Top 10 easy ideas to make the most of Easter creativity
Top 10 easy ideas to make the most of Easter creativity
Top 10 easy ideas to make the most of Easter eco creativity
13rd April 2022
It’s nearly time for an Easter break and this year, unlike last, we’ll be out and about visiting our loved ones, at last!! But don’t forget! Easter is still a brilliant time to get crafting! And it’s even better with company. Get creative and have an energetic, eggsuberant Easter full of colourful crafts and cracking creativity!
All these ideas are great whether you want to get kids involved or you just want some crafty you time. Enjoy!
Top 10 Craft ideas for Easter
Decorate some eggs - This one is a classic! Make sure you drain the egg from your shell before you paint and use it for something yummy! Make a pin hole in each end of the egg and use a straw to blow the contents out. Decorate your eggs with anything you can find! Paint, glitter, flowers, leaves, cut out cereal boxes. Anything, just get creative! You can also use natural dyes to change the colour of your eggs! Check out the twinkl link at the end for more. If you fancy exploring natural dyes even more, why not try our wooden bead or t-shirt dyeing kits.
Make a rag wreath - Wreaths don’t all have to be about Christmas you know! I’m seeing way more Easter decorations around these days and a spring rag wreath is a super addition to the festivities! It’s a great way to use up old fabric, even old tea towels or t-shirts. Just cut out fabric strips as long as your forearm and tie them to a ring. This can be an embroidery hoop if you have one but some garden wire or an old coat hanger work just as well. A trim at the end helps you get a neater look but don’t worry too much. You want a rustic look!
Rag wreath
Make an origami tulip - A real celebration of spring flowers and all you need is paper! Don’t worry to much about getting the right colours. I’ve seen paper flowers made from newspaper and they’re brilliant! I made my flowers using this YouTube video.
Homemade Easter treats - Cut down on all that Easter egg packaging and make your own Easter treats! You can buy Easter egg moulds to create your own eggsellent egg masterpieces or just go with an amazing chocolate cake to share with everyone! My absolute favourite is a chocolate and Guinness cake. It’s sooo easy and it’s delicious! You won’t miss the eggs, and yep, it’s child friendly as all the alcohol cooks off.
Get your camera out - It’s Spring remember! Get outside and see what’s growing. There’s so much going on in nature at this time of year. Every day I go for a walk there is something different to see. Dust off your camera or just use your camera phone and document the season.
Crafty spring clean - Dip into your crafting draw, cupboard, boxes and discover your leftover, unloved crafty stuff. You never know what you might find. Sometimes I’m just not in the mood for a particular craft but if I pick it up later, then it’s just the best. Go a bit mad and get creative with a craft mash up, mixing kits or techniques together. Who knows what you’ll make!
Make a mandala - I love the example below of a nature inspired mandala but you can make a mandala from pretty much anything. Just aim for a geometric pattern. Circles are most popular but they can be any shape. Use, dots of paint, felt tips, coloured sand, even Easter eggs! Mandalas are meant for meditation so use this make to reconnect and relax.
Nature crushing! - OK, I know it sounds a bit odd, but it’s really fun and nowhere near as destructive as it sounds. This is an awesome way to get back in touch with nature and to start to notice the environment around you. Get outside and go for a little walk. Collect small bits of flowers, twigs, leaves, grass etc as you go. When you get home, take a white piece of paper and smush your finds against it. You’ll get some cool colours and textures! This looks great if you note what you found in pencil next to the smush and put it in a box frame. Super cool.
My nature smushes
Create a wildflower tin pot - Ah REUSE, the often forgotten R. Tin cans are so useful and so easily upcycled into a crafty wonder. Rescue one from the bin and decorate it with paint, ribbon, string or dried flowers. Plant it up with some wild flower seeds and you’ve got something that looks pretty and keeps the bees happy. Lovely!
Try some group crafting - This Easter will be a time for reunions, in person and, for some still, over Zoom. A brilliant way to reconnect with your special people is to craft with them. It’s just real quality time to create and share together. I’ve been really inspired to hear how much people have enjoyed making together and I love it when people order a few of the same kit to send across the country to friends for a group crafternoon. Check out our selection below and order some for a group of you as a crafty Easter treat! Let me know how you get on!
And, of course, if you’d like to try a more full on project this Easter, look no further than our eco craft kit shop. Order yours now for instant craft fun!
For more awesome ideas to make your Easter Eco, check out this brilliant blog from twinkl!
