There's nothing I love more than attending a blogging event. It's a great opportunity to meet other bloggers, and people who look vaguely familiar because I stalk them on Twitter. Whatever happens, it's always a fun day.

When I was invited to the #VikingArtyParty I immediately accepted the invitation - I'm a creative person at heart and I can't say no to an afternoon of crafts.

The event was hosted at King Street Townhouse in Manchester city centre, and I have to say it was a superb venue. I always go to blogging events with my DSLR in hand hoping to get some pictures, and this one didn't disappoint. First of all, can we take a moment to appreciate the beautiful view from the balcony?

Once everyone had a chance to Instagram the view, we began the workshops...

First up was Calligraphy. I've seen Lily Pebbles talk about Calligraphy on her channel and thought it sounded really interesting, but I've never had the chance to try it myself. I'm definitely not a natural, that's for sure. I write in italics and can't seem to wrap my head around holding the pen straight, or making slow and deliberate strokes instead of my usual scrawl. Fortunately Joyce from Artsysnibs was very patient and by the end of it, I'd managed to do a pretty decent 'M'. Now I just need to master the rest of the alphabet...

After that, we got to customise our own notebooks... which Lydia and I were far too excited about for two grown-up twentysomethings.

I'm a serious notebook hoarder, so I'm sure you can imagine how much I enjoyed being able to customise our own notebooks. We were given free rein of the various wrapping paper, card, washi tape, and ribbons and got through more Pritt Stick than an episode of Blue Peter. This is the one I'd recommend for anyone who has zero crafting skills, as you can literally just wrap some kraft paper around a notebook and stick a little ribbon in there to use as a bookmark (like I did) and you're good to go. I wish I'd had a little more time for this activity as I think I could have customised it further or maybe just made it a little neater if I'd had longer - but this one is definitely the easiest and cheapest to recreate at home, so there's nothing stopping me from raiding my notebook stash and going to town.

For the final workshop, we made our own rubber stamps and used them to customise a magazine file.

I'd recommend wearing old clothes and getting some newspaper out if you fancy trying out this one at home as it could potentially get messy - but it was a lot of fun! We carved a shape into rubbers and then dabbed them with acrylic paint (thumbs up to Crafty Hen for figuring out that acrylic paint would dry quicker and avoid our designs ending up on our coats on the way home). I kept things very simple and just carved a diamond, but there were some bloggers who were much more adventourous than me and ended up taking home beautiful magazine files with pineapples, clouds and waves.

Overall, it was a really fun event.

I mean, is there a better way activity to do on a Saturday afternoon than craft with your friends? As always, it was great to catch up with the other Northern bloggers and I loved trying out new creative hobbies. I really want to keep practicing with the Calligraphy as it would add a beautiful touch to my notebook and diaries. I'll let you know how I get on.

Do you want to try Calligraphy, notebook customisation or rubber stamping? Let me know in the comments.