Melanie Toye's Hobbies

Image by Oleksandr Pidvalnyi from Pixabay ^Please note, I use affiliate links in this blog post. This means I receive a percentage of the sale from the seller. I'm sorry ... what!?  No, Christmas holidays is the perfect time to spend time on your hobbies.  Here is why you shouldn't stop crafting over the Christmas holidays:  1. You need to craft Christmas hobbies I don't know about you, but Christmas holidays deserve a Christmas hobby focus over those holidays. Get in the festive spirit by Christmas crafting. You can make Christmas gifts and/or Christmas decorations. How to get in the Christmas crafting spirit. Buy yourself a Christmas diamond painting to complete before Christmas. Turn on some Christmas carols and enjoy your Christmas diamond painting. Buy a Christmas crochet kit and decorate your home with a Christmas Santa and Mrs Claus, why not add some elves and a reindeer? Scrapbook your Christmas photos or make a Christmas junk journal and fill your heart with C...

Image by Pexels from Pixabay Welcome to my Hobbies blog, where I write about crocheting, scrapbooking, diamond painting, writing and reading... sometimes other hobbies as well, but these are the main 5 hobbies I write about. What is cool about a blog is that it is ever growing. For example, for a year I had about the same amount of views each week. Then I created this whole new strategy and I have doubled the views to my hobbies blog in a month. It feels amazing and I know over time, the views on my blog will grow even bigger. I obviously have great plans and strategy for growing my hobbies blog. The best part is, as long as I have a blog, the posts will be published. This means, viewers can visit and read old blog posts.  What does this mean? If you advertise on my hobbies blog, you will have a long time of advertising because the blog will be relevant for many years to come.  What can you promote on my blog: As a business you can promote your business as a whole, or promote...

^Please note in this post, I use affiliate links to AliExpress.com. This means if you buy something from my links, I receive a percentage of the sale.  Let me introduce you to a very relaxing and fun hobby, diamond painting. I normally buy a diamond painting kit , so the kit comes with wax, a pencil for the drills, a sticky canvas and a drill holder. Some kits give you some bonus supplies, which are always useful. Oh and the kit will come with a number chart. What does diamond painting do?  I started with colour by numbers then I found paint by numbers and then I found diamond painting, which is using the wax to stick to the pencil and then you can literally pick up the correct numbered coloured drill (diamond) and stick it to the correct number on the canvas.  Simple? It is!  It is one of my most relaxing and easiest hobbies I do.  What is the outcome of diamond painting? The result, once you finish adding all the drills to the canvas is a sparkly, cool picture...

Image by Wolfgang Claussen from Pixabay ^Please note, in this blog post I use affiliate links to AliExpress. This means if you purchase something from one of my links I receive a percentage of the sale price from the seller. So there are ways to perform diamond painting and sitting is the most popular choice. The problem is, most people can only sit for diamond painting for a maximum of 30 minutes. This is because, you have to look down bending your neck to find the numbers to place the drills (diamonds) on. And as time goes, you might even crouch your back. Because the closer your face is to the diamond painting the easier and quicker it is to diamond paint. The problem is after 30 minutes, your neck and back are in pain. Diamond painting is fun and if we could sit for longer to diamond paint, we could finish the picture so much quicker. Here are some suggestions to help you with the bending/crouching over with your body. An Art Board for diamond painting Buy an art board ...

^Please note this post uses affiliate links, which means if you buy something from the link, I receive a percentage of the sale price from the seller.  So most weeks, on this blog I will show you how I create a scrapbook page. I find it fun and I hope it inspires you to create your own scrapbooking page.  What I use is an A4 art book, so the pages are thicker than an exercise book. This is just easier so I don’t rip the paper. Also I show you a full A4 page where your actual scrapbooking album maybe a different size and shape and also when you add photos, you don’t need to add so much backdrops and stickers.  Let’s begin with today’s theme: Winnie the Pooh. I normally start with choosing the paper first but this time I started with the stickers. Then I chose the paper and I had to find my special Winnie the Pooh washi tape. This is what I chose:    I decided the cool bright paper would go well with Winnie the Pooh stickers. So I decided to make the coloured pape...

Image by Ralf Ruppert from Pixabay ^Pleas note, I use affiliate links in this blog post. This means I receive a percentage of the sale from the seller. So you may come across different language when it comes to scrapbooking, such as this term called junk journaling. They are two different types of versions of scrapbooking. What is scrapbooking? Scrapbooking, is taking photos and turning it into an album, using materials to scrapbook showcasing the photos. Scrapbooking is more personable. It doesn’t matter what theme you choose, or how you style the scrapbook, it is still scrapbooking. What is junk journalling? Junk journalling using receyled items, or items around the home, to create a journal or art book that may include one or two photos, but is more about creating art than showcasing an album. In a junk journal, you can create space to write and use it as a journal, or you can create each page with special art for each page. It is a bit more creative in a free form way bu...

Image by Victoria from Pixabay Here are four ways to know you could be a writer … You can’t stop writing I remember I just resigned from this awful job and I scored this new job the same day I quit (pretty lucky). The new job was fine, a lot of photocopying. So I started to write a story on paper while I was photocopying. Nobody seemed to notice me in the photocopying room or even that I was enjoying writing a story. But yes, if you can’t stop writing take that as a good sign that you are actually meant to be a writer! Writing is the foundation of your success, so keep writing and don’t let anything stop you. Write wherever you are. Its so much easier with mobiles now. You don’t need to carry around an exercise book that I would take with me everywhere, on public transport, to the park … everywhere. 2.        You think of cool ideas as you travel While you are on public transport or the passenger in the car, you mind might start creating cool peopl...

  So, you are a beginner of crocheting and you might be finding it quite difficult. I actually find crocheting and building miniature homes to be some of the hardest craft hobbies. But once you get going with crocheting it will be easier, I assure you. The truth is as a beginner crocheter, you are learning so much at the same time. For example, you need to learn the stitches, you need to get comfortable with the tension around your fingers with the yarn and it is ideal if you learn how to read a pattern. Plus, you might need to count stitches. This all adds up to be an overwhelming experience for a beginner crocheter. That’s why I created my eBook The Journey of crocheting for beginners by Melanie Toye.  Not only to give advice for beginners but also to give the confidence to not give up. I nearly gave up numerous amounts of time and I definitely stopped doing certain projects as I was learning because it was too stressful. This is ok, to start with its important to learn ...

Image by Erin East from Pixabay When I was young, I was creating and designing my own Word printed magazines. I can’t remember what the topic was on, but I loved creating it. My friend and I created it and it looked awesome, with our clip Art images to design it. I would write letters to my family and friends and yes, boyfriends and yes I demanded they write me letters back. Ha! Of course back then, I would receive gifts of pretty writing paper and envelopes, a rareity to find out the shops these days but still possible! I found in Grade 11 & 12 in High School, in English and actually the years prior to that, I really enjoyed English. I didn’t do too much fiction writing, may be none at all but it all set me up to one day be a writer. When I was in my late 20s, I realised I wanted to write a novel. I also realised, I have always loved writing so why would I not consider it a good career path to go down? It was because it was so easy to me that I didn’t even think of it as a ...