Getting Crafty with Unleash Creative

This weekend I had the pleasure of attending a fun and very unique craft event in Melbourne called Unleash Creative. Organized by fellow craft blogger and very cute gal pal, Magdalena Franco, it was a full day of colourful, confetti sprinkled creative playtime. Magdalena had a vision to bring a group of talented creative mentors together to inspire and pass on their skills to every day folk seeking to kick start their creative mojo.
And boy did she deliver!

Here is Magdalena looking cool, calm and collected on only 3 hours of sleep. What a champ!

As an experienced crafter I didn’t really know what to expect, I tend to have the ‘I can make that myself’ syndrome, but that often means that I never actually get around to making things or trying new techniques because other projects get in the way. I chose to go in with an open mind (and heart) and had a ton of fun, as well as meeting some really lovely new friends.

The day was organised as four workshops with breaks for tea and lunch in between. We were all assigned groups, and allocated very cute coloured badges to identify which workshop we’d be attending.

Each workshop station had matching signs which were reset at each break so it was always easy to find what you’d be doing next. My group was all quite friendly, and a couple were celebrating birthdays. (What a great birthday experience).

First class up was making a Felt Cuckoo Clock with Allira of Freckles and Ginger. Unfortunately her crafting companion Freckles couldn’t make it in person, so she bought a cut out along to keep us company. The clock was quite an ambitious project which we couldn’t complete fully in the time allocated, but we all got materials to take home to finish it, and Allira has put up a full pattern and tutorial on her blog with all the instructions. You can make one too, all the Cuckoo Clock instructions are here.

Ok, it’s time to talk sweet treats. Morning tea was AMAZING! A stunning and delicious array of cakes, macarons and chocolates. Each edible creation was a mini work of art, some treats were even gilded with real gold. I was particularly taken by these fun choc mint cupcakes which looked like little pots of mint.

And little doughnut shaped macarons with popping candy inside. It really felt very Willy Wonka-esque. The morning tea creations were by Nectar & Stone.

All that sugar fueled us up for the next workshop with Emma van Leest, an amazing paper cutting artist who taught us how to safely and creatively cut a humble piece of paper to create a mini work of art.

There were lots of papers and templates to choose from, but I was drawn to this geometric design with simple but striking shapes. I don’t work with paper as much as I should, so this was a good opportunity to have a bit of fun with a blade (in the safest possible way of course). I just need to get a box frame from IKEA to pop this artwork into.

After a delicious lunch, it was time to make some Tutti Fruity Jewellery with Gemma Patford. I’d never met Gemma before and was charmed by how funny and charismatic she was. She was a great creative facilitator and her style was very relaxed and helpful.

Gemma taught us how to make cute tassels with embroidery thread, because tassels make everything look better! I made a fun cherry brooch with gold chain as the cherry stalks and a cute blue and gold tassel, because “gold is so hot right now!”

You’d think we’d be all crafted out buy now, but the afternoon tea break revived us so we could enjoy our last workshop with piñata queen Kitiya Palaskas. Kitiya showed us how to make cute confetti filled Fast Food Gift Boxes. I made a popsicle with silver sprinkles which Emma adores. The construction techniques she taught us are transferable to lots of different projects, we are limited only by our imaginations.

It was a pretty fun filled day, and to top it off we all got a goodie bag filled with craft supplies to continue our creative journeys at home.

Magdalena has events planned for Sydney and Brisbane with different creative mentors organised for each city. I’m excited to see what the next Melbourne event will be like, I have it on good authority that there is another planned for later in the year. Check out the Unleash Creative website for more details.

Disclosure: This is an unpaid review, I attended the event as a guest of Unleash Creative. All views and opinions are my own.