When I worked with elderly people, one of my favourite activities to do with them was card making. No matter the level of imagination or ability, everyone can make something beautiful when the intention is to send it to someone and make them smile.

Part of the reason I enjoyed it so much is because I worked in a facility which had an entire wardrobe dedicated to art supplies, so I didn't have to choose what to buy, and there was a huge selection to suit everyone. It made it so easy and enjoyable to just lift the boxes out and let everyone dig in. 

My Greeting Box is like a refined version of that. If you want to try your hand at cardmaking it can be overwhelming to see all the techniques and products available, not to mention costly, so the lovely owner spotted a gap in the market and started putting together boxes with everything you need to get going, including stamps, embellishments, cards, and so much more. With your first box you even get the essentials such as a ruler, rubber, pencil, tape, glue, and an acrylic block for your stamps. They really do think of everything! 

Each month there is a theme, and the June box was based around fairies and magic. You can see from my unboxing video just how much this excited me! I love the stamps with the sweet sentiments, toadstool, and watering can, and I'm also a huge fan of the colours that were chosen. Fairies are usually aimed at children, but thanks to the chic navy, pink, and white theme these cards are suitable for any recipient and look really elegant. 

As I made the cards, it was easy to see how much passion has gone into them. It's not a random selection of products, but carefully planned and developed components. I was thrilled to see that Holly had packed in some really clever items, like a glue bottle with a precision nozzle, and the most amazing shimmer spray that's filled with microfine glitter to give your card that finishing touch. It truly is like fairy dust! 

The instructions were also planned perfectly, easy to follow and with no problems or errors. Crafty as I am, I wouldn't have thought to use the cut out technique, or layer the fairy's wings to give a 3D effect. It's so simple yet really effective, and makes your cards look so high quality. 

My Greeting Box are currently* running a deal where you can use the code FIRST25 to receive 25% off your first order and buy your first box for £16.50. For all the essentials included plus the themed cardstock, stamp sheets, and embellishments, that is incredible value. In my eyes, you're not only buying the art supplies, but 3 art lessons in the form of the instruction cards, and a few hours of art therapy. Once the cards are made, you can use the remaining supplies for future projects, and you have beautiful handmade, sentimental cards to give.

Have you tried cardmaking?

*applicable at the time of writing

I've been incredibly lucky to see lots of musicals in my life, and they have had a real impact on me. For a while I wanted to be treading the boards of the West End myself, but after one too many disastrous dance classes I realised that in my case it would be more like tripping the boards. Some of the best I've seen so far are Britain's Got Bhangra, Sister Act, and the big one, Les Mis, but there are still quite a few to tick off my list.

The Lion King

My mum and sister invited me to see this a few years ago and I will never not regret turning them down! I follow the official Facebook page where they share behind the scenes glimpses, and seeing the hours put into each mask and the athletic training of the performers has just filled me with respect and admiration.

We Will Rock You

I performed this in college and have to say that it's the weirdest musical out there! Killer Queen has banned music and anyone daring to disagree is banished to The Seven Seas of Rhye. It does feel like the Queen songs have just been jammed in anywhere, but hey, I adore Queen, so I can roll with it.

Kinky Boots

The film is so beautiful, and one of my favourites, so it would be interesting to see how the musical lives up. I'm fascinated with drag makeup and would love to see the angels strut their stuff on stage, bringing the boring boot factory to life. I imagine it's a really fun musical.

Mamma Mia

Another fun musical that I'm sure would get everyone singing and dancing along! I don't trust anyone who doesn't love an ABBA song or ten, and the movie musical manages to bring them together with a half decent storyline. Seeing it on stage would be even cheesier but totally hilarious and a really feel good evening.

School Of Rock

This film is a classic, and bringing it to the boards can only make the characters even larger and the kids even sassier. It's tough for anyone to tour and perform 8 shows a week, so for the children in the show to have such big parts at a young age is really impressive. I've heard that they're fantastic.

What's the best musical you've seen?

I confess that I'm not-so-secretly addicted to sweet reviews, and it's about time I dipped my toe in the high GI pool. Where better to start than with the chicest sweeties out there, Candy Kittens? I've wanted to try them for the longest time, with the gorgeous packaging, delicious flavours, and vegan formula all reeling me in, but the price putting me off. Maybe I'm just a penny pincher, but I can grab a bag of good old Haribo for £1 compared to these being £1.50 upwards.

Luckily for Scrooge over here, Morrisons had reduced their bags to just 75p, so naturally I had to swoop and grab a bag each of Peach Fizz, Blueberry Bliss, Wild Strawberry, and Sour Watermelon.

Three members of my family mistook the bags for cat treats, but I love them. The silver spots, the bright colours that correspond with the flavours, they're just gorgeous. I'm a sucker for great packaging. I also really love that the sweets themselves are cat shaped, they remind me of upscale Percy Pigs.

