Treats from Renegade

This weekend I took a trip to London to visit the Renegade craft fair - I was very disappointed to miss it last year, so I was extra excited about going to see all the lovely people selling their crafty wares!

(I can never manage to read on the Tube, so my trusty Walkman is an essential bit of kit for a long journey across the city!)

Everyone was super friendly, and I got to meet and catch up with lots of my crafty chums whom I've "met" online through Etsy and Folksy and blogging. It's always so good to finally meet people in person, and have a good natter :)

I scoped out a few new-to-me shops for some potential Christmas shopping later this year, and treated myself to some cards and notebooks (always useful) from a whole bunch of sellers...

... A cute foxy "drink tea & eat cake" card from Kayleigh O'Mara, and happy star and sunshine cards from Debbie Greenaway...

(I also bought one of Debbie's adorable hedgehog brooches, which my mum has already stolen! I was showing her the lovely things I'd bought and when she saw the hedgehog she just fell in love, so I had to gift it to her!)

 

... A couple of postcards (You've Got to Be Kind to Yourself & One Step at a Time) from Art Equals Happy, and a very cute cat notebook from Zosienka & Rosie.

... A peacock postcard & a little notebook for writing lists from Lovely Pigeon, and a tea & biscuit themed card for a friend from Mellybee.

... A printed Moleskine notebook from Finest Imaginary and a sweet mini notebook made from a vintage postcard from Ladybird Likes. I don't think I'm going to run out of notebooks for a while!

 

Here are a few more of the business cards, etc, that I came home with... from Zeena, John of The Bungaloo, and Sarah of Magasin...

...  Rebecca of Charming Little Picture... plus some mini London-themed cross stitch patterns from CrossStitcher Magazine.

I was also very pleased to finally meet the lovely fellas from Folksy, after having a shop on the site for so many years (I was Folksy user number 12 when I signed up way back in 2008!). I thought the cardboard postbox on their stall was especially ace & I couldn't resist pinching one of their "Golly!" cards, which were actually for people to fill in their email address to sign up for the Folksy newsletter (shhh, don't tell! no-one will find out now I've posted it on my blog, er...). Folksy is so often described by sellers as "the British Etsy", and I find the quirky Britishness of their branding / marketing style very appealing (and I would totally buy a pack of postcards like this).

And as if all that wasn't enough fun for the day, I also got to have a cuppa with the lovely Genevieve of Floss & Mischief who sells very cool cross stitch kits & patterns.

Hurrah! :)

Photos from a Busy Week

The Christmas posting deadline for UK orders is looming ... please place your order by the end of this weekend if you want your parcel posted before the last posting date!

The last few days of the pre-Christmas season are always pretty hectic. I've kept meaning to blog but kept forgetting - or forgetting to charge my camera batteries / take photos when it was sunny / etc.

So, here are a few catch-up snaps from this week :)

I've been using a yummy new tin to store my current works-in-progress:

It's shaped like a giant bourbon biscuit... I didn't get to eat the biscuits that were inside it originally, but my mum remembered that I had the matching giant custard cream tin and saved the bourbon biccie tin for me. What a star.

Also very yummy - some Charley Harper goodies I treated myself to this week. I saw the gorgeous gift wrap over on What Katie Does and just had to buy some for myself... and couldn't resist buying a few more Charley Harper bits & pieces from Fred Aldous while I was at it. A girl can never have too many things with Charley Harper birds on, right?? 

Talking of What Katie Does, I am rather in love with her new Tea & Books themed print:

The print is available from her Etsy shop, HERE. I may have just ordered one for my new studio...

A nice bit of surprise post arrived yesterday from the nice people at Folksy - a copy of their winter sampler, a mini newspaper with news from Folksy and a gift guide of some of the lovely handmade things for sale on the site.

They also included a rather lovely knitting-themed postcard... I don't know who designed it, but it's quite gorgeous and perfectly suits their new "Modern British Craft" tagline. 

In crafty news, I've made a start on sorting out the pieces for the vintage felt bird ornaments ready for some Christmas crafting... 

