Welcome to Holly and Jayne from Crafty Bear Club – we are super excited that they will be joining us in Sale this October for our Halloween extravaganza. They will of course be in charge do our Make, Do and Mess area do you can come and get crafty with them – let your spooky creative juices flow!
What’s your name and where do you come from?
Crafty Bear Club. We are based in Altrincham.
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Tell us a bit about Crafty Bear. How did you come up with the idea?
We are both really creative and it’s always played a big part in our lives. Two things happened which made us want to transform this love of craft in to a business; we both relocated and wanted to meet new people and get out of the house, and we both have young children of our own now and understand how challenging it can be to keep them entertained. The adult parties came first and people just started asking us to come up with crafts for kids, and they’ve been great fun! It’s also really great to be able to work alongside your sister, especially when we have our strategy meetings down the pub!
Describe Crafty Bear Club in three words:
Messy, fun and friendly.
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What’s your go to crafting activity that keeps your little ones happy
Jayne: My 6 year old loves anything with fabric and fabric pens. We decorated her old PE shirt after they broke up for summer, it’s a great way to recycle. Unfortunately my 1 year old prefers drawing on himself!
Holly: My 21 month old loves anything to do with paint so we do lots of hand prints and foot prints. I tend to turn them into cards to send to loved ones. We also make a lot of pictures using sticky felt shapes, however most of the shapes end up stuck to the dog!
We all love a bit of pintrest and online inspo. What accounts, bloggers, websites would you recommend the Our Kids Social community check out to help get their little ones crafting?
Our go to account would be instagram. Our favorites are @46_daysofsummer which is great for little craft activities you can do at home with your little ones. @fiveminutemum is really good for five minute activities and crafts. Obviously we love pinterest and have many crafty boards we keep adding pins to! If you want to buy lovely handmade items or even crafty bits http://www.etsy.com is a really good website for that.
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What’s on the kitchen disco play-list in the Crafty Bear’s family house?
Jayne: Depends who’s in control. Usually it’s the boss, my daughter, and if that’s the case it would be spice girls, Daft punk or some sort of Disney mega-mix.
Holly: Us crafty Bear grownups will always opt for a bit of Dolly Parton to speed up productivity.
Where are your favorite places for a knees up without the nippers?
On the rare occasion we get to put on lipstick and heels and hit the town (Altrincham) nowadays we tend to keep it relatively civilized. We love how friendly and knowledgeable of their booze they are in Riddles. We like The Cheshire Tap for candle lit business meetings, and think Sugo do the best pasta and wine in miles.
What was the first album / single you bought and what format did you buy it on?
Jayne: Embarrassingly I think it was Ace of Base on double cassette.
Holly: Kylie Minogue on cassette. I think the album was called Kylie. ‘I should be so lucky” was (and still is) my favourite track.
What would be your band T-shirt of choice?
Jayne: I do own and AC/DC t-shirt which I love.
Holly: I own far too many David Bowie t-shirts.
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Top tips for encouraging creativity in children?
Make it so that they are allowed to make loads of mess. Put a mat down in the garden or sellotape newspaper all over the table. And help them out with a theme or story to get them started. Once they get over the initial hurdle of coming up with an idea it’s so much easier to run away with it. If your child struggles with drawing help them out by getting some stencils or tracing paper. Older children like it if their outcome looks like what it’s supposed to be.
Apart from Our Kids Social (obviously) what would you recommend for family fun in the North West?
For something crafty, Sew Creative in Altrincham does sewing workshops for children which we think are great. Sewing is a really good and handy skill to have. If we’re going out for the day together (kids and husbands included) we love Tatton Park and Dunham Massey. There’s loads of space for the kids to run around, they get to see lots of wildlife and the cafes have some pretty good cake.
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Finally, what can out Our Kids Social community expect from Crafty Bears at our Spooky Social?
Children can get creative, decorating their own Day of the Dead felt skull to hang up and scare trick or treaters.
Find out more about Crafty Bear Club here and you can find out about Our Kids Social here. Tickets for the Halloween Social can be bought online here – hope to see you there!
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