Top 10 easy ideas to make the most of Easter creativity
Top 10 easy ideas to make the most of Easter creativity
Top 10 easy ideas to make the most of Easter eco creativity
23rd March 2021
It’s nearly time for an Easter break and, yet again, most of us will be going no further than the ends of our gardens! But never fear, your Easter needn’t be bland! Get creative and have an energetic, eggsuberant Easter full of colourful crafts and cracking creativity!
All these ideas are great whether you want to get kids involved or you just want some crafty you time. Enjoy!
Top 10 Craft ideas for Easter
Decorate some eggs - This one is a classic! Make sure you drain the egg from your shell before you paint and use it for something yummy! Make a pin hole in each end of the egg and use a straw to blow the contents out. Decorate your eggs with anything you can find! Paint, glitter, flowers, leaves, cut out cereal boxes. Anything, just get creative!
Make a rag wreath - Wreaths don’t all have to be about Christmas you know! I’m seeing way more Easter decorations around these days and a spring rag wreath is a super addition to the festivities! It’s a great way to use up old fabric, even old tea towels or t-shirts. Just cut out fabric strips as long as your forearm and tie them to a ring. This can be an embroidery hoop if you have one but some garden wire or an old coat hanger work just as well. A trim at the end helps you get a neater look but don’t worry too much. You want a rustic look!
Rag wreath
Make an origami tulip - A real celebration of spring flowers and all you need is paper! Don’t worry to much about getting the right colours. I’ve seen paper flowers made from newspaper and they’re brilliant! I made my flowers using this YouTube video.
Homemade Easter treats - Cut down on all that Easter egg packaging and make your own Easter treats! You can buy Easter egg moulds to create your own eggsellent egg masterpieces or just go with an amazing chocolate cake to share with everyone! My absolute favourite is a chocolate and Guinness cake. It’s sooo easy and it’s delicious! You won’t miss the eggs, and yep, it’s child friendly as all the alcohol cooks off.
Get your camera out - It’s Spring remember! Get outside and see what’s growing. There’s so much going on in nature at this time of year. Every day I go for a walk there is something different to see. Dust off your camera or just use your camera phone and document the season.
Crafty spring clean - Dip into your crafting draw, cupboard, boxes and discover your leftover, unloved crafty stuff. You never know what you might find. Sometimes I’m just not in the mood for a particular craft but if I pick it up later, then it’s just the best. Go a bit mad and get creative with a craft mash up, mixing kits or techniques together. Who knows what you’ll make!
Make a mandala - I love the example below of a nature inspired mandala but you can make a mandala from pretty much anything. Just aim for a geometric pattern. Circles are most popular but they can be any shape. Use, dots of paint, felt tips, coloured sand, even Easter eggs! Mandalas are meant for meditation so use this make to reconnect and relax.
Nature crushing! - OK, I know it sounds a bit odd, but it’s really fun and nowhere near as destructive as it sounds. This is an awesome way to get back in touch with nature and to start to notice the environment around you. Get outside and go for a little walk. Collect small bits of flowers, twigs, leaves, grass etc as you go. When you get home, take a white piece of paper and smush your finds against it. You’ll get some cool colours and textures! This looks great if you note what you found in pencil next to the smush and put it in a box frame. Super cool.
My nature smushes
Create a wildflower tin pot - Ah REUSE, the often forgotten R. Tin cans are so useful and so easily upcycled into a crafty wonder. Rescue one from the bin and decorate it with paint, ribbon, string or dried flowers. Plant it up with some wild flower seeds and you’ve got something that looks pretty and keeps the bees happy. Lovely!
Try some group crafting - This Easter will be a time for reunions, in person and, for some still, over Zoom. A brilliant way to reconnect with your special people is to craft with them. It’s just real quality time to create and share together. I’ve been really inspired to hear how much people have enjoyed making together and I love it when people order a few of the same kit to send across the country to friends for a group crafternoon. Check out our selection below and order some for a group of you as a crafty Easter treat! Let me know how you get on!
How to tie dye using natural avocado dye
Make your own clothes using avocado stones!
How to tie dye with avocados!
20th September 2020
This month I’ve been learning the art of natural avocado dying to make the next latest craft kit for all my wonderful eco crafting subscribers!
I love tie dye and it’s having a massive resurgence in popularity this year. I’ve been researching commercial dyes for a while and can’t find any that I’m happy with. They’re mostly really highly toxic, dreadful for the fish and come in single use plastic. I’ve also seen lots of tie dye done with loads of squeezy plastic bottles. Nope that’s not for me. This kit is something totally different.
