With 2012 almost at a close, I’d like to wish all my readers and customers a very Merry Christmas.

It’s been a busy and exciting first 6 months for me and HandmadebyKatherine. There have been highs and lows and now is a great time to take stock. I have plenty of ideas for new ranges for the Spring, so watch this space to see what I’m working on.

I shall be having a review of the year in the next week and making plans for 2013.

In the meantime, have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

xx

Today I rushed to buy the latest issue of Craftseller Magazine, one of my key sources of inspiration and confidence to start this website and blog.  I had a quick flick through over dinner, as I do, before settling down for a thorough read, and what do I see on page 14/15?

” I would like to share with you some of my makes.  I love the magazine and after reading some recent issues, I’ve taken the plunge and launched a website.  In addition I have my first craft fair soon, in a local church hall.  I’m pretty nervous as most of my sales so far have been to friends, family and work colleagues.  Have you got any advice about what insurance I need?

Katherine Brooks

handmadebykatherine.co.uk 

EDITOR Congratulations on taking a big step! We love your website.”

I sent the question in on their facebook page a couple of months ago and had forgotten all about it, other than I knew that they were running an article about insurance in this issue.  I was so surprised and thrilled to see the number of cards they had picked from the site to put into the page. 

They’ve made some lovely comments about the site and my cards, and picked a selection of different styles.  It’s quite a large section of the letters page and this level of exposure in a national magazine is a real boost.

Merry Christmas

x

3 weeks before Christmas and Chicken Pox has eneterd the house!  Typical.  Just when we’re all getting into the Christmas spirit and preparing for the first school Christmas performance.

Anyway, little one is now on the mend, and we have been doing a little bit of crafting to take her mind off all the itching!

Here’s her ‘pot goody’.  It’s a large plastic cup that had to be decorated in a winter theme, then filled with goodies!  There’s a prize for the best one in each class and they are then used as prizes at the school Christmas Fair.

I shall get back to my remaining Christmas orders this evening.

Merry Christmas crafting

xx

Well I had 2 Christmas Fairs last week which have worn me out completely.

The weather on Thursday for the Christmas Market at St Joseph and St Bede’s School, was just unbelieveable.  Snow, blizzard and then torrential freezing rain – not ideal for an outdoor market.  As a result it wasn’t a particularly successful afternoon.  I froze for 3 hours and sold a good number of my knitted Christmas tree decorations.  The little stockings are very popular, and look great in different yarns and with monograms added.  I might be adding them to cards for next year!

Saturday was the Friends of Walmersley Village Christmas Fair, providing Christmas cheer for the local community.  Of course no Christmas Fair would be complete without a visit from Father Christmas.  The weather was cold but dry for a couple of hours of festive frivolity, and there was plenty of merrymaking, carolling, mince pies and mulled wine. My Christmas pudding tiffins and mincemeat parcels (a low fat alternative to mince pies) went down very well, as did my small heart-shaped giftbags.

My biggest success of the Christmas Fairs was my new design Christmas tree hat!  It’s still a work in progress as I am looking for some ‘tinsel’ and I need to make a star for the top, but it has certainly produced some comments!

Happy Christmas Crafting

xx

It’s been a really busy week or so, preparing for my craft stall, fulfilling orders and making for some local good causes. 

My latest makes are 10 cards, the ideas for which, I’ve had in my head for a while. I’ve made some of the stocking cards before, and I loved the flocked paper I found whilst browsing in TK Maxx one day! It’s from a Laura Ashley collection. It just screamed at me to be used as stockings for some reason. So I thought I’d add a fluffy top to them. The trees were again cut from some of the Laura Ashley paper pack and I wanted to do something a bit different for me. I loved the small flowers on the paper and they give a really subtle pattern to the tree shape. I added some tiny gems in green and red to some of the flowers and greenery and used some small hand-tied bows around the stems of the trees. I then raided my craft stash for some stars and found a good selection, tiny padded ones, stickers, peel-offs and gems. I think the stars give the trees a lovely striking finish. Simple but effective. The cards are all finished with inserts.

My next project was to make a couple of personalised knitted stockings, in gold! Finding some gold yarn proved very difficult. So I decided to use some Sirdar chunky yarn that I had leftover from a jumper. It knits up beautifully and the stockings are larger due to the thicker yarn. Using a finer yarn for the initials and adding a gold ribbon bow really gives them the ‘golden’ feel. They are to be used as tree decorations hiding special little presents for two little girls. My customer is very happy with them as they fit in with the tree colour theme perfectly.

