A wonderful way to be crafting out a Sunday and what you can do!

This Sunday saw the long awaited arrival of the Chase Handmade Craft Fair at the Roman Way Hotel in Cannock.

For several months 3 young ladies had been tirelessly working away to prepare a wonderful event for the folks of  Cannock Chase and surrounding areas, wanting to bring the Craft back to Craft Fair.

 

So here’s the story.

2 years ago, myself and the lovely Melanie Pickering from Safimel decided that we wanted to host our own craft fairs. A lot of the craft fairs we were attending weren’t only hand made stalls or they were too far or just too expensive to attend. To address this both Mel and I decided that if you can’t beat them we should join them and so set about putting on our first ever event at the Roman Way.

This was a huge success and after a lot of sleepless nights the day came and it was wonderful. A real event for the whole family to enjoy and of course there were plenty of delightful crafters who were keen to show the good folk of Cannock their unique crafting talent.

Having put all the love into this craft fair both Mel and I were determined to go again and host another craft. We were both so busy with our work that last year came and went and we just couldn’t fit it in  last November.

Determined not to miss this year we started discussing hosting a Craft Fair again, when we were both attending a different Craft Fair we met the lovely Carolyn from Cal Summers workshops and classes.

 

 

 

Melanie, Cal and Emma (the nutty boy in the background is my eldest who loves to help at craft fairs).

 

So we have been working non stop for several months now to ensure that we have an amazing event both for public and stall holders.

You wouldn’t believe the things you have to think about when promoting and organising an event!

We appeared in the local paper, (even if they did get the day wrong, Cal had an excellent come back idea and we went to video and put back in style, our own promo for Sunday) have taken adverts out in the larger paper, been in interviews on the radio, taken up walking several times a day to distribute leaflets, talked constantly on social media and have talked to each other daily about how we can promote this fabulous event.  (We are the craft show cuties, our messenger group name where we constantly chat about craft fairs, tea, late nights, early mornings, crafting, kids and everything else in between).

Just finished setting up and time or a quick photo before the crowds arrive.

 

So what could you find at this fabulous event?

 

Well to craft out a perfect Sunday for you we had these marvelous stall holders for your delight.

20 stalls featuring ceramics, chocolate (yum!) gemstone suncatchers, cakes, handturned woodenware, greeting cards, courage cards, jams and chutneys, original artwork, handmade pens, beautiful floristry work, handmade soaps, quilted and sewn items, and of course some beautiful glass.

We also had Cals’ fabulous workshops for papercrafting.

Elsa and Cinderalla made their guest appearances along with some rather beautiful balloon work.

Rich Amor-Wilkes was there taking some beautiful shots of our marvelous work and capturing some of the fair on camera for us. An excellent events and product photographer, Rich treated the public to some festive fun too.

 

 

If that’s not enough we held a raffle in aid of The Buddy Bag Foundation. The money raised will all be staying local to this area. The foundation provides little rucksacks to children who have left the family home and are in need of basic items, such as Pj’s, toothbrushes, little hairbrushes, book and of course a little cuddly toy.

These children need all the love and support they can get and by offering these basic things the children are shown that they are loved and cared for.

So after a footfall of 300 plus people, a whopping £257.00 was raised for this wonderful chairty!

That is an amazing total, meaning 10 Buddy Bags can be given to these children.

 

So, what’s next I hear you cry?

Well Mel has flown to the Bahamas having had such a wonderful fair, Cal is resting up after being teacher for the day and me, well I’m blogging so I can spread the word on how wonderful this event was for both crafters and the public and to remind you to SAVE THE DATE:

 

Our next wonderful fair will be,

March 25th 2018, this will be held at Hatherton House Hotel, Penkridge, where we will have a whopping 30+ stalls and Cal’s fabulous workshops for your delights and there will of course be a raffle for a nominated charity

Get the date in the diary here’s another Sunday to look forward too!

 

Events not feature in the blog, that occurred on the day, banishing my banner to the dustbin! The roller on that banner was super fierce on too much for me to handle, managed to shear the top off the blooming thing and finding a screw, in the tyre of my OH car resulting in me rescuing him and the kids. All in a days craft fair haha!

 

Big shout out to Cannock Radio who were fabulous supporters and continued to shout out the event for us.  Here we have just finished our radio interview with the lovely Mark  

Below just some of the wonderful items xx