Shopping, Sales and Sponsors

Lots of things to mention today!

First up, I'm having a small January sale over in my Etsy shop: hurrah! This is your chance to pick up some Christmas ornaments for next year at bargain prices, and there are a few other goodies included as well. When they're gone, they're gone, as the saying goes, as anything unsold by the end of January will be vanishing from my shop (though obviously some of the Christmas things may reappear next winter!)

Secondly, I must show off the lovely corsage I got in the post yesterday:A yummy Christmas gift to myself from the super-talented Nonsuch ... to join this delicious creation in adorning my winter wardrobe. Fantastic quality as always and very sweetly packaged in tissue paper and wallpaper with a yummy freebie (mmm... chocolate...) and a cute doodle on the envelope:Nonsuch is also one of my newest blog sponsors ... and as there are so many great shops signed up for this month I'd like to introduce you to the rest of them.

Creamrose makes fabric-covered buttons for your crafty projects (like this cute tea-themed set), fabric button jewellery plus lovely bright accessories like these chrysanthemum hairclips that are sure to make you smile:OuOu sells super-cute gocco-printed notebooks and printed notecards featuring adorable boys and girls and the cute critters that keep them company like this friendly (cocoa-drinking) green dragon:Sallyent is also known as Tinkering Textiles and is - unsurprisingly - in love with making what she calls "textiley things"... purses, bags, brooches and even daschunds all in lovely vintage or geometric prints:Bombus is "saving the planet through decoupage" and making some rather nice things along the way - everything from map-covered plates to stylish greetings cards. My current favourite is this scissors card, perfect for sending to anyone crafty:
Pouch has a great eye for colour and a snazzy bit of retro pattern, and works with vintage fabrics to make one-of-a-kind or limited edition bags, purses, belts and adorable lavender owls:
Askey Illustration sells fresh and modern artwork - as limited edition A4 prints or open edition mini prints - and also offers graphic design services, such as logo design and custom illustration. I have my eye on this print ("the last one") at the moment:LauraFallulah makes bright and funky handbags, purses and accessories inspired by "kitsch 50's/60's design, tattoos and fabric". She's having a sale at the moment and has lots of great bargains available, like these whimsical rose-appliqued pumps:
And last (but by no means least) BigFish, seller of an awesome array of crafty supplies: this shop is supplies heaven for the colour-obsessed crafter, with felt balls and ribbons and buttons galore!

Scrap Paper Thankyou Cards

It snowed today! Brr! Definitely the sort of weather to stay indoors and try to catch up on my correspondence, and as I've got lots of thankyou notes to write I thought I'd make a few thankyou cards...

All these cards were made with scrap bits of paper leftover from my Christmas wrapping, plus a few lovely papery bits from Bombus Craft. I deliberately mixed more "bling" shiny, sparkly papers with more muted textures like brown paper.

They're all a variation on a simple structure:
1) two or three vertical strips of paper (use a ruler to get them as straight as possible!), slightly overlapping to produce one solid "ribbon" of paper
2) three or four circles of paper arranged vertically (I used a circle stencil for cutting these, but you can draw round anything small and circular like little tubs of makeup or small glasses)
3) a nice festive embellishment to sit in the centre of the circles, like these little Christmas trees I cut out from some giftwrap:

 

First stick down your vertical strips, then add the row of circles and finish with the embellishment. Cut your strips too long for the card you're using, and only trim them down when you've stuck everything in place so you can make the edges flush and super-neat. Either arrange everything to be slightly off-centre, as I've done with this card which I topped with map trees from Bombus Craft...

 

... or make everything symmetrical as I've done with this one:

 

The lovely snowflakes (from Bombus Craft again) were so nice that I skipped the circles altogether, and used a bit of an old map in the background to match them nicely. Patterned scrapbooking paper would work similarly well, as would nice patterned Christmas wrap - the basic design of these cards is so simple that a bit of detail and pattern goes a long way!

