Hello everyone!
We recently prepared and hosted a sustainable Christmas crafting event in St. Fillans and wanted to share some of the highlights of our afternoon! The goal was to upcycle and reuse a variety of materials to make holiday themed crafts, ornaments, and gifts. Marie Claire from Remake Scotland (a community reuse charity in Crieff) was kind enough to provide us with a large portion of our secondhand crafting supplies for the event, including wool, fabric, paper, and many fun miscellaneous items. The rest of our secondhand supplies were donated by our directors, many helpful villagers and members of our local communities, or foraged nearby!
All materials were free for people to use, allowing some lovely and imaginative creations to unfold over the course of the afternoon! Anything from decorative jars, bracelets, painted stars, candle holders, to Christmas cards, and much more in between. We also provided some activities and crafting stations for people who wanted a bit more creative guidance. Jo Steventon brought her fabulous collection of pebbles to show others how to make pebble art for framed pictures and greeting cards. Marie Claire demonstrated a practice known as Furoshiki, which uses fabric or scarves to wrap presents, and her daughters created beautiful handmade gift boxes and paper Christmas decorations. Andrea Hudspeth helped others make festive twig stars and Terry Williams taught people how to fold a forest of origami Christmas trees. Evey Schreiner assisted some of the children with making various crafts. There was also a long table heaving with foraged foliage, pinecones, and other wreath-making supplies, which proved to be very popular!
We had a wonderful time seeing people get so creative with the materials, and felt quite inspired ourselves! Lots of kids turned up at the event, with some cool and innovative ideas, along with their families and some very sweet dogs. With the Christmas music playing and the wreath-making underway, we felt like everyone helped to spread some holiday spirit!
We also had a selection of drinks and biscuits available, including mulled wine and many handmade festive treats. Andrea, Evey, Hilary Burnett, and Ruth Graham baked several treats for the event, including flapjacks, chocolate chip biscuits, mincemeat danish pastries, and empire biscuits. Hilary was in charge of the kitchen and managed donations. We took donations to cover the cost of Sandison Hall and catering and were left with a slight surplus which is being donated to Remake.
We want to say a big thank you to everyone who came to our sustainable crafting event, and to our directors and their partners who helped organise it and set up and clear down on the day. We hope you enjoyed it and would love to see you all next year!
Happy Holidays!
Andrea, Terry, Evey, and the Team