By far the best person to speak to if you’re interested in natural dying is Rebecca Desnos. The kit and the video guide that goes with it is a distillation of Rebecca’s method. I’ve taken the essential parts you need to make a quick start with this craft. Let’s be honest, you really need to see this in action before you can even believe that it’s possible to get a pink dye from an avocado right?
How does it work?
Avocados are particularly good to use for dying! Not only do they contain this beautiful pink colour (some people call it millennial pink but I prefer strawberry ice cream pink) but they also contain tannins which help the dye stick to your fabric, even after washing!
How to make avocado dye
This is the easiest way to make lovely deep pink fabric dye from avocados. For more information, check out the video guide or subscribe and ask for this as your first kit!
Save up your avocados! - I’ve found, for best results, you need about 4 avocados for a couple of t-shirts.
Keep the stones - the easiest thing to use for making dye is the stones as they store really well and the make the deepest pink dye. You can pop them in the freezer or dry them. If drying, store them in something breathable like cardboard so they don’t go mouldy!
Give yourself a little time - the process of making natural dye takes a little while so make yourself a tea and have a home day.
Gently simmer your stones - simmer your stones very gently for an hour.
Get squeezing - after an hour, your stones should soften up. Get a potato masher and give them a good squeeze to get all the dye out of the stones.
Strain your dye! - in our craft kits, the stones come in little muslin bags but if you’re doing it on your own, make sure you strain your dye through a tea towel or a fine sieve. If you get little bits of skin in your dye, you’ll get brown specks on your fabric and it just looks messy!
Leave the dye overnight - it will oxidise and intensify the colour.
Tie your pattern - there’s loads of info about on tie dye patterns so I won’t go into that here. But! You’re leaving your fabric in the dye for longer with natural dyes, so tie tighter than usual for a sharper pattern.
Pre soak your fabric - soak your fabric in warm water before you dye. It relaxes the fibres making them ready to accept the colour.
Get dying - warm your dye up to just below a simmer and cover your fabric in the dye. Leave it on a VERY low heat for an hour then leave to cool.
Bag it up - place your wet fabric in a biodegradable “plastic” bag. The longer you leave it the better but I find overnight is just fine.
Dry naturally - remove the fabric from the bag and dry naturally. Make sure it’s not dripping onto anything as it will stain and make sure it’s not in direct sunlight as that will make the colour slightly fade.
Don’t throw it away! - now I don’t quite get why, but if you keep your dye and use it again, it just gets better! Give it a go and let me know how you get on.
Want to get crafting fast?
Join loads of happy crafters and get crafting today. Join Craft Box Club for £20 a month or less.
How to host your own virtual craft party!
Want to know how easy it is to host your own craft party?
TOP TIPS FOR HOSTING YOUR OWN VIRTUAL CRAFT PARTY!
15th September 2020
Since lockdown at the start of the year I’ve hosted several amazing live crafternoons! I’ve totally loved it. It’s been incredible to meet a bunch of lovely, interesting people who have had loads of fun and made something they’re proud of. I loved the idea so much that I wanted to help you host your very own to spread the crafty love.
Why host a virtual craft party?
It’s super fun - making something that is your own with you hands is really rewarding.
Even more fun with friends - sharing the experience of making is the best thing. It’s a great conversation starter and amazing way to bond with your friends, family or colleagues.
Great for connection and mental health - right now, it’s pretty tough meeting up with a group of friends. You never know when the COVID rules will change to ruin your party plans. Host an online party with a difference, get back those awesome chats and rebuild those connections! It’s a great mental health boost that we all need.
You can all learn together - when you’re learning something new, it’s awesome to have your friends around for support and, let’s be honest, to show off to.
It’s easy! - Craft Box Club makes it so easy. Just follow the steps below and you’ll be crafting in no time!
How to order?
It couldn’t be easier! Click on ORDER HERE below. All we need is the the names and addresses of your party and your choice of craft kit to get going. The bigger the party, the cheaper each kit so bring a crowd!
We had loads of fun during lock down making rainbows!
So much fun, we did it quite a few times!
HOW TO CHOOSE YOUR CRAFT
Check out all of the current kits - using the button below. Most are still available for craft parties.
Choose wisely - we have a wide variety of kits available. Some take more time than others and a few need you to wait overnight for things to dry or develop. There are details in each other the guides. Choose the one that fits with your event. For questions and recommendations email adam@craftboxclub.co.uk.
which video chat?
