Four Fun Felt Projects for Mollie Makes #69

I got an exciting bit of post this week - a copy of this month's Mollie Makes magazine.
 

Why am I so excited about the arrival of this magazine, you ask?

Well, a familiar face makes an appearance this issue...

 

... yup, you guessed it, it's me! Yay! :)

The cover gift that comes free with Mollie Makes #69 is a kit for making a fabulous felt pom pom necklace, designed by Yoko Minemura Vega.

 
You also get a little booklet that contains three bonus projects: alternative ideas for using the materials in the kit... and those three projects were designed by me! (Double yay!)

 

I had loads of fun making these projects a few months ago, it's so nice seeing them styled so gorgeously by the Mollie Makes team.

You can choose from three home decor projects. A felt bouquet...

 

... a mini mobile...

 

... or a Scandi-inspired cushion.

I also designed a fourth project - a scalloped necklace. The necklace didn't fit in the printed booklet, so the lovely folks at Mollie Makes have shared it as a free project over on their blog. (Triple yay!).
 

Issue 69 of Mollie Makes is out now in the UK and is available in all good newsagents, supermarkets and independent craft shops, or from the official online store.         

A Fun Crafty Video: The Make Escape on London Live

Remember The Make Escape, the fab free craft night I went to in London last month?

Well, the night was filmed for TV station London Live... and the segment went out this week. I sadly missed it live but - hurrah, hurrah - they've put the clip up online.

It's a really lovely little video full of crafty goodness! Plus me, in a cat sweater, talking about making paper beads :)

Update: it looks like the video is only available to view if you're in the UK. Sorry folks! x


If it doesn't play automatically, press the arrow to start the video & when it's loaded then click in the very bottom left of the screen to play the film. If you can't see the video or it doesn't work for you, click here to view it on the London Live site.

The Make Escape is a free bi-monthly craft night held at the Hackney Attic on the last Tuesday of every other month. The next event is on Tuesday 29th July at 7.30pm, with the theme of "Village Fair". Visit their blog for more details or follow them on Twitter.

A Mention I forgot to Mention

Last year I was really pleased to have some of my products included in DaWanda's Winter "Lovebook" - a mini catalogue they send out to the press as a sampler of some of the handmade goodness available on the site.

Then this year I was delighted that they chose to feature me & my shop in one of the mini interviews that are dotted throughout Summer Lovebook's pages. Especially as they said such nice things about my work :)

It's been a busy year though, and I completely forgot to blog about it! Oops.

 

If you fancy a look through the whole of the summer Lookbook, you can download it as a PDF here.

A very nice surprise

One of my bird brooches popped up in an unexpected place yesterday - in the Christmas gift guide in the Metro.
Metro is a free newspaper for commuters in 16 UK cities - 1.3 million copies are distributed every weekday! (1.3 million! eek!).

As part of their Christmas gift guide, they featured one of my lovely stockists All Things Original and included my Goldfinch brooch in their selection.


The first I heard about this was a mystery flurry of orders, and kind messages from people saying they'd spotted one of my brooches in the paper. Very exciting stuff!

Sew: Blog of the Month

I've been super lucky with press features recently - the boyfriend joked that I'm taking over the crafts section of our local newsagent! :)

This arrived in the post yesterday: the December issue of Sew magazine.


The lovely people at Sew have picked my blog as their "blog of the month" and they were kind enough to send me a free copy of the magazine, as well. Thanks guys!

Interview in Popular Crafts

The postie brought me lovely post this morning - a copy of the latest issue of Popular Crafts magazine...


It's the Christmas issue, jam-packed with 37 festive crafting projects and oh look - there's an interview with me on page 63 :)


As I mentioned last week it's always exciting seeing things I've made in real, tangible, available-in-newsagents magazines. I love the internet (of course) and I'm always super-delighted with any features I've had in blogs online, etc, but there's always something extra thrilling about having something to put on a shelf and to take home to show your mum.

(It's always dead weird opening a magazine and seeing my own face looking back at me, though!)

