Secret Santa for £5.00

Many people join in with Secret Santa be it at work, with friends or family and now Facebook groups.

In one of the cardmaking groups I belong to we have a limit of £5.00 to buy a craft based Secret Santa gift, we then make a card that can't be traced back to us and post the gift and card off.

For £5.00 you can normally get a couple of bits in The Works etc but by planning ahead you can actually make your money go further and get an AWSOME Secret Santa gift for someone.

Shopping on sites like Every Crafts A Pound and Printable Heaven for example often have amazing deals and reductions so you can just add it to whatever you were buying for yourself and just put it to one side until it is needed.
Below is this year's Secret Santa gift so far and I have spent a total of £2.70. When I know who I am sending to I can now use the remaining money to buy something in their crafting style to personalize the completed gift

https://www.everycraftsapound.co.uk/MobileIndex.php

https://printableheaven.com

Very easy centre step card tutorial

Start with a peice of A4 card, I am using Crafters Companion Centura Pearl cardstock in turquoise. I have linked the products I used below.
With a pencil and ruler measure 2" in from the short side and 2" in from the long side and make a mark, do this in all 4 corners.

Then measure 1" along from that mark (towards the centre) and make another mark, repeat as before.

Using a scoreboard with the paper in a landscape position make a scoreline in the middle of the cardstock from long edge to long edge. Next score from the 2" mark and the 1" mark to the long edge avoiding the middle of the card stock as shown in the picture below.

The - - - - - in the picture indicates where you need to cut, fold the card down the middle using the scoreline made previously and holding the opening of the card away from you cut as shown in the picture above.

Hold the card with the opening facing towards you, make the scoreline nearest the bottom of the cardstock a mountain fold and the next scoreline up a valley fold, repeat on the score lines on the reverse of the card, it should then look like this 

To decorate you will need the following matts I have used papers by Helz Cuppleditch called Beach Life:

1 3/4" x 2 1/2" - 2 required 

4 "x 3 1/2"  - 2 required ( 1 in plain paper)

8 1/4" x 1 3/4" - 1 required 

Take the 8 1/4" x 1 3/4" peice and attach to the bottom of your card leaving a 1/4" boarder. The 4" x 3 1/2" peice of pattern paper goes on the middle section again leaving a 1/4" boarder. The 1 3/4" × 2 1/2" fix to the small side panels leaving a 1/4" gap

The 4" x 3 1/2" peice of plain cardstock fixes to the back of the card with a sentiment affixed.

You can then decorate your card.

This card fits into a C5 envelope.

https://www.theworks.co.uk/p/card-making-supplies/centura-pearl-a4-turquoise-card---10-sheet-pack/709650762466

https://www.everycraftsapound.co.uk/MobileDetail.php?Prod_ID=59334

https://www.everycraftsapound.co.uk/MobileDetail.php?Prod_ID=59852

https://www.everycraftsapound.co.uk/MobileDetail.php?Prod_ID=59849

https://www.everycraftsapound.co.uk/MobileDetail.php?Prod_ID=60301

The Works Shopping Spree

These gorgeous pearlescent papers were £2.50 for a pack of 10 and are 310GSM. They are absolutely beautiful and I can't wait to start making cards with them.

I found some more Christmas Village items on The Works website and could not resist! I adore the 6x6 and 12x12 papers from this collection and it has started a new craft addiction as I now need the complete collection! Just too cute 😍

Lastly I added to my Festive Wonder collection, I really love the 12x12 paper pad in the collection so thought I would try the reindeer and twines as well. The reindeer are gorgeous up close and I can't wait to use them

Every Crafts a pound

Craft haul- what I bought

I absolutely love the Christmas Village collection, I have the papers in 12x12 so couldn't resist a second pack of 6x6 for £1.00! I had quite a few ideas for cards so I also bought the stickers which I don't normally use, but they will work on my card ideas and I also got the bows,button and Noel stamp for the series (I have another order from else where with more from this range coming this week) Excited to get started with this super cute collection.

Next I chose these papers and stamp and die set from the sweet moments collection. I already have something else from this range so so I decided to snap these up to compliment the item I already had and give me extra options for cards.

I loved this embellishments from the time to sparkle range and think they will give a great finish to my Christmas cards.

Lastly I picked out from Simply Creative some more xmas embellishments (you can never have enough!) and then I also got a 12x12 festive paper pad as well as the Jolly holidays 6x6 pad.
I loved the Sheena embossing folder and there is a new technique I have been trying which I think will work really well with this folder to create a beautiful card. I thought the ink pads looked like an interesting colour to try out and play with although they are smaller than I thought they would be. I got the craft threads to go though various buttons. I loved the snow flakes for maybe a shaker card but have since had another idea so watch this space and then the sequins and bows were just pretty colours I know I will use.
All together I spent £30 (that did include a small delivery fee as I didn't spend enough for free delivery)
I placed my order on a Friday afternoon, I got notified when it had been picked and dispatched.
The courier is Dpd, you have to be available to sign for your parcel but Dpd keep you informed and you can track your parcel and change delivery date if needed.
The items were well packaged and everything arrived in good condition and had been checked against the invoice which was in the box.
Brilliant value for money and I will definitely be ordering again.