Craft Ideas for Valentine's Day

I got very inspired by Valentine's Day and all things heart-themed this time last year, which was rather ironic given it was the first Valentine's Day I'd spent as a single lady in about 10 years! Creativity eh? It works in funny ways :)

Anyway... I thought it'd be helpful to do a quick round up of last year's projects, in case you were planning some Valentine-themed crafting this year.

(Clockwise from top left)

You could...
... make a Valentine's garland, counting down the days with 14 little love notes in 14 mini envelopes
... sew a mini cross stitch heart brooch (or a whole set of brooches as gifts for your friends)
... make a cute owl-themed Valentine's Day card (Owl Always Love You!)
... opt for something simple, with a mini envelope Valentine's card
... throw a party with a heart theme, using felt hearts + washi tape to decorate place cards, etc
... or embroider a romantic little heart and frame it in an embroidery hoop

I also wrote a very handy post last year with links to all my previous heart-themed projects (including the mini cushion (pillow) covered in buttons, a faux bois embroidered heart, a felt heart brooch and cute felt lavender sachets pictured below) plus ideas for adapting some of my paper crafting projects when throwing a Valentine's Day party.

Not a fan of St Valentine? Lots of these tutorials would also make sweet gifts for anniversaries or for couples getting married this year.

P.S. Subscribe to my newsletter for a monthly free pattern and visit my crafty tutorial archive for lots more free projects.

Visit my shop to buy my printable PDF sewing patterns:

Back to Work!

I'm pleased to announce that all my shops - on Big Cartel, Etsy, Folksy and DaWanda - are now back open after my Christmas break. Hurrah!

Most of the felt squares and other craft supplies I sell are now back in stock, but there are a few handmade pieces out of stock as I ran out of quite a lot of designs in the run up to Christmas. I'm hoping to get everything re-stocked as soon as possible but in the meantime if there's anything you've had your eye on that you can't see in stock, just let me know and I'll do my best to help :)

It was good to have a bit of "proper" time off from the day-to-day demands of shop-keeping, to enjoy Christmas and to work on some other projects, but it's nice to be settling back into to rhythms of my normal working week.

I've been thinking a lot about my plans for 2013, and I really want to clear out lots of stuff from my sale section to make space in my shops (and in my studio!) for new things. So, until the end of January, all items in my sale sections have been marked down by an extra 50% (so if they were on sale for £5, they're now a mere £2.50). Lots of very affordable treats for you or your friends :)

The biggest selection of sale items is over in my Etsy shop but you can find lots over in my Big Cartel shop too.

A few other things to look out for...

I've got some sets of "not quite perfect" buttons available in my Etsy shop  - these are slightly lower quality than I'd usually sell, but still pretty awesome big buttons:

... there are a couple of very slightly damaged copies of my book, Super-Cute Felt available too:

... and I've listed my remaining Christmas Felt bundles at bargain prices because, well, it's not going to be Christmas again for a while now! You could stock up ready for crafting this year's ornaments, or just use the felt in the bundle to sew other things :)

Oh, and if you're planning some new projects this spring make sure you check out the Valentine's Felt bundle...

... and the recently updated Colour Trends bundle which now includes shades for spring/summer 2013.

More Threads

I continue to be working on some bits and bobs I can't blog about yet... so, yet again, here are some snaps of some of the threads I've been using. The threads are from several different projects but actually I think they look rather nice together!

Reels of sewing thread...

Bobbins of Embroidery thread...

... and some leftover bits of thread, post-stitching:

(Note to self: Laura, please remember to come back to look at these photos and design something using this colour palette, it is awesome).

Some Positive Posters

I love these free printable mini posters from Oh My! Handmade...

I first saw the phrase "don't compare your insides to someone else's outsides" in a comment on someone's blog sometime last year and it has really stuck with me.

It is SO easy to get caught up comparing yourself (or your house or your life or your blog or your business) to other people (and their apparently perfect houses, lives, blogs and businesses)... when in reality they've probably got as much stress and mess and general chaos going on "behind the scenes" as you do.

I will definitely be printing one of these out for my studio wall! Click here to read the original post on Oh My! Handmade and to view and download a printable version for yourself.