I was recently invited to the Viking Arty Party by Viking Stationary at the wonderful location of the Chimney House, in Kelham Island – Sheffield. At this point I thought all my birthdays had come at once: a fantastic event, in a beautiful venue, which just so happens to be a 5-minute walk from my house. As we entered the wonderful venue we were split into 3 groups and given a time to mingle and drink plenty of tea, before being split into 3 groups for an afternoon of crafty activities.
Above photo of myself and Prue by Elouisa
Above photo by Elouisa
Firstly, we were given a crash course in paper cutting with Maddie from Tea and Crafting. This process involved tracing an image with a craft knife to unveil the beautiful design underneath. This was so much harder than it looks and took some serious concentration, especially on the smaller more intricate parts of the design. At first I found myself tense, holding the craft knife way too tight and maybe thinking a little bit too hard about the task at hand. However, once we got into the swing of things and relaxed a little, the papercutting became much more enjoyable.
After an hour and one very unprofessional looking piece of art later – it was time to break for lunch. The lunch provided was an array of delicious sandwiches, salads and cakes. At that point, out of the window flew any idea of a holiday diet. The lunch not only tasted fantastic but was beautifully presented to keep in theme with the entire day.
My next work station was calligraphy with Joyce from Artsy Nibs. Joyce made calligraphy look effortless – I most certainly did not. Joyce taught us the importance of viewing the design no longer as letters; but as shapes. In addition, the importance of separating the downward and upward pen strokes. If you love hand lettering and dreamy Instagram feeds then be sure to check out Joyce at @artsynibs.
My final activity of the day was an origami lesson run by Jane. This was my personal favourite. We each made a 3 pretty paper flowers and what I loved about this was you couldn’t really do this wrong (maybe Jane would beg to differ). Folding the paper was almost therapeutic and there was a great sense of satisfaction when the whole bunch of flowers came together. Origami lessons with Jane would be brilliant start to a birthday celebration, or even hen party.
Thank you to Jennie for organising this brilliant event. I was invited to the this event by Viking Stationary but all opinions are strictly my own.
