New Patterns

I have been rather remiss with my blog recently - in trying to do what all the books *and well known blogs* tell you and 'write great content' or 'write about topics your readers really want to read about' I've ummmmed and ahhhhed about what on earth to write about and consequently written nothing at all!

But. While the content might not be what's considered 'great'... I do have some lovely piccies to show you!

These first 4 are all PDF Patterns and can be found in my Etsy and Craftsy Shops

Mandala Penny Rug Pattern

Spooky Haunted House Wall Hanging

Rainbows & Wellies Penny Rug Pattern

Christmas Tree Gift Box & Ornament Pattern

Then there is also the first of my Sew Your Own Kits, which I have also released as a PDF Pattern:

Sew Your Own VW Campervan Kit

VW Campervan Ornament PDF Pattern

If you'd like to find any of these in the shop, click on the caption under the relevant photo and it'll take you straight to that listing.

I will hopefully be back with some more wordage next time!!

PS. Do you remember that post I wrote about Penny Rugs a while back? No? And you have no idea what a Penny Rug is? Then have a read HERE xx

VAT Rule Changes - VATMOSS and how it will affect Small Businesses

As some of you will already know the EU are changing the VAT (Value Added Tax) rules for Digital Products on the 1st January 2015.

This has proven to be a very complicated change, which means that instead of the VAT being dependent on where the seller is based, the VAT will now be charged at the local rate of the buyer. So if I am based in the UK and I sell to a customer in the UK, I would only charge VAT if my turnover was more than £81,000 (I wish!!) as that is the threshold for the UK. However some countries within the EU do not have a VAT threshold, so as soon as I make even 1 digital sale to someone in an EU country with no threshold (such as Spain or Sweden) I would have to pay VAT on that product.

Not only does this mean that I would be losing out on income, as some of all my EU sales would have to go to the VAT Man, but it is also unbelievably complicated in terms of filing a tax return, the amount of data that needs to be collected and stored about each sale and then there are the dispute issues, such as what if a customer lives in one EU country, but is travelling and makes a purchase whilst in another EU country?

HMRC does not have answers to these questions yet. The likes of Etsy & Craftsy do not have answers to these questions yet. It's nearly the end of December and time is running out to get answers.

SO.

I had decided that I would simply stop selling digital patterns on the 31st December 2014, which is a real shame as that was the direction I was trying to push my business towards. It would mean that I cannot grow my business in the way I want to.

However. I have just this morning discovered this from HMRC:

Examples of electronic supplies and whether or not they are ‘digital services’

Service	E-service?	Electronically supplied?	Covered by the new rules
Pdf document manually e-mailed by seller	Yes	No	No
Pdf document automatically e-mailed by seller’s system	Yes	Yes	Yes
Pdf document automatically downloaded from site	Yes	Yes	Yes
Stock photographs available for automatic download	Yes	Yes	Yes
Live webinar	No	No	No
On-line course consisting of pre-recorded videos and downloadable pdfs	Yes	Yes	Yes
On-line course consisting of pre-recorded videos and downloadable pdfs plus support from a live tutor	Yes	No	No
Individually commissioned content sent in digital form e.g. photographs, reports, medical results	Yes	No	No
Link to online content or download sent by manual e-mail	Yes	Yes	Yes

So this does mean that my Craftsy and Pattern Mart shops will have to close on the 31st December 2014 as they do not currently support anything other than automatic downloads.

But the good news is that you will still be able to purchase patterns from my Etsy shop as I will simply be removing the automatic download option and will email the pattern out, in PDF format after it has been purchased.

This means only a tiny bit more work for me, but luckily no increased cost for you or me! Yay!

It's not an ideal solution, but it is a workable solution for now.

If you want to read more about this subject, Rosie Slosek's Blog One Man Band Accounting is very informative and full of useful info and tips on how you can help make a difference.

Pirates Ahoy! More Pirate Patterns - Pirate Treasure Map

Ahem. I know you probably all think that it's me that's the pirate addict in our house, but I promise it's not - it really is Patrick, actually and Seren... Oh go on then, and ME!

We all love Pirates and a while ago I was badgered to make Patrick a Treasure Map:

This was to go with his Pirate Sword (tutorial here) and his Pirate Eye Patch (tutorial here)

And after a slight time lapse (good intentions and all that!)....... I have finally made the Treasure Map into a PDF pattern which can be bought from my Etsy Shop here

Whilst creating this pattern I discovered that by fantastic coincidence the lovely Abby Glassenburg, who writes the gorgeous blog While She Naps was also creating a Pirate Pattern - for Roger the Pirate, a soft doll, who looks SO much fun! You can buy the pattern from Abby's website here and how cute is he?!

