Who would you give your last Rolo to?

Lu Burnell's Valentine's Cards

You just know you are going to have a good day when the first email to pop up in front of your sleepy Monday morning eyes contains a treasure trove of beautiful work from Lu Burnell.

Lu is one of our Valentine's Pop-Up Shop vendors and will be showcasing her work at this weekends event, Saturday 5th Feb, 10am-5pm, 29 Old Ford Road. Cards range from pop-up concertina hearts to her beautifully hand illustrated slogans and figures.

Who will you give yours to?

For a unique gift idea why not buy one of her golden rolo's in its own hand printed gift box.Check out Lu's blog and website for more information about her work. Better still come down on Saturday and meet her in person.

All you need is love

Violet Iris exclusively designed Valentines Cards

Hot off the press Violet Iris has shared some images of what is in store for you lucky attendees of our Valentine's Pop-Up Shop on Saturday 5th February. With only a week to go things are hotting up here at the workshop and we are astounded by all the amazing designs which are coming through.

Violet Iris Cupid Arrow and Heart necklace.

Violet Iris has produced a range of limited edition necklaces, cards and earrings especially for the event, all with a good measure of her tongue and cheek humour which we know and love.

It wouldn't be Valentine's without Pat and Frank

Make sure you hot foot it down to Back to Basics on next Saturday to grab yours. Better still grab the last 2 places on our Kitsch Valentines Card making session this Wednesday and make your own.

More than Words

Image courtesy of Andy Howe

Andrea Taylor designs and makes the most exquisite eco jewellery. Beautifully crafted from recycled magazines and newspapers each beaded necklace is unique. She will even design bespoke necklaces out of your favourite book.

Make your own Jewellery- 18th February

Stop by our Valentine's Pop-Up shop on the 5th February, to buy one of Andrea's designs. Why not check out our workshop page for details on Andrea's jewellery making and bookbinding workshops, coming up next month.

Bookbinding-Make your own notebook- Tuesday 15th March

We Heart Zeena

Image courtesy of Zeena Shah

Continuing with our showcase of Valentine's Pop-Up Shop vendor's, we are proud to present Zeena Shah and her gorgeous brand of paper-cuts and cushions.

Inspired by her love of paper cutting, printing, birdies,collecting, drawing, sewing, making and hearts she launched her collection of hand made and screen printed products in 2009. We are very happy to welcome her to the ever expanding fold of Back to Basics artists and contributors.

Visit her website for more information or why not stop by our Valentines Pop-Up Shop on the 5th February for more information.

The case of the illustrated bear and hungry wolf

Selected prints from Kerry Layton's collection  photographed at Back to Basics

A very special visitor popped into the workshop at Back to Basics today. Kerry Layton came all the way down from Devon to personally drop off her prints for the Valentine's Pop-Up Shop.

Our personal mantra.

We are massive fans of Kerry's work and are very honoured that she is taking part in the event. Now comes the tricky part, trying not to let the team buy up all the prints before the actual  event. We have to leave some for the rest of you. Make sure you keep reading the blog for more sneak peeks at our Pop-Up Shop artists and come along to the event on Saturday 5th February 10am-5pm.

Catherine Hirst joins the team at Back to Basics.

Image courtesy of Catherine Hirst

We are excited to announce that Catherine Hirst will be teaching one of her amazing amigurumi workshops here at Back to Basics in April.
Catherine is an extremely experience workshop leader teaching both in the UK and in the US. Taught to crochet by her grandmother when she was a little girl, Catherine has been sharing her experience and knowledge for the past 10 years. A regular at the make lounge she also holds private workshops and hen parties. We are massive fans or her work and her beautiful website. 
Book your place now to avoid disappointment.

Craft Book Eye Candy

If you like us love nothing more than flicking through a craft how to book for inspiration, then look no further than this beautiful book, Simple Printmaking by Sarah Roberts.
Published on How 2 Crafts it has everything you need to know about simple print make projects from card-making to wrapping paper using techniques such as lino printing, potato printing and stencilling.
Sarah is an award winning designer whose work is regularly featured in Country Living Magazine and Country Homes and Interiors.
Check out the How 2 Crafts website for more amazing craft books such as soap making and felt-biscuits. You can even download them as e-books.
We hope to be running more stencil printing and lino cutting workshops this year so watch this space.

Sneak Peek at our Valentines Pop-Up Shop Vendors

Here is a sneak peak at the work of one of our amazing Valentines Pop-Up shop vendors, Marie Pedersen. Marie teaches beginners crochet and knitting lessons here at Back to Basics as well as hosting our 'Tea and Make'  drop in craft sessions on a Wednesday morning.

 When she is not spending her time with us Marie works hard hosting craft sessions from her home and making her beautiful creations and posting about it on her blog, mariesmaking. Marie also sells her work through her own etsy shop.

For more information about any of Maries workshops or the Valentines Pop-Up Shop please explore our blog.

Free Craft Wednesdays

Today was our first 'Tea and Make session'. If you missed it don't worry we will be running sessions every week. So if you have got a project which you have started but just can't get off the ground or if you have hit a sticking point and need some advice then pop in and Marie will be on hand top help you out.

Please note that we encourage any beginners to book on to our scheduled workshops which have been specifically designed to teach you everything you need to know, for more information please visit our workshops page.

To all designer makers a word of advice.

Whether you are a seasoned pro or just starting out on your quest for worl domination with your beautiful hand made products we want to support all of you this new year by posting articles with advice about marketing, retailing and branding for you and your small businesses.

Our mission is to provide a creative hub for the hand made community, so we will be scouring the best blogs and websites to bring you up to date advice relevant to the unique nature of the craft retail business.

To start us off the wonderful blog one pretty thing has included links to various articles which advise on everything from packaging your product to re-designing your Etsy shop.

Enjoy and feel free to leave comments below to tell us if you found these articles useful.

Free Craft Wednesday's

We have started an initiative here at Back to Basics, every wednesday you can come and enjoy a free craft session from 9am-11:30am. We will serve you a cup of tea and a biscuit or two and teach you a craft such as crochet, knitting or hand sewing. All we ask is for a suggested donation of £3.

Next weeks session is learn how to crochet with the lovely Marie, check out her inspirational blog mariesmaking, to view her profile.

Planning a Childrens Party? Read more about our bespoke Craft Parties- not just for kids.

In the words of todays birthday girl, Kate aged 8,"this is the best birthday party I have every had". Now there is a claim for you!

Here at Back to Basics we can plan a bespoke party for that special day. Today we hosted a party for Kate who, along with 5 friends, made their very own tote bags.

We provide all of your materials and will even provide refreshments upon request. Each child designs and makes their own project, with a little help from our experienced teachers of course, oh and any adults who have been roped in as monitors for the day.

Bring your own birthday cake or we can provide one for you, its up to you, we can't take the credit for this one, Kate's mum is a cake making genius without any help from us.
Please visit our Events and Parties page to view all party options available. Its not just for kids you know, we can run adults birthday parties and hen parties, all you have to do is ask!

Catch them if you can

Places are selling out fast, only 4 spaces are available on our Valentines Cup Cake decorating class on Thursday 10th February.


To confirm your space click on the googlecart link.

We're Back!

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Welcome back to all the team after what was a mixed bag of Christmas holidays experiences involving Flu and festive fayre.

We are all really excited about the new schedule of workshops which we have in January and as the new year starts we have more and more workshops to add to the schedule.

Check our our workshops page for more information and sign up now so you don't miss out.