I managed a few hours of concentrated crafting yesterday, with a view to stocking my Etsy shop.

It’s a difficult decision on what to stock , as I have a box at work and some stock at home listed here and for taking to craft fairs. Do I list the same items or work on a whole new range? I’m not sure at this stage, so I’ve just been adding generally to my stock – not that I’ve had much time to do that as I’ve had some more commissions to work on.

So my work-in-progress looks like this:-
1 pair of pink and yellow bootees
1 pink and yellow toy cat
1 multi-colour toy cat
1 knitted hat
1 set of caravan birthday and Christmas cards

Lots to do and some more time to do it all after this week!

Happy crafting
x

Over the last month or so, my commission requests have soared.  It seems there is a real market for bespoke cards for special people and special occasions.

What’s been really lovely, is the freedom for design. I’ve been given some outline colours or ideas in the brief for each project. It’s great fun taking the brief and putting a design together. I think my favourite ones at the moment have been the wedding cards.

I loved using the doilies and the vellum, it’s really fun putting dainty items together!

Happy crafting
x

I’m sitting on the tram with my thoughts for company (I’ve finished the current issue of Craftseller), at the end of my penultimate week of permanent employment.  The sun is out, the sky is…. well ok it’s grey, and it’s cold!

How do I feel about this huge lifestyle change that I’m embarking on?  I’m both excited about the prospect of being able to spend more time crafting and being a Mum, but I’m also apprehensive.  This will be the first time in over 20 years that I haven’t had a ‘job’ to go to.  It’s quite a scary thought!

I have so many ides to fill my time though that I’m sure I won’t struggle, in fact I don’t think I’ll have anywhere near enough time to do everything I’d like to.

Today will be a busy day, it’s my last real opportunity to finish off and tie-up loose ends.  I expect to spend the day writing up two end-of-year project reports, answering a few e-mails, contacting HR and clearing out what’s left in my locker (not much).  I’ve been booked by a colleague to help put together a ‘top tip’ leaflet this afternoon, a last effort to try and get any knowledge from my weary brain!

Amongst the legal letters and project reports, will be a lot of friendly chat as usual.  The main topic will probably be about weddings, as my colleague Sue is making the cake and cupcakes for the wedding of the year this weekend.  She makes the most fabulous cakes and the wedding is a vintage lacy theme. I made the card for the happy couple from the Brides’ parents. I can’t wait to see the pictures from the big day.

Personalised Wedding Card

I’m feeling a little calmer about today now.  Hopefully I can get out in to Manchester centre to do a little bit of shopping over lunch time.  I have a few small gifts for friends that I need to buy and wrap, and I’d rather leave them at work than have to run the risk of forgetting them next week.

It all seems very final suddenly, only 5 more tram journeys, so I’ll be blogging in the house from then on.  I’ve enjoyed my journeys to work, they’re a great chance to catch up on reading and to jot down thoughts and ideas.  I shall just have to go out for a brew every so often and find an inspiring environment to pen my ramblings in future!

Happy crafting
x

Spring has finally arrived and we have a dry and sunny day!  So, after a much needed lie-in, a bit of garden tidying and lunch outside (!) it’s been a trip to the park for us.  A chance for little one to burn off some pent-up energy and for me to have a relaxing chill out in the sun.

We’re very lucky here in Bury as we have the use of some fabulous parks.  Our largest local park is Clarence Park, about a mile away, with plenty of facilities – playgrounds for toddlers and older children, lido, and loads of open space to run around or just sit and have a picnic.

Today I thought the walk and being out in the fresh air might give me some ideas and inspiration.  Alas, I was disappointed, as the recent freezing temperatures has meant there are very few flowers out in the area at all.  I’m quite upset at the lack of daffodils and crocuses basking in the Spring sunshine.  However, with the playground full of children, there were lots of bright colours flying around and I have visions of swirling patterns of bright primary colours. The thoughts of chalks on paper and inks in water have been filling my head ever since!

I was also struck by the number and kinds of dogs out with their owners.  I’ve been thinking about doing something more with my knitted cats, maybe working on some cats to look a little like my own pet cats, but I’m now thinking about adapting the pattern to make some dogs too – floppy ears? 

Knitted cats

I’m currently making a new cat and a pair of matching bootees – pink and yellow!  

I hope you’ve enjoyed some sunshine and the eventual arrival of Spring!  I’m hoping that our seeds will start to germinate soon and I think I might have a trip to the garden centre for some primulas to brighten up the garden!

