 Hey everybody it's Sam here thank you for watching today so this is my what did I get for Christmas so these are all the craft supplies that I've recently got so first of all I'm going to start off with some friend mail so I actually received this here from the lovely Kate so I will just bring in everything that she made because this all came in a box and some of the packaging I recognise and she did say that to me she said she'd followed my tutorials I'm just going to bring in this one here along with this beautiful card so I'll start off with the card I'm going up close so you can see you've got all the decoupage images there on the front and then this lovely gingerbread man paper and then this one opens up here on the front says Merry Christmas and then she's wrote me a lovely letter and then here it says too Sam warmest thoughts and festive wishes I sent you away for a wonderful Christmas day thank you Kate it was such a nice card really really pretty I love that one and then I've got all these goodies here so first of all let's start with this one so this is my selection box it was really nice to get my own so thank you Kate I'm so thoughtful and these papers are one of my favourites love the decoupage that she's done in the middle there and then inside tons of caramels thank you so much these along with the ones that tonic sent me I have loads of tonic sweets to last me I reckon until February at least and it says to Sam I'm sorry but it had to be done enjoy Merry Christmas Kate so thank you and they fit perfectly like I said these selection box sizes are brilliant because you can just stack so many different chocolates I've seen people sharing them in the group and they've been putting so many different brands inside and it just seems to work with most so yeah I love the tonics caramels there so thank you that was really kind and then I have this one here I can't remember what was in this because I've already obviously had a peep through you know look at everything love the little Robin on the top there you see and then inside here she's done the wax melts but these ones and I don't have this wax seal this is a happy male all those different colours there really really nice I like that one I like the red see this I'll definitely be using these probably pop these on the back of the cards when I do the giveaways and I'll be asking you Kate where you got that seal from because I like it myself so thank you that was really really sweet I'm gonna add those with my what I've already done some and they're like summery they've got like flowers and things like that on so it'd be nice to add those and such a cute little box there as well I like that and then I have these here and she put on this one it says the contents was handmade but not by me so that's right look at these cute little candles they're almost too nice to actually burn so I've got that flower there and there's the other one there so you can see the two there I've got so I will use them as lovely as they are but they are made to be burnt so enjoy them that's what I always say so thank you for those and then let's have a look at this one so in here I've got some lovely pamper things so I've got let's take everything at all another wax seal there as well I'm just to miss that one oh no I think that one was on the back of the that was on the back of the card that's right I'll pop that with the rest because I can reuse that so here I have soap and glory it's love I love soap and glory actually have some of their stuff so this one here is a it's probably staring me right in the face the ultimate super smoothing body buffer how you'll know it's the one their stuff is nice though so I'm sure it will be lovely the righteous butter body moisturizer and then I have this one here I mean I go through hand creams I imagine everybody does to be honest but when you're a paper crafter my hands are always dry I always put moisturizer on before I film and I just use all the time so this will go in my drawer next to me it's a Bayliss and Hardin and it's the Royal Royal Garden and it's the Rose one so thank you and they're great little sizes because if I do ever need to take any they fit in my bag and then this one here is English floral garden soap these are actually handy when I travel because obviously I got to Hachanda now every month so that's a nice little portable kind of travel size so again thank you very much for that and I do love my face masks I am I do try to I guess it's finding that time for self-care and I I do I like to every now and you know at least once a week I will sit down of an evening I'll put a face mask on so this one I don't have this one but it's manuka honey peel off I love the peel off ones as well that's really satisfying especially if you can pull it peel it off in one go so really thoughtful of you Kate it's such a lovely gift so I will be putting those all away and then this one again you'll recognise that box that was one of mine this was this is up there is one of the popular most popular Christmas ones of this year in terms of packaging that I shared and it's one that's going to work all year round so I'm sure it's going to be enjoyed a lot lovely ribbon really like that and then inside of course Tanix tea cakes so thank you so much so it was really kind of UK I love everything that you've you sent to me and then some of you might have noticed this lovely ring that I have it is amazing when I opened up this gift I was just I mean I'm always touched by gifts but I think when it comes to rings and anything arty I just it just blew me away I was a little bit emotional with this because I just thought you know just a really