Chose your platform - There are so many platforms to choose from and they all have different pros and cons. Don’t worry about all the fancy ones, go for a tried and tested popular one that all of your party will have. The two that work best for me are Facebook Messenger and Skype. On Facebook you can set up an event especially for a group chat which makes scheduling super easy!
Go hands free - While I’m on the subject of video chats. If you’re going to use your phone, make sure you have something so you can call hands free. You’re not going to get far crafting with one hand! If you don’t have a snazzy gizmo don’t worry! Just have something to prop your phone up against.
The main thing is to make sure that everyone knows when and how to log on and you’ll be fine!
on the day
Clear some space - Clear a space for crafting and get cosy.
Get your kit ready - Make sure you have all the kit you need. Craft Box Club kits come with all the essentials but sometimes you also need scissors, water etc. so read the tip sheet in the box to check.
Refreshments - If it’s a crafternoon get the coffee and biscuits ready. If it’s a boozy bubbles and craft night then make sure your glass is ready to go! If you need nibbles in the post for your craft party, we know who to recommend!
Relax! - Yes, it’s all about the craft but don’t forget to party. Don’t put pressure on yourself to get everything perfect. Just dive in and have fun and great chats!
Video guides - Don’t forget, all Craft Box Club kits are video guided. Decide whether you’re going to watch these as a group or in advance
Yes let’s do it!
Great! You won’t regret it. Get your craft on and order below! If you have any questions email adam@craftboxclub.co.uk.
What are the business benefits of workplace creativity?
Benefits of creativity in the workplace
Why we need creativity now!
More than ever we need creativity, innovation and problem solving just to keep pace with the ever changing world we live and work in. There are huge opportunities to take advantage of and new threats on the horizon. Businesses need to do more than ever to compete and gain an edge over the competition. The key to this is recruit and retain the best staff who are equipped and empowered to think outside the box, be flexible and act decisively.
The wellbeing and mental health of staff is gaining increasing awareness. Showing staff they are valued and supporting health and wellness in the workplace are key to maintaining a happy, productive and engaged workforce.
In my decade or so working in the City of London myself and those around me have experienced the highs, the lows, the excitement and the pressures of the modern working environment. I set up Craft Box Club to help by providing regular, accessible and fun craft sessions in the workplace to boost creativity and aid wellbeing.
Benefits of creativity in the workplace
There are many ways to be creative but we believe that getting your hands dirty and making something real has some incredible benefits for your employees and therefore, your business!
Reduce stress, anxiety and depression
Mental ill-health is costing the UK more than £94bn every year, counting treatment, social support costs and the losses to the economy from people who cannot work, according to the OECD. Nearly half of this costs is due to people not being able to work or being less productive. Getting hands on with craft is a mindful activity. Mindfulness has been shown to have great benefits on wellbeing by bringing people into the present moment, calming the brain and body.
Spark eureka moments
There is no doubt that people enjoy making. In our sessions people find it easy to focus and engage. Doing something completely different from day to day work builds new connections and stimulates the brain. Our brain does much of it’s thinking without our being conscious of it. Often when we stop actively working on a particular problem, more ideas just come to mind naturally. Crafting shifts our attention and gives our minds the focused break it needs for eureka moments to appear.
Staff retention
Finding and hiring the right staff costs a lot! You really don’t want to lose your best assets. Show your staff they are valued with benefits that stand out! The best people have come to take the usual staff benefits for granted. Offer something a bit different that people will take notice of.
Bring people together
One of the best ways to innovate is to collaborate! I know from experience that, all too often, different departments work in silos. Parties and after work drinks are great but they can often reinforce silos and cliques. Making something together really brings people together and creates connection like nothing else. As people play and discover together bonds are formed that stimulate a positive flow of ideas across the organisation.
Increase confidence
Look out for the introverts, they are often the quiet but powerful source of innovation. A craft session will bring out hidden talents for creative thinking that you didn’t even know you had. Increasing people’s confidence in feeling that they might just be creative will carry into other aspects or their work.
Improve creative thinking and problem solving
Successful innovation requires both divergent then convergent thinking. First we need to generate multiple potential solutions to a problem (divergent). Imagine a blue sky sessions with loads of post it notes all over the place. Then select the best idea and implement it (convergent). Crafting stimulates this kind of thinking naturally. Especially when you make something unique so you’re not only working out how to use the materials but using your imagination too.
If you’d like to find a simple way to boost creativity in your business please get in touch with me via adam@craftboxclub.co.uk.