Craft Focus - June/July 2020 (Issue 79)

10 Pentel aims to motivate and inspire Pentel is launching a social media campaign to keep fans and followers feeling creative during these challenging and uncertain times. #PentelPickMeUp is the handle for the campaign, which incorporates the talent and ingenuity of a selection of young influencers, who will share their ideas on how to be creative, keep on track with their studies or remain focused and organised during the pandemic. While life is anything but normal Pentel is aiming to provide ideas and inspiration to students and young people especially, as marketing manager Wendy Vickery explains: “Like most of us, students feel their lives are on hold currently, which is why we want to encourage them not to lose sight of their goals and ambitions. We know it’s difficult to remain positive, when the daily news can seem unrelentingly bleak. Something as simple as putting pen to paper, whether as an act of self-expression or just good housekeeping, can be an important way for people to create a sense of purpose and accomplishment.” Spearheading the campaign are three key Pentel products: EnerGel quick-drying liquid gel pens, flexible-tipped Brush Sign Pens and pigment ink, fade-resistant Pointliner pens. A colourful selection for writing, drawing, note-taking, designing or hand lettering, these three products will enable the influencers to showcase a range of ideas and suggestions to motivate and inspire audiences. As the summer unfolds, Pentel will roll out campaign activity across social media channels, with creativity very much at the forefront. For further information please contact Pentel +44 (0)1793 839 806 or visit the website www.pentel.co.uk Sharp rise in crafting hobbies sees Craft Buddy™ adapt to new demand Arts and crafts manufacturer and distributor Craft Buddy Ltd™, has seen a recent surge in demand, both B2B and across its B2C digital platforms, in light of recent events causing them to adopt new measures to support customers and their staff. Reacting to government guidelines, Craft Buddy™ has taken the decision to close its warehouse and headquarters to all but two staff members per day, working at a substantial distance from each other, in order to limit the exposure of staff to Covid-19 to ultimately protect them, their families and their customers. The recent surge in sales show that the popular Crystal Art® range is proving to be in high demand with customers as consumers search for new hobbies that can be done during isolation that offer therapeutics and relaxing benefits. Based on the ‘diamond painting’ trend, the Crystal Art® range helps to improve focus and concentration and offers a sense of escapism for crafters, as they create their own pieces of rhinestone art by placing crystals into their assigned spaces on the design. Likewise, the newly launched Forever Flowerz® range continues to excite crafters looking to create their own floral arrangements and designs. The easy-to-follow steps makes the collection perfect for experienced crafters and beginners alike, allowing them to make bouquets, wreaths and more. Recognising the increased interest in these products, Craft Buddy™ is continuing to accept trade orders from retailers, with a lead time of up to a week, due to the company’s current implementation of safety measures that are in place. Furthering its support for retailers, Craft Buddy™ is offering to promote stockists on its social media channels which have a following of more than 30,000 engaged followers, whilst also making available the professionally produced marketing images and videos to help businesses connect with their customers and grow their channels. In addition to this, Craft Buddy is offering smaller Crystal Art™ products to retailers for free, so that they can run online competitions during this time. Please contact: trade@craftbuddyltd.co.uk fo r further details on how Craft Buddy can help promote your business. Adapting to the current lockdown scenario, Craft Buddy™ is offering a series of online workshops through its Facebook page to help guide crafters and inspire their creations. Gary Wadhwani, co-founder of Craft Buddy Ltd., said “The Covid-19 pandemic is nothing less than a very serious public health emergency and we’re making all our decisions with the best interests for our staff, our families and for the general public including our valued customers.”