thoughtful gift and it's from a lady called Liz I'll show you the card as well that she done I just love it and it reminds me of like Bob Ross which I obviously love as well it's just very much me and I just I love it so thank you so much this is also the card she sent and I love candy canes I actually had a candy cane station that I put up every Christmas and I'm going to be adding this to the jar with where I have candy canes in and I'm going to pop this in with it as well it's a card it opens up here she's just wrote a few words which I will just hide there but you can see how that opens it was just so thoughtful Liz really really was so thank you so much I absolutely love it and then I received this is from Melanie this is the Stan sliding Stan card I love the images on this so it says have a piggies in blankets Christmas if you don't know what that means in the UK I'm sure that many other people enjoy them around the world but I know in the UK at Christmas time we traditionally will have pigs in blankets with our Christmas dinner so that is small sausages with bacon wrapped around and this is a natural image of some pigs with a blanket I think it's a brilliant and also here pigs in a blanket I love these I don't know if they're a download if it's an actual stamp I think it is stamped I think they're brilliant this I recognize I'm sure it's the embossing folder from one of the three that came free in the magazine and on the back she's just put hi Sam pig out it's Christmas I think it's brilliant hope you like the card wishing you and your family a very happy Christmas and a new year she also wrote a lovely letter which I'm gonna again keep private but Sam she sent me a bag of Percy pigs as well which are the Marks and Spencer's Percy pigs and I literally sat and ate pretty much all of them in one sitting I do like Percy pigs it's one of those things I don't tend to really buy a lot when I'm like shopping because you can only get them a Marks and Spencer's anyway but when I do get them then I eat them so it's probably good that I can't kind of get my house on them all the time so I don't think it would be very good for my waistline but I enjoyed them thoroughly so thank you so much thank you for the lovely card and another couple of cards I got so I like to just show these to you because it's nice inspiration as well this is from my friend Tati who lives in Dublin beautiful card love the sentiment here I think she's done that on the foil I think that's like you know using the hot foil that's what that looks like and I love the Ponsettia dye here and she's put sparkle all on the flowers and that was really nice and I think she's actually stitched this as well which is reminding me of my stitch dyes that I've got which I did start using so I need to get those out absolutely beautiful and then my friend Carol sent me this lovely card here oh let the focus there we go warm heartfelt greetings for a very merry Christmas really really pretty and with that she sent me a couple of little gifts here in this one I love these I hang these up around my craft room do more of what makes you happy and then here I've got some sticky labels and then I need to share this card here which is from so this is my great aunt's granddaughter she's called Sarah and I thank you so much for this absolutely beautiful card she's put my name across the front all of that glitter and it's kind of like a little storybook so she's got here open for some surprises main writing on the last page and then in the middle she's put here I think that's fantastic Christmas time and then Christmas with some lovely little presents that she's drawn and then on the back it says Merry Christmas to Samantha Merry Christmas from Sarah thank you so much Sarah it's beautiful I absolutely love your kind I love all the sparkle on that one so that was really really kind of you to send me that okay so on to my gifts that I received so first of all from my best friend she got me some other fun gifts but one of them was this scuba I haven't even got out of the packaging yet she actually had her message me and said if you use your Hoover yet and I said no I'm gonna wait until I've shared it and then I will try it so I'm gonna take it out of the packaging just so you can see it and she said I thought it would be handy for you when you're using your glitter embossing powder and things like that and basically it's got all these bristles on the bottom and you just literally put it across the desk and it will suck up whatever's on there so I haven't put batteries in it yet I need to do that let's push here there we go so it takes where's the batteries go ah here we go there we go so the top is the battery so it's two double A batteries and then that's obviously to clean it so that's where I guess all of your mess goes it must do because it's there's no other holes anyway so I guess it's that's the bit that you have yet says all the filters on the side so that's where all the the bits will go so yeah I will try it out and I will let you know how it goes but you will see this feature in videos probably when I'm live crafting and then that one pops back in there like so there we go but it's just nice and handy it's compact I can just pop it on my shelf there and yeah we're good to go so I mean on here they show it like in a car picking up my bits of food and crisps and so on yeah I love it thanks Kate okay then I got this ribbon here which I actually this was on my Amazon it was in my my basket and my mum just said you know what have you kind of got in there send it to me and you know I'll see what I can do so I don't have a lot of thin ribbon I've got lots of thick