If you’ve ever wondered what life in the picturesque Barbieland in the 2023 Barbie movie was like, Scrap Society’s inaugural crafting evening is the closest thing I’ve experienced.
Hidden in an unassuming looking hall in Narrabundah on a quiet Sunday evening was a room filled with candles, cut-up magazines, star sequins and a crowd of excited, welcoming crafty people!
Scrap Society, created by Canberran Brooke Corkhill, was invented after she saw similar events in the UK and bigger Australian cities.
“There are so many crafty people in Canberra, why not host something here?” Brooke says.
This decision proved to be a smart one, when the first event sold out!
My two and a half hours spent in the colourful hall proved to me Canberra has so many ways young people can make new friends and spend time, rather than just always going out to a bar or the clubs.
THE VIBES
As I walked in the door with my friend, I instantly felt like I’d been wrapped in a warm hug. Songs I loved were playing, each table had an array of candles in unique holders, and there were fairy lights hanging from the roof.
This was the perfect place to spend a Sunday evening.
My friend and I were greeted at the entrance with some stickers and a name tag – so we could easily start conversations without having to do the awkward ‘what’s your name?’ chat.
This helped alleviate some of that social anxiety – it convinced me I somehow knew the people at my table already.
Brooke came over to greet us and pointed us towards the crafting table with the instruction to have fun!
Through all the chatter, I could hear one of my favourite Taylor Swift songs playing through a hidden speaker. The rest of the songs I heard throughout the evening didn’t disappoint and contributed to the feeling of girlhood strongly established with the decor.
THE CROWD
Looking around the room, women in their 20s and a few men were milling around the space, sharing their plans for the evening.
No matter who they were, we all had something in common – a love of craft and we all wanted a chance to embrace our creativity and spend dedicated time on crafting and making new friends.
Realising that most of the participants were in their 20s was exciting – this was such a great way to meet people with a shared interest and in a similar age bracket.
While the vibes were very girlhood, it isn’t a female only event! Anyone is welcome at these events to get scrappy and create something they’re proud of.
My friend and I decided to sit at a table right in the middle, to soak up all the creativity. Two girls were already sitting there and happily welcomed us.
I pulled out my blank journal that I had bought from Scrap Society.
The girl sitting opposite me – Naomi – did the same. However, it was clear from the thickness of her journal that this was a hobby she’d been doing for a while.
The empty seats at our table soon filled up. We did quick introductions – Naomi, Gabby, Mia, Zarah, Sonja, and I.
As someone who wouldn’t call herself particularly crafty, I was intimidated by the full scrapbooks of the other girls at the table. Was I overestimating myself? Should I have learnt how to do junk journalling before I came?
My doubts were quickly squashed when I shared this with the girls and they were full of excitement for me.
As Brooke said to me later, “there’s no wrong way to junk journal and everyone creates something that’s special to them.”
While I was at the start of my scrapbooking journal, my friend Sonja had come with the intent of completing her last pages of the journal she’d had since 2019. And complete it she did!
It was inspiring to know how much she’d connected with this hobby and had turned to it throughout different stages of her life.
When I left that evening, I was proud of what I’d created – five pages of crafty goodness that left me inspired to keep working on my journal.
THE ACTIVITIES
Across the evening, it was fascinating to see the journals on my table fill up with photos, cut-out magazine letters, and drawings.
The girls and I wanted to help each other, so we made a shared pile of collaging equipment we weren’t going to use but others might.
It proved to be very useful, with one of my pages greatly assisted by half a calendar Zarah put on the pile.
As we worked on our creations, we started talking about things we liked and what we were doing in our lives.
This for me was part of the appeal of the night. I learnt one of the girls, Mia, had done a very similar path to me in studying journalism at UC and then moving into a government graduate program.
Even though I’d come to develop a new hobby, I connected with someone who had incredibly relevant advice for me about something I wasn’t too sure about.
As a group, we found a similar love of books and movies, and discussed at length what our perfect casting would be for the upcoming movie adaptation of ‘The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo‘ by Taylor Jenkins Reid.
Naturally this led to discussing how the rom-com movie genre has never been as good as it was in the 2000s.
We moved on to talk about concerts and how hard we were prepared to fight for Sabrina Carpenter tickets if she announced Australian tour dates. I truly hope that each of those girls gets a ticket if she comes.
Mid-way through the evening, Brooke appeared on stage to make a speech.
“I just wanted to bring us all together so we can create something wonderful and I feel like scrapbooking is such an accessible, fun medium and really shows how creative everyone is because all of you are creating such beautiful scraps.”
“I hope you can all meet lots of new amazing people tonight, that’s what I was hoping would happen for this event and have a wonderful time!”
THE MATERIALS
As promised in our $25 ticket, each participant was given a folder full of crafty material – magazine pages, coloured paper, odd bits and bobs like gift tags and pages from books, hand-died paper, and stickers.
We were also given a list of journal ideas to get our minds switched on and thinking of what we could create during our time here.
But we weren’t just given crafting materials.
Dinner, dessert and drinks were provided too!
We were treated to a range of rice paper rolls, charcuterie boards, and some delectable cakes and macarons to finish it all off.
By the end of the evening, the food table was sparse – everyone had clearly loved it.
All drinks were non-alcoholic, a sign this event was created as a way to connect with people in a way that’s not just over a drink at a bar.
FUTURE EVENTS
I loved the evening. Speaking to the girls at my table I found I wasn’t alone in feeling like this.
Gabby shared with us that normally it takes her two hours to do one to two pages, but she’d smashed out three in this environment.
The others agreed that they were productive with the time, relishing the fact that they didn’t have to be doing anything else.
I’m hopeful Scrap Society will hold more events, and based on what Brooke said and the tentative ‘save the dates’ being shared on their Instagram page, it’s looking likely.
“Thank you to all of you for coming and joining our little crafty community, I really hope that this is the first event of many.”
In such a busy world, with clubbing or catching up for a drink or a coffee being the go-to way to spend time with friends, I’ll certainly be recommending any future Scrap Society events as a way to reconnect.
For such a simple concept, I left feeling rejuvenated and like maybe the world isn’t such a boring place after all.
Original photos by Tia Priest-Willimott