If you've ever wished someone would just hand you a beautiful, cohesive collection of journaling supplies — already themed, already coordinated — and say "here, make something with this," this short video is a peek into exactly that.
I recently joined the design team for Cheaply Chic, a crafter who releases monthly journal kits through her Etsy shop and YouTube channel. This video is me opening the August kit — called So Crafty — live for the first time, sharing what's inside, and asking you what you'd like to see me make with it.
What we cover
This is an unboxing and a question — I go through every piece of the So Crafty sewing-themed kit (the pre-made journal, the ephemera, the embellishments) and then open the floor to you: craft-along, completed journal flip-through, embellishment-making, blind challenge, or something else entirely?
What you'll learn
What comes in a Cheaply Chic monthly journal kit, including:
- A pre-made journal with empty decoratable pages
- Tea-stained and coffee-stained paper pages already bound in
- Coordinating ephemera pieces across several types and sizes
- Threads in multiple colours (the So Crafty kit is sewing-themed, so thread is very much the star)
- Buttons in red, yellow, white, and blue
- Decorative paperclips
- Beads and a small bead strand — the kind I've been meaning to use for jewellery-style embellishments for ages
How the kit ordering works — it's not a subscription. You order month by month if you want, either for the ephemera pack alone or for the full kit with the journal included. That flexibility makes it easy to try one month without committing.
Why kits like this are useful even if you don't buy them — Cheaply Chic has process videos showing how she uses each collection, so you can pull ideas and colour combinations from watching even if you never purchase the kit itself.
The So Crafty theme in practice — everything in this kit is coordinated. Threads, buttons, beads, ephemera, the journal cover — it all reads as one cohesive palette. Seeing that in real life (rather than in a product listing photo) makes a real difference to how you'd plan a project around it.
Tips & gotchas
The kit includes a pre-made journal, but it's designed to be decorated, not just filled in. The pages are there for you to work on — so if you're the kind of person who hesitates to "ruin" a nice blank journal, this is actually a good entry point. The journal is already made, which removes one decision. Your job is just to decorate it.
If you're drawn to these kits but unsure whether to go journal-plus-ephemera or ephemera only: the tea-stained and coffee-stained pages in the journal are part of what makes the whole thing feel finished. If you have your own journal you're already working in, the ephemera pack alone makes sense — but if you want the full coordinated starting point, the journal version is worth it.
The monthly kits aren't archived indefinitely — Cheaply Chic releases them on a monthly cycle and they sell through. If something catches your eye, it's worth checking the Etsy shop sooner rather than later.
One thing I noticed immediately opening this: the bead strand is small but genuinely beautiful — the kind of thing that would disappear into a supply drawer and never be used if you bought it loose. Having it arrive as part of a kit with a clear colour palette around it gives it a home right away.
Leave your thoughts in the comments on the video. Whatever we land on, I'll be working with this kit for the next three months as part of the design team, so there's more coming.
