Hochanda

How did you get into quilting? I started sewing as a young child on the farm in Minnesota. My mother was a seamstress and my father had an upholstery business.  My grandmother Elda Wolfe was the quilter ... everyone sewed!  My three dimensional skills were pretty good from a young age as no one was using patterns, so I learned to look and make things up as I went along, from watching my parents.  I was always a maker and knew I’d be an artist when I grew up. I was always making all kinds of crazy things and using fabric was one thing that was always accessible to me. When did you make your first quilt?   I made many hand patchwork pillows, doll quilts, etc. from a young age. I started sewing when I was 4.  I believe my first finished quilt, was when I was 13, it’s pretty sad looking but still in one piece! I started making many larger quilts aged 14-20, and many I abandoned because I was cutting shapes sewing them together, and I couldn’t figure...

Exciting news Crafter's, we've got another inspiring supplier for you! Helen Johnson from the Decorating Store Online will be joining us on Sunday 31st July to demonstrate the fabulous Rust-Oleum range so we caught up with her before her shows for some sneak peeks and she even gave us her 5 top tips!  Upcycling has seen a huge surge in popularity over the last 18 months with more and more people looking to transform their old and worn furniture into something usable in their homes to save the cost of buying new! Not only do you get the satisfaction of the money you’ve saved but also knowing its something that you’ve created to be utilized in and around your home, or to be gifted or even sold for use by someone else. There are more and more products entering the upcycling market but our favourite here at Decorating Centre Online is the Rust-Oleum range – a global brand that specialises in ‘specialist coatings’ and with this breadth of knowledge and experien...

We're bringing more and more brand new suppliers to your screens each week! We really love to get to know the people behind the brands and we'd love for you to get to know them too!  This week, we welcome Pat and Mark from Totally Patched to Hochanda. An inspirational, family run business that aims to educate crafters from their premises based in Shropshire. We caught up with them to get a real insight in to their day-to-day lives, check it out and don't forget to tune in this Friday to see their very first shows!  Q. Introduce yourself. A. Hi we are Mark and Pat Palmer the owners of Totally Patched Q. Tell us how Totally Patched came about; was it something that you had always wanted to do? A.  Totally Patched started out life quite a long time ago with a friend Diane, time has passed and situations changed Diane moved away and I (Pat) started building Totally Patched from a small hobby type business into a large web based, retail shop an...

The countdown has begun! It’s just under 1 month until we celebrate our 1st birthday - time flies when you’re having fun! To celebrate we will be bringing you some fantastic deals, competitions and bonus gifts from your most loved guests and brands for a whole week! You can look forward to shows from Creative Expressions, Inkylicious, Sheena Douglass, Crafter’s Companion, Claritystamp, Debbie Shore, Imagination Crafts, Six Penny Memories, IndigoBlu, Chloe Endean, Craft Yourself Silly, Sizzix, Robert Addams and so many more!! We’d love for you, our customers to get involved and celebrate with us so we’d like to give you the chance to WIN £25 !! All you have to do is send us your crafted birthday wishes to Hochanda HQ by 23rd August 2016. We’ll be using the makes sent to us to dress our sets AND we’ll even pick one fantastic make who will receive £25 to spend at Hochanda! Beautiful gifts come in all shapes and sizes, and all different materials so why not let ...

Decoupage is a beautiful craft that everyone can get involved, regardless of your experience! We’re so excited that we asked the lovely Nikki Killenger to give us a quick step-by-step on how to create this beautiful plant pot before she join us to demonstrate the incredible Decopatch products next week!  Step 1.  Choose your paper’s and prepare all the items you want to work with. Step 2.  Tear or cut your papers, according to your design. For this design I have used scissors as I wanted a band around the pot, but usually you can just tear your papers. Step 3.  Decant some glue into a smaller pot to make it easier.  Apply glue to enough of an area to put your first piece of paper. Step 4.  Apply paper, you can pick the paper up on your brush to place it. Smooth the paper onto your item from the centre out. Step 5.  Build up your pattern, butting your papers up to each othe...

 We've got a brand new Sizzix One Day Special on Thursday 28th July, so we caught up with Katie Skilton this week to get a sneak peek of just some of the demonstrations she will be bringing to you! Hello … I am looking forward to bringing you some fabulous Sizzix dies next week for a One Day Special launching on Thursday 28th July at 8pm and all through the day on Friday 29th July. Theses are a different concept than what we have brought to you before and I am sure you will be super excited when you see what these dies can create. These are called Fold-a-long dies and create beautifully shaped cards like this: They came in a fox and owl.  Not only do they create a cleverly shaped card but the ability to add a panel inside where you can add your stamped sentiment! How fun are these? If you are into your gift boxes we also have a die that will create both the owl and the fox box. These will make any gift that extra special. Of...

We’re so thrilled to be welcoming Decopatch to the Hochanda family that we wanted to share with you just some of the incredible affects you can create with Decoupage.  What is Decoupage?  The word decoupage comes from the French verb découper, 'to cut out'. The decoupage technique can be used to personalise items in your home - the best thing is that the designs can be as simple or as complex as you like. Simply, decoupage involves cutting out pictures, gluing them to an object and then coating the pictures and the object with layers of varnish. Decoupage is a great craft, it’s super easy to do and you can pretty much decoupage anything; from a tired chest of draws to decorative letters, it’ll easily spruce up any item in a short space of time!  Image Source: Wunderweib Decoupage – the basic technique Decoupage is a simple yet effective way of personalising your items, so before you begin here’s a step by step of the basic technique. Once...

We're so excited that Kate Crane will be joining us to share her mixed media tips and tricks and knowledge during next Saturday’s Deco Art One Day Special that we asked her to give us a few pointers on how to get the best mixed media results with some amazing products. Check it out and let us know what you think!  In preparation for my up and coming TV shows for Decoart on Hochanda I wanted to share some of my favourite techniques using DecoArt Media Fluid acrylics and Tinting Base. These paints are so highly pigmented you can build up great backgrounds using just one colour. Here I added lots of stenciling and stamping and some touches of neutral black and white. Great for mixed media projects or even greetings cards.        I also like to mix multiple colours and build up lots of layers as seen on this gothic arch. Again I added lots of layers of stamping and stenciling.        Because DecoArt fl...

Our 12 Days of Christmas is well under way. To give you some extra Christmas inspiration we've got a tutorial for how to make this beautiful Gingerbread Man card.   Materials 145 x 145mm kraft card blank Apple Blossom Kraft paper pad (need to get the name) Cardstock -  Creative Expressions Vintage Gold & Coconut White plus kraft card for die-cutting From the Apple Blossom Sweet Christmas collection – Sweet Christmas stamp set & Gingerbread Man die set Marianne Design Star Frame & Pine Bough die Adhesive of choice, 3D foam pads, white ribbon Red, white & clear Wink of Stella glitter pens, archival black ink Tools Trimmer/guillotine Die cutting machine Scissors Stamping block Small scallop circle punch Instructions 1. Cut a piece of red plaid paper to 145 x 145mm, adhere to the front of the card blank & edge with the red glitter pen. 2. Die-cut the star frame from the Coconut White card & retain the centre...