Hochanda

This week Melissa is launching the very special Vintage Festive Craft Pack exclusive to Hochanda! Here is a sneak preview of some of the lovely Christmas decorations that can be created using the pack.  This selection is created using the music sheets as inspiration: Christmas Tree Frame Using just a sheet of the vintage music, a lovely piece of the fabric, ribbon and a few buttons from the kit, plus an old (or new!) frame, this delightful Christmas picture will take pride of place on any festive fireplace! A Lollypop Tree Another tree or window decoration - or even to make a present extra special! A great way to re-cycle the lolly sticks and just a quarter of a page of the music sheets included in the pack. Take three strips of the music, and cut down in decreasing lengths, fix to the lolly stick, add a button at the top to make it sparkle. To finish it off stick some of the sparkle trim to the back to make a hanger. Music Bauble A quick and

We know how much you’ve been missing us on Freeview, but don't worry we will be back at our new FREEVIEW home on Channel 85 this Saturday, 1 st October – and we want to invite you all to our House Warming Party! We’ve got 8 days packed of fabulous shows from the biggest names in craft including Sara Davies with the Crafter’s Companion team, Barbara Gray and her amazing Claritystamp products, the Creative Expressions team, Encaustic Art, Hobby Art, Past Times, Quilters Trading Post, SAA, Antex, be Creative! And so much more… What can you look forward to? Credit on your Account To celebrate our new home we will be offering EVERYONE £10 credit off your first order during our week-long celebrations, all you have to do is spend £30*. Bonus Gifts Each of our guests, on every day of our Housewarming Party would love you to join in the party! To include you in our celebrations, you’ll receive a bonus gift that will be automatically added to your purchase, made duri

Helen from The Decorating Centre is back with us this Saturday, demonstrating the fabulous Rust-Oleum range. From the Mini's Upcycling Kit, perfect for upcycling beginners, to individual paints, waxes and brushes, join Helen this Saturday at 11am and 3pm for tonnes of inspiration, top tips and techniques!  Many people think upcycling is just about the shabby chic style, flat matte finish, distressing and only for people transforming furniture around the home. Whilst it is all of those things it’s also so much more! For anyone that thinks shabby chic isn’t their style, or that they prefer bold colours and a sheen finish over a distressed one I’ve pulled together my favourite upcycling techniques to show you just how much more it is! 1. Distressing We had to discuss this one first as it’s the most common technique but it really is so satisfying and can be done in so many ways! You can distress your coat of paint back to the original finish underneath for an aged look, apply

Get the perfect centrepiece this Christmas with this beautiful, unique countdown advent using steel wool and stars woven from Vivi Gade paper star strips from the Creativ Company. Four white pillar candles, each decorated with zinc tags with punched out numbers, are fixed onto candle holders with a point and pushed into the wreath. The wreath is decorated further with small transparent glass Christmas baubles. Step 1 Cover the wreath with steel wool. Attach with silver plated wire.  Step 2 Weave 24 small stars using the narrow paper star strips and 4 large stars using the wide paper star strips. Follow the instructions printed on the back of the packaging of the paper star strips. NB: Weave the large stars with only upstanding points on one side. Step 3 Attach four wide paper star strips around the wreath using a glue gun. Attach the four large stars onto the wreath. Push the four candle holders with points into the wreath between each sta

We are so thrilled by the amazing response our first ever ‘Try Me’ Masterclass with Matthew Palmer that we just HAD to share with you just some of the amazing feedback that our customers have shared with us…   With over 1350 tickets sold, Matthew Palmer gave our customers a personal one-to-one watercolour painting lesson online, using the free kit to create two scenic paintings in the comfort of their own home! Just look at what people are saying about their experience… Thank you so very much to you all at Hochanda, and especially to Matthew, for the most fabulous Watercolour Masterclass!  Matthew is absolutely brilliant!!!! I have so, so enjoyed every minute of the lesson, and I will really look forward to watching the lesson again many times, as it was so, so enjoyable, educational, and has really inspired and given me the confidence to return to watercolours ... Matthew is so, so great at teaching! Thank you, once again!  I will also really look forward to taking more Mast

