A Year of Creativity: A Craft Date Planner to Meet, Share, and Create

Do something creative every day! In A Year of Creativity, learn how to throw the perfect creative party with your friends—with organizing tips, 25 project ideas, and even recipes for snacks. 

Can’t meet in person? Organize a virtual party to connect with others as you work on the same craft project. Then share your unique results with creative people all over the world.

A “craft date” is a fun get-together with a handful of creative friends in which you surprise each other with craft and DIY projects using cool materials, inspire each other, and make beautiful things together. At each date, a group of participants share a self-made project to be re-created by the other attendees. Materials are individualized for each participant and given as a unique personal gift along with the instructions for the project. A craft date is different than a workshop since you get to choose the lovely people that you invite, and as the organizer, you get to participate in all the projects. Invitees can put their own spin on the project by using their favorite colors, materials, or techniques. This way you end up with a range of different interpretations and results, leading to new inspiration and ideas.

A Year of Creativity is a book for everyone with a basic knowledge of crocheting, knitting, and sewing. It does not teach you how to crochet or explain how a sewing machine works. There are plenty of other books for that. What it does do is inspire crafting enthusiasts to make something together, learn from each other, and have fun doing it. You’ll find within:
 

• An introduction to craft dates and how they work
• Tips on planning your craft date events
• Plenty of project ideas (short, long, and cooperative)
• Plus recipes for party dishes that keep the creative juices flowing

You will share ideas, discover new inspiration, and find new friends while creating uniquely beautiful aprons, knit garlands, infinity scarves, haberdashery bags, cards, pencil cases, and more. 

Have you had a great craft date or are you working on a neat project and want to show it off? There’s a place for this in the craft dates community. On Instagram, for example, you can tag your photos with, or search for the hashtag #craftdates. You can have a look at each other’s work, drum up inspiration for your own dates, invite your Insta-friends, or organize a “blind date” with creative people from your town or city that you don’t know yet. A whole world will open up. A very creative world is waiting for you in A Year of Creativity.

Petra Hoeksema has been crafting since elementary school. When she turned four, her grandmother gave her a toy sewing machine and her first project was a dress for her sister, which she even wore. She taught herself to embroider and crochet with the help of books and magazines borrowed from the library. And with the help of her great grandmother’s old sewing machine, she learned how to sew clothes. Burning out from her job in the technology sector, Petra turned back to crafting and hasn't stopped since. She  started up a blog to get in touch with other creative types and in 2010 started an online store that sold creative materials. She has contributed to Mollie Makes and continues to teach herself more techniques including felting, weaving, crocheting, knitting, sewing, woodworking, graphic design, and doll making.
Instagram: bypetraCraftiness is happiness for Lidy Nooij. She has been creating for her entire life. When she was twelve, she got her first sewing machine and started sewing clothes for her dolls, decorated jars with embroidered bits of felt, and made perfume from rose petals. At school, she organized crafting afternoons with friends for other kids. Lidy's crafting is multi-faceted and focuses on many techniques and she is always learning new ones. Over the years, she has participated in a variety of workshops on things including crocheting, leather tanning, lace making, painting, quilting, and dressmaking. Petra is self-taught, and enjoys the process most of all. For the past few years, she has been a member of the Craft Kitchen team. Together with other Craft Kitchen ladies, she attends conferences and blogs at www.craftkitchen.nl.
Instagram: lidynooij
Blog: lidynooij.comMiriam Catshoek started to sew her own pants, knit simple sweaters, and alter clothes from a young age. In her house, you got your own sewing machine on your sixteenth birthday! She draws inspiration from the piles of fashion, interior design and styling magazines, and books she buys (for which she continues to have a weakness). She enjoys working with paper, stamps, and punches to make cards, cool labels, and packaging. Her style is basic and robust with nothing fiddly, no complicated patterns, just beautiful yarn in simple patterns in her favorite colors of grey, old rose, and green. Miriam usually has at least four projects going at once time. 
Instagram: miriamcatshoekBregje Konings has been crafting and fiddling around with cloth, thread, paper, and paint for as long as she can remember. Her passion is working with textiles. She got her first Singer sewing machine when she was eight years old and has not stopped since. Bregje trains teachers in the area of drawing and textile methods. She graduated from school in Holland with a focus in fashion and clothing. Her specialty is to make items that are reversible and can be worn inside out and feature subtlety in color, detail, and finishing. She almost never throws things away because anything can be used to make something! 
Instagram: bregjekonings
Blog: needlesbybregje.blogspot.nl