Picture by Abby Glassenburg - While She Naps

I think as soon as my two see this chappie, I'll be dispatched to make them both one of these too!

Felt Rainblow Cloud Baby Mobile Pattern

I am taking part in the Etsy School SEO Month at the moment. As part of that, we have to look at the stats that Etsy provide for us sellers and disseminate them into something meaningful, about what works, what doesn't, where we might be able to improve, etc.

One of the things that I noticed was that my two most popular items in the last couple of months are these two (click on the pictures for links to the listings in my Etsy Shop):

The multi cloud mobile is actually the more popular of the two, but in order to turn that one into a pattern I'd need to provide instructions for making the hanger, which at the moment is the weak link, in that I get a friend to make them for me!

So onto the 2nd most popular item, the wall hanging.

This was much more straight forward to turn into a pattern. So last week, I locked myself away for a couple of days and....... Voila!

Making a pattern is a funny thing. You know exactly how you make something you're familiar with, but designing a pattern is quite a different thing. You need to be sure that the order you're giving people is actually the most sensible, because whilst I might be able to sneak something to an item after I've supposedly finished an hide the evidence that I did it that way, it's not ideal to suggest other people do it!

You also need to take good clear photos and label them all... this takes a LOT longer than I'd like, but as they are essential to my patterns, they're a necessary evil!

You can find the pattern in my Etsy Shop and also on Craftsy, along with all my other patterns for sale.

Any of the finished items that I make are potentials for being turned into a pattern, so if there's anything you'd specifically like to see, please feel free to shout out suggestions!

Felt Penny Rug Pattern for my 100th Blog Post!

UPDATE 20.12.15: I've decided to take an unusual step for me and update this post as it's all of a sudden received a lot of traffic, bless the heart of the lady who pinned the link to it :-)

So I thought I would add some pictures of the penny rug that I went on to create and maybe a couple of others.

Morning!

I knew today was auspicious and I've just discovered this my 100th blog post - so that's a pretty good start! (Can't believe how far I've come since that 1st Blog Post back in 2012!)

I'm working on something completely new for me - a penny rug (candle mat) - for those who haven't come across penny rugs before, they were made popular during the Civil War in America, when women would use scraps of material (clothes, bedspreads, etc) and using pennies (hence the name) and other coins, they would make table decorations, runners, bedspreads, wall hangings, etc with patterns made out of the cloth circles, all sewn together.

These are examples of some of the early penny rugs:

Source: The Savvy Seeker

Source: York Mountain Mercantile Blog

Source: Primatives By The Light of The Moon Blog

These early style penny rugs are very primitive and don't necessarily appeal to that many people nowadays, but the more modern style is very popular in America and is starting to filter over here (the UK) with the increase of hand crafted homewares rising in popularity.

Here are some beautiful examples that I've seen whilst doing some research for creating my own pattern:

Source: Flickr

Source: Pinterest

Source: Etsy

As we're approaching Easter, I thought I'd try an Easter Bunny Rabbit pattern for my first Penny Rug pattern.... here are a couple of work in progress shots:

Please excuse the 'not-great-taken-with-my-phone' pics, but I'm keen to get on with it and try to finish it up today... Hmmmm....!

Hopefully I'll have the pattern ready for my Etsy Shop by the weekend.

UPDATE 20.12.15:

And here are some pics of the finished Easter Bunny Penny Rug:

I was really really pleased with how well this turned out for a first pattern and my Mummy was the recipient of the sample rug and she said she's had lots of lovely comments about it.

There is a link to it in my Etsy Shop and also my Craftsy Shop

If you want to have a look at the other Penny Rug patterns I've created since, they're all in the Etsy shop too.

Goal: Creating PDF Sewing Patterns

One thing I promised myself that I was going to make time for this year was to get a line of PDF patterns in my shop and I'm really really proud of myself, that before the first month is out, I've made a great start!

I've started off with the masks that I've had rolling about in my head for a while and I really love the Easter ones, particularly the cute Lamb Mask:

And sticking with the Easter theme... the next up will be these 3 adorable Finger Puppets:

You'll be able to find all these patterns through my Etsy shop and also my Craftsy Shop.

Changes at Uniquely UK - the Home of Gorgeous & Unusual Gifts!

I was thinking about trying to be a bit more organised with my blog posts this year, rather than just crashing from one event to another at the last minute, which is rather how I feel last year's posts were put together!

So I Googled a calendar of events and created a spreadsheet for myself.

Do you know what though? Since then I've had complete brain freeze when it comes to creating new posts!

Typical.

So I thought I'd just give you a flavour of some new things going on...