Happy crafting
x

Easter is over again for another year and I’m left sick of the sight of cake and chocolate!  There’s still snow in the air and I’m seriously starting to wonder if it’s ever going to get above freezing.  Will Spring ever arrive?

All this cold weather meant that we’ve been indoors trying to amuse ourselves.  So the Easter weekend was a fairly crafty one.  We’ve been exploring the possibilities of my boxes of embellishments along with the contents of a craft planet goody bag,

Entertaining a pre-school child in the holidays, particularly in the current cold weather, can be a tall order.  But we just about managed by covering the kitchen table with ribbons, buttons, fun foam, felt and stickers.  My daughter raided the box bag for an egg box determined to make a box to keep chocolate eggs safe so she could share them at her friends birthday party!  She spent several hours happily singing along with the radio, sticking wild and wacky embellishments on to the box.

Another crafting day we took inspiration from our last play and language class, and made a lovely bunch of daffodils from fun foam and pipecleaners.  These simple flowers have to be one of the prettiest additions to the home!  And better still, a child can make them as there’s no glue needed.  We cut most of the shapes out by hand but I also experimented using a die-cutting machine and this works just as well, so long as you have some flower shaped dies!  This lovely bunch was split and flowers given to family members on Easter Sunday and they certainly brightened the dinner table.

Our simplest project was one I used to do as a child.  I’ve always kept things that looked useful and Easter egg boxes prove very useful indeed.  I keep the cut out circles where the egg stands and use them to draw round, making patterns and pictures.  I mentioned this to my daughter who obviously liked the sound of this idea.  She kept the circle from one of her eggs and used it to draw round.  She drew this fabulous caterpiller and then added the ladybird on its back.

This is definitely a technique we shall explore further!  I see birds, cats, rabbits, flowers….. the possibilities are endless and she can make these pictures all by herself without any interference (help) from me.

So the learning from this Easter weekend is to keep bits from Easter egg packaging and egg boxes, and always make sure to have fun foam (in a variety of colours) and pipecleaners on the house.  Hours of fun for a child and parent!

Happy crafting

x

Happy Easter everyone

Today is to be a family day for me. Ironing, whilst watching create and craft tv, making a couple of cards to order, drawing Easter things with my daughter and eating lots of chocolate! Actually I’ve had half and egg and a cream egg and I already feel sick!!!!!!!!

Later today I’ll be spending the evening with my family, dinner made by my fabulous Mum and Dad (and cake made by Sue Brooks) and more chocolate. Time to catch up with my brother and his little family too. It will be great fun and a really lovely treat.

Duckling

I hope you all enjoy the day.

Have a lovely Easter
xx

Saturday was a sad day in our house as it was marked by the closure of my very local craft supply shop – Premier Card Craft.

I was very fortunate to discover this little gem only ten minutes walk from home. Ideal for those last minute makes and urgently needed essentials – usually glue. The shop itself was only small, but it was packed to the rafters with papercrafting supplies at very reasonable prices. Not all of the stock was to my taste – I’m not big on CD crafting and cutesy animals, but it was all good quality and the essentials – glues, glitters and cardstocks etc were fantastic.

Over the eighteen months or so it was open , the stock changed, bringing in more gifts and children’s toys, to cater for the clientele. This detracted somewhat from the core business and from the original target customer (ie me, a papercrafter), however, I understand why it was diversified, to increase sales and to cater for all the enquiries received.

More than the shop though, I shall miss the warm welcome from Irene, who remembered all about the family and what we’d been up to. It was a fabulous place to go for a crafty chat, to discuss card making trends, see what we were working on and how business was going – any craft fairs in the area etc. It was also somewhere I could happily take my daughter as she would always enjoy the walk (or bike ride) and looking at all the toys and stickers (I don’t think I ever left without at least one sheet of stickers or foam pirates!) It was such a warm and friendly place that I shall miss it immensely.

So I am now left with sourcing my crafting supplies further afield. Fortunately we have an amazing supply shop for all arts and crafts in Clarks Crafts in Ramsbottom. This really is an Aladdin’s cave of craft, catering for everything from painting to knitting and from papercraft to jewellery making. It’s quite a big shop too and they also run some craft courses. For all my other crafting needs I shall be back with Create and Craft. Its low prices and seemingly endless range means I can get my glues and Hunkydory collections very conveniently over the web.

What I’ll miss though is the crafting chat. There’s nothing like talking over a new idea, trend or project with a fellow crafter. So I’m now thinking about organising a craft group or coffee morning – well I’ve only got three weeks left in the high pressure world of office work and I’m going to have to fill my time somehow!