ribbons and these thin ones are just so handy for cards and just actually wrap through the cards and yeah I just wanted some thin ones so this was if I can find the links I will link it below as I always try to do but you just get a variety of colors there's another one that you can get with a different amount as well I think but you can see that each one's slightly different but there's a nice mix of color there but you get loads it's really really long it's wrapped all around this big spool but I just thought it was really handy I mean it comes in this I'll actually use this for something else it's quite a handy little trouble size really so that I will take them all off of that but yeah like I said if I can show the links I will but it was from Amazon and I just like those thin ribbons okay this one's gonna make quite a few of you smile so these are the Faber-Castell Polychromo and these are your colored pencils now these were in my wish list because I just like to try all different colored pencils these ones are a little bit more expensive but in our favorite charity shop my mum found this the other day not too long before Christmas they were originally £10 that they were selling them for they didn't sell at £10 so they reduced them to five and my mum saw them and grabbed them and they are brand new they've not even been sharp well they've been sharpened as in how big you know they come they've never been used they are brand new and they are the brights and they are beautiful these are up there as some of the best so I'm really excited to try these myself and yeah just what a find everybody always says they want to go to this charity shop because we always seem to find really good craft things in there so I know there's a few of you in that live in Plymouth where I live that will be probably saying a few curse words now at how jammy my mum was this time to get these but what a find absolute find because these are around £35 online for the set of 24 and I think you can get in the Polychromos I could be wrong but I'm sure I think there's something like 72 maybe even more within the range so yeah see how I go with these are meant to be beautiful to blend vibrant colors and there's some swatch sheets that I'm going to download and yeah again you'll see these feature in future videos so thank you mum what a find also she's got me these here well I say she my dad as well from my mum and my dad and these are the skin tones to go with the rest of my black widow pencils the black widow pencils are really nice there they're just a lot of people are using them a lot of I found them from a youtuber called colouring bliss that I follow and she was raving about how good they are for the price point at the time when I purchased them they were £12.99 for a pack or a tin which is really good for colored pencils that perform as well as these do and I downloaded her swatch sheet sheets and I've now got these to fill in at the rest on there and they're just really nice and I've introduced a lot of you to them as well and I know lots of you have been getting them really enjoying them I highly recommend them they're lovely pencils I've been using them for quite a while now probably for about I'd say four months I want to say and I've made quite a lot of cards using them and I'm really really pleased with them those and the artesans ones have kind of been my favourites now I've got the Polychromos to try as well so I'm a colour pencil person I really enjoy them but these ones here are the skin tones you've got the there's three tins of 24 and those are the black widow so it's got a spider on the top then you've got the cobra and then you have the scorpion you can't miss them and you can see the black widow there but if you don't like the tins I don't keep things in the original packaging I store them into my storage units that I have and just get rid of the tins you know there's a few people saying oh I can't buy them just get rid of the tins put a piece of decorative paper over the top it's easy to sort out but now having the skin tones is just completes the set they're beautifully packaged and like I said great value for money so yeah and you've got the website there and there's also the support email if you need to contact them so yeah that now completes my set so I'm looking forward to getting those all swatched out and I think I'm going to order myself another one of these so this is my coloured pencils a bit of yoga on it how bad that I need to wash that off properly but this is what I keep all of my Arteza in these are so well used I mean yeah you can see how small some of these are they are they're well loved I do really enjoy these pencils and this holds the whole set of the Arteza pencils I could spread some of these out a bit more to be honest but I love this case I think it holds a hundred and sixty pencils so I think I'm going to order another one of these in a different in a vibrant colour I'll probably go for like a red just so I know that the red is my black widow and this lovely like magenta colour is the Arteza but these are great for traveling especially when I'm you know on the go need to do a little bit of reorganization but thank you again to my mom and dad for the pencils and then from my sister so again this was all in my like Amazon wishlist I want to start trying some alcohol well I want to start using alcohol inks and making some nice backgrounds rather than I'm just grabbing the blending solution rather than splash out on the more expensive ones I know Ranger Tim Holtz I just thought I want to try it first just to see if I am gonna do it a lot to kind of justify paying a bit more so these here