I’ve also been crafting for a couple of local events raising money for local causes. The first was for the Christmas Market at St Jospeh and St Bede’s School, where I had a stall and was providing a prize for the raffle. The second was the Christmas Fair for the Friends of Walmersley Village, where I provided some baking (Christmas pudding tiffins and mincemeat parcels) and some cards, gift-tags and tree decorations for the craft stall.

Finally I was asked by a colleague for another couple of personalised bow Christmas cards. I managed to fit these in as I had a couple already made, that just required the appropriate personalisation and inserts adding. These bow cards have proved very popular this year.

Phew, what a week. Now I’m finishing off my own cards this weekend and starting on some Christmas crafting with my daughter. We’re decorating a large plastic cup as a snowman for her Christmas Fair!

Happy Christmas crafting

xx

Well this weekend, I finally sat down to make some Christmas cards for us to send out. I have been thinking about using some of my paintings on cards for ages, and this year I have actually done it! (It has helped that I was given a good printer as a birthday present!)

I have put some of them up for sale in my for sale gallery and will take some to the craft show next week.

I plan to send these out from the family, along with the ones my daughter has designed.

I’d love to know what you think.

Happy Crafting
xx

I finished knitting the rainbow hat I was asked to make for a work colleague. She’s going to a rainbow themed party in London next week!

It’s a fairly simple pattern, and mostly plain stocking stitch, but I think the rainbow stripes work well! You couldn’t fail to see the wearer coming that’s for sure!

I like the versatility, it can be worn in a number of ways (as above). My daughter loves it and having passed it over to its new owner, there were a number of complementary comments too. So I’m now thinking maybe I should make some more. I have had an idea on the way home about making a Christmas Tree one.

When I’ve completed my orders and the raffle prizes I’m donating to a couple of local charity events, I think I shall have a go at the Christmas Tree. Watch this space! And have a browse of my knitted gallery while you wait!!

Happy crafting
xx

Hot the heels of my first craft stall, my second one has come along!

I shall be at the St Joseph and St Bedes Primary School Christmas Market on Thursday 6th December from 12:30 – 3:30.

I will be making some more cards to add to my Christmas stock, which has somewhat dwindled over the last couple of weeks!

I will post more details nearer the date.

Happy Crafting xx

I have been so busy over the last couple of weeks (since my first craft stall), that I’ve not had any time to blog. Be assured, I am still here and crafting away whenever I have a moment.

I’ve been knitting and card making to meet a few orders:

Red and white stockings and pompom tree decorations

Soldier good luck cards

Large personalised Christmas cards with bows








And the obligatory baking for Children in Need, which helped my husband’s work place to raise over £200!!








I am currently making a rainbow hat for a work colleague who is going to a Rainbow themed birthday party next week!

Happy crafting
xx

I’ve always been a crafter and also have a love of the environment. When you think about it, crafting is a pretty ‘green’ activity – you’re making things yourself and you can use anything you like to make things with!

I know we crafters never throw anything away.  Well you never know when it might come in handy!  I’ve recently been taking this to the extreme as I’m collecting anything and everything that could possibly be used by a nursery class to make models with.  We have a permanent box in the kitchen to collect bottle tops, toilet  and kitchen roll tubes, boxes, egg boxes, plastic lids, fruit mesh bags, yoghurt pots etc etc etc.

This collecting is just an extension of my keeping things that might be useful.  I always cut off the ribbon tabs from clothes to use on my cards (they make great hand tied bows or can be used on gift tags), I save all our greetings cards and take bits off for gift tags, or to use as toppers.

My favourite time of the year though is Christmas as this gives the most opportunity to collect and reuse bits and pieces.  I think my most favourite items to canniblise are Christmas crackers.  I always buy my crackers – I like the surprise inside and it’s my one indulgence really.  They still hold the childhood magic of Christmas for me.  So I choose them with an eye on the decorations on them.  The little bits of ribbon are brilliant to reuse on gift tags and cards.

Many of my cards this year have been made using bits of Christmas crackers – the wreaths and berries on my larger Christmas cards were all on crackers from last Christmas.  The ribbons on some of my personalised Christmas cards was saved from my wedding presents (6 years ago).  It’s such a lovely colour and ribbon can be very expensive bought new, so I’ve saved it from a landfill site and given some of it a new life!

One of my other favourite ways of using up all the left over bits of papers, card and ‘bits’ is collage or mosaic. It’s a great way to reduce what is thrown away and it’s brilliant to do with children. I know my daughter loves it! I use little takeaway pots to store left over bits and I have them split into Christmas, Love and Everyday. That way I don’t have to root through everything I can just take the pot I need, some glue and some plain card shapes to cover. Simple and great fun without lots of mess. My love hearts have proved very popular for Engagements. Anniversary’s and for Valentines’ Day!

Happy Christmas crafting xx