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Here at MakeBox HQ we love illustration, we love craft, and we LOVE avocados. So what could be better than an interview with author of the children's book 'Avocado Asks'? Momoko Abe sat down with us to discuss her creative process, and how she likes to get crafty in her own time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVuK-A03JAc But first, [...]

If you’re getting interested in weaving, you’re standing at the threshold of an intricate and rewarding craft for your hobby. It’s one of the most technical crafting skills you can work on, so it’s well worth taking some time to research and understand all the elements, tools and skills you’ll have to marshall to bring [...]

Finishing an embroidery project could be the end of a long journey or a shorter one - depending on how complex the pattern is, and your own experience. However long you’ve been working on your embroidery project, you should be proud of the result, and you should be able to show it off! Sometimes, though, [...]

An embroidery project is a fun, satisfying way to spend to your time, but if you don’t know what you’re going to do with it afterwards, you could end up with a craft bag full of completed embroidery with no way to show it off. Let’s take a look at a few ways you can [...]

Spinning and weaving are two of the skills that have gone into fabric creation for as long as humans have been working wool. They’re both skills you can try at home, as part of your crafting hobby, but first you’ll need to understand what they are and how they work! Spinning Spinning is the process [...]

Sewing is one of the oldest crafts in the world, with evidence of sewn clothes and sewing equipment dating back to the Paleolithic era - the stone age! Today, sewing can be done on the industrial scale to create garments that clothe entire countries, or on a small scale, simply for your own pleasure. Sewing [...]

When you’re taking your first steps with a new crafting project, it’s important to understand the materials you’re working with. If you don’t know what you need, then you might run out of a key ingredient at the wrong time, or find you’ve stocked up with something that’s unsuitable for your project. Quilling is a [...]

While in general ‘papercraft’ means making craft projects from paper supplies, the name covers a lot of different skills and it’s worth investigating just what different projects you could embark with a box of basic papercrafting supplies! Cardmaking You can use cutting, glueing and more advanced techniques to create personal, unique cards for your friends, [...]

If you’re beginning to get interested in knitting as a crafting hobby, then it’s useful to understand some of the key terms. The oldest knitted fabrics discovered by archeologists have been dated as early as the 11th century, and in a thousand years the craft has developed some terms of art and arcane language it’s [...]

If you’re interested in starting a crafting hobby for the first time, it’s a good idea to do your research: look at pieces that inspire you and learn how they were made, find out what equipment you need, and what exactly each different craft is. Today MakeBox is helping you take your first steps with [...]

If you’re interested in starting embroidery, then you should find out exactly what equipment you need. The list isn’t a long one, but if you begin your first embroidery project and find you’re missing a key ingredient, the disappointment and delay won’t be fun. A Needle The most fundamental thing you need to start an [...]

Before you sit down to start your first knitting project, you need to make sure you have all the equipment you need. Finding out you’re missing some important supplies or a vital tool after an hour or more of knitting could leave you disappointed and reluctant to finish the project, so make sure you do [...]

If you’re feeling tempted to try out the ancient craft of weaving, it’s worth your time looking at the sort of projects you can weave on a loom at home. This can focus your ambitions and provide the inspiration you’re looking for to use on your first project. Blankets One of the most impressive projects [...]

Knitting Mistakes If you’re an inexperienced knitter, you might be worried about making mistakes. If you ruin a project, you might never come back and finish it, and the yarn and needles you’ve bought will go to waste! Fortunately, the difference between expert and beginner knitters is not that experts never make mistakes! Everyone makes [...]

Embroidery is a great choice for your crafting hobby: it’s a meditative process that produces beautiful results. You can finish small projects quickly or spend longer on larger projects that are even more impressive in the end. It can help to think about the different things you can do with your embroidery hobby. It could [...]

When you’re starting out with sewing, the sheer breadth of possibilities can feel overwhelming. Choosing what to sew can look like an impossible task, and the risk of getting it wrong is real: if you pick the wrong project when you’re just starting out, you might start work and find it’s too ambitious for your [...]

If you’re getting interested in knitting as a craft, a way of relaxing or an artistic way to express yourself, it’s well worth your time to investigate what you can knit. Knowing what’s possible can focus your ambitions and inspire you as you look for projects. Clothes Perhaps the first thing you’ll think of is [...]

If you’re interested in starting your first embroidery crafting project, it’s worth taking the time to do a little research first. If you learn a bit about the different types of embroidery, you can make sure you have the right equipment for the job you’re planning to embark on. Starting a project with the wrong [...]

If you’re getting interested in papercraft, you should know the term embraces a large variety of different hobbies. They use similar materials, but have quite different results, so you could build a stockpile of paper crafting supplies and try out different ways to use them until you find one that fits the best with you. [...]

