Hochanda

We had better start the post by saying well done to Pen, who has won a bit bag of die cut bows to play with - and then Patricia who has won the lovely canvas which was made by Katie.  Those will be winging their way to you. Here at Hochanda , we are trying to bring you diversity, both in products, but also for peoples skill set.  A kit that we can highly recommend for beginners is brought to us by the Crazy Wire Company.  They have put a nice little kit together for us to create a Wire Bead bracelet.  When you first see this, you may think it looks quite tricky - you could not be more wrong. I had a play with it this afternoon, and within minutes I had the knack - and then started experimenting, adding my own beads to see what it looked like.  I'm quite happy with the results: Wire and Beads You can see from this photograph, I used a pretty shambhala bead in the centre of this pretty blue wire And in the centre of the lilac ribbon, I ha...

Can you remember the very first card you made? Yes I can totally remember the first card I made - it was a stamped butterfly coloured with coloured pencils mounted onto an A6 card with some handmade paper and glitter glue! I think my Gran might even still have it! Who is your inspiration in the craft world? I would have to say it would be my Grandma, she's the one who got me started crafting from when I was about 7 and really inspired my passion for stamping. She's very arty too and does lots of different crafts - over the years she has done mosaics, painting, teddy bear making and lots more! When do you come up with your ideas & designs? I'm constantly drawing and coming up with new ideas, I just love playing with new goodies! I tend to draw for myself first as to what I want and can envisage on a card or finished project then go from there and one design tends to lead to another! What was your first “when I grow up I want to b...

Hi, it's Jenny, and this is my first crafty project for the Hochanda blog. It started with a visit to the studio, where they run the live shows from, but they also keep all the crafty "samples".  These are basically the lovely crafty things you see on the telly...and I got to wander around and pick what I wanted to use!  It was really tricky, to be honest, where do you start.  I opted for some of the stamps Chloe has brought to us, and I went for Christmas designs.  I like making Christmas decorations, I think they make a lovely gift idea. Firstly I dug out some of my MDF, and prepped a few pieces at the same time.  First with black acrylic paint, which I allowed to dry: I applied the paint with a sponge, as it's really quick and you only need a little paint for a good coverage. I then went over the top with white acrylic paint - or you can use gesso.  Again, I used a sponge. I then used lovely ink from Cosmic Shimmer.  I applied ...