Makers Month: Our Handmade Fair Adventure

We took a trip to the Handmade Fair on Saturday as you may have seen from our Instagram feed, so we thought we would show you a little more about what we got up to.  We had such a fun day and although it was a little chilly, it did not dampen our crafting spirits and it meant that we got to spend more time inside the tents seeing some of our favourite people!

Our Craftacular Adventure

Last Sunday H and I took a trip to Bethnal Green to one of our fave handmade fairs Bust Craftacular. This year we were not only there to catch up with the usual suspects, but we were hosting a papercutting banner workshop at the event too.

Live it: Workshop Adventures

We are mad about learning new skills and brushing up on those that may have got a little rusty over the years too. We have been lucky enough to attend more than our fair share of workshops and classes over the last few years, and they are always so much fun. We thought we would take a quick walk down memory lane with you today and remind ourselves what we have learnt and let you know about some fun places too and brush up your skills as well.

Let's Meet: London Craft Club

This month we got to have a little chat with Sonia from London Craft Club.  We are going to a Friday Late at London Transport Museum next month where she will be making your Oyster card holder look extra special for their late night opening event.  But mostly London Craft club runs workshops and meet-ups around London and their new venue - see below.  They will also be at The Handmade fair, so plenty of places to find them.  So let's hear what Sonia has to say about our random questions!

Come Craft with us at Norden Farm

We are running our two last workshops with Norden Farm Arts Centre in March and April. We have had such a lovely time teaching there, but it is time for us to concentrate on some other projects. So if you want to come and join us before we go, check out the links below for booking.

Make it: Your Name Bunting

Thursday 27 March 

Make it: Your Name Bunting - £20.00

All Materials Supplied.

Come along and rummage through our fabric stash to create your own personalised bunting using hand sewing techniques. Depending on the name you choose you may not finish within the session but you will be well on your way before you leave.

Book Here

Make it: Jewellery 101

Thursday 24 April

Make it: Jewellery 101

All Materials Supplied.

Always wanted to make your own jewellery or repair a beloved necklace? Join us for a starter session teaching you some basic jewellery techniques to make a pair of earrings and a bracelet from scratch.  

Book Here

We look forward to seeing you there.

H and Sammy xxx

Festive Gift Wrapping Fun

We had such a brilliant time at our gift wrap workshop last week at Norden Farm, wrapping, decorating and eating the Frosted Fancies that H had bought along, Yum! So we thought we would share some photos of the fun we had.

Sammy bought along - a frankly obscene amount of Christmassy goodies to play with and help give our gifts some Live it. Love it. Make it. flair. Everything from bells to sprigs of holly were on offer...

...and a good wrapping session isn't complete without washi tape...

...oh and frosted fancies.

Sammy loves these fold out trees she picked up from Hobbycraft.

Sammy thinks this cracker style wrap was her favourite.

Nothing says Christmas like gold, gold and more gold - this was H's favourite.

These foam stickers, also from Hobbycraft made a great alternative to gift tags to spell out the recipients names on their parcels.

Sammy loves this candy cane wrapping paper from Sainsbury's.

This red snowflake trim from Wilko's is a great touch to jazz up a gift.

All our ladies said they had a lovely time, and so did we. This class, as most of ours do, had a really laid back chatty feel to it. One of the girls said that it was so nice to come along and have some time to herself, and learn something new . That is what our classes are all about, so it was great to have such wonderful feedback.

I hope this has inspired you to have fun with your gift wrapping this year, I know it has given us some new ideas to try.

Sammy & H, xxx

Workshop: Gift Wrap

Our last Craft Club at Norden Farm is going to be one of Sammy's favourites, Gift wrapping!

You can book up now on the Norden Farm website. 

Thursday 12^th December

7pm – 8.30pm

Make it: Creative Gift Wrapping - £15.00

All Materials Supplied.

Come and learn some creative wrapping techniques for this year’s present list.  You can bring up to 3 gifts to wrap and we will show you some simple and effective ways to make your presents look really special. 

