But oh, how I wanted to join in.
In September, they announced a one off Christmas box with no requirement for a longer term subscription and I decided I could treat myself to this. The waiting began and finally, towards the end of November, the box arrived.
I'd convinced a friend to get one too, so we have been sharing regular updates on our progress through the box.
First impressions: as many others have said, it was a smaller box than expected, but it has a lot in it! I enjoyed picking through the different kits and other bits, and spent a fair bit of time playing with it before starting to make anything.
So far, I have:
Made a beaded bauble - this involved threading tiny beads with a needle, to produce a sort of net which sits and shimmers on top of a bauble. I did this first as I've never done anything like it and it looked the hardest. In fact, whilst being a bit fiddly, it wasn't that hard. I really enjoyed the technique; I think life is probably too short to craft bauble covers but I can see myself using a similar technique in other contexts. This is what I made - I love it:
Made 5 tiny pots of lip scrub, using coconut oil, sugar, honey, and the provided pots. I was quite excited about this in concept, but found it a little bit of a let down - it was a nice idea, but my scrub didn't quite work as the melting point of the coconut was too low, meaning that it melts as soon as I touch it with my finger and doesn't bring any sugar to my lips to do the scrubbing! It was also a really quick process meaning that the crafting itself wasn't particularly satisfying. Not my kind of thing really.
Made a mobile using one of the wreath rings, covered in the ribbon, with christmas tree beads and bells:
I was really pleased with this as I thought it was pretty - the beads have a really nice feel and heaviness to them. Sadly my daughter knocked it to the floor causing an irretrievable tangled mess, so I am going to have to remake it, or design something else! The beads, bells and rings were all really nice pieces.
Used the Christmas tree stickers as an advent calendar for a toddler - really quick and simple idea, with my only complaint being that there aren't enough stickers for the whole 24 days...luckily Peppa Pig is stepping into the breach! She is enjoying sticking them on each day and I think it's creating a sense of the countdown to Christmas for her:
I could probably have spent more time on the design but I was doing it on 1st December!
Used half of the felt tree decorations kit to make this bauble:
I liked the concept of a felt tree decorations kit but would have liked more exciting felt colours - mine were brown and green which didn't inspire me particularly, especially in combination with pink embroidery thread! I have a Christmas tree in progress though.
There are also 3 wooden die cut snowflakes which I've threaded up and hung on the tree - not my most imaginative moment.
That's all I've made so far. There are two sheets of really pretty Christmas paper, which I intend to make into cornucopia - little cones with a handle to fill with sweets and hang on the tree. There are also two little gift boxes which I will make when I do my wrapping (already mentally allocated to particular presents), and three card templates - haven't quite decided what to do with those yet. Oh, and I have more Christmas trees, bells, and another wreath ring!
Overall, I have really enjoyed playing with the box and deciding how to use the contents. I would have preferred a paper or fabric based kit in place of the lip scrub one, and a slightly more coordinated felt kit but it has felt like money well spent and I will go back for more when I have more crafting time!
