Breaking news …  we've joined the retro filtered world of Instagram, so if you'd like to see our pictures pease follow us.  Our user name is imadeit_myself, or click on icon below to see our images.

We talk, write and tweet a lot about our craft workshops and events; the teachers, our venues and the impressive end creations, but we thought we'd give an honorable mention to a few of the unsung heroes of the workshops that we hope help to make the overall experience that little bit better.  For instance we spend time creating playlists that are not too overpowering but still great to listen to in the background.  We make sure every one is provided with drinks, freshly brewed tea in a pot, or coffees – cappuccino, latte, flat white – however you like it as we have a friendly barister on hand!  And finally the cakes.  We always bake before the class; biscuits, brownies, cake and at Christmas fabulous mini mince pies..  and based on the feedback we get, it seems to be appreciated – and we like to think it helps with creativity (although this is not actually scientifically proven!).  So while the sweet treats may only play a supporting role, they are (excuse the pun) the icing on the cake!

If you ever need a crafty excuse for a get together with friends, having a few hours to catch up while getting to grips with biscuit icing or jewellery making can be just the thing.  We're taking bookings for groups of friends, hen parties, birthdays as well as team bonding sessions and private members club events.  As well as activities below we're also doing knicker accessorising, tea towel printing, bunting making, fascinator making and our old favourite cupcake decorating, so do get in contact if you'd like us to organise a private class for you.

Sunday 24 Feb 11.00 – 13.00 in Chiswick
Vintage Jewellery Making £45
We've got just two places left now for our next jewellery making class (this Sunday) so let us know asap if you fancy joining us.  You'll learn the techniques of basic jewellery making then pick from our hand sourced selection of vintage goodies (see picture of some of our recent additions) to make your own unique necklace or bracelet.
 

Sunday 24 March 11.00 – 13.00 in Chiswick
Easter Biscuit Icing £43
Who can resist an Easter chick biccie?  Learn the icing techniques to make your biscuits look like this!  After the 2 hour workshop you'll take away your creations plus new skills to carry on at home.

Sunday 24 March 14.30 – 16.30 in Barnes
Wildlife Biscuit Icing £43
It's biscuits galore, as we'll also be at the The London Wetlands Centre in Barnes for a special Spring wildlife biscuit icing workshop. Click here for details.

Sunday 28 April 11.00 – 13.00 in Chiswick
Sushi Making £49
Almost full already, we've only a few places left for sushi making, so book soon if you fancy having a go!  You'll be taught authentic methods and use high quality ingredients to learn the secrets of sushi in this masterclass.  You'll take home your own box as well as having the skills to prepare your own stunning and delicious sushi at home.
 

We had a lovely day yesterday with double workshops – soap making in the morning and beauty products in the afternoon.  Everything is made from ingredients that are easy to source, affordable and scented with essential oils.  The best thing is you know exactly what has gone in – ie, lots of delicious and natural products (the scrub is full of brown sugar and oats – you could almost eat it!) and more importantly what HASN'T gone in, so no parabens and no sulphates.  All that's left to do is get pampering!

Here are some of the creations from the workshops:

Well we've kicked off our 2013 workshops with a private party learning the art of sushi making – all went brilliantly despite everyone battling with the arctic conditions to get there!  We're currently taking bookings for private parties, hen dos, corporate away days and events with private members clubs which is keeping us busy – BUT we are doing our regular workshops as well.  These start on Saturday 9 February with natural soap making and natural beauty product making – great to do with a pal, so we're offering a buy one bring a friend half price deal.  From Sunday 24 Feb we will be running a different (sometimes seasonal) workshop on the last Sunday of every month at the wonderful Crown & Anchor on Chiswick High Road – and we love the blackboard they've done for us!

Here's a quick run down of what you can do in the next few months:

Saturday 9 Feb 11.00 – 13.00
Soap Making £42.50
Have a go at making your own soap – fun and satisfying, you'll learn to make nourishing, moisturising soaps using all natural ingredients (no nasty SLSs or parabens) using the traditional cold process method. 
OFFER: Email us to buy one place, bring a friend half price.

Saturday 9 Feb 14.30 – 16.30
Beauty Product Making £45
Learn to make spa style body scrubs and bath soaks using high quality ingredients including essential oils.
OFFER: Email us to buy one place, bring a friend half price.

Sunday 24 Feb 11.00 – 13.00
Vintage Jewellery Making £45
Learn new jewellery making skills to create a contemporary necklace or bracelet from a specially sourced treasure trove of vintage gems including brooches, pearls, cameos and charms.

Sunday 24 March 11.00 – 13.00
Easter Biscuit Icing £43
Learn the simple but effective techniques to biscuit icing and make your own collection of hand decorated biscuits for Easter.

