Arts and crafts group's Christmas thank you to Hope volunteers

Thanks to funding received from North East Lincolnshire Council for Supporting Clinically Vulnerable people, the Hope arts and crafts group was able to hold two Christmas sessions on Zoom this month.

The first was all about making Christmas cards and the gift of a handmade decoration for each of our 48 volunteers to thank them for all they do for us. A lot of work went on both during and after the session to make sure they were all ready for delivery this week. We'll be finding glitter in unexpected places for some time to come, but it was well worth it.

Then on the Monday before Christmas, we had a more chilled out session when, apart from the stress involved in trying to produce a bow that doesn't look like the cat's been at it, we made Christmas wreaths.

We're always happy to welcome new members to the arts and crafts group, but the biggest hurdle can often be convincing people that they are capable of being creative. Interestingly though, doing arts and crafts on Zoom actually fosters new ideas. When you're all sat around the same table, there's a tendency to look at what the person next to you is doing and copy them, especially if you're new to arts and crafts and lack confidence. On Zoom, you can't see what the others are doing most of the time, so you come up with your own ideas. Everyone was delivered the same bag of craft supplies, but it was fascinating to see how differently they each used them.