You can also use some special - or extra sparkly - paper for circles that themselves become the embellishment. On this card I used lovely bright red foil from a biscuit in a Christmas selection box:

 

To make the best use of foil chocolate & sweet wrappers, flatten the foil carefully and then glue it onto a piece of plain paper. The paper backing helps give the foil some strength and makes it much easier to work with.

I also adapted these designs and made some postcards, topped with simple circles cut out from some rather fancy wrapping paper. I made the postcard base from a bit of white card, covered on one side with brown paper and with the corners slightly rounded...

 

... I know you can get punches for cutting lovely neat curved corners but I just cut mine with scissors. I used a bit more of the giftwrap to make a matching envelope (giftwrap envelopes are a sure-fire way to jazz up your post whilst using up leftover paper!)

The finishing touch inside each card is the thankyou itself - again, these are simple strips of paper with an embellished circle on top, to match the front of your card: just remember to include a white strip of paper for 

writing your "thankyou!" 

 

If you've already written your Christmas thankyous, these can easily be adapted to be a bit less festive - they're a great way to use up odd leftover bits of paper & giftwrap all year round!

Please feel free to borrow photos if you want to blog about this project, but remember to credit me and link back to the original source, and do not reproduce my entire tutorial on your site. Thanks!

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Christmas Goodies

Some of the lovely things I got for Christmas this year...

An awesome and much-desired print by Hazel Nicholls from my sister - already framed and hung up in my kitchen but it's much too dark to take in situ shots today so here it is on my windowsill instead:
"The Crafter's Companion", ed. by Anna Torborg, from one of the women at work - I read half of this on Christmas day, it's so great! Very inspiring contributions from an assortment of creative bloggers whose sites I will be investigating properly in the coming months... So many of their comments about the pleasures of sharing your creativity via the online crafting community rang bells with me, and there are some cute patterns in the back too:
An amazing wonderful fantastic tile by the legendary Rob Ryan from my parents. I have wanted this for ages and I'm so pleased to finally have one... I love all his work, but this one feels very appropriate for display in my crafting space:Plus a Christmas card from my boyfriend which is so gorgeous is just had to be framed immediately - "Robins" by Alice Stevenson, also available as a digital print:

Turning Over a New Leaf

A bit late, I know, but I've been thinking about my New Year's Resolutions... and (rather appropriately) embroidering some leaves at the same time:
(most of those are destined to become hairbands like this one).

I went back and read last year's resolutions and was astonished by how I'm thinking along almost identical lines this year! I think I did quite well at sticking to last year's plans, but plan on upping the ante a bit this time round...

1) I want bigger and better things for my business, to be more professional about everything I do and not be scared to try new things or invest in important things like business cards, large amounts of packaging materials, etc.

2) Last year I started making things in batches, but this year the batches have to be bigger and more well planned (test if it sells first, then make a batch of it!) and I definitely need to be better prepared for Christmas! Experimentation and fun new designs are still very high up on my agenda, but I want to have a nice little "collection" (gosh that word feels pretentious!) that I can make in batches, sell in all of my shops, and also have available for wholesale.

3) My 365 project is over but the daily craftiness must continue! I've been loving all the tutorials I've written in the run up to Christmas, and very much plan on continuing these - I don't know what I'll end up making, but it will be wonderful to make things that have nothing whatsoever to do with making money but are just for fun and for sharing. I am also determined to learn how to knit "properly" (using proper patterns and more than one stitch) and will keep you all updated on my progress.

Last year I also wrote that "2008 is also the year of getting our flat sorted out" and that "one of the first household tasks "to do" is attending to my potplants, giving them some love and attention and potting up some cuttings I've been rooting on my kitchen windowsill in teeny little herb jars" ... and very embarrassingly I have to admit that this year, yet again, there are some neglected cuttings on my windowsill and our flat is still a big unfinished mess! Never mind, eh?