... and I've started knitting a very soft and fluffy scarf from some fun faux-mohair yarn:

I bought a whole bundle of this fluffy yarn at my old knitting club's fundraising yarn sale this summer. I didn't have a plan for what I might make with it, but it turns out that two strands knitted together makes a fab chunky knit that's perfect for scarves... plus knitting on those large needles is so quick and easy, it's such a satisfying project for the winter evenings. 

Right, I'm off to eat some home-made mince pies now (my dad bakes a mean mince pie) and do some more knitting...

Folksy Goodies (and a new assistant)

A couple of weeks ago, the British craft website Folksy (where I've had a shop for a few years now) got a snazzy new look.

I have to admit to having been a teeny bit stressed by the prospect of big changes at my busiest time of year, but I love the colourful new logo, the new shop layouts look great, and the new "one page" listing process has already proved to be a huge timesaver when running my shop.

While the revamp was happening, the maintenance page had a sudoku puzzle on it to "keep you entertained" while the site was down overnight. My mother is a total sudoku fiend, she is completely addicted to them and happily works her way through the most complicated ones she can find. I am under strict orders to save her any sudoku puzzles I find in newspapers, etc, so I printed off the Folksy sudoku and gave it to her, she filled it in during her morning coffee, and I then tweeted that she'd finished it.

Then this week, the lovely staff at Folksy (who has seen my tweet) sweetly sent her a little parcel of goodies to say congratulations for completing the puzzle!


They sent her a set of Folksy badges and a Folksy notebook, both from the new "Folksy Collection" which launched this week.

Needless to say, my mother was totally thrilled by her surprise parcel! She was quite blown away by the unexpected kindness of the gift, and is very much in love with the notebook...


... she also likes the badges but has decided that badges aren't quite her sort of thing, so she's kindly passed them along to me. Hurrah! :)


The badges also got some attention from this big bundle of fur, who came to "help" me take photos... perhaps I should make him my new studio assistant?

"Oooh, what are these? Are they for me?"


"You don't want to take photos of these boring things. Take my picture instead!"


"I'm ready for my close-up now..."

A post about nice things

One nice thing - Sew magazine featured my (now discontinued) acrylic felt rainbow in their February issue as part of a feature on supplies to build up your crafty stash.


Always lovely to get a nice bit of press!

I missed the magazine when it was in the newsagents earlier this year which was very annoying... but (here comes the second nice thing) a very lovely Folksy seller, Kryshees, took some photos of her copy and emailed them to me.


A total stranger, taking time out of her day to do something nice for a fellow crafter. So nice!

Kryshees sells "handmade accessories for your littlies and you", please do visit her shop :)

Crafty Pictures

I got this cute card from a friend for my birthday this year, and I thought it was just too nice to recycle so I added it to my "pictures to buy frames for" pile.


I found it again recently when planning some long-overdue shopping for frames and was inspired to do a bit of window shopping for more sewing-themed prints (to decorate the craft room of my dreams!). Here are some of my favourites...

Sewing Mends the Soul by hellomonkey:


Vintage Sewing Collection by runningwithcrayons:


Vintage Sewing Kit by clareowendrawing:
Also spied in her sold items - a lovely Make Do and Mend print:


Make Do and Mend by farouche:


Make Do and Mend (letterpress printed onto vintage dressmaking paper!) by printfortheloveofwood:


And finally, not a print at all but some lovely fabric I'm adding to my wishlist ...

Retro Sewing Print Fabric from TamsynG:

Folksy Post

I'm stuck in bed feeling sorry for myself today thanks to some horrid winter bug. All orders are still being shipped on time thanks to the efforts of my boyfriend (what a star!) but it may take me a bit longer to reply to emails etc.

In other news, I got a copy of the Folksy Festive Sampler through the post yesterday.
The Festive Sampler is a little newspaper Folksy have published to celebrate the end of the year, with a gift guide, some site stats and a few other bits and pieces. It's being sent out to Folksy sellers like me and bundles are being distributed at craft fairs etc.