Out of the four bags I grabbed, the one I'll run to restock is absolutely Peach Fizz. Peach is one of my favourite flavours, and at first this tasted like typical peach sweets, then developed into something even better. Candy Kittens have absolutely nailed an accurate, fresh flavour, that feels like biting into the real thing without getting juice all over your hand. Absolutely one of the best sweets I've ever tasted, and do you know what? I'll happily loosen my purse strings and pay £1.50 for more.

After sampling peach perfection, the others paled in comparison. They were all lovely but just not on the same level. I did really enjoy the fine, sour sugar they were all dusted in, it helped to lift all the flavours and boost their true, tart fruit taste.

The flavour came from the addition of real fruit juices in the sweets, and the ingredient list also boasts natural colours, but you won't spot beeswax or gelatine or beeswax glaze in there. Due to this, I was expecting a very soft texture, but they're satisfyingly chewy. Not quite Haribo tough, but they won't melt in the mouth either. Out of the vegan sweets I've tried, I can see these becoming a firm (ha) favourite,

Which flavour should I try next?

 I've loved arts and crafts from an early age. We were lucky enough to have a play room, and it was like stepping into Hobbycraft, The Works, and the Crayola factory combined, so it's no surprise that my passion has grown with me, although my collection is a little more refined. This post would be longer than War And Peace if I listed everything, but these are the things I reach for every day!

This post contains Amazon affiliate links marked with *. Using them won't cost you any more, but I'll get a bit of moola to buy more pens.

Starting with the basics, I always choose a sketchbook with thick, white, smooth pages. Many brands have a slight tint or grain to their pages, but Winsor and Newton have great paper with serrations for easy removal, in handy ringbound books. 

My absolute must haves are good fine liner pens for drawing lines and adding dotwork. I've tried Faber-Castell and UniPin, but my favourites are Sakura Microns*. I mainly use sizes 0.2, 0.1, and 0.05 but also have sizes 0.3, 0.5, and 0.8, which I use for filling in larger spaces, as the ink is pitch black, waterproof, and fade proof.

I also have a large range of colourful Staedtler Triplus fineliners*. I tend not to use them in my illustrations as they can become patchy, but I enjoy using them to write out greetings cards and packaging for my shop orders. 

Another essential pen in my collection is a simple white gel pen from Pilot. I use this for adding highlights and details, but it's also really handy to use almost like a tiny Tippex. I can blank out mistakes and colour over them pretty easily.

When it comes to adding colour, watercolour is my choice, although I do find it very difficult to work with. Winsor and Newton is a great brand, and I have their pocket palette plus a 45 colour half pan palette*, and I also use their masking fluid, which is a medium you paint over areas you don't want the paint to touch, then peel off. Between the palettes, I have every colour I could want, and I like to use them for either washes or more solid pops of colour. For blending and layering I prefer watercolour pencils, and use a great set from Reeves.

I'm trying to branch into acrylic, so I have a super cheap set that are actually labelled as fabric paints, and 2 bottles from the docraft Artiste range. For all my paints I use some fine Winsor and Newton brushes, and a set from Royal and Langnickel, who make a huge variety of brushes- even makeup ones! My set is real hair, sable, so I will be swapping to a synthetic set when they're done.

What art supplies do you love?

When I saw that Racconto Lounge had popped up in Bury, little did I know that it would be the most Instagrammable location in town! The interior is like nothing I've seen before, and such a clever use of the space. Huge paper lanterns swing from the ceiling, while the walls are adorned with thousands of framed portraits and paintings. Antique bureaus and mirrors meet recycled wood flooring and bright, mismatched furniture to give it an eclectic but cosy feeling. In a small space all of this would be cramped and dark, but it brings much needed warmth and life to the tall industrial space.

I will say that we did have plenty of time to take in the view, as our meals were pretty late, and we waited longer than the 30 minutes advised. However, we did visit on a Bank Holiday and the staff were really polite about it, so it wouldn't stop me returning, but I would choose a quieter time.

The veggie brunch caught my eye because it featured halloumi and sweetcorn fritters instead of Quorn or Linda McCartney sausages, which I'm not really a fan of. It also came with toast, fried egg, spinach, peppers, mushrooms, hash browns, and -perhaps most importantly- baked beans in a little pot. I love it when they're kept separate rather than getting my food wet. 10 points, Racconto Lounge.

My brunch was really delicious, although I wish I could have swapped the mushrooms for another fritter. They didn't have as much salty, chewy halloumi as I had expected, but the texture was really good nonetheless. Alongside the all day breakfast menu, there are also paninis, burgers, salad, and tapas on offer, all of which sound delicious. The menu is fairly priced too, with most mains and drinks coming to around a tenner.

