New Craft Supplies in My Shop!

As I mentioned last week, I've re-opened my craft supplies shop and am busy stocking it with lots of colourful, crafty goodness.

I've been busy photographing, measuring, and listing a whole bunch of lovely new things. Wanna see?

There are felt rainbows (and pick-you-own-colour felt squares), rainbow ribbons, pretty rainbows of pins, and bargain rainbow embroidery thread bundles. So much lovely colour!

I've also got some fab ribbon that's printed to look like a measuring tape, some black elastic for mask-making, cover buttons and a super-useful button covering tool (perfect for making felt buttons), and some GORGEOUS shimmery two-tone buttons.

Then there's embroidery scissors (so useful for cutting out small felt pieces!), lovely wooden cotton reels, big card bobbins for organising your yarns and ribbons, and some white elastic.

I've also bought some cute and colourful stickers. These are great for crafty projects, gift wrapping, journalling and scrapbooking, and for sticking on your snail mail.

There are cute woodland animal stickers (I've been sticking these on my shop parcels lately, I love them!), rainbow star, dot, and heart sticker sheets, and lots of colourful dots. I think the dots would be wonderful for creating bullet-pointed lists in your journal or diary!

I've also got colourful retro vinyl stickers featuring rainbows and unicorns and other fun stuff, and I've got some bargain books of mini stickers: cute kitties and happy stars.

Pen-wise, I've listed some fun colour-changing pens and a pair of metallic markers (I love a good metallic marker!). Then I've got giant wooden pegs (because why not? Oversized stuff is so joyful!) and packs of gorgeous glitter card (sooooooo shiny).

If you'd rather have tiny pegs than giant ones, don't worry - I've got you covered. I'm also selling a fab pack of luggage tags (I just adore those bright colours), a useful pack of coloured card, and some flower press kits.

I'm particularly excited to be stocking the flower presses as I feel like they're just the kind of relaxing, nature-loving craft we all need right now! I've got three sizes in stock, ranging from a mini press to the biggest flower press I have ever seen in my LIFE (seriously, it is HUGE). The boards are blank for you to decorate with paint, decoupage, stickers, etc, so one of these kits is basically two crafty projects in one. 

Click here to visit my shop and see everything that's in stock!

My Favourite Pens (and Pencils)

Do you have a favourite pen? I do!

The black Uniball Eye is officially my favourite - I adore writing with them, they're just soooo wonderfully smoooooth.

The only downsides to these pens is the price (not super expensive but much pricier than a standard biro, and I write a lot so I get through quite a lot of pens) and they're actually so smooth that if I'm not careful sometimes my already slightly wild and loop-filled handwriting gets a bit out of control! Overall though they're an absolute pleasure to write with and I love how my handwriting looks with the lovely solid ink line these create.

I used to use the "fine" Uniball Eye pens for drawing the templates and patterns for all my tutorials, but I recently switched to the thinner "micro" version and don't know why I didn't switch sooner, because the thinner line is perfect. The clear ink lines scan beautifully and I find these pens help me draw really nice smooth curves when I'm inking over my pencil lines. 

I'm also a big fan of the classic Cristal Bic biro! Usually a blue one, but sometimes only a black one will do - especially when writing on coloured paper.

I use these for everyday notetaking, writing all my To Do lists, updating my planner,* writing postcards, and so on. (*People are always raving to me about their digital calendars and planning apps but I cannot function without a proper paper diary to scribble in).

As for pencils? Well, I used to never have to buy pencils. There were always loads in my stationery stash after years of buying cute pencils as a kid or picking up free ones at conferences and other events in my teens and twenties. I just kept on aquiring random pencils but hardly used them until I started designing stuff for a living. These days I do a lot of sketching, and I've been slooooowly using up all the random pencils in my house... and now there are no more random pencils left and I have to buy pencils on a regular basis.

My favourite pencils are definitely the classic yellow Staedtler Noris (HB/2, without an eraser on the end). They're really nice to both write and draw with, they sharpen easily, and I'm a sucker for a bright colour.

