some kinder egg tubs we made some minions using the googly eyes and some of the paper, they loved making these and they are so simple and effective (as seen on Red Ted Art).

We then made some paper chains, these were really easy for my son to make on his own, having the sticky tape ready to stick them together it was super simple.   As summer approaches we will pop these around the home to brighten it up.

They are also great for garden parties to brighten up the patio area, we put our's in the conservatory to make it look pretty.

It’s not just art and craft stuff though, they also sell a lot of other stationary items and office items that can be utilised in the home, for example door mats (why did it only occur to me afterwards we could have used one of these) as well as paper for printers, envelopes if you use snail mail and tea and coffee. Or for those who like to be organised how about Dymo label machine.

With free next day shipping on orders over £30 it doesn’t take much to get over this amount and your goods are delivered the next day for free.

My only one issue was the poster paper arrived without any outer packaging, which I would normally agree less is better however the packet had come undone and the paper was a little damaged where it was exposed.

Other than that the rest arrived packed fine and in super quick time, I hate nothing more than waiting days for an order.

With postage for orders under £30 being only £2.90 it still isn’t a bad deal and you have up until 6pm that day to order.

I will definitely be shopping with Viking again, I hadn’t really thought of using them for craft supplies and although there is a lot it will last us a while and means we can use them without feeling like we can’t use to much.

  

NB We received the items included in this post free of charge for the purpose of this review, all opinions are my own.

Fab crafty finds - bunting!

When I was looking for ideas for bunting for my daughters birthday (we had a huge empty room I needed to fill) I found a couple of great ideas.

The first one which I already knew about and had tried was this brilliant no sew bunting, at the time I didn't have a sewing machine and couldn't sew so this was perfect for me.

The results are brilliant and everyone I showed it to was impressed, I bought the material in a fat quarter bundle from Hobbycraft ages ago and it was just the perfect amount for the job at hand.

You can find the tutorial over on Red Ted Art's blog, if I can do it then anyone can ;)

The next was printable bunting, I found a couple of great sites which have printable bunting.

The first is Ruffled Blog, the prints are gorgeous and if I end up having a 30th Birthday party I will be printing some more of these out.

And then this gorgeous bunting and cake toppers from Creature Comforts Blog, they really are beautiful and perfect for a little boys bedroom or summer party in the garden.

Best of all these are recyclable both in terms of using again and being just paper you can always pop them in the recycling bin when you've finished with them.

There are lots of others so do have a little google to see if there is something you like for a birthday or celebration this year, it has also given me ideas on how to make my own for my sons 4th birthday this year.

He wants an octonauts themed birthday and I have an idea for printing some out to make so watch this space :)

My house is nearly a home!

So after nearly five years of living in our house we can nearly call it a home, last weekend I decorated my sons new bedroom.

He loves it, as do I. Me and my husband have finally claimed the lounge back instead of it being full of his toys.

Today I am hoping to sort out my daughters room, poor thing is nearly nine months and still doesn't have a bedroom. I remember having my sons nursery all set up and looking pretty before he was born, adjusting and readjusting everything until the day he arrived.

I have this gorgeous set I won from Peanut and Pip on Red Ted Art's blog months ago waiting to go up on the wall and am itching to put it in pride of place, it also means I can get on and order some fabric for her curtains with some extra to send to Knot Just Jigs to make into something scrummy.

My poor old neck is begging me not to paint but I am really eager to get it all sorted and finally have a homely home.