Sunday 28 April 11.00 – 13.00
Sushi Making £49
If you love sushi this new class is brilliant – You'll be taught authentic methods and use high quality ingredients to make maki rolls, inside out rolls, nigeri and more in this hands on masterclass.  You'll take home your own box as well as having the skills to prepare your own stunning and delicious sushi at home.

Finally, we're teaming up with the WWT at The London Wetlands Centre in Barnes for a special Spring wildlife biscuit icing workshop on Sunday 24 March 14.30 – 16.30 price £43.  If you'd like to do this class, please call them directly on 020 8409 4400

For more details on all our workshops please visit imadeitmyself.co.uk or email us at info@imadeitmyself.co.uk
 

We've almost got a full house for wreath making this weekend so let us know asap if you'd like to come along.  We'll be in the lovely upstairs room at the Crown and Anchor on Chiswick High Road making beautiful fresh rose wreaths and getting in the festive mood with delicious hand made mince pies and mulled wine!
Christmas Wreath Making £63  Sunday 16 Dec 11.00 – 13.00 

Christmas gift ideas:
If you're looking for inspiration for Christmas presents (without the hassle of actual shopping) – a workshop experience makes a lovely gift.  Book a class, then email us the details of the recipient and we'll send a personalised voucher.  
New classes and dates for 2013:
Natural Soap Making Saturday 9 Feb 11.00 – 12.30
Natural Beauty Product Making  Saturday 9 Feb 13.00 – 15.00
Vintage Jewellery Making  Sunday 24 Feb 11.00 – 13.00

Brand new for 2013:
Specially developed for gatherings, parties and corporate events our new masterclasses include sushi making and gin mixing.

We're already taking bookings for our new sushi making class.  Our brilliant teacher is a former head chef at the first Yo Sushi and now runs his own successful sushi business.  Like all our classes its very hands on and every one learns to make different types of sushi from a selection of delicious, fresh ingredients.   Its fun, interactive and by the end there is more than enough sushi for a dinner party (ideal if you want us to come to you), otherwise we provide take away boxes.  It's £49 per head with group bookings of 8 or more.

Gin is having a moment – in fact it's been growing in popularity as the tipple of choice for the discerning palate over the last decade and is showing no sign of stopping.  We have a wonderful gin masterclass where you learn about different blends and get hands on with mixing, creating the perfect G&T and making gin cocktails (oh and there maybe a bit of tasting too!)  Perfect for parties.  £45 per head with group bookings of 8 or more.

For more information on booking private events please get in touch at info@imadeitmyself.co.uk

Finally if we're not seeing you for wreath making this weekend we'd like to wish you a very merry Christmas!

We've got some great Christmas workshops coming up at the super festive and friendly Crown and Anchor in the heart of Chiswick High Road.  So come on over, do a workshop and indulge in delicious festive treats  – as they (sort of) say; Eat, Drink and be Crafty! 

Beauty Product Making £45
Saturday 17 November 13.00 – 15.00
Perfect as Christmas gifts – learn to make body scrubs and spa soaks presented in Kilner jars – just add a ribbon and voila, homemade Christmas gifts (we'll give you the recipes to carry on making more at home!)
Have a read of today's review by on-line magazine West London Mum

Christmas Biscuit Icing £43
Sunday 2 December 11.30  – 13.30
Filling up quickly is our Christmas biscuit icing class – and this year its all about the baubles with a few pretty snowflakes too.  Enjoy learning the satisfyingly clever techniques, then eat them, share them, give as gifts or hang them on your Christmas tree – wonderful! 

Christmas Wreath Making £63
Sunday 16 December 11.30 – 13.30
Give your front door a show stopping, designer style wreath – that you've made yourself.  Learn floristry tips to create beautiful wreaths using seasonal foliage and roses, plus choose from a wide range of berries, thistles, mini pine cones, bells and a multitude of silver and gold sparkly embellishments to personalise!

Oh, Come, all Ye Crafters!   Yes, it's almost that time of year again, so we'd like to let you know about our seasonal workshops coming up in November and December.

Christmas Workshops:
Christmas Wreath Making £63
Saturday 15 December 13.30 – 15.30
Sunday 16 December 11.00 – 13.00
This is one of our favourite classes of the year.  Learn to make a fresh Christmas wreath with step by step guidance.  Pick up useful floristry skills whilst using foliage and a choice of deep red or winter white high quality roses, and personalise with embellishments. Go as understated or OTT as you wish – they ALL look amazing.  Leave with your front door show stoppers and enjoy the compliments from everyone who comes to your house over the festive season!

Christmas Biscuit Icing £43
Sunday 2 December 11.30  – 13.30
Unashamedly Christmassy – delicious iced baubles and snow flake biscuits with an option to hang from your tree (the biscuits will be made with holes and we provide the ribbons!)  Learn from our professional boutique biscuit icer all the tricks of the trade for instantly impressive results. 

