For someone who has a love/hate relationship with crafting, I sure do seem to find myself receiving invites to a fair few blogging events which are to do with exactly that. The latest event I rocked up to with an attempt to take home something decorative was the Laura Ashley* craft event at the Butterfly and Pig.
Laura Ashley are primarily famed for their beautiful country-chic homewares, however they have now branched out into creating DIY crafting kits. Perfect for folk like myself who have always said they want to do more crafts, but still need an instruction box with all the materials included. Or if you have a wannabe crafter on your Christmas to-buy list.
First up on this crafting afternoon was making a Pinterest-friendly decopage home sign. Not since trying tore create some of masterpieces that Neil Buchanan drew up on Art Attack have I got friendly with paper, glue and something to stick it to. But how hard can it be if children do this routinely in art class? A bit harder than I expected, apparently. Let's just say I was a bit overenthusiastic with the glue. Which you're apparently not meant to do as it makes the paper a wee bit fragile and slightly transparent. However, you're not meant to be neat with this kind of craft and can go over it with more paper.
And the kit comes with the word HOME and a heart, so I cheesily put together my blog name.
After all that glueing and sticking, it was time for a quick break. The last time I was in the Butterfly and Pig they didn't have a vegan suitable cake however this time I was in luck and sat down to munch on a courgette and pistachio cake. And then drink tea out of their pretty teacups (with saucer!).
After our lunch break it was time to move onto the next craft box: needle felting. Now, needle felting is something I have zero experience in. Not next to nothing, or very little experience. I have absolutely never sat down to felt anything in my life. And I didn't even know what the concept was.
Well, apparently - according to what was in this box - needle felting involves taking loose felt, a bed of needles and hitting them really hard with more needles until the threads join together in a desired shape. We were meant to be making Christmas decorations but when my Santa's boot was questionable and my starry night ended up looking like a Scotland flag (and was subsequently turned into a Scotland flag), I decided to take matters into my own hands and make my own version of The Little Mermaid:
And won a Laura Ashley throw for my spare bedroom.
See I'm not that bad at crafting, though having a nice little box made up by the folks of Laura Ashley probably helped a lot!
Morag x
