Get crafting this Easter on a project for our upcoming Crafty Hour Show at our Hawthorn shop.

My family is crafty - which is to say they have a lot of fun with it. So, when I announced that Readings was going to embark on a Crafty Hour Show later this year they leapt at the chance to dominate the field. Using Abbey Hendrickson’s You Are Awesome, an excellent practical guide for a range of craft activities, they put their creative energy into making a ‘doodle jar’.

Now this craft activity should only be taken on if you have extreme skill and a very steady hand. It’s a tough one. What you do is you get a jar, a permanent marker (the one you use for labelling kids clothes prior to camp) and a rubber band. Using the band as your line around the jar, doodle.

It was lots of fun.

Margaret Snowden, our art book specialist at Readings Carlton, tried her hand at creating a sweet needle book:

I’m always losing my sewing needles halfway through a project, and kept thinking about the little needle book I made back in primary school. I had it for many years but somewhere along the way it disappeared. So I was delighted to find one in * by Cath Kidston. Not exactly the same as primary school (which featured fancy embroidery, a pre-requisite for young ladies) but inspirational none the less. I made two: one that followed the instructions, using a scrap of vintage upholstery fabric. The second one used some lovely tapes I found recently, with a bit of left over cotton canvas, and ties instead of a press-stud. Very satisfactory and no more lost needles.*

We’re putting out a call for all interested crafters to get involved with our upcoming craft event: a curated showing of craft projects in our own Hawthorn shop. One lucky winner will take home a book pack containing:

To enter simply purchase a crafty book from one of our shops or online, and attach the receipt to an entry form. You can download the entry form right here:

[[Entry_Form_for_Crafty_Hour]]

Then, choose and create one of the projects from your inspired purchase and put it on display somewhere safe until the day of the event. We’ll be revealing more information soon but in the meantime, get crafting!

If you have any questions about our crafty event email