The Crafters Bucket List ~ Part 1

Today, I'm starting an epic blog adventure exploring every nook and cranny of the creative and artistic world!
A little while ago, I was musing to myself about writing my own version of a bucket list with all the crafts I'd like to have a go at. This has developed over the past few months (very slowly, in the deep recesses of my mind, mostly at 3am when I can't sleep!) into a plan to write a series of blog posts about all these ideas. I am going to try out as many of the things on the bucket list as possible myself and share my successes and failures with you along the way!
In this series I will look at basic skills and techniques as well as some simple projects which should be fairly easy to try without spending a fortune on new supplies. At the end of the series, I will make up a printable bucket list for you so you can print it off and take off items when you've done them. I'm also thinking of doing something along the lines of the bored jar I made for the kids! A adult's bored jar or more realistically a "things to do instead of housework" jar!!
So to begin, we'll take a look at some basic skills.

#1. Knitting Basics

My knitting skills are very basic! I can do a basic stitch and could probably manage a scarf for a barbie doll!! But, I would love to learn how to knit other things too. This post gives you a run down of the basic supplies, some ideas of projects to start with and links to sites to help you. One of these is Knitting Help which has videos showing you how to knit.

#2 Crochet Basics

Here's a technique I've never actually tried! Click here for a video series on how to crochet. 

#3 Cross Stitch Basics

Here's another video series with all the basics you'll need to know to get started on cross stitch. 

#4 Sewing Basics

This site shows you 4 basic stitches to use in hand sewing. I'm starting with sewing by hand as you obviously need less new equipment. I will include some projects later in the series that require a sewing machine as well as hand stitching projects.

#5 Origami (Boxes)

This post shows you how to make these cute origami boxes. There are lots of origami projects out there, some of which I'll include in the list later but this is a good one to start with as it only uses simple folds and is you'll end up with something useful too! 

#6 Drawing Basics

Have you ever wanted to learn how to draw? If you're crafty already, then some basic drawing skills will be really useful to whatever you already do. This is a comprehensive article on drawing skills which will help you with getting started on drawing and also help you when planning out other crafts projects too.

#7 Watercolour Basics

Here's another technique I'd love to learn more about! This article goes over the basic techniques you'll need and the products required too. 

#8 Glass Painting Basics

These basic glass painting will be useful for lots of projects so well worth checking out here.

#9 Screen Printing (Really Easy At Home Method)

Have you ever fancied screen printing your own T-shirts but been put off by the equipment needed? Here is a great tutorial for screen printing with simple and small equipment.

#10 Polymer Clay

Here you will find a guide to the basic equipment and techniques you'll need to successfully work with polymer clay.

That's it's for this part of the bucket list. Next week I'll have another batch of projects for you to try out.

Crafter's Bucket List ~ Part 2

Take care and happy crafting 

Hugs Suz 

I'm Back! And News On A Unicef Fundraising Campaign

Well hello there!
I've been a long time as I had an operation on my knee late last summer and have been taking time to recover from that and attend physiotherapy. I'm pleased to say that it finally seems to be improving although I still have to keep up with the exercises.

Anyway, onto fun and better things now. Together with padawan #2 who has started his own blog and Facebook page for his special dinosaur friend Niguel, I have decided to do some fundraising for Unicef this year.
This year marks the 150th anniversary of the publication of Alice In Wonderland. So we thought it would great to celebrate this by hosting a charity tea party and I'd get to use my lovely Wonderland party printables and generally have lots of fun and raise money for a very good cause at the same time.
Theo and I then thought it would be great if we could get our friends, family, blog readers and Facebook fans involved too. That way we could raise even more money for Unicef to help children all over the world who are affected by war, disease, poverty and social circumstances. So if you would like to join in and help us raise some money by raising a cup of tea then you can download an information pack here or on the website. This pack has invitations, a poster, hints and tips and 2 printable games to use at your tea party. It also includes details of where to donate the money you raise.

We have set up a fundraising page with Unicef so you can donate your money here and every penny will go to helping children (as it's Unicef's own fundraising page, no commission is taken off).
I am also going to donate 10% of all sales of my Wonderland Tea Party printables through the website.
Theo and Niguel have some special plans of their own which I will be helping him with over the coming weeks. I'll keep you posted on that as things develop.

For any of you in the UK, we also have a Red Noses party set which you can use for any Comic Relief events you might be involved in or just to have fun at home and make a night of it while watching on the telly. Comic Relief is on Friday 13th March this year (so not long now). The set is £3 and includes invitations, bunting, cupcake wrappers, a bottle wrap, a popcorn box, a food tray and more. I will donate all proceeds from the sale of this set to Comic Relief.

Well, that's all for now folks! We'd love to hear from you if you join in with our Wonderland fundraising or Red Nose Day and see photos of your parties.
Take care
Suz and the Party Padawans