were not too expensive for the amount that you get so you get 24 now they are smaller you can see here but I think that's just right for me at the moment again if it's something that I feel I'm going to be going to a lot more then I might start to invest in bigger bottles but these here you get 24 of all these different colours they kind of look like food coloring bottles but they're not so don't mistake them for that but and then she's also got me the blending solution and then you use that with the UPO paper so this is what I've got here so I've got 10 sheets 85gsm there are other papers or other you know versions of UPO paper as well but this is the ones that she's got me so I'll try these and it says here this smooth surface synthetic paper is ideal for use with alcohol inks mixed media watercolours and acrylics white to reveal the white side the white surface scratch when dry blend and merge color I don't need to do a little bit of research there's lots of really good videos on YouTube which I'll be checking out so I'm really looking forward to making some nice you know backgrounds and use those within my my card making so I again these will definitely be featuring if not in my live tutorials they will be in just my normal pre-recorded videos that I put up onto YouTube so for epoxy wet that's good as well so I am doing my resin so I can use them with that spreads rapidly vivid coloring so I'm really looking forward to it so again if it's something that you want to try then you know go down this route first I think because it's not too expensive I think this is going to last me a long time I think it would be just right I think if anything you use more of this which is what you kind of drip onto the colors to them you know mix them and for them to create all those great patterns and stuff so and they also got me some new gel press I've got it it's not jelly because jelly is the brand and they do their own this one's gel press basically they are your media plates so what these are here is these wobbly thick pieces of gel and you create amazing effects with these I love using these I had the jelly ones and they dried up because I didn't store them well at all it's when I lived abroad so I haven't been able to really do this for at all ever on my channel so I'm looking forward to sharing what I know of this and what I've done and I think you're gonna really enjoy it so keep them in here you keep them all in the packaging don't ever throw this packaging away that's how you want to keep them stored and just make sure they're not anywhere where there's direct light or anywhere where they could dry because like I said I learned the hard way and so I've got six by six and the five by seven and then to go with that I've got some new braids so let me just show you got these ones here so those will be used and I've also got a ton of new acrylic paints I do have acrylic paints but they're you know some of them at the end or the colors I don't really have the best variety of colors so I've got these ones here so these are by magic fly and there's tons so I've got some really great colors in here I love these ones here you got the pink the magenta and these are what you will use with your gel blades so again I just want to create backgrounds different papers I think I'm gonna have loads of fun with this and of course you can mix these as well you've got your flesh and is there a white in this one yeah I've got lots of white anyway I've actually got a few tubes of white acrylic here obviously different brands they will react slightly different but you'll still get a really good result so I'm not worried about mixing brands so yeah so I'm all set to go there with the the gel plates so that's what I'll be doing between now and into the new year deep sky blue and like I said you can mix your own colors but it's quite nice to have a lot of them already done as well so yeah I can't wait I'm so excited to just play around with some new things so they're crimson red it's a really nice variety this is a pack of 24 I believe you can get a pack of six and a pack of 12 oh sorry no this is pack 30 I think there's 24 there's a few brands that are slightly different but the same and the packaging looks very similar to Arteza so I don't know whether it all comes from the same factory or this is just a company you know copying them I don't know but it's very very similar right down to just all of this but like I said this is magic fly everyone is an artist they're like a student grade you know they're not expensive like that you can obviously get very expensive acrylics but this is not something that I'm going to be doing full-time or as my only kind of you know craft this is something as an extra so these will be fine for me these will last me a long long time and the acrylic paints you don't have to just use for the gel media plates anyway I will use these you know for other things from doing a little bit of canvas painting and so on so yeah really nice amount again I'm gonna pop these into my little storage units that I have and then yay I've finally got a new mini die-cutting machine so those of you that are regulars to the channel I have the crafters companion Gemini go the machine itself is fantastic never had any problems with it but the plates oh my gosh they just walk so badly and I've just not had any success with them so I like the heavy thick perspex plates and that's what these are and these are just the same as the baby the mini baby blue by tattered lace that I used to have and I think these are the same on the is it the prism hunky-dory one or is it I'm anyway these are the plates I prefer these plates well they