Christmas Crafternoon £42 (for private group bookings only)
Fun and festive ‘Christmas Crafternoon’, the crafter’s ultimate seasonal party. So if you want to do something different from the usual 3 course lunch or company drinks snoozefest, or you want a sociable and creative get together with a group of friends, contact us for the best alternative Christmas party available!
We’ve put together a 3-hour taster of creative Christmas crafts and attendees can look forward to sorting their Christmas prep by learning to print their own gift-wrap paper and gift tags, learn basic paper cutting for on-trend cards, making Scandinavian style tree ornaments and personalised baubles.  Crafters will spend the afternoon consuming our home-made festive treats and tea, while learning brilliant skills from prominent homewares designer and maker Elise Ovanessoff (aka Santa).

I Made It Myself comes to NW6:
Our workshops are generally in Chiswick, however for those of you further north of W4 we are running a series of Wednesday morning workshops in conjunction with WestLondonTots at the lovely venue The Alice House in Queen's Park.  These include friendship bracelet making on 14 Nov, Christmas crafternoon (cunningly renamed Crafty Christmas morning to reflect the time of day!) on 28 Nov and Christmas themed cupcake decorating on 12 Dec.  Book via our workshop page – just click on Book Now and use the pull down menu to choose the date marked with NW6. 

Parties:
All our workshops are available for private parties and we are happy to tailor our classes to best fit your needs, be it a particular craft you fancy or a specific location. If you would like to make a private booking please get in touch at info@imadeitmyself.co.uk

Competition results:
And finally a big thanks to everyone who entered our competition with Little Brown Publishers, the 3 winners of new novel 'The Vintage Teacup Club' by Vanessa Greene are Laura McCullough, Helen Bonar and Charlotte Greenwood.  Well done and happy reading ladies!
 

Today (Thursday 11 October) sees the launch of The Vintage Teacup Club, the wonderful debut novel by Vanessa Greene and to celebrate we’ve teamed up with the book's publishers Sphere for an exciting and exclusive new competition.
 
A novel about life, love, friendship and a very special set of vintage teacups, this heart-warming debut already has some big name fans in women’s fiction bestsellers Trisha Ashley who called it 'a delicious brew of love and friendship' and Carole Mathews who says 'this heart-warming story of finding new friends is a lovely debut'.  It's the perfect autumn read for vintage and craft lovers.

We’ve got three signed copies of the book to giveaway and to enter all you have to do is email us with the words Vintage Teacup by Thursday 18th October. The winners will be chosen at random at 6pm that day. Good luck!

You can read an extract from The Vintage Teacup Club online now.  Or find out more about Vanessa Greene on Facebook or Twitter.

And for more information on women’s fiction from Sphere and for more competitions like this visit Sphere’s women’s fiction, like them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter

To find out more about women's fiction from Sphere click here to be added to Sphere's mailing list.

Our 'I Made It Myself' team of teachers is expanding as we're adding classes and events.  So far we haven't needed to advertise to find people, they've either approached us after seeing our website, been recommended through word of mouth, or a chance meeting turns into a something more!  And it was the latter that resulted in us gaining another talented and lovely jewellery teacher.  We met Jennifer Farrell at an event in the summer hosted by West London Mum and West London Tots, we loved her jewellery collection – a mix of contemporary and vintage with a quirky, individual twist, she liked what we were doing, and over a coffee we hit it off. 

Jennifer's passion for jewellery making and jewellery design started in 2008 as a hobby when she started making hand made pieces for friends' birthdays – it grew from there and a year later Storm In A Teacup came to be.  Her signature style varies from whimsical vintage to bold and contemporary, and pieces include necklaces, bracelets, rings, earrings and brooches – all at reasonable prices. While her collections are showcased on her website, they've also caught the eye on on-line shopping emporium Not On The Highstreet as well as other on-line shops. 

Over a few meetings with Jennifer we developed a brand new class – the friendship charm bracelet workshop. We wanted something contemporary, creative and on-trend whilst incorporating some key jewellery making techniques.  Everyone makes at least 2 bracelets, starting with one of the simpler styles learning how to use jump rings, crimp beads and attach clasps, and then moves on to more advanced techniques such as wire wrapping.  

We love this class, its great fun and you don't need any jewellery making experience before hand.  Choosing from a range of materials, charms and styles (all fittings come in both silver and gold) means your jewellery is just how you want it, and being able to measure your own wrist beforehead means your finished bracelets are also the perfect fit!

The next friendship charm bracelet workshop is Saturday October 20th at 1.30 to 4pm at the gorgeous space Upstairs at The Crown And Anchor on Chiswick High Road.