The Viking Bloggers’ Arty Party

I have been a VERY BAD blogger…

Months ago I was invited to (and attended) an amazing blog event hosted by Viking Office Supplies called the Viking Arty Party.  The event was held at The Chimney House in Sheffield and was perfect for stationery addicts, like myself.  We were given the opportunity to try out a number of different crafts and learn techniques.  I loved it.

But I never got around to writing about it…

Performing in Top Hat took over my life for a while, and then I lost my blogging mojo and since then I’ve been struggling to find the drive to write anything.  Still, I can’t help but feel I owe it to the lovely people at Viking and our fabulous craft instructors for the day to finally write the blog post that this amazing event deserves.  Better late than never, right?

Our venue for the day, The Chimney House in Sheffield, was AMAZING!  It’s not a place I’d ever visited before but it is certainly a place I hope to visit again soon.  It wasn’t exactly the easiest place to find, but it was well worth the journey.

From the outside, The Chimney House looks like any other industrial building, but once you step inside it is crammed with rustic charm.  The main meeting room was beautifully decorated and prepared for us to get stuck into some serious crafting.

Over the course of the day we were given the opportunity to learn 3 different types of crafting.  I absolutely love to get crafty with it, but I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that my enthusiasm far out-weights any actual skill!  Still, all of the crafts were very “beginners” friendly and we wasted no time getting stuck in.

First up, my group was introduced to the art of lettering and calligraphy with Joyce from Artsynibs.  We started off by learning the basics of lettering and then tried copying out simple phrases.  

I’ve always wanted to master the art of lettering, but I think I’m going to need quite a bit more practice before I’ve nailed it.  It’s certainly not as easy as it looks!

The hand-written print of my blog title at the top of this post is an example of Joyce’s expert handiwork.  She made it seem so effortless!  I was in awe!

Our next workshop was a beginners course in Origami with Jane from Tea and Crafting.  Honestly, I wasn’t that excited to try Origami as I thought it would be really complicated and I’d suck at it, but I actually found it quite relaxing and therapeutic.

We were all given the materials to create little origami flowers, which look really complicated but are actually quite simple to make.  Jane said they’re great for making with friends, for example on a hen party, and could even be used in your wedding flowers.

I still have mine in a vase in my kitchen!

Our final craft was paper-cutting, which really wasn’t something I’ve ever though of trying before.  Our instructor Maddie, also from Tea and Crafting, talked us through the basics.  We started with cutting out simple shapes and then tried cutting out a bigger design which you could frame to make wall art.

Much to my surprise, I really enjoyed paper-cutting and I’m definitely going to be having another go at home (although I will need to buy a scalpel – risky, I know!).  I think you could make some seriously nice wall art using this technique and maybe some great gifts for Christmas and birthdays.

Not only were we treated to these great craft workshops, but we were also served a delicious lunch and given a lovely goody bag filled with some of the materials we’d need to keep our crafting going once we got home.

Everybody that I meant at the event was so lovely.  The Viking staff and workshop leaders were so welcoming and friendly and it was so nice to meet some new bloggers (some of whom I’ve been following on social media for years!)

I had such an amazing time at the Viking Party and I’m so sorry it’s taken so long to get this post up and written.  Now, I just need to catch up on the other 30,000 blog posts sat in my drafts box!