might warp slightly but they do not warp like like this this is the German I go and it's the only ones that I've ever had that actually joined like this you just can't put anything on that and I know you could probably put these under hot water you can reshape them but they just go back again it's just very frustrating I know this hasn't happened to everybody but for someone that crafts as much as I do you know I'm full-time doing this and it just was just getting too frustrated so now I've got these ones so and it's this one gets great reviews it's been around a long time again so I'm looking forward to to using it so really nice robust little machine it's got your little suction let's take all this off now I need to register it I don't know actually I know you I've registered my other machines I'm sure this is the guarantee I think it's only a year actually I need to check but always check these and if it says register make sure you do because it does cover you then if it does kind of break or you need a an extra part but that's all your suction mat so I imagine yeah we just push that there go solid I think it's not the best surface to be fair but it does it is there now and here we've got my embossing plate so the embossing one yeah embossing pad so that one would you do those two with the embossing folder to be fair I don't really have I know they've just given me them but it's not I don't really use them got a little happy birthday one there that's a little edge one but that's what I will use and you just feed it through so if not put them in straight but that's how it works love it and you also get this little stamp set thank you and hello and you got a little heart there and then I imagine yeah this will die cut that circle will fit nicely around the hello you've got the heart there which will cut the hearts out there a little edge border I doubt I use the dies as such I've got lots of this kind of thing I've got circles and hearts but they're quite handy I like the thank you that's nice so I'll pop them in with my other kind of thank you ones I guess and then you've got all of your info there again turns out to use it in case you're new to it and you're not too sure so I will keep all that together like so check to see if I need to register that one and then lastly watch I've got one more thing my sister got me this from a lady that was doing them on Etsy and it's a little diary which I keep in my bag and it's been covered with a tonics wrapper not cool and you got it on the back there as well really like that and then it's my diary for this year so thank you for that Tracy and Ollie I think it's really cool then every year on Christmas Eve we exchange silly presents so basically what that means is it has to be a gift that you've either customized or made and it has some kind of relevance relevance to that person for the year just gone I made my mum a t-shirt using my cricket and I basically just typed out on my on the software and it said I love Charlie hashtag obsessed Charlie is my nephew he was born in the right in the middle of lockdown and my mum like many grandparents my mum is just so obsessed with him and I got a t-shirt that said that on it so that's obviously relevant to her for this year and then I don't want my dad which said along the lines of basically I just don't like I don't want to do people in today no people so what I mean by that is my dad always makes a joke of if there's crowds if there's loads of people around like he will stay clear he hates it and we always make a joke with him so that's what I got him and then over the years we've had some real funny jokey ones I guess you've got to kind of have a bit of a thick skin in my family because some of them take the mickey out of us whether it's our appearance in some way but it's all just a bit of fun and we always have a real giggle and that's what we exchange on Christmas Eve so my dad made me this clock which is my own mixed up craft clock and I love it these well my dad drew my logo anyway for me so he's just printed that off and then he's used these stickers and it says mixed up craft it has a battery which I'll add in a moment and I'll hang that up in my craft room because I was saying I needed one because every time I do my Facebook live I always film it through my my actual mobile and then I have the comments on my iPad and when I have it in for some reason when it's on I can't see the clock all the time on the top of my iPad so I always ask in the chat can someone give me a time please so now I won't have to because I'll have this up in my craft room so yeah it was you see what I mean so it's it's relevant to me it's been made or customized and yeah it's just a little bit of fun so it was different this year because we only I only have my mom and dad because they're in my bubble and they are who I spent Christmas Eve with into Christmas day usually we also have it with my sister and husband and and the rule is that if anybody new comes into the family they have to have a whole year with us first before they can actually participate my dad's got some very strict rules with this is taken very seriously and it's always done on Christmas Eve and it's lots of fun and it's a tradition that I hope will continue for many many more years so yeah so that was I just thought I would add that in and share it with you all and I think it looks really cool so can't wait to put it up so and lastly I've got this to show as well so Paper Mill Direct very kindly sent me some new swatches and some papers to try and so these are the new swatches so I love this one the sparkling glitter and I've actually just put an order in for these