Papercrafts offer you a wide open canvas for creation. If you’re going to get the most out of your papercrafting projects, it’s worth taking some time to research exactly what you can do: what papercrafts you can make with the supplies you have on hand, what you’ll need to shop around and what you’ll find [...]

When you think about knitting, you likely imagine someone using traditional needles and thick woollen yarn, perhaps producing a scarf - but this is far from the full story. Knitting is, at a basic level, the art of making fabric by linking a series of loops on a continuous thread. What makes a craft knitting [...]

When you’re starting a new crafting hobby it can be easy to get a little overwhelmed. There are so many options for different projects, it can be difficult to make a choice. It’s also possible that your ambition might race ahead of your experience and lead you to take on advanced projects that turn into [...]

Choosing your next knitting project can be difficult - there are so many possibilities it can be overwhelming. Fortunately, there are lots of different ways to narrow the field and create a shortlist you can pick from. The most important thing to do is look at what you want out of knitting. What’s the satisfaction [...]

Finger knitting is a great, simple introduction to the craft of knitting - and especially good if you’re trying to get your children involved. But what exactly is it, and what do you need to start? Finger knitting is a similar craft to weaving, but whereas with weaving you string a loom with yarn to [...]

If you’re interested in starting an origami hobby, then it’s important to understand the tools at your disposal. Using the right paper gets you better results and can prevent frustration when you’re trying to master more advanced skills and projects. The demands of origami Simple printer paper isn’t ideal for use when you’re practicing origami [...]

Quilling is a form of papercraft with ancient origins that allows you to make some beautiful paper sculptures and decorations. While it’s distinct from other papercraft disciplines like origami and cardmaking, because it uses similar materials and skills you can combine quilling projects with other papercrafting to create more elaborate and impressive results! History It [...]

Working on a macramé project can be really rewarding, and produce some beautiful (and practical) results but it’s worth your time making sure you have everything you need before you start. Anchor While some macramé projects are made entirely of knotted cords, many require an anchor - a solid point onto which you tie your [...]

When you’re trying out a new crafting hobby, it’s important to make sure you know exactly what you’re getting into. You might find yourself committing to a hobby and buying lots of equipment for something that doesn’t get you what you need. Do your research first, and you’ll be more confident that your new hobby [...]

For people in search of an outlet, an occupation, or a way of passing time, a crafting hobby could be the perfect choice. But deciding about which craft to commit to can be difficult! Assembling all the tools and materials you need for a project can be a time consuming and costly process, so it [...]

If you’re just starting with an embroidery hobby, then it may be difficult to decide what you’re going to turn to next. The sheer number of options on offer can be paralysing, and it can be hard to match your skill level to the size of the project you want to complete. Don’t take on [...]

Choosing a material to form the foundations of your embroidery is a less straightforward task than you might think. Lots of attention is given to what you’re going to be stitching with - the colour, weight and look of your embroidery floss and extras, like sequins and beads. It’s just as important to make careful [...]

Hand embroidery is the art of decorating fabric using a needle and thread. Though it uses many of the same skills, tools and materials as sewing, embroidery is decorative art, rather than one you would use to create or repair clothes or other items. This means it’s more purely creative and expressive which could be [...]

If you’re considering a new embroidery hobby, it’s worth doing some research to find out exactly what you can make. If you can’t create the sort of projects that inspire you, you might start to find your hobby frustrating. Today, MakeBox+Co are here to provide some inspiration. Free embroidery projects Free embroidery doesn’t require a [...]

Starting a new crafting hobby can be exciting, as you master a new skill, and find an artistic outlet for stresses and anxieties. That early inspiration can flag, however, if you don’t have a clear focus: what do you do with what you’ve made? What is it for? Let’s take a look at cross stitch, [...]

Embroidery is a word that covers a lot of different crafting skills and techniques. The thing that unites all these different embroidery techniques is that they are practiced by using a needle and thread to stitch into fabric. They’re more purely decorative arts than sewing or knitting: rather than creating garments or accessories, you’re creating [...]

Starting a cross stitch hobby could be the perfect step you for, whether you want to make your friends some unique handmade gifts, explore and master a new skill or simply relieve stress and worry with an absorbing, intricate pastime. If you’re going to succeed at cross stitching you need to have the right tools [...]

An embroidery hoop is an important part of the toolkit for any sewer. They hold the fabric taut, so you can sew into easily and accurately, counting the threads in the warp and weft to make sure you’re following your pattern correctly. Sewing without a hoop risks the fabric drifting, creasing, or puckering and creating [...]

If you’re looking for a new hobby, a new skill to master or a new way to make art, cross stitch could be the perfect answer. Before you start, it’s worthwhile doing your research to make sure you know exactly what you need to start with cross stitch: the tools, the skills, the basic materials [...]