Mila & Pheebs create stationery and activity boxes for children. They contain a mixture of stationery, crafts, stickers, and fun items, based around a different theme each month. It’s £10 per month plus £2.99 P&P.
As always, my lovely helper and enthusiastic tester is my daughter, Little C. She’s just turned seven, and loves anything craft and stationery-related.
I already reviewed the special Christmas Box of festive goodies, so this is the regular monthly box for December. The theme, appropriately enough, is Frosty Fun!
We did have a lovely cold snap a couple of weeks ago, but it’s all going rather damp grey now, so it’s rather nice to have a little reminder of crisp icy weather!
The box fits right through the mailbox.
The menu is on the inside of the lid, if you really want spoilers, and on top is their lovely newsletter.
I really like the newsletter. It’s bright and fun, and full of the kinds of jokes and trivia that children love! The font is also very clear and easy for little ones to read.
I wonder what’s under the lovely wrapping?
Stickers stickers stickers! Mila and Pheebs do a great line in stickers. Each box contains a sheet of shiny foil stickers, and another package of foam stickers too. These chunky foam snowflakes are glittery!
Every Mila and Pheebs box contains a couple of little DIY kits. The top one, which we haven’t done yet, is a little snowman sewing kit. Underneath is a cute penguin keychain.
Little C wanted to make the keychain immediately. There was a lovely ice cream version in the August box, and she was very pleased to have another one!
It was simple to make, involving some stringing of beads and tying on of the little penguin charm.
Finished!
There is always something to write with in every box, and this time we don’t just have a pencil, there’s an entire stationary kit!
Pencil, ruler, eraser, sharpener, and notebook, all featuring an adorable earmuff-wearing husky!
These little animal notebooks are really cute. Children love notebooks and little things, and this fulfills both criteria nicely! The pages have a very pale version of the husky picture on, so you can use it as a regular notebook, or make your own husky designs.
I’m going to digress a little here: an electric pencil sharpener is one of those things that seems like a gimmick, but is actually incredibly useful, especially for those pencils that arrive unsharpened. We have this one, and it’s one of the best things we’ve ever bought.
This is another craft kit, though a more freeform version. It’s a button art kit, and comes with a little pack of buttons and some lovely glitter glue. This is great for a bit of free creativity, and you can use some of the stickers as well!
Mila and Pheebs also includes a couple of blank greetings cards in every box. See the cute penguin design?
I think making your own cards is a lovely thing to do, and we have a stash of blank cards we all use for special people. These are a great addition!
Another regular are colouring sheets and word puzzles. This month is a criss cross and a wordsearch.
Little C is very keen on word games of all kinds, so she zooms in on these pretty fast!
Finally, this month’s iwako eraser, this gorgeous little polar bear! These little things are far to cute to use, so we have a growing collection on our living room shelf.
These boxes are such a lovely treat every month; it’s remarkably difficult to get the photography done before Little C dives in!
I’m a big fan of the mixture of free and guided creativity. I also especially like the greetings cards. They’re such a simple thing, but in this electronic age I think it’s important that children learn to send real cards and letters. Everyone likes receiving cards, especially cards that have been personally designed.
One great thing about this box is that it’s almost entirely self contained. It would be great to have on a long journey, on holiday, at a wedding or party, or to while away a rainy weekend. With the exception of one thing in the September box, all the Mila and Pheebs activities are pretty much mess free! Throw in some blank paper and felt tips (there were a pack in the July box!) and you’ve got a lot of fun in package that will take up very little space!
The point of many subscription boxes is that you are paying for someone to source and put together a box of nice things. I don’t know about you, but there’s no way I have time to track down and organize something like this that brings little C a great deal of delight! I seriously admire Alexis, who manages to produce these lovely boxes whilst running around after twins.
(Follow her Facebook page, it’s got some super-cute behind-the-scenes stuff on there!)
Have a fun and frosty winter!
PS Little C was keen for me to add this picture. She arranged the things herself!
A different version of this review was first published on allsubscriptionboxes.co.uk
