things to do in Yorkshire

Christmas Gift Vouchers – A unique experience!

Felting 6

Buying someone a unique experience for Christmas, where they can spend quality time with friends and family is such a fabulous idea!

“Fill your life with experiences, not things.  Have stories to tell, not stuff to show”.

In my family, we decided a few years ago to stop buying stuff.  Although the stuff was appreciated, it was often things we didn’t really need, or have space for.  As I live on a boat, as well as running my business from a boat, I have very little space for material possessions.  The No Stuff Please rule began.  Now, each Christmas we put our pennies together to do something fun and different together.

We have been to see Cirque du Soleil in the Albert Hall, we’ve done a wire jewellery workshop in North Yorkshire, a perfumery course at Handmade in Netheredge in Sheffield , we hired a beautiful cottage in the Scottish Boarders, we visited Plockton which is a stunning coastal village on the North West Coast of Scotland, the list of memorable experiences goes on!  This year I plan to buy my partner a brewery tour at his favourite ale company, with an over-night stay in a romantic hotel afterwards!

Most of my workshop guests are groups of friends or families who come to spend some quality time together, doing something new and interesting.  Often women come on their own to my scheduled workshops and meet new people too. The fantastic thing about my job is, that I also get to spend time with these great women, chatting, catching up, sharing stories and being creative in a beautiful intimate space!

Why not buy someone special a workshop voucher for a Crafts Afloat workshop!?  I currently offer full day workshops in Fused Glass, Mosaics and Felting, aboard the craft boat in Hebden Bridge.  Every workshop starts with morning pastries and tea or real coffee.  The boat is filled with inspiration to help participants plan their creative work.  During the workshop you work with top quality materials and equipment and can be given as much or as little support as you require.  Lunch is served at the fantastic Olive Branch restaurant where you can choose from a range of Turkish wraps, paninies and salads.  The food is delicious and you can have a large glass of wine to help the creative juices flow!  After lunch I serve cake and coffee on the boat whilst you finish off your creations.

Creative Escapism!

Check out my reviews on Trip Advisor and Facebook if you need further persuasion!

To buy a gift voucher follow this link – Crafts Afloat Gift Voucher.

Avoid high street stress this Christmas, support small, local business and artists this year. xx

Glass Fusing Workshops with Crafts Afloat

Beginners Fused Glass workshops with Crafts Afloat.

Glass Fusing is the magical process of joining and melting glass together in a kiln at high temperatures.  Different types of glass and glass powders (frits) can be used to make beautiful jewellery, dishes, bowls, light catchers and decorations. Beware, it is very addictive!  You can experiment with some of these techniques on the craft boat.

Come aboard the craft boat and create a selection of beautiful glass items. During the workshop you will make a coaster, a slump dish, a star and a beautiful set of dichroic glass jewellery with a decoupage jewellery box.

Fused Glass 1

Hebden Bridge Arts Festival – Trouser Town

We had a great couple of weekends enjoying Hebden Bridge Arts Festival http://hebdenbridgeartsfestival.co.uk/.  The town was buzzing with the festival, Open Studios and the Alternative Christmas.  It is so heart warming to see the town filled with fun, music, laughter and colour after the flooding.  It’s an incredibly inspiring town.  If you haven’t been, then defiantly come and visit!

The bunting workshop on the craft boat was a great success. We has lots of visitors of all ages come and help make the funky trouser washing lines that were hung on boats and in the marina.

I heard on the grapevine that next years theme might be “water”!?