Hunkydory Crafts Stamping Review
Reviewed by Catherine Joyce
I have two sons who aren’t remotely interested in crafting but luckily my 9-year-old niece loves making things and whenever I look after her the first place she goes to is my craft cupboard. She especially enjoys making cards and colouring so the craft bundle I received from Hunkdory Crafts was absolutely perfect for us and I couldn’t wait for her to come and visit so we could try them out. I am not the most artistic person in the world but I do enjoy making cards because they are quite simple to do and people always appreciate the personal touch. Generally her cards turn out better than mine as she is much more artistic than I am but I don’t really mind as it is more about spending time together and it is a great way to pass the time on a rainy day, which we seem to be getting a lot of recently! Or even as a scree-free activity, which people are looking for more and more ideas to get off their phones, tablets and television screens.
In the set of stamping goodies that Hunkydory Crafts sent we had everything we needed to start which was great because I had never tried stamping before. We received a “For the Love of Stamps – Fruity Fun” stamp set (RRP: £8), an acrylic block (RRP: £1.99 to £12.99, depending on size), a black ink pad (RRP: £6.99), a pack of 10 white cards (price varies depending on size) and three sets of Prism Craft Markers (RRP: £9.99 each).
The Hunkdory stamps are very versatile, rather than having individual mounted stamps which can be quite bulky to store, they come on a sheet of plastic so all you need to do is peel off your chosen stamp, attach it to the acrylic block and press it down firmly onto the stamp pad and you are ready to go. When you have finished with the stamp you just peel it of the acrylic block and stick it back on the plastic sheet, which is handily marked with the outlines of the stamps so that you can put it back in the correct place. It was really easy to remove the stamps from the sheet and attach it to the acrylic block and my niece could easily manage it. The stamps picked up the ink well and when stamped onto paper or card they give a good, crisp outline for you to colour in. The ink also dried very quickly meaning that it didn’t run when you coloured in the fruits.
The A6 sheet “For the Love of Stamps – Fruity Fun” contains a great selection of fruits, funny faces, arms and legs and even a few fruity captions so you can easily create your own fruity friends. With a choice of seven fruits – banana, pineapple, strawberry, grapes, pear, cherries and orange there is plenty of scope for creating fun cards. This set was perfect for children and my niece loved creating fun fruity characters. There was an inspiration sheet included with the set which was a great starting point and there were also plenty of ideas on their website www.hunkydorycrafts.co.uk which I found really helpful. My niece loved the pineapple stamp and quickly started making a pineapple card for Grandma who grows pineapples as a hobby. She also made some pineapple writing paper for her by using the pineapple stamp along the bottom of an A4 sheet of paper.
The Prism craft markers were amazing; the colours are so vibrant and looked fantastic on the card. The markers are doubled ended, the fine tip was perfect for colouring in the stamps and there is also a wider chisel edged end that is good for colouring larger areas. The markers come in sets of colours with each pack having 6 shades of one colour. We received the reds, yellows and greens sets which were perfect for colouring in the fruity stamps. I found them a dream to colour with, the fine tip was easy to control and you didn’t need to press too hard. The colour is very intense and you don’t get the lines that you do with felt tips pens which give the cards a more professional look. The markers can also be used on glass so we said we will try that next time she comes.
The quality of all the products we tried is excellent and I know we will have lots of fun making more cards. I really enjoyed creating my own cards and it was a fun activity to do with my niece, keeping her busy all morning. We have decided to make Christmas cards this year and have been looking at the Hunkydory website and she has already made a list of the stamps and markers she needs next!
Rating: 5/5
For more information or to buy visit www.hunkydorycrafts.co.uk.