here look at these oh my gosh they're going to be so nice for spring time so I have ordered that one where's the other ones these here so these are the ones that I've ordered how amazing are those they're all non-shared really nice and you can see the other ones here I mean going into Christmas time again or even just the winter but look at some of those colours there how sparkly the sparkle on them I mean it is picking up actually quite well in the camera they're just amazing and did I do that pink as well I think I've added that pink as well I need to double check but so these swatches are really handy if you're interested to know what ones those are is the iridescent light pink glitter the neon orange neon yellow so if you just put in neon neon then you'll get those all up there they're 220 GSM so they're great for you know making gift bags and boxes from but I just I'll be using them on my cards but I think they're all 220 yeah they are but if you go to the glitter you'll see all of them but I love that those kind of jumped out at me and then you have here these are all non-shared these are more smooth glitters not so sparkly as the others still lovely you've got sparkled pearlescent card there that's 300 GSM you know they're great for your card blanks as well really really nice so that's the sparkling glitter I've got double-sided pearlized which again it's really nice if you are doing it you know as your card blank card then you know to have it double-sided but also it's great for techniques because it's a white core so if you run an embossing folder through that and then use a sanding block on top you get some wonderful effects I do like that technique I do a lot whenever I get the paper milk the paper milk the paper the papercraft society boxes or the kits because a lot of the time it's some white core card there I mean that's lovely that royal blue double sided pearl eyes I need to get more of the blue so I might well do an order for that as well do you like using Navy so yeah that's the double sided pearl eyes and then your essentials have a lot of the essentials card stock from Paper Mill Direct it's just really nice quality it's 240 GSM so it's perfect for card blanks and for 3d projects and you just got pretty much every color you can think of I mean if you go on their website they have so much their customer service is brilliant and they've got a blog they've got lots of inspiration and they just got great colors I mean there's just so much you can also buy your card blanks from them you can buy envelopes they do a lot you know there's a lot more on the website than just the card stock as well so that's that one and then here's your textured card so you've got for example that's a linen effect that's 280 GSM you've got here super white card linen 350 I mean that's that's a lovely one 280 there that's all got a texture on it as you get your hammered effect hammered white hammered ivory hammered ones are always nice for wedding invitations they seem to be used a lot rich cream again you've got a linen there tons of different ones so that is your texture card so those are my newest swatch kind of blocks I've got a few more as well and then they also sent me card stock so this is what you're looking for here papermilkdirect.co.uk I will link it below but in here they sent me a nice wedge of new colors to try so I've got some glitter here already so you can see there oh it's so nice like my favorite color look at the mirrored card there I've got a load of white and this is the smooth white which is what I use a lot it's perfect for stamping using your alco inks some lovely new kind of fresh spring colors there along with the pinks some red and then I've got some pearl eyes I think I know that's not double-sided I wonder if I've got any double-sided oh yeah this is double-sided here towards the end what else have I got here pearl eyes that's a nice color that'd be nice for Valentine's actually very pretty so yeah I've got a nice variety there love that teal color be nice for underwater cards and that one there and then I got some gray that's a lovely pink as well so yeah again thank you papermilkdirect because it is beautiful card stock love that it's like an olive pearlized card there as well so yeah so I will add those to my other cards and I need to get organized with it all now okay so that's everything to show you I have some new magazines but I'm going to hold those back and share those probably in the new year and I'm going to start to use a lot of the new stamps that I've got from the magazines in my Facebook live because I'll be starting them again in the new year as well and yeah I'm just enjoying a couple of weeks off just relaxing and crafting just a craft I'm not recording I'm just doing some things just to enjoy them not that I don't enjoy but it's just nice to not have to worry about filming and saying things and talking I can just put a movie on I've just been enjoying some nice crafting but I'm looking forward now to having a good play around with these things here and once I've kind of got back into the swing of using my gel plates again then I'll share some tutorials again this is all new to me using the upo paper and the alcohol inks so again once I've used those I will share them and you'll see the pencils featuring pretty much all the time because it's my chosen or my favorite medium to use and I'm interested to see how this is going to hold up as well and see if it does suck up the glitter and so on so yeah thank you for watching I will link as much as I can in the description box below and I'll be back very soon with some new tutorials I can't wait thanks for watching bye