Hello there! In case you didn’t know, I am mad about Halloween. The minute that Autumnal orange glow starts to appear along with the early morning chill, I can’t help but think about pumpkins, ghouls and parties. To help you in your Halloween celebrations this year, I’ve put together some of my favourite craft DIYs to decorate your home. I’m pretty pleased that two of my own DIYs have made the cut – enjoy! For full craft tutorials, check out these links: 1. Make & Tell, DIY Ghost Pinatas | 2. Aww Sam, DIY Emoji Ghost Balloons | 3. Studio DIY (via This Heart of Mine), DIY Paper Spiderwebs ..read more

Hello there! In case you didn’t know, I am mad about Halloween. The minute that Autumnal orange glow starts to appear along with the early morning chill, I can’t help but think about pumpkins, ghouls and parties. To help you in your Halloween celebrations this year, I’ve put together some of my favourite craft DIYs to decorate your home. I’m pretty pleased that two of my own DIYs have made the cut – enjoy! For full craft tutorials, check out these links: 1. Make & Tell, DIY Ghost Pinatas | 2. Aww Sam, DIY Emoji Ghost Balloons | 3. Studio DIY (via This Heart of Mine), DIY Paper Spiderwebs ..read more

Did you spot the Etsy Made Local Christmas Market in my round-up of festive maker markets in London? With just days to go until the annual Christmas fair at Tooting Tram and Social, I’ve collaborated with the brilliant London Local Etsy Team to give you a taste of the sorts of wares you’ll find on sale. If you’re looking to ‘shop small’ this Christmas and buy unique gifts from talented indie makers, then don’t miss this market which is full to the brim of carefully crafted gifts from over 30 talented Etsy sellers. The wonderful London Local Etsy team sent me a curated box of goodies ..read more

Tis the season to buy presents – tra-la-la-la-la, la la la la. More and more each year I’ve enjoyed buying brilliantly unique Christmas presents from independent makers at a host of festive maker markets. There’s something about ‘shopping small’, and buying from real people, that puts a great big smile on my (and their) face. I’d really recommend getting yourself down to an indie maker market if you can. Here’s my round-up of five of my favourite London maker markets that you can’t miss this winter. Etsy Made Local Christmas Market – Saturday 1st December Where: London Tooting Tram & ..read more

Over the summer I shared my first sponsored Bostik blog tutorial showing how to make a DIY Bug Hotel. Well, my next Bostik blog is a little crafty something for Autumn, featuring cute paper quilled pumpkins and Bostik Micro Dots – perfect for Halloween decorations, and suitable for beginners! Before this project I had never quilled before, but after finding lots of inspiration and a few tutorial videos online (showing how to create basic shapes), I decided to give it a go. I found all of the necessary supplies at Hobbycraft, and was kindly gifted my micro glue dots by Bostik. For th ..read more

This August Bank Holiday weekend I was excited to go to the inaugural MAKEMORE festival 2018, held in the wonderfully leafy Victoria Park, London. MAKEMORE is a festival for makers and doers, or in other words, a ‘festival for the hands’. Held over five days, the festival featured a line-up of drop-in craft workshops, demos, maker markets, talks, live music, stand-up comedy, and street food. One of the highlights of the festival for me were the two beautifully curated makers markets – the first from Urban Makers, featuring everything from plant pots to jewellery, and the second from Turning E ..read more

As you all know, I love any excuse to make things, so I was delighted to be invited by HIBS100 to become a DIY Bostik blogger for six months. My mission, which I’ve chosen to accept, is to create a DIY tutorial on a set theme each month, and share it with you. The first theme, to my delight, was Garden Decor! Now, Bostik make some great products for crafters – in fact, you’ll have seen some of their products in my DIYs before. The glue dots and foam pads are excellent for card-making, so I was excited to try out some of the other products in the range. To get me started, Bostik sent ..read more

Now, I know that Christmas is still a little way off (OK… a long way off), but as you may know, many of our favourite bigger brands / retailers (like Paperchase) like to reveal their Christmas showcase to media slap bang in the middle of summer, so that we get an early peak at the upcoming festive trends. When I stepped into the Paperchase ‘Christmas in July’ event last week (at the appropriately named ‘ICETANK’), I found myself genuinely wishing for snow to relief us of the heatwave in London! As I was the first person through the door (I think you call it a ‘keen bean’), I was fortuna ..read more

I love the arrival of Easter as for me it signifies the start of spring – what can be more cheery than sunny yellow daffodils and baby chicks? Over the years I’ve shared some Easter craft inspiration (such as decorated eggs here & amazing Easter cakes here), and even some DIY Easter tutorials (check out my DIY origami Easter bunnies, DIY origami Easter bunny baskets, and DIY Easter bunny cards), so this year I wanted to share some fresh DIY Easter egg inspiration – featuring paint, concrete, and dyes! For full DIY tutorials, check out these blogs: 1. Paper & Stitch, Pin ..read more

I don’t know if it’s something to do with having a home that is still fairly bare in the wall department (or empty in the frame department), or just generally because I have a love for art and colour, but I’ve been really excited to get tickets to some of this year’s contemporary Art Fairs in London. One that I’ve been to for probably the last three years or so is the Affordable Art Fair in Battersea Park. But this year I’m branching out even further! As I was researching for myself anyway, I thought I’d share some of London’s most popular upcoming Art Fairs of 2018, so you can pop them i ..read more