Papercraft is the perfect blend of handcrafting and technology.

A few years ago I bought a Cricut machine. I honestly thought I'd lost my mind when I bought it, and didn't even want to tell my family I'd spent over £100 on a tiny cutting machine which can fit on the desk.

Well I can happily say, it was money well spent. I bloomin love it.

This tiny machine cut the flowers used in the flower garland designs.

When I was a student in the 90's, the idea of having a small machine linked to my computer which can cut bespoke designs, at home, would have been the imaginings of living in the future.

Well, here we are, it's the future.

By designing our own shapes & hand painting them, the aim is to capture a little bit of the magic of nature.

We don't want each motif to be exactly the same. If you look closely, they will all be a little bit different.

The flowers on this Wishing Tree have been hand painted with watercolour.

When you take part in a class, you'll be given some plain white leaves like this, which you can paint if you want to.

Sometimes it's nice to leave the flowers white, and add a tiny touch of gold.

Last summer we created a buttercup garland which decorated our front door with all it's happy, sunshine yellow flowers.

Together, we can make a smaller one... it's much more manageable to start small.

Decorating front doors has become a theme.

The sweet little garland below was made by my daughter when she came home from Uni for a few days.

She sat quietly at the kitchen table and made this. Look at the pattern she has painted on the leaves, absolutely charming.

It's so nice to carry on crafting even once you think they've out grown it.

We were always cutting, snipping & sticking when the children were small, but who says you have to stop when they are teenagers & adults?

If you'd like to try making any of these, do send me a message and let's make it happen.

It's such a calming way to spend an afternoon.

What do you think?