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

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