A very simple idea but a bloody good one, I think! I was also quite chuffed to discover I'm the "most popular" seller on Folksy - though I think this has more to do with me being the 12th person to sign up to the site than anything else :)All images borrowed from the Folksy blog. You can download a pdf of the sampler here.

Place Your Bids...

The winners of the Upcycle Christmas competition have been announced and all the entries are now up for auction here - including my cocktail hat:All the proceeds for the auction will go to Sue Ryder Care, a fantastic charity that provides care for people living with cancer, multiple sclerosis, Huntington's disease, Parkinson's disease, motor neurone disease, stroke and brain injury. A seriously good cause!

Update: It seems that the items in the auction have all been set to ship to the UK only. Apologies to my international readers!

This used to be a sweater...

... but I don't think it'll keep you very warm now! :)
This is my entry for Folksy's Upcycle Christmas competition - listed in my Folksy Shop with just a few hours to spare before the deadline. Phew!

It's a vintage-inspired cocktail hat / fancy fascinator made from wool felt and decorated with lots of sparkly beads:It started life as an old sweater that shrank in the wash (a kind gift from a neighbour) and a couple of bracelets that have been languishing in my jewellery box since I was a teenager (many years ago now!)You can read more about it & see more photos HERE and if you're a member of Folksy please add it to your favourites if you like it - the item with the most votes by Thursday evening will win the "peoples choice" prize. It's not currently for sale but will be included along with all the other Upcycle Christmas entries in an online auction being held to raise money for Sue Ryder Care. The auction begins on December 7th, I'll post details as soon as I know them so you can go bid on any of the entries that have caught your eye...

An Upcycling Update

You may have heard about the Upcycle Christmas competition being run by the good people at Folksy (I blogged about it a while back).

Well, the closing date is tomorrow at 5pm and I'd been planning on blogging about some of my fave picks from all the entries and writing something sorrowful about not having time to think up my own entry... and then I had a sudden bit of inspiration this morning and have spent this afternoon working on my own upcycled piece :)

Here's a quick snap of the offcuts:
More pics tomorrow - hope there's decent light as I'm cutting it rather fine!!

In the meantime, here are three "before and after" photos from some of the entries which have really charmed me. It's so much fun seeing the transformation from second hand materials into brand new crafty loveliness.

The Cotton Potter used these vintage linens and second hand clothes...... to make this pretty Jug shaped slip cover for a wine bottle:
Through The Round Window used an assortment of second hand glass...... to make this gorgeous stained glass panel called "Winter Girl" (love the frosted glass!)

And Rose Lullaby Dolls used a Barbie doll and some other finds...... to make Ingrid, a doll with real personality:
What I've made is in no way as awesome as that lot, but I'm still pleased I got struck by some inspiration in the nick of time! Make sure you check out all the entries here and if you're a member of Folksy you can mark the ones you like as a favourite and help determine who wins the"peoples choice" prize.

Upcycle Christmas with Folksy

The lovely people over at Folksy have announced a fun competition for all you UK-based crafty types: Upcycle Christmas."Upcycle Christmas is a competition for people to take second hand / charity stuff and make it into something ‘new’ and desirable to be sold at an online auction starting on the 7th December. All proceeds from the auction will go to Sue Ryder Care, the healthcare charity, our partners on the project"

You can use any second hand stuff you like to rework into your entry - which should be something you'd give at Christmas, not something Christmassy like a decoration. And if you happen to live near one of the participating Sue Ryder Care stores you can claim a ticket that's redeemable for up to 5 free items to use as the materials for your project.

Two of the judges have been announced already - Louise Roe and the always awesome Wayne Hemingway - and there will also be a "peoples choice" category for "your favourite items as chosen by number of favourites the item receives on Folksy".

I had lots of fun making my entry for last year's Folksy Angels competition so I'm hoping to have the time (and a good flash of inspiration) to make something this year too!

You can read more about the competition here or check out the FAQs here.