Book Here

Come 'Make it' with us.

H & Sammy

Link for the week: Merton Abbey Mills

I found this little place while I was wandering around on the Internet this week and so I thought I would just have to share it.

http://www.mertonabbeymills.org.uk/index.php/directory/arts-and-crafts

According to the website it is 'An Arts and Crafts Village on the River Wandle, with an open air mini weekend market, live music, fantastic places to eat and exciting activities for all the family. The weekend market keeps in touch with its historical past through its stalls selling arts and crafts, together with more general stalls including fresh produce and exotic hot foods. Our shops are open throughout the week, (with own individual opening times) selling a variety of crafts, furnishings, jewellery and more, there’s regular shows for both children and adults in The Colour House Theatre and the fully restored waterwheel powers a pottery wheel in the Wheelhouse, with pottery classes for all ages, available every weekend'.

Sounds great hey!  I think a trip to South London will be in store!

Have you ever been? Or do you live near it, or anywhere else like this? Let us know in the comments below, or if there is somewhere else we should go, tell us all about it.

Thanks

H 

Review: The Old School Club

A few weeks ago we visited Battersea in South London to catch up with Inma at The Old School Club.  You may remember we did a The space behind the creative feature with her when she was in the process of moving into new premises and now she is in, so we thought it was about time we went to have a look!

We went to check out the Craft Night and had so much fun chatting away with Inma that we went on for much longer than is usual for a craft night! ooops.  There are loads of different workshops though as well as the craft night, so do check out their website for more information.

The Old School Club is based in some industrial units just off the main road and there are lots of independent businesses as well as designer/makers who are based there, making a nice atmosphere to work in.  We were there for the Craft Night and so most of them had gone home but it was a nice relaxing space all the same.

We started off with a tour of the venue - great for our nosey selves!

There is a big open space for the huge crafting table in the centre.  Inma's husband has been hunting on Ebay to get all the furniture that is in the venue and he has definitely come up trumps - very envious.  The crafting table holds the craft nights and some of the other workshops that do not require lots of space.  As you can fit quite a few people around the table it gives a real homely feel to the workshops.

There is a bank of sewing machines on your right as you walk in, which is always nice to see.  So alongside hand-sewing you can learn some new machine sewing skills too.  We really wanted to get our hands on them, but not this time!

There is a corner nook with sofas and magazines to read which can also be used for knitting or crochet workshops or just for somewhere to have a comfy sit down.

There is a creche which has been lovingly decorated by Nicola from BB-Berkeley with a Peter Rabbit Theme.  Parents can bring their children and let them play in the creche or there are plenty of workshops for children too!  The Spanish lessons and sewing school are always a winner with kids of all ages right up to teenagers, amongst many other workshops of course, have a look.

There is a second floor which at the moment is dedicated to studio for hire space and storage.  You can hire this space as a studio or office (they call it Cocrafting, cute), have a look at the rates here if you are a company nearby and need a bit of extra space.  Well needed for all those work-from-home companies I would have thought!

Once we had finished taking a look at the venue it was down to Craft Night! yey.  It was nice for us to take part in one for a change, rather than run it!

We were going to be embroidering a linen handkerchief with an initial.  So first thing first was to blind stitch the edge to make it nice and neat.  It had been a while since I (H) had done this and so Inma's instruction came in very handy.  Then it was over to choosing the text style we wanted the initial in.  Inma photocopied us some pages from her mum's very lovely collection of font styles.  Then it was over to transferring it onto the linen to start embroidering using plenty of different stitches.

It was really nice to sit down and chat with some biscuits and a drink - You can get drinks or biscuts throughout the time you are there.  Also it was lovely to do something a bit different than we would be doing at home.

Do let us know if you get to go, it really is a little oasis space in the middle of Battersea and so really central to London for a different night.  What's your favourite workshop space?  Let us know if there is anywhere you think we should check out?  We are always on the hunt for new workshops or places to visit.