I use them for sketching, of course, but also pencilling things into my planner and sometimes drafting bits of writing because (weirdly) I find that writing in pencil can help ease any pressure I'm putting on myself to write something "perfect". Even though it's just a messy handwritten draft and I'm going to cross bits out and scribble all over it anyway as I edit, knowing I can erase every word if I want to somehow helps free up my brain when it's feeling a bit creatively blocked.

Honestly, though, I will sketch with anything I can lay my hands on when inspiration strikes. Oh, and I also have a pack of plain "stage pencils" in my craft supplies stash which are super cheap and nasty to actually use (they sharpen terribly) but look great as props in photos.

When I shared these pics on my social media they prompted lots of strong pen-related feelings. So, do you love these, too, or loathe them? Tell me your faves!

Book Review: Creative Marker Art & Beyond

I'm finishing my Book Week with a lovely crafty book: Creative Marker Art and Beyond: inspiring tips, techniques, and projects for creating vibrant artwork in marker, by Lee Foster-Wilson of Bonbi Forest.

 

A couple of years ago Lee took part in the 100 Day Project, setting herself the challenge of doing a marker pen drawing a day, picking the pens at random to force herself to try new colour combinations and make the most of her pen stash.

During the project she learned loads about working with markers and totally fell in love with them as a medium... and now she's written a book to share her top tips and get us all inspired to get doodling.

 

The book starts with a quick introduction to the different types of marker pens available (permanent markers, paint markers, metallic markers, brush markers, and more), the basics of colour theory and some useful drawing techniques like crosshatching and stippling.

The rest of the book is made up of Creativity Prompts (e.g. drawing from nature), Marker Exercises (e.g. simplifying your sketches to create stylised motifs), and Step-by-Step Projects (e.g. decorating rocks with your drawings). This mix makes the book part creative workbook with ideas to spark your creativity and blank pages for you to get doodling straight away, and part how-to guide with projects that you can either recreate or use as inspiration for your own makes.

 

There are ten sections in the book, each with a creativity prompt, marker exercise and step-by-step project - some loosely connected, some directly following on from each other (for example, in one section you try hand lettering, then try out ideas for embellished lettering, then decorate a notebook using lettering to create a personalised design).

As you work through the book you'll learn lots of different ways to use markers, including some fab ideas for using markers which are drying out and starting to fade (which you'd normally just throw away). The project ideas are also all lovely, and are great examples of the versatility of markers and the many different surfaces you can decorate them.

 

I would have liked a bit more detail in some of the step-by-step tutorials, as there are a couple of points where the instructions are not as clear as they could be. For example, there's a fabric banner project where you need "primed fabric in a banner shape of your choice" but it's not explained how you're supposed to "prime" your fabric, or with what.

I also would have loved a section with patterns and motifs to trace, so we could recreate the projects show in the book exactly - because they're a lot nicer than most of my doodles!

It's also worth noting that to make the projects in the book you will need quite a wide range of different markers (standard permanent markers, fine liners for detail, brush markers for layering colours, and paint markers for drawing on glass and rocks) as the different types of pens write on different surfaces and behave in different ways. You could use a lot of the drawing techniques to get doodling with a basic pack of markers, but many of the cool project ideas do require fancier pens.

I think you would almost definitely want to buy more pens after buying this book, though! Lee's enthusiasm for markers is pretty infectious and she's done a great job of showing how versatile they can be, and how many lovely things you can draw and make with them.

If you want a detailed book of drawing techniques, or a book with patterns where you can make the exact project shown in the book then this is not the book for you. However, if you've got a neglected pack of markers in a drawer somewhere (or you've always been tempted by those big packs of different colours you get in stationery shops but never knew what do with them) and want to flex your creative muscles a bit and get doodling, then this book could be the start of your very own love affair with marker art.

Creative Marker Art and Beyond: inspiring tips, techniques, and projects for creating vibrant artwork in marker is published by Walter Foster Publishing. It's available from Amazon UK, Amazon USA, The Book Depository and many other websites and bookshops.