We had so much fun at the Crafting at Ally Pally event last weekend that we just HAD to share some of our best bits for you… With a great mixture of friendly faces from Hochanda HQ, from all areas of the business including Customer Service, Marketing, TV Operations and Buying, it was lovely to see such a huge amount of Hochanda fans – it was so lovely to meet you all! Here’s what some of our friendly helpers thought about their experience at Ally Pally; “It was lovely to meet people I present to from the Hochanda studios and to hear how much they love our channel. Lots of viewers at Ally Pally bought in their projects to show the Hochanda staff too. It was fascinating to see how they crafted with the crafty goods I've shown over the past year.” – Charlie Hopkins, Presenter “Loved my first trip to Ally Pally – it was great to meet the people who I share my work with” – Emily Bunting, Marketing Graphic Designer “It was a real pleasure to spend some time chatting with

We're thrilled to welcome Lotte  Littau, the co-founder and co-owner of Creativ Company to Hochanda this week. She's travelled all the way from Denmark to bring you incredible shows across three days, showcasing the Christmas paper range from Creativ Company. Lotte will be bringing you lots of demonstrations throughout her shows on how you can use all of these beautiful papers to create a Scandi Christmas this year. Here's just one of the projects Lotte will be showing this week...  Step 1. Half two 2.5cm wide paper star strips. Now only use three of the four paper star strips. Step 2. Double over each of the three paper star strips and cut all the ends at an angle. Put a star strip around another star strip and fold it tightly three times around this star strip. This is illustrated in the picture. Repeat this process with the other two star strips. Step 3. Assemble the three paper star strips over and under each other, forming three double le

When we first went to the Crafting at Ally Pally exhibition back in April we had so much fun meeting you all that we're back again this September! The award-winning Crafting at Ally Pally event welcomes up to 8,000 craft enthusiasts every year through its doors, showcasing over 40 big named brands including Creative Expressions, Claritystamp, be Creative and so much more - we can barely contain our excitement for our second time at Crafting at Ally Pally! Come to one of the two Hochanda stands to meet our presenters, catch any of our LIVE shows, and watch our inspirational demonstrations from the big names of craft, including Leonie Pujol, Barbara Gray, Bev Tonks, Sue Baker, Jenny Mayes, Cathie Shuttleworth & the Creative Expressions Team. Will you be joining us? Get your tickets here Don't miss our LIVE shows, broadcasted from Alexandra Palace on Saturday 17th September and Sunday 18th September online , Sky channel 663, Freeview 39 (6am - 9p

My name is Lotte Littau and I am the co-founder and co-owner of Creativ Company.  In my daily work I am responsible for creativity and welfare in our company.  A colleague of mine and I started Creativ Company in the summer 2000 – but before that I worked in the craft industry for 8 years. Back in 2000 Peter and I were the only two employed in Creativ Company – but very soon we had to hire more people and today we are around 180 employees all around Europe.  Knitting, crocheting, embroidery and sewing has always been a part of my life – in fact I was only 5 years old when I learned crocheting, and only a few years later I knitted my first jumper. I am very fortunate and happy that I have been able to work with creative products in my professional life as well in my private life.   I am also very happy that I have the possibility to be surrounded by creative people and creative products during my workday. Our passion for creativity makes it natural to inspire each ot

We are super excited to announce that we will be the host of an incredible WORLD LAUNCH from Imagination Crafts this weekend on Saturday, 10th and Sunday 11th September!  Are you an avid papercrafter looking for your next challenge? Perhaps you love to work with fabrics but you’re looking for the next big, exciting thing? You NEED to watch the Imagination Crafts shows this weekend! “Imagination Crafts are very excited to bring you a new concept and a new way to craft by fusing together your love of fabrics and papercrafting.” – Sue Baker We welcome Kim Christopher, a new crafty guest to the Hochanda family as she demonstrates throughout the shows all of the creative techniques showing everyone how to achieve Uncle Owlbert, by the end of the day! “Sue Baker, Kim Christopher and Lisa Baker have worked together to present to you Creative Textiles that use fabric, templates, papercrafting techniques, stencils, stamps, Starlight Textile Paints and all the other beauti

Hello there … I am really excited for my upcoming Sizzix shows on Hochanda on the 9th September as I know you are going to love these dies as much as I do. The whole show has a Tim Holtz theme with a selection of dies that are going to inspire you to create beautiful projects.  As soon as I got these the inspiration and ideas just flowed. Would you like a sneak peak? We have several sets coming up which all compliment each other beautifully. Let’s start with the Sizzix Thinlits Die Set Tropical by Tim Holtz. It is a set of 8 dies that compliment each other beautifully.   They can be used with inks, paints or patterned papers to create stunning projects. I think my favorite die in the set is the palm tree which I know I will use time and time again. They work for simple cards to the most detailed projects and are also great for home decor items. The leaves in the set are perfect for complimenting your cards or adding a bit of green behind flowers. Of co