Craft House Events have seen the best of national and international Designers, Tutors and manufacturers visit New Zealand and Australia. Craft House also supports a variety of local craft events and other activities - and annually offers The Wellington Paper Arts Show with other leading national retailers from around New Zealand.
Past Events and Activities
Without question the Craft House "Crafting Connection" Events have been a highlight for us personally and for many Scrapbookers and Crafters across New Zealand and Australia.
The first, in 2004, was "Becky Higgins Downunder"... when Becky and her husband enjoyed their first visit to New Zealand and Australia. Becky taught classes in a whirlwind trip to Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Sydney... making a lot of friends during the trip as well as fitting in a Sky City Tower "Bungy", the Rotorua Thermal region and activities, Black Water Cave Rafting, meeting the Wellington Fire Brigade when the Conference (Teaching) venue was evacuated, watching a "real" rugby game, experiencing the Christchurch and Queenstown sights... and walking the Sydney Harbour Bridge - all in two weeks! This approach formed the basis of most events to follow!
Heidi Swapp managed to squeeze in a flying visit to Wellington and Auckland - jam packed with her new products and down to earth inspiration.
So next came "Crafting Connection 2005" with Tracy White, Robin Johnson and Jennifer McGuire, Christina Buckley, Wendy Redshaw-Bruhns and Faye Gregory. Another whirlwind tour of New Zealand and Sydney for them and their travelling companions - inspiring, teaching and entertaining.
"Crafting Connection 2006" was even bigger than 2005 with the incredibly talented trio of Ali Edwards, Cathy Zielske, Donna Downey joining arguably equally talented NZ Tutors Wendy Redshaw-Bruhns, Faye Gregory, Christina Buckley and Nic Howard. Auckland, Wellington and Sydney Scrapbookers and Crafters were taken to creative places they had not imagined possible. An inspirational event filled with a lot of humour too!
"Scrapped - The Movie"... was released late 2006 and we invited Wes Thomsen to do a "down-under" movie premiere across New Zealand and Australia. This took in Auckland, Christchurch, Rotorua, Wellington, Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. Check out Wes' Blog around this time for a insight into this remarkable movie and one man's perspective on Scrapbooking.
In 2007 we held what were the two most recent Crafting Connection Events - before we decided to put these on hold for a while. (It was apparent the economy was simply going to impact our ability to offer these events in the manner and to the standard achieved and appreciated)
Crafting Connection "Freestyle" saw Rhonna Farrer, Emily Falconbridge, Tia Bennett, Kim Henkel and Zina Wright team up with Wendy Redshaw-Bruhns and Nic Howard to share with what has to go down as the messiest, most art filled Crafting Connection ever. We even managed to feature Rhonna Farrer on a TVNZ lifestye show.
"Stacy Julian & Friends" kicked off in Sydney this time - and in addition to the inspiration provided in volumes by Stacy Julian, Wendy Smedley and Nic Howard - Renee Peason gave many Scrapbookers/Crafters an insight in the world of Digital Scrapbooking. A very different experience for the Craft House Team... setting up (and transporting) pallets of PC's, printers and associated technology... not just the "ordinary" class kits and product.
The NZ Scrapbooking Cardmaking and Craft Expo (SENZ)
On a much larger scale than the Wellington Paper Arts Show, leading retailers come together for a weekend of doing what they do best... classes, demonstrations and of course retailing.
While Craft House hosts the Wellington Paper Arts Show, such craft expo's are not an activity we are resourced to participate in generally. However, the SENZ Events that we have participated in have been exceptional. The next one (we won't be there ourselves) is in Auckland, Friday 24th - Sunday 26th June 2011.
Xmas Activities
One of the end of year highlights for 2008 and 2010 was to be invited to do Xmas Crafts with hundreds of kids at the Porirua Kids Xmas Carnival. Lots of fun...
