Christmas comes but once a year. That is unless you’re invited to an Arty Party by Viking. Viking Direct specialise in office stationery and bloggers seem to be drawn to stationary like a magpie to a shine tin can.
Christmas has arrived
One early Saturday morning I headed over to the Lambert Yard in Leeds. For those who don’t know Leeds that well it’s just need the train station or Trinity Car Park – both very easy to get to from Harrogate. Heading up the stair I entered the world of Christmas. It was an unusually warm day for October but we were invited to wear our best Christmas jumpers; and that we did! From snowmen and tinsel to cats and jingle bells; we were on Christmas jumper fire!
Calligraphy with Artsynibs
Greeted by the Viking team and a glass of Mulled Wine we were off with our first activity. Calligraphy. I was most excited about this activity because as a little girl I have a Calligraphy book but never got to grasp it. The workshop, run by Joyce, from Artsynibs Studio set us off doing a series of strokes and letters before letting us loose on a Christmas card. Here we learnt about the Port Designs Stylus pens and how to apply pressure to make the letters have thick or thin edges. It was OK until I had to join something up!
Ever the perfectionist I tried so hard not to head across to the window and start tracing one of Joyce’s printouts. Instead, I did cheat a little by sketching in pencil the outline of my Merry Christmas before applying the pen.
I couldn’t’ do two things at once, applying pressure or not and thinking about the direction of travel was all too hard for my brain on mulled wine. In the end, I was proud of what I created and the other bloggers around me had also done a sterling job.
Lamberts yard, Leeds
It was time for a spot of festive lunch, roast pork and stuffing sarnies and opinion gravy. I’d forgotten how much I enjoy these types of events. Not only do I get to express my creative side but I also to connect with new bloggers.
Block Printing with Viking Direct
Our second activity was block printing with Maddie from Tea and Crafting. Now this is something anyone can do and you can be as creative as you like! I went for a Nordic Christmas tree shape (a triangle to you and me) on my storage file where as others went for cats, peace sign and even cacti!
Going crackers for Viking Direct’s glitter paper
Our last session of the day was to make a cracker advent calendar with Jane from Tea and Crafting. I feel like I am now armed with a new skill; just learning how to make crackers I’m able to make cracker gifts, crackers for the table, and a cracking advent calendar. I totally fell in love with the paper we were using from Viking – you can never have too much glitter!
Arms laden with crafty goodies and a gift from Viking it was time to say our goodbyes and head home. I was heading straight up to Niki’s where we grabbed a bite to eat at Uno Momento and caught up on Blade Runner in preparation for seeing it at the cinema.
Are you an arty person? Have you tried Calligraphy? What’s your top tip? Also, anyone seen the new Blade Runner? Any good?
And a very merry Christmas.
If you like this post you might also like my post on sewing workshops. Read more here.
P.S. thank you to Viking Direct for inviting me to their blogger Christmas #ArtyParty
