Hallowe'en Craft Cafe

 You still have the Weekend to get Hallowe'en Crafting.

I love Hallowe'en - LOVE IT! and i don't want to hear any rubbish about anti-christianity and devil worship.

It is nothing of the sort. It is a Pagan festival full of celebration, not of 'naughtiness' but of thankfulness.

The dressing of ghoulies and ghosties is to shoooo away all the naughty spirits and celebrate the end of SummerTime, the end of the Harvest and recognise the beginning of a harder Winter.

 And children love it. The opportunity to go out AT NIGHT! or to get dressed up or to play at being naughty and fiendish... you know most adults would love this licence to Play too...

So we have celebrated in true Craft Cafe style.

We did some Ghosties on the sewing table and i have always loved how hard children try at the sewing. They are so tenacious and patient. They *want* it finished so badly.

 Paper Bags make easy and cheap 'treat bags' to collect their illicit goodies in or just feel part of the whole process (even if they are not allowed to go out treating) I just photo copied a £2 pack of stickers and enlarged them, so they could cut and paste them.

 The JuNk TaBlE

Always been the top most popular table at our Craft Cafe's.

The opportunity to build and paint for hours on end in a space big enough to house BIG projects.

It is fascinating to see how big children's work can get if you give them big tools and plenty of space. Such a liberating way to create that families at home rarely ever get (unless you get creating in the garden...)

 My nephew made the most awesome Dracula Castle. It rocked!

thank the lord for Toilet Rolls... the possibilities are endless but they do lend themselves to the making of Castle Turrets and Canon Guns.... (gotta love the Boys)

Please notice his Peg People DRACULAs along the top there, mwahahahaha....

 Some children go completely renegade.... they find items in the Craft Boxes that i never knew i had and they just go off on their own mission. This is so satisfying to watch. My job? usually to help show the best glue or tape for a particular job. And Needle threading. I spend 2 hours re-threading needles.

 Parents usually hate the painted bits.

i know, i am sorry. But it is so much fun to slap paint around.

 We love the Dads who turn up *waves at MrH in his fit hat*

This holiday we had lots of Granparents, a few Dads, a couple of au-pairs and some very excitable Mums.

It makes for an eclectic mix. There were 40 children crafting, including mine and my extended brood.

 Yep, that is mine. The one with the gappy teeth just in time for School photos.

How she can contain her excitement is beyond me.

Up at 6am "Mum Mum is it Craft Cafe today? is it?Is it??"

In competition with my Nephew, she too made a huge castle with various rooms and a COFFIN! for her Bride and Groom Zombies, complete with hidden string that lifts the lid for you. *so proud* (?)

 A collection of seasonal Brooches i wore for the day...

SO it is with the heaviest of hearts that i declare this was my last Craft Cafe as we know it.

I have said a fond farewell to this sticky chaos and it breaks my heart somewhat.

It has been 5 years that i have been running these Craft Cafes.

Every Thursday in the School Holidays... and i have loved every single session.

I cannot describe how being with the children makes me feel when they are sooo very proud of what they make. It fills me with selfish joy and pride. i have loved them.

There are many reasons that make this a sensible choice.

It is just 'time' for a break. I need a break and maybe someone else would like a chance to run some workshops now? i don't know.

I am relieved at the break. These things take alot of time and effort to organise and they rely on volunteers who make my life easier and it is time i said a big THANKYOU to all those who stay and help clear up!!

You have been the BEST.

The last mini Craft Cafe will be on Sunday 13th November

11.30am - 2pm

Boddington Village Hall (upstairs)

and downstairs will be the Christmas Gift Fair with lots of stalls.

£4 per child and we will make some decorations and Christmas Cards.

a last fond farewell for me. But maybe i will find some new plans and projects?

who knows....

What we did today at... The Craft Cafe...