Vintage Baubles for Sew Hip

The latest issue of Sew Hip came out on Friday (issue #23) and it includes a project designed by me - felt ornaments inspired by vintage glass baubles. They even made the front cover:


It's always exciting seeing something I've made in print (in a real magazine! right there in the newsagent! eek!), and I'm thrilled by the thought that people will be making their own vintage felt baubles and adding them to their trees this Christmas.


This was one of those secret projects I was sewing over the summer but couldn't tell you about. The baubles were lots of fun to design but it is always a bit weird working on Christmas things in the summer sunshine...


The magazine includes 13 other projects to sew and interviews with awesome crafty people like Ruth Singer, Jan of Daisy Janie, and my lovely friend Christine who is trying out an impressive 52 crafts in 52 weeks and blogging about all of them!

Cloth Magazine - interview and tutorial

Have you heard of Cloth Magazine?


It's a lovely little UK sewing magazine, published quarterly. The autumn issue has just been published and it includes an interview with me about my business...


... plus a felt project designed by me: a felt flower headband in yummy autumnal tones. You can see the tutorial & download pattern pieces HERE.


You might recognise those colours from the scraps I blogged about a couple of months ago.


Cloth is available from their website or from independent stockists throughout the UK.

A sewing calendar

Usually the only unexpected packages I get in the mail are returned parcels I originally sent out to my customers, so it was a nice surpise to get a genuine mystery parcel a few weeks ago.

Inside the box were two copies of this 2011 Sewing Calendar:


The calendar featues instructions and pattern pieces for over 100 projects from different crafters - including my bauble ornaments. I'd totally forgotten it was due to be published this month!


Many of the projects included in the calendar are available online but it's a fun alternative to a craft book and a great way to discover some new crafty bloggers. I think it would also make a great gift for the sort of people who love sewing but who are a bit scared of the internet and who are currently missing out on the wonders of the online crafting universe.

Christmas in July

It's Christmas in July over at Sew, Mama, Sew! this week as they're celebrating the upcoming release of FA LA LA LA Felt a lovely crafty book featuring 45 festive felt projects... including 4 by yours truly.


The book was published as an e-book last year and will be available in hard copy from August. I can't wait to get my copy to show my mum!

Check out the Sew, Mama, Sew! blog all this week for interviews with lots of the crafters featured in the book, exclusive projects from Fa La La La Felt and a chance to win one of five copies of the book.

Talking about Knitting

The interview with our knitting club was broadcast on BBC Gloucestershire at the weekend. Gosh it isn't half strange hearing yourself on the radio! Do I really sound like that?

If you fancy listening to me and my friend Lynne talking about knitting, you can hear our interview on the BBC's iPlayer HERE (it starts approx 2hours 42mins in & is available until Sunday 23rd May).

In other news, I'm having to lay off the sewing this week and keep my computer time to a minimum as my glasses broke...


... and I'm stuck wearing an old prescription until the new ones arrive on Friday. Very annoying!

Knitting and Nattering

Yesterday afternoon we had our second Knitting Club meeting - it was so much fun.

I'm loving having a space carved out in my week to sit and knit and chat with a cuppa and a nice bit of cake, and I'm already feeling really inspired by seeing everyone else's projects. I invited the boyfriend to come along and learn how to knit, but even the prospect of cake couldn't tempt him... being my postal assistant is probably about as crafty as he's ever going to get!

We've been making posters this week to help spread the word about the group (the awesome photo is by Emma a.k.a. Yumptatious) ...


... and we even got the chance to promote the joys of knitting on the radio!

A lovely woman from the BBC came to interview us about the club, how it started and what our plans are, which was just so nervewracking. I don't know yet when it's going to be broadcast but I'll put up a link to it on the BBC's iPlayer when I can, and if my witterings aren't too embarrassing, haha.

Make Jewellery magazine

I got some lovely post yesterday: a copy of the latest issue of Make Jewellery...


... which includes a little feature about my teatime brooches!


