A Crafternoon at Hotter with Create and Craft TV

If you've known me a while or have followed my blog you may well know that two of my greatest loves are shoes and crafts, so when Hotter invited me to a craft workshop with Create and Craft TV I instantly said yes! 

With the Mothership (AKA Mum) as my plus one, we trotted on down to Hotter in Queensgate, Peterborough and were greeted by the wonderful Hotter team and introduced to crafter and presenter Mel Heaton plus the team behind Create and Craft TV.

The evening started off with bucks fizz and delicious nibbles followed by a talk on shoes from the Hotter team, explaining how comfortable and well made their shoes really are. Lots of styles were passed around from the Savannah sandals to the Hattie wedges to be oohed and arred at as well as the materials they use to give their shoes that comfort concept. Mum has always been an avid Clarks enthusiast but by the end she turned to me and said "why haven't I been here before?"

Then came the crafting… We were each given tools and various sizes of patterned paper to work with which Mel revealed were going to create a 3D gift tag. When I first looked at the vintage inspired tag my first thoughts were “ooh this is pretty” followed by “this looks hard!” but with the instructions from Mel, everything slowly started to come together to make a really effectively and beautiful gift tag. I got the chance to chat with Mel whilst crafting away and she admitted she was never particularly artistic at school but loves to make things, which just goes to show that anyone can have a go!

The tools we used were the floral crafters tool set from Tonic which I'd never come across and initially thought they could be giant nail art tools! Thankfully with a demo from Mel we were shown how to use them on the foam pad (which comes with the kit) to manipulate our circular card pieces into 3D petals and leaves. 

To add to the 3D effect of the paper layers, we went round the very edge of each piece with a foam pad dipped in ink. This really emphasised the edges and helped them to stand out from one another- something I would never have thought to do.  

To form the flower centres we cut some of the circular paper into spirals and rolled them up into the centre, securing with glue. We then used the tweezers in the tool set to hold them securely in place whilst they dried. This again was another little trick I picked up for future use.

During the workshop the Create and Craft TV team were snapping away with cameras (which made me glad I’d done a manicure) and asked me to say a few words for the camera. It’s so bizarre being filmed by someone else when you’re used to filming for yourself; editing out the parts you mess up/ don’t like but here’s how I got on and surprisingly for myself, I don’t think I did too bad! (I'll insert the footage or link to it once it's live.)

When the workshop had finished, the final result was a beautiful gift tag which when broken down into stages was quite simple and fun to do. Everybody’s was slightly different due to the way each individual folded, cut and manipulated the paper, giving a unique twist to everyone’s work. I thoroughly enjoyed the craft workshop, picking up lots of new tips and tricks as well as feeling inspired to create more paper crafts in the future. Watch this space!

Feeling rather pleased with ourselves, Mum and I had one last look at the shoes with Mum having her first Hotter moment! She chose the Tone shoes which of course are comfy and perfect for nurses. With nursing and being on her feet constantly, she found her perfect pair for comfort and stability.

All in all I had another fantastic evening at the Hotter store in Queensgate. (If you want to read about the first event click here. ) Both myself and Mum thoroughly enjoyed the craft workshop, both feeling inspired to create and craft more at home and to watch the Create and Craft TV channel which is on freeview channel 36. As always the Hotter team were also fantastic and I can’t wait get my hands on their upcoming autumn winter collection!

Once again I vlogged the event, this time with the help of Mothership so click the video below:

See you all again on Friday!