Good luck Irene and happy crafting
xx

Yesterday I took the first step on my way to becoming a fully fledged business!  In amongst all the books and magazine articles I’ve been reading over the last twelve months and taking redundancy from my permanent employment, I was given the opportunity to attend a half-day business start up workshop run by Blue Orchid, based in central Manchester.

What an interesting morning! As you can imagine there was an awful lot of information to get through and in only three hours, it was something of a whistle stop overview of starting up, but wow!  So much enthusiasm in the room for all kinds of business ideas.

We were given a huge amount to think about – from our skills and doing SWOT analysis, to financing, pricing, profit & loss accounts and the model buiness set up.  The advisor running the workshop was very realistic about going into business as he has had his own business and now helps others set up.  He’s a real numbers guy and tried (sometimes in vain) to explain tax and national insurance payments to a mostly bewildered audience!  However, I took lots from the day and not just the fifteen pages of notes I made!

It was good to see that the work I’ve done so far on promotion and cash flow is work going in the right direction.  I now need to spend time on the business side of things, registration, business plan and a stock take of all my equipment and materials!  There’s a lot to do, but I know I have support from my family and I can utilise the business support at Blue Orchid to refresh my knowledge of book-keeping for cash-flow, profit & loss and balance sheets.  Phew!

Personalised Wedding Card

It wasn’t all just business speak (although there was a lot of jargon), I met a couple of other Mums that craft; one who decorates cakes and another who hand stitches leather handbags.  More crafty contacts! And I got some great feedback on an order I was delivering. It’s great to meet like minded people with passion and drive for what they do, but who, like me, are a little terrified of venturing into the cut-throat world of business.

I have a very long to-do-list now, which I hope to make a start on over the Easter break, after I’ve completed my order list!

I guess I’d better get making.

Happy crafting

x

Well Easter really is just around the corner and whilst it isn’t a holiday particularly associated with card giving, it’s always nice to send something personal and thoughtful to a loved one that you may not see.

I have been making two types of card for Easter this year, those that lend themselves to being not too messy and can be made while entertaining my pre-school daughter.  So I’ve carried through my ‘hearts and flowers’ themes, using the collage technique to make Easter Eggs and stamping and colouring Easter Egg shaped flower wreaths on to plain card.

The collage eggs are nice and bright to bring in the feel of Spring – very welcome at the moment as it’s so cold outside!  I’ve used bright coloured base cards and added ribbon and a bow to each egg to add that touch of luxury.  I’m offering to put personalised greetings on the cards, and I also have a number of cards already made up in packs to buy ‘off the shelf’. 

The stamped flower eggs are bright and cheerful with hand-coloured flowers in a variety of spring colours.

I hope you’ll agree they would brighten up an Easter mantlepiece.  I know we will certanly be sending some to our far-flung family and friends.

Happy crafting

x

Well, the craft fair is over and I’ve had a few days to reflect on the day.  I can take some positives from the experience and I am definitely learning with each new venture into the public.

The fair was held in a fabulous room and there was a good variety of crafts on offer.  Unfortunately there was very little in the way of advertising around the venue, a couple of banners and that was about it.  The flyer I was sent by the organisers was an article from their group magazine calling for donations for the tombola stall! And the advert put in the local paper was marginally bigger than a postage stamp!

Anyway, I set up my stall and was pleased with the result.  I’d had a manic few days looking for baskets, and ended up with a couple of hat boxes and some large gift boxes. 

I did spot the fallen logo at the front of the stall before the fair opened! I’m thinking of ways to get more height at the back of the stall for any future fairs I do. The hat boxes do help, but I think I need something more. I’ve been thinking about ways to get more bunting above the stall maybe draping from bamboo canes at either end of the table, but I’m now sure how to get that to work yet. I shall keep thinking on that one. One tip I picked up from some of the larger craft fairs is the use of technology to show more of my work. So I again called the family digital photo frame into use and it did make people stop to have a look.

Unfortunately due to the lack of advertising of the event, it wasn’t that well attended. However, as I said there are some positives I took from the day. I was able to gauge more public reaction to my cards and gifts and even though sales were slow, several people did take one of my business cards, a couple of people placed orders for bespoke cards and there were a number of positive comments. Also I was happy that I had enough stock for the day and with the look of my stall.

So I’m revising my wish to do four fairs this year, down to three, one in Summer and another for Christmas. I think this is more realistic. And my main focus (once I have my orders completed and my Easter card collections added to the website) will be to launch my Etsy shop.

Happy crafting
x