I was excited to see that the menu also features homemade lemonades and watermelon iced tea. I don't drink alcohol, so it's always a pleasant surprise to see more interesting soft drinks on offer. Sadly my sister ordered the raspberry lemonade, and while it was good to see that it was made with lots of real fruit, it was super sour.

While my parents really enjoyed a twisted chicken panini and homemade vegetable soup, my sister pulled the short straw again with the breakfast muffin she ordered. The sausage patty was tiny in comparison to the toasted muffin, and the meal should have included a hash brown to pad it out a bit in our opinion. Luckily for her, I'm happy to share.

Racconto Lounge lost a few points on my first visit, but I'm willing to forgive and forget and try again because the rest of the menu just looked too good! Mexican Superbowl? Halloumi burger? I'm coming to get ya.

When I was a small YouTuber, I used to wonder why on Earth people weren't watching my channel. I poured so much love into it and worked really hard to teach myself editing and put up new content. Now that I've stepped back, I understand why people didn't watch me, and why I generally don't watch other small channels.

I'll read small bloggers all day long, because a post takes me around a minute to read. However, if you want people to engage with a 5-12 minute video, it really does have to be fab. As I said, I've seen both sides, and now I have some thoughts and advice that I wish someone had passed on to me back in the day.

As I wrote all of these points, I noticed that the recurring theme is getting the balance right in every aspect, and that takes time and trial and error. Nobody uploads a perfect first video, so just use these tips as a constructive starting point and try different techniques until you find what suits you.

1. You're too nervous

"Hi.. um.. guys, I've err.." no. If you can't talk to me, I won't listen to you. Nerves are natural, but you can make notes to rely on if you forget your points, and say sentences again if you stumble the first time. Just keep trying and edit out the bad bits.

2. You're wannabe Zoella

When you start a channel, 9 times out of 10 it is because somebody else inspired you, so it's understandable that you will borrow bits of their style, but your viewers want to see your personality and what makes you unique rather than a carbon copy of the big names. Try to talk to the camera the way that you talk to your friends.

3. You have no niche

When I had my channel, one week I'd be baking cupcakes, the next I'd be talking about mental health. When you're a very new channel, I honestly wouldn't recommend this route. If your subscriber base is small, it's very unlikely that they will all be interested in every topic, so pick one you're most passionate about to start with and branch out as you grow.

4. Poor aesthetics

Again, I'm speaking from experience. I used to film in front of an old bedsheet hung over my wardrobe, then blast the brightness up until my face resembled the moon. Studio lighting is good, but natural lighting really is better. You might have dips where the sun goes in, but that's far better than my face giving my viewers snow blindness for the whole video.

Aesthetics also refers to how your channel looks. Aspyn Ovard is a great example of how to do it well. She uses the same colours, fonts, and styles in all her videos and thumbnails. It ties them together and makes her instantly recognisable.

5. Sound issues

Ooh I was a bugger for this. I'd put my music on so loud that you couldn't hear a word I said, and I'm sure it put lots of potential subscribers off. For the most sleek, professional sound, put it louder when you're not speaking (when showing cooking or makeup techniques, for example), and fade it back down when you do speak. Try not to have harsh jumps where the music suddenly stops. 

When it comes to finding music, Bass Rebels are great for free tracks with no copyright. Just make sure to credit them and the original artist in your description box!

I hope these tips helped! Do you have any to add?

Personalised Oak Keyring

£5.50

BespOakGifts

This is one of the nicest little gifts I've seen, and the great thing about shopping small is that you can have it personalised to make it even sweeter. The oak finish is really classic, and so much nicer than those supermarket Simpsons keyrings.

Stepping In Step Dad card

£2.50

Badger & Squidge

I love that this shop offers something for the step dads out there and the 'thanks for stepping in' slogan is really sweet and touching without getting too mushy. This shop also offers a service where they'll write and post the card for you to save time!


Classic Car Print
£8.37
Classic Motors

Cars are often a good choice for dads, but many items can be... well, I'll just say it: tacky. This print is much sleeker and I can imagine it looking really cool in a contemporary home. The seller has a range of designs, so you could get him a print of his first car or his dream car!


Sharks and Waves Bow Tie
£10.85
MvZDesign

Admittedly, bow ties are a pretty niche item, but when I spotted this one I couldn't resist including it! From a distant it looks like a smart blue and white design, but closer up you can see what's really lurking. If your dad is getting married or just have a quirky sense of style, you have to snap up a tie from this shop.
Cheese Making Kit
£21.99
CheeseMonkeyKits

I know, I know, I hit the ball out of the park with this one! A new hobby AND snacks? You will win the gift game with this, my friends. Unless your dad is vegan, lactose intolerant, or on a diet.

What's the best gift you've ever bought your dad?
Images belong to sellers. Prices are correct at the time of writing.