Love it

H

Paper Cut Something Special

After a week off last week, I was back in work on Saturday to do an adult Paper cutting workshop.  There were a few people I knew on the course and so this made me a little more nervous, but once I got into it, I think it went pretty well!  The picture below was one of my samples, a woodland theme of course with an owl! - of course.

Everyone came away with at least one cut and some even managed a few to take home, with ideas of how to frame it and what tools they would need to use to carry on.  Most of the difficulty with paper cutting is knowing which part to cut out, whether you want to leave the negative or positive part. 

Depending on your picture and what you want to achieve, will of course depend on whether you want to leave the space around and between the image (negative space) like above, or take away the image (positive space) like you would do to do text perhaps, so that it doesn't have to link together.

Some of the paper cuts were traced from pictures I had taken from books or the Internet, whilst others made their own designs or modified the pictures I had given them.

All in all though, they all did very well and no cuts to fingers or anything. Good result.

What I love about paper cutting is that it's so simple to do but can look so effective for only an hour or so's effort.  Some of the participants were saying they were going to give them as presents or have a go at more complicated designs as they now had the confidence to go for it, which is great feedback to have.

If you fancy having a go, all you will need is a cutting mat, scalpel or craft knife, card (I went with thin card, about 150-180 gsm, but some people prefer paper), a design and tracing paper or draw your own, pencil and a rubber.  All quite easy things to get and not too expensive to buy aswell which is always nice.

Use one side of your paper to do all your sketching etc and then you can flip it over to reveal your cut, then you don't have to worry about pencil lines.  Just remember that you will need to draw the picture as a mirror image to get it the right way around when you flip it over.

You can also take a class if you like, one my friends is doing a paper cutting workshop in London at Tea and Crafting in Camden on the 22nd October if you are around the area and fancy having a go.  Or I am sure there are plenty of places to have a go, no other paper cutting workshops planned again at The Lightbox, but look out for other adult workshops to have a go at in the near future.

Of course for the more textile fans out there, there are also our workshops at Norden Farm in Maidenhead, check out the post here for further info.

H

Craft Club: Booking now Open

Our Craft Club down at Norden Farm has been going very well - Thank you to all those who have come along so far.  Booking is now open for our next round of workshops.

Make it: Workshop dates for you diary

The 'Button Jewellery' workshop was our last craft club at Norden Farm for a while, but don't worry, we are back in September with four sessions of crafty goodness taking you all the way to Christmas.

Button Jewelery Workshop

If you follow me on Instagram you will have seen me post this pic last week on my way to our button workshop which I spoke about last Friday. 

Make it: Hen Party workshops

We are getting right into Wedding season now, as it is H has 6 to go to this year - she is a seasoned pro!

So, we thought that it would be a good idea to let you know what crafty things you can get up to with us for your Hen Party, or if you are planning that special weekend for your friend, then lets make it a bit easier for you by sorting one of your activities.

We can turn up at your place - or chosen venue with our trusty suitcase full of crafty goodies in tow. Look below, isn't it beautiful!

If you have an idea of what you would like to make, then do let us know or you can choose from our selection. Over two to three hours you and your Hens will make something for you all to take home the same day, or get you started with skills to complete some of the details for your big day. 

Now onto some fun ideas of what you can do, but remember you can choose your own, so please don't think these are exhaustive.

The Hen Party workshops we already offer are: 

Vintage Headbands, Memento frames, Shoe clips, Wedding favours (options on request), Ribbon rose bouquets and corsages, Bridal garters, Wedding decorations - including personalised bunting, Tissue paper pompoms and tassel's, Bridal headpieces and veils.  Phew!

We can also tailor our standard workshops to fit your theme.  We can offer jewellery 101, Embroidery hoop art,  Flowers, hearts and bows, Bunting, t-shirt decorating, Denim up-cycling and Clothes customisation.

If you let us know the wedding or hen party theme we can adjust these classes to work with it.  Easy as that.

For more information, prices or to discuss ideas email us at liveitloveitmakeit@gmail.com

Live it.  Love it.  Make it

H & Sammy