September Sponsors

Say hello to my current sponsors!

Big Fish sells lots of yummy buttons, felt balls, and pretty ribbons and trims that are perfect for embellishing all your felt crafts & other sewing projects...

Lucky Cat Handmade sells handmade purses, pouches, glasses cases, and more...

Trufflepiglet sells handmade, homemade chocolates and an assortment of other sweet treats...

 

And Wishy Washi Tape sells Japanese masking tapes, plus other pretty packaging supplies...

Interested in sponsoring my blog? Click here for all the info.

More Making! Plus a Sneak Peek

So, it turned out that the temptation to spend another day doing crafty things was just too hard to resist :)

I've got a whole heap of things made and photographed ready for some mammoth photo-editing and tutorial-writing sessions over the next few weeks...

As you can probably see from the photo, I've got a few Christmas tutorials planned. Most of these were actually on my "Crafty Christmas" to do list last year but got put on hold due to my sudden move. It feels really great to finally be getting them out of my sketchbooks and into reality. I'm pretty pleased with how they've turned out & I hope you'll like them too.

The only downside is that my studio looks like something exploded! Luckily, one of the perks of having a dedicated studio space is that you can close the door on all the mess and go put your feet up without having to worry about it (well, until the next day anyway).

Time for a Making Day

I couldn't focus on my emails and the rest of my to do list yesterday, so I switched off the computer and spent the day making things instead:

I took a whole bunch of photos too, because what I'm working on at the moment is some new tutorials :)

I haven't had a "making day" in months. I'm sure I say this every time, but I really need to try to have them more often! In fact, I'm tempted to have another one today...

Gift Wrapping: The Joy of Kraft Paper

One of the more "random" questions I get asked a lot about my blog is "where can I buy some of that stripey brown paper you use in your gift wrapping projects?" As you can see, I use this paper a lot...

(Click on the images throughout this post to view the full gift wrap how to for each project).


The soft, subtle stripe gives a lovely soft, retro feel to your gift-wrapping and it's a great neutral on top of which you can pile lots of colour and sparkle and general glitz!

This type of paper is known as "kraft" paper - I think it's a lot more common / popular in the USA than it is here? Most of the folks who ask me about it tend to be from the UK, anyway. I always buy a roll or two of it if I spot it somewhere and I know my supplies are running low (they sometimes have it in Post Offices, or in pound shops) but a Google search for it usually brings up the sort of packaging supplies companies where you have to buy giant rolls of everything which isn't exactly ideal for recommending to people when they email me!

But - good news! - I have recently found a couple of UK-based shops that sell it in sensible non-wholesale sizes, so I thought I'd share the links with you guys in case you fancy getting some for your own gift-wrapping supplies stash... and so I've got a post I can link people to in future when they ask :)

"Party & celebrations" store Pipii sells it in 8 metre rolls:

And stationery store Paperchase sells it in 5 metre rolls. They also sell some awesome silver and gold kraft paper which is another of my gift-wrapping staples, I just love it. Added bonus: it's recycled.

Every time I buy some I think "oh, it would be silly to buy more than one roll of this, don't go crazy and spend all your money on rolls of paper, you idiot" and then regret not buying more as it's always gone in a flash. I use it a lot for wrapping Christmas gifts...

(The gold wrap in the photos above actually came from Oxfam. They always have a nice range of recycled wrapping paper in their shops in the run up to Christmas. I've also bought huge rolls of yummy red kraft wrap from IKEA's Christmas store)

... and it's great for paper crafting too.