WHOA! We’ve just thrown our first ever Edinburgh Etsy Team event and it was a total blast! Our Etsy Craft Party at The Haven Cafe on the 6th June and we’re super proud to report it was a raving success! There was cake, crafting, goodie bags, and an amazing group of people having a laugh and getting to know one another … it really was the best night out we’ve had in forever!
The Haven is an
amazing cafe on the corner at Anchorfield, Newhaven. If you’re ever in Edinburgh you have to go check it out! As you’ll see from the pictures they have such a ‘pinteresting’ space and Natalie and the team make the most amazing cakes; you’ll never want to leave! Whilst they normally close around 5pm, tonight we took it over from 7-10pm to have our party. We sold out of tickets really quickly and the place was totally full by 7:30 – it was incredible!
Myself, Zyzanna and Fiona all came down to set up early. You may have noticed that I’ve been really quiet over the last couple of weeks – thats because I was so busy making decorations for the event! I shared my
tassel garland DIY the other week and have been obsessively making them since. They look so fab up, I’m so glad I learned how to do them!
As well as the bunting I made pennants with things like ‘Eat, Sleep, Craft’ and ‘Yay’ on them as well as banners that said things like ‘Make and Do’ and ‘Girls Are Magic’ … because of course we are 😉
With a great selection of music playing and a cheeky nibble on our specially made ‘Slice of Haven’ traybake for the event (it’s the most delicious treat with oreo, maltesers, chocolate and caramel in it – seriously, they have so many
tasty things to choose from it’s insane!) the party had already begun before people had arrived!
To give people inspiration for the evening, I created a ‘wall of fame’ with a few examples of how to stitch into the photographs. These were so much fun to do! I’ve spent the past few weeks collating the most incredible collection of vintage snaps you’ll ever see for the event… it’s immense 😀 If you’d like to try some for yourself you can print out some from my
#EETCraft Pinterest Board
china tea cups all set up and ready for our guests…
our very special ‘#eetcraft selfie mirror’ – so people could snap themselves at the event
vintage suitcases, bunting and a wall of mirrors – the Haven is pinterest – tastic!!
embroidery thread for our ‘Recapture’ etsy party theme
David and I making use of our #EETCraft selfie mirror!
All set up and ready to go! Check out that big plate full of ‘Slice of Haven’ – I’m drooling!!
As people started to arrive we handed out our spectacular goodie bags. We’d made special canvas tote bags with our #EETCraft ‘jail bird’ flier on them and they were filled with a crazy amount of goodies…
We’re really lucky to have some wonderful makers involved in our event – our guests got treats from Jolly Good ClaireabelleMakes Zyzanna The Marshmallow Lady Paper Bureaucracy Fiona Heather and us of course, Vivid Please! The first 20 even got an extra special gift from Etsy 😀
It was so amazing to see people react to their treats! Don’t they look crazy excited!! Don’t get too upset about missing out, becuase we’re really pleased to have a special surprise for you – we saved a couple for you to win!! That’s right, if you would like to WIN treats from the event we’ll be hosting the greatest giveaway of all time in the next day or two. Keep your eye on the blog – I promise, this is not something you’ll want to miss!!
After all the excitement of the goodie bags, we all got stuck in to our wonderful craft-a-thon…
Each table was equipped with vintage photos (reprints), needles, pins and threads to work with, as well as a cardboard worktop so as not to wreck the furniture!
Doing embroidery by stitching into the photographs is really easy. First off you use a pin (or noticeboard tac) to pierce holes into the image to mark out where you’d like to stitch. Then all you do is thread through your needle and embroidery thread. It’s so simple yet incredibly effective!
It was really great to see everyone get stuck in! It didn’t matter that a lot of people didn’t know each other, in fact it was a really great way to get to meet some amazing new people and all work together! Everyone was helping one other and making suggestions on how each picture could be altered; it was such a creative success – nobody got stuck or struggled or couldn’t get involved with the theme. It’s probably the most successful craft I’ve ever seen worked on at such a large scale!
Having printed out over 70 different images, it was phenomenal to see how each one transformed with the stitching. A few of our guests even brought their own images to work on, so we got to see some family heirlooms, wedding pictures and self portraits get the most beautiful make overs. It was a real treat to hear the stories behind each one!
Great artists make great messes, don’t they?
FACT.
Initially I wasn’t sure how quickly people would work through the project, but actually everyone ended up using the whole 3 hours to make and we had to throw them out at the end! You know your event was a success when you have to kick people out so you can tidy up 😉
ladies hard at work!
I’m a big fan of this giraffe! Doesn’t it look amazing? There were so many incredible artworks by the end of it, it would be impossible to say which was my favourite… Everyone worked so hard and looked so proud of their achievements by the end!
Our
#EETCraft wall of fame! Check out our wonderful guests and their labours of love… each so different and incredible… and so any happy faces!!
Zyzanna, Fiona & Vicky
We’d like to say a HUGE thank you everyone who supported our event including
and especially to everyone who came along and celebrated with us…
We hope you had a great a time as we did!
Goodie Bag Giveaway coming up shortly …
And lots more incredible
#EETCraft events in the future!
xox
Edinburgh Etsy 
