Paperchase Christmas in July Showcase

Now, I know that Christmas is still a little way off (OK… a long way off), but as you may know, many of our favourite bigger brands / retailers (like Paperchase) like to reveal their Christmas showcase to media slap bang in the middle of summer, so that we get an early peak at the upcoming festive trends.

When I stepped into the Paperchase ‘Christmas in July’ event last week (at the appropriately named ‘ICETANK’), I found myself genuinely wishing for snow to relief us of the heatwave in London! As I was the first person through the door (I think you call it a ‘keen bean’), I was fortunate to be taken round by Paperchase’s very own Marketing Manager for a whistle-stop tour of the Christmas range.

At the entrance we were urged to ‘unlock our creative spirit this Christmas’, and inside we were presented with a myriad of gift and craft ideas. Highlights for me were the DIY cracker chandelier, which would look great suspended over a dinner table, as well as the mega suspended card wreath (though I would need to make a lot more friends to fill it), both of which you could recreate at home.

Christmas Gift Wrapping with IKEA

A few months back I was invited to a festive gift-wrapping workshop with IKEA in London. It was far too early to really think about Christmas back then (I think it was June!), but the event also offered a sneak peak at IKEA’s Autumn / Winter collection (in-store now), which I couldn’t refuse!

You might remember that last year IKEA put on a Christmas tablescaping workshop for a few crafty bloggers, where I obsessed over a gorgeous black bear ornament. This time we were treated to a gift-wrapping workshop with the lovely Janine, who has a completely different creative job by day, but is a widely acknowledged ‘awesome gift wrapper’ on the side – nice to be multi-talented!

It was lovely to see some friendly faces in the form of Gabrielle from Design Curator and Anna from The Smell of Roses (not to be confused with The Only Smell is Roses, which I nearly wrote – too much TOWIE), and to meet some new faces too – namely Lou from Little Green Shed, Jess from The Only Girl in the House and Georgia from Flowers in the Window. As well as making some gorgeous gift-wraps, Georgia also patiently put up with a mega coughing fit from me on the train back to Essex – sorry!