I received a free review copy of this book from the publishers. Please note that the Amazon and Book Depository links in this blog post are affiliate links, which means if you click through and make a purchase I get a tiny percentage for the referral. It doesn't cost you anything and it helps support my blog.

P.S. The Mandalas to Embroider giveaway ends on 10th May, have you entered yet?

P.P.S. Visit my book reviews archive for a look at lots more crafty books!

Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, and the Pen Museum

During my week in Birmingham, I spent a lot of time in museums.

If you're a regular reader of my blog you'll know this is something that happens on most of my travels! I love museums big and small, and as well as exploring their exhibits I also like to support them by eating in their cafes whenever I can.

On my previous trip to Birmingham I'd spent a very short amount of time in the main Museum & Art Gallery - just enough to decide that I had to come back to the city for a longer trip so I could spend more time exploring all the exhibits!

I ended up spending so much time there on my return visit that I actually had to abandon some of my other plans for the trip. As well as exploring the permanent collection, I was lucky to be visiting during an excellent temporary exhibition devoted to William Morris & Andy Warhol. This exhibition was so fascinating (and so packed with interesting art and objects) that I visited it multiple times during the week (and all for free thanks to the magic of the Art Pass) 

The building itself is gorgeous - it's well worth a visit just for the architecture alone.

If you visit the museum, make sure to pop into the Edwardian Tearooms for lunch or a cuppa. The setting is fabulous, the food delicious and the service impeccable.

At the other end of the museum-size scale is Birmingham's Pen Museum: a lovely little museum, absolutely jam-packed with interesting objects relating to the city's pen trade and the history of writing.

I mean, just look at all this fabulous stuff!

I'd expected to just quickly pop in here as I worked my way around the Jewellery Quarter Heritage Trail, but ended up spending ages looking at everything and being generally delighted by it all.

Big municipal museums might have fancy buildings and famous artworks, but nothing quite beats the charm of a small museum devoted to something rather niche! The Pen Museum is just round the corner from the excellent Museum of the Jewellery Quarter, too, so you can easily fit both of them into one day.

Missed my earlier posts about my Birmingham trip? Follow the links to read about architecture, owls and the Jewellery Quarter.

A Lazy Afternoon

I've had a busy couple of days so this afternoon it's time to switch my laptop off, stop worrying about my To Do list for a bit, put my feet up and enjoy the sunshine.

I will mostly be sitting in the garden drinking tea and doing some colouring in...

 

... but there may also be some knitting, library-book-reading and cake-eating happening at some point!

Have you got anything crafty planned for this weekend? :)

Colour, Colour and More Colour

I've treated myself to a few colouring books, yay! I can't wait for them to arrive so I can get colouring.

Of course, you can't do colouring in without something to colour with. I had a few random pens and pencils left over from my school and uni days (many moons ago) but not a lot and most of the pens are on their last legs. So I bought some pens:

I also bought a pack of coloured pencils. Each pencil has "the spectrum sings" written on the side, which is rather nice.

Oh, and I got a pack of crayons too just because they were cheap and I haven't used crayons in sooooo long I thought they'd be fun to try.

So much yummy colour to play with!

Crafty Bits & Bobs from a Busy Day

Yesterday was one of those days that was over in a flash. I had a big To Do list and a full inbox and after tick tick ticking lots of things off the list and sending lots of emails all of a sudden I looked up and it was 7pm! Definitely time to stop work, turn off my laptop and go and have some dinner!

Here's some snaps from my day:

Lovely new pens (the metallic markers are especially fab!), used for sketching a design proposal.

 

Scraps of an old pillowcase, left over from making a prototype for something new (challenging but also exciting!)

 

Bright pink & yellow supplies - I love these two colours together! Super cheerful.

 

Dried lavender, for stuffing some lavender sachets I'm working on for a blog tutorial (coming as soon as I've had a chance to photograph them and get the instructions typed up).

And finally (just before I switched the laptop off for the night) a colourful yarn shade card to help me order just the right colours of yarn (from Country Crafts) for a new project. I actually already knew which colours I needed to order but I couldn't resist getting the shade card out and picking some extra shades in pretty colours! The more yarn the better, right??