Every School Holiday, for the past, hmmmm, 4 and a half years? I have run what we called The Craft Cafe.
2 hours of creative mayhem for local children aged 3-13yrs. Todays theme was: ROBOTS!! There are various tables with different crafting activities, all set up and ready for when the families arrive... and one fantastic Crafter had already started his own ROBOT and decided to bring it along:

The children's joy, enthusiasm and talents! really astound me. Before i worked in 'craft' i worked with children. I loved it (love it still)

Parents, Grandparents, siblings, dads... they all pitch in with the children and the atmosphere is lovely.

Seeing the Dads get stuck in, really warms my soul... "Boys don't like Craft": what hogwash! The boys who attend are always hugely creative and enthusiastic - they often come and tell me their ideas for 'next time'

I average about 35 children per morning's session. Today's attendance hit an all time high with 50 children involved in crafting!! Plus a few extra babies who were passed from sticky handed to cake-y fingered adults.

I imagine that the parents are relieved to be able to 'walk away' from the mess at the end. The children seem happy that there are no real 'rules' for 2 solid hours and they can use as much of the crafty stuff as they want. As it's local, they get to see a few friends or meet some new faces too.

The activities were appropriate for ages 3 - 13yrs, with Robot puppets and badges. Design your own paper robot (and laminate him / her... Ooooh we all loved the laminating today)

And, the EVER popular "Junk Table" where anything goes!

You might imagine that a hall full of 50 children, plus adults, was rather chaotic? But children are not chaotic and hectic by nature - quite the opposite. Children are clever, observant, dilligent, curious and creative. It is just that THEY choose when to apply all these skills. Today was one of those occasions.

Of course, there is the 'Cafe' side to all this creativity. Today the Cafe was run by my Sister-in-Law to raise funds for the local Playgroup Association. mMMMmmmMM cakes....

I loved it!! ....I am also knackered.

I know not all the Crafters from today will read this but, if you do drop by, thankyou so much for coming, it was a great way to spend a VERY snowy half term Thursday xxx

Batteries not included....

There is only ONE PLACE TO BE - this Thursday (18th FEB) in 'Half Term'.... We're doing R O B O T S at the Craft Cafe - Boddington Village Hall
Craft tables open at 10am and close at 12pm.
Cafe open to members of the general public PLUS my amazing PaperFish Craft Stall with many handmade goodies and Craft Supplies xxx see you there!

Button BUGZ!

Let's hear it.... Ladies and Gentlemen... put your hands together for..... the Button Bugz!
IF you are coming to the OCTOBER half term CRAFT CAFE in Upper Boddington - then these might be on the Craft Menu. Mwah ha ha ha - (said in a sort of 'Hallowe'en' voice)
They are creepy, crawly, buttony and sprawly.

My LittleFish and i gave the recipe a trial and error run. They came out even better than i had imagined and they leave plenty of room for a childs own artistic interpretation! (we like them to take an idea and rrrrruuunnnn with it)

This is one side of those MINI selection cereal boxes - to give you an idea of the size of body you need. Don't make it much bigger or the legs might not hold up the body. Before you start, punch a few holes down each side. I made FOUR holes on each side of the body.

I told LittleFish to keep the holes FREE of stuffs when decorating. Obviously she didn't, so i had to rummage through the body's fluffs n' stuffs to find them again.

As demonstrated by my angel (below) stick lots of great stuff on the body, including many goggly eyes. Use whatever you have? pompoms, ribbon, tissue paper, eyes, pens.... always use good strong sticky glue.

I use this glue>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> for everything. Tis fantastic! water it down a bit and use it as a varnish too.

Cut 4 PIPE CLEANERS into 8 legs.... (who smokes a pipe nowadays?) and that is: EACH pipe cleaner in HALF for those who struggle with the maths :)

Thread a button on to the end of each bendy fluffy stick. They want to try and be the same length as each other - but the world won't stop turning if they differ in length muchly.

And... thread the un-buttony end through those holes i warned you about at the beginning.

They might not stand very well till the whole body is DRY - warn your child about this when they start to cry as the bug won't stand on it's own. This will get better - later.

COOLIO! me luffs the bugz. I'll let you have this idea and use it too if you like! i love crafting with kids. I could suggest you buy your buttons through me, but if this is not your first visit to the blog, you know that by now xxxx happy bugging people x