Press of any kind is always lovely, but there's something especially exciting about being featured in magazines... perhaps it's something to do with flicking through all those glossy pages?

Simple Pleasures

I've been making some Christmas decorations this weekend - lovely traditional paper chains plus some of these ornaments, all from gorgeous sugar paper (construction paper). I love this sort of absorbing crafty task - perfect for winter afternoons watching Poirot and other good stuff on the telly - and I'm gradually building up quite an explosion of colour to use in my holiday decor!

In other news, I was really chuffed to learn that one of my bow hairbands is featured in the current issue of Crea Magazine (through one of my stockists, Abi Loves). How cute is that picture?

How To: Wallpaper Snowflakes

Back in October I posted a snap of something I was working on involving cutting out lots of circles...... well, the circles turned into this:A curtain of snowflakes (or oversized Christmas baubles!) made from wallpaper, silver paper and card.

This project was specially designed for the winter edition of UK Handmade - a fantastic little online magazine from the UK crafts scene. You can read the whole issue online here (my project is on page 59).

I've not had a chance to have a proper read yet but there are some lovely festive projects including delicious cupcakes, a stylish floral arrangement for Christmas and (for you felt fans) this completely adorable felt angel from Kirsty of Paperfish:

My Projects from Fa La La La Felt

As I mentioned last week, four of my crafty Christmas designs have been published in Fa La La La Felt ... and I've just been sent images of all my projects from the book. Hurrah!

A sweet gingerbread house (love the styling with the jelly sweets!)



A cheerful stocking:



Matching rainbow baubles:



And pretty beaded shooting stars:



I had so much fun designing these projects - I hope everyone who buys the book will enjoy them too! A hard copy of the book will be published by Lark Books next summer (I can't wait) or you can download it as an e-book here.

Update: Fa La La La Felt has now been published in paperback. It's available from Amazon UK, Amazon USA and many other bookshops. (Please note the Amazon links in this post are affiliate links).
Psst - for those who missed the update to my earlier post, check out the fab free project from the book available for download from Lark Books

Fa la la la Felt

I've got some very exciting news to share today (a secret I've been keeping for a few months now) ... some of my felt projects are in a book! Fa la la la Felt is the first e-book published by Lark Books and is available to buy HERE.

It contains 45 festive felt projects by a whole assortment of crafters - including a stocking and 3 ornaments (a star, a gingerbread house and some baubles) designed by me.

That's my stocking, on the left:
I'll hopefully have some images of my projects to share with you next week - the photos I took myself before I posted them were unfortunate victims of our hard drive crash!


UPDATE:

Lark are offering a freebie to celebrate the launch of the book... a free pdf of the adorable mushroom ornaments (above) by Cathy Gaubert. I can't upload the file here on blogger but you can now download the pdf from Lark Books.

Plus: check out the awesome fish ornaments designed for the book by Lisa of Lil Fish Studios.

Postal Goodness

Lots of delicious things have been delivered by our postman this week and for once this is not because I've been on an Etsy shopping spree! (okay well maybe there was a teeny bit of shopping involved).

Last week Tiffany of Sodalight Creations sweetly sent me some of the cherry blossom hairpins she's been making with felt from my shop:
Then this week I got a copy of Woman's Day (featuring my pompom giftwrap idea), a bundle of yummy fabric from Cicada Studio and a copy of Elle Japan (featuring my bow hairbands).
The Elle was very kindly picked up for me by Katie of What Katie Does & Katie Knits while she was visiting Japan this month. You can read all about her trip here.

Lovely Features

I'm thrilled to have my tutorials featured in three fantastic places this week.

My brooch gift-topper idea got a lovely mention over on Craft at the weekend & my Succulent Lavender Sachet tutorial has been featured in the "things to make and do" section of fab new design blog The Beat That My Heart Skipped.

Plus (I'm quite excited about this one) my pompom giftwrap idea from last Christmas was picked up by Woman's Day & is featured in their current issue:
Their gifts look so cute and they've even made a video to show their readers how to make pompoms. I hope there will be lots of pompom-topped gifts under trees this year!