Bring Your Doodle To Life.
20th April 10.00am-3.00pm.









Children do some great drawings. Think how great it would be to turn that drawing into an original toy, a beautiful memory, that you could give it to the little designer as a surprise, made with your very own hands.  Or perhaps you have drawn something that you would love to turn into a toy but don't know where to begin.


In this workshop, we will show you how easy it is to turn a flat drawing into a three dimensional toy. We will be enlarging the image, learning how to draft and cut the pattern pieces, showing you ways to add colour  and stitch the image. We will then stitch it all up and finally stuff your doodle. All the different elements will come together to bring the drawing to life. 


We will provide you with all the bits and pieces that you will need for the day but I'm sure you will want to bring your own drawing. We provide sewing machines for the workshop, however, if you prefer to bring your own machine then that's fine by us.

Both of the above from Childs Own

www.thereviewcrew.com

www.babyoligy.com.au

Make it personal

We found this great idea for friendship necklaces at HonestlyWTF and just had to share. It may be a little time consuming but it's worth the effort.

You will need some piping cord and a selection of threads to make these lovely necklaces, it's best to keep the threads all the same thickness for an even finish. 

The technique is a basic Macrame stitch. Start by fixing the piping cord to a solid surface eg. the back of a chair or a cup hook or door handle you get the idea. By fixing the cord it enables you to keep the tension and makes knotting easier, the thicker the thread the chunkier the finished necklace will be. 

Follow the instructions below and make plenty they look great grouped together.

Lay the color that isn’t being used (shown here in purple) in your left hand, along with the rope, and hold them taut.  Take the active color (shown here in red) in your right hand, pass it over the rope, loop it under and back through the opening.  Pull up and to the right to tighten.  Repeat the knots until you are ready to switch colours.

To alternate colors, simply put the inactive color (red) in your left hand and the new active colour (purple) in your right.  Repeat the steps.

Once you’re done knotting, add a few nuts and/or washers to the necklace.  Undo the large starter knot and tie both open ends together, creating your very own friendship necklace!  Trim any extra rope and tread.

This tutorial can be found at http://honestlywtf.com/diy/friendship-necklace-diy/ so check it out, and see what other gorgeous handmade projects they have.

Handmade Books

A Book in a Day

13th April. 10.00am-3.00pm

There's something really satisfying about making your very own, very special handmade book. For some reason handling it, turning the pages, using it all bring heartfelt pleasure, it's like a gift to yourself. 


This is the start of a series of one day bookmaking workshops which we will be offering this year, so if your interest is in exploring the different techniques then keep on checking our website. The sessions are not about traditional bookbinding, they are about making individual handcrafted creatively based books in all their many formats. Concertina books, star books, tunnel books, flag books to name a few but I digress lets get back to this the first workshop.

In this workshop, we will be learning about paper cutting techniques and combining them with simple bookmaking forms. You will explore using coloured backgrounds and open cutwork and also overlaying techniques. It doesn't matter whether you are a complete beginner or have some experience and wish to explore new ideas and approaches, just come along and have some fun. We will offer you something new to get your creative juices flowing. 


As usual all materials are provided so you don't have to search out any specialist stuff and the best bit is you will have a beautiful little handmade book to take home and love.

  

Beautiful miniature handmade books, above,  from the fantastic Elsa Mora.

www.elsita.typepad.com  

'Cupboard'.

Just a different idea from artist Helen Musselwhite.

www.helenmusselwhite.com

 Easter Fun

30th March  10.00am - 3.00pm

I love Easter, it's like the herald of spring, decorating your home with the first of the blossom and catkins. If you have children around it's even better. Easter egg hunts and Easter bunnies, children or not, who can resist the temptation of chocolate! After the long winter it's nice to have an excuse to celebrate, Christmas seems so long ago.

This is the place to come to get you in the home decorating mood, as we have some great little projects to get you started.

To start the day it has to be eggs, it is Easter after all. We will be making some cute little felt egg cosies decorated with a pretty spring flower to keep your egg warm whilst you butter the soldiers. For the Easter table, to add that special touch, we will be making paper flower sweet dishes, pretty little mini egg baskets and cute cupcake toppers. Finally 'what came first the chicken or the egg'? It doesn't really matter when you make a simple paper mobile for your window that will move gently in the breeze. Topping all that off we will be showing you some ideas to use on your very own Easter tree, busy day then! 

As usual all materials will be provided and you will take all your goodies home with you.

www.marthastewart.com

So come and join the fun

Another great idea.

We found this great tutorial on making wall art out of ordinary office supplies, stuff that you usually have lying around the house, or things you can pick up easily that don't cost the earth, which we thought looked like fun to try. The tutorial is from a blog called How About Orange.

The red painting above is made with 3/4" round Avery labels and 1/4" tape from Office Max.

This picture is made on a 10" blank canvas, but you could use a piece of wood and metal, painted up.

Arrange pieces of tape and stickers to form abstract plant shapes. Make sure each sticker is pressed down really well. Paint the surface (I used acrylic), remove the stickers and end up with your very own original piece of art.

This could also make a simple craft project to carry out with the kids.

Full details of this tutorial can be found at  MakeDIY wall art with office supplies

Have fun!