We've rearranged our Uniquely UK website a bit, so it's got a fresher, more contemporary feel:

I love the Spring colours that the clever ladies who made the changes have chosen (can't claim any credit for that bit) and the brilliant 'New!' section, where you can jump immediately to the new things that have been added:

We're all quite a bit in love with our resident photographer's cushions! This one is my favourite:

And lastly a little something that has landed in my Etsy shop (can't work out how to get it instantly downloadable (is that a word?) from the Uniquely UK website, but as soon as I do, it'll be there too!)

Duck Dressing Up Mask

It's the first of a new range of PDF patterns that I've been promising (threatening?!) for a while now... watch this space for more!

Spooktacular! Halloween Crafts a plenty!

It's that time of year again folks! The ghosts and ghouls are coming out to play (well my two little ones are!) and I thought I'd share a round up of spooky things for you, that can be found in my Etsy Shop or in the Uniquely UK Shop

Felt Bat Mask

Felt Ghost Finger Puppet (DIY Tutorial at www.uniquelyuk.co.uk)

Felt Pumpkin Mask

Felt Witch Mask - both finished item & PDF Pattern available at www.gracesfavours.etsy.com

There is also a very special Halloween Tutorial coming up on the lovely NEDay Blog in the next week, so keep your eyes peeled!

The ghosty finger puppet above is a free tutorial, just like the Pirate Sword and Pirate Eye Patch ones I've recently published but will be published on our fabulous new website Uniquely UK and is a really fun little Halloween craft that your kids will adore.

The Witch Mask Pattern is also available at my NEW Craftsy Shop :-D

The three masks are also going to be on sale next week at the absolutely GORGEOUS boutique in Glasgow, Rowdy Roddy Vintage

 So if you are nearby, why not pop in and say hello to the lovely lovely lovely Jolyne (who I met at the Mumpreneur UK Awards the other week) and check out all the wonderous goodies inside!

Think that's Halloween just about taken care of now... Off to bake a cake or 3 for my daughter's 5th Birthday on Monday!

Have a great weekend and make sure you pop over to Handmade Monday to check out some other fabulous blogs!

Mumpreneur UK Awards Ceremony

Afternoon all :-)

Thank you SO much for all your support last week when I blogged to say that I'd been selected as a finalist for the Best International Trader at the Mumpreneur UK Awards this year!

I was really really really pleased to have got as far as the finals and to add to that excitement I got some lovely press coverage about it too which I blogged about midweek (although of course, being a woman, I hate the picture they used - but Patrick was happy!!)

So the awards ceremony was held yesterday in Birmingham, in the Holiday Inn, which was a lovely hotel inside, despite looking a bit less than salubrious from the outside!

Me by the entrance stand

Brian came with me as moral support (and to stop me from getting lost as I notoriously have no sense of direction!) and although he was a little dubious about the usefulness of the day (not being a small business owner and not someone who's into networking at all) but he quickly decided it had definitely been worth us coming, even if I didn't win.

We sat at a table with some lovely people... Jolyne from Rowdy Roddy Vintage & her husband Richard who'd come down from Glasgow yesterday morning (and I thought we had an early start!) and who's shop was up for the "Best Green Company" award. Fiona Hatton from The PR Garden and Sara Kennaugh from Counting Sheep

We had some amazingly inspirational speakers during the morning - Hazel Cushion from Accent Press, Ben Blackman from Very Nice Things and Anna Kennedy from Anna Kennedy Online

One thing that stood out from all of them, was not only did they not feel that they were anything special, but that they all genuinely felt that all the delegates there were seriously impressive people, managing to run businesses and families at the same time. It's one thing to hear that from your own friends and family, but to hear someone you don't know saying it and meaning it, really made me feel empowered, strong and determined.... I really feel like I've achieved something impressive and I might actually start taking some notice when people tell me now!!

There was a lovely lunch and the bar was open - hurrah! And then we had two more very interesting speakers after lunch.... and then the moment we'd all been waiting for.... the awards.......

Sadly I didn't win my category, but after all the talking up the speakers had done during the day, all the wonderful and inspiring people I'd met (and having an order placed for 30 of my Halloween masks!) I really truly didn't feel downheartened by not winning. I can honestly say I went home with a smile on my face!

I'm sorry this hasn't been a very visual post - I got too carried away tweeting people yesterday and listening that I forgot to take many photos!

So instead I'll leave you with a picture and link to my very first PDF Pattern for sale in my Etsy Shop - I was terrified of releasing this into the shop, being my first, so I'll be over the moon if I get some sales in the next couple of weeks - given the timing couldn't be better!

I'm off to link up with Handmade Monday and hopefully I'll get to comment on a few more this week! Enjoy!