How to get started with your Google+ Business Page

I've just set up my Google+ Grace's Favours page and to be honest, I've found it a bit baffling, so I thought I would share my thoughts and do some research to see what other's suggest

In a lot of ways it's very much the same as setting up a business page on Facebook, once you've chosen the type of business that you are, you add profile pictures and some basic information. There's a very good explanation here on Craft Blog UK

Then you need to start getting your page known. I have found this bit harder on G+ than on Facebook as I rarely use G+ for personal socialising, so I don't have the same network on here as I do on FB to promote my new page.

So I started by searching on G+ for pages with the term 'handmade' that immedaitely yielded a number of results. So I followed a number of relevant looking pages and then had a peek at who's in their circles, which lead me to other pages.

However, I want to get my page seen by 'real' people, not just other similar business pages... I've not found any miracle ways to get this done, other than starting to use G+ a bit more frequently, link up with more people I know in real life and get them to do some promoting.

I have been toying with the idea of offering a giveaway but I'm wary of them as every man and his dog seem to run them and I think you probably need to have a relatively good fan base initially.

Good luck to anyone else setting up a page and I'll keep you posted about how I get on!

Updated Website

I've been trying to decide how to go about posting when I've not got much new to share with you... no-one likes a boring blog post, but I've realised it doesn't always have to be about new things that I'm making.

Today I thought I'd share with you my updated website:

I am so much happier to have pictures of all the things I've been creating over the last 10 months as opposed to the old holding pages I originally set up and never got round to changing!

I will probably need nudging though to keep the images fresh, so you'll have to shout at me if I don't do it from time to time!

Calling all winners

Phew - that was a long couple of weeks in the GF household... this was the biggest order to date and it was interesting as I'd not made the items before so I was designing the trophies as I went along (I know, I know... I'm supposed to design it, make a prototype, modify the designs and then begin full scale production - but I only had 2 weeks!)

Here are some pics of the trophies before I packaged them up to take down to the event:

The full collection - 14 in total

A Large Summer Tree Trophy

A Small Autumn Tree Trophy

A Small Winter Tree Trophy

A Small Summer Tree Trophy

A Small Spring Tree Trophy

Back of each one had a label with Grace's Favours details

A Large Autumn Tree Trophy

I decided to make the trees in the 4 seasons to give a bit of variation and as the company who placed the order is called Black Sheep Sports, there was a little black sheep on each trophy!

Now onto some smaller orders from my Etsy shop and then another large order to complete, this time for a soon-to-be-open shop in Scarborough!

So Many Ideas... So Little Time

Just a quickie today... I am still working merrily on my little forest of trees (see previous post) which need to be finished by the end of Friday! Eek!

I'm really enjoying this custom order, it's been a lovely challenge, to come up with something completely different and I'm excited about seeing the finished product - pics shared here first :-)

It is a little frustrating though as I've got SO many ideas kicking around my head for Halloween goodies, Baby Mobiles, Christmassy things and more... I can't wait to get started on them!

However, before all of that, I'm very excited as I've been contacted by a lovely lady through my Etsy shop as she's in the process of setting up a children's boutique full of exlusive handmade British products and she'd potentially like to stock my London Bus:

 The full listing can be found here
So keep your fingers crossed that the 'Ole Routemaster makes it through the selection stage!

Can't see the Wood for the Trees!

So, last week, just as I was getting well and truly stuck into the idea of Christmas crafting and concentrating on all things cold & snowy… I got an order from a good friend of mine Trev, to make 14 trophies for a triathlon that he runs every year at the end of August. It’s called The Big Woody (actually there are two, with the smaller version called The Little Woody) so all the trophies needed to be based on a tree theme!

I love the fact that Black Sheep Sports (the company my friend Trev runs) like to hire local people to make the trophies each year and am so proud that this time they’ve asked me!

Would y’all like a sneak peek of the trophies? Course you would!

3 stages of creation... trunk, leaves & writing

Summer Tree

Autumn Tree - this is my favourite colour combo!

The races take place a week on Saturday, so I can see that my sleep to coffee ratio is going to fall dramatically for the next week and a half!

I also have a Charity Fun Day at The Crown in Coleway (Forest of Dean!) that I’m attending this coming weekend, but will have to rely on the stock I had left over from the last fayre I did as I won’t have time to make any more… as I’m sharing my stall with a friend I’m not too worried as I’m sure between us we’ll have plenty of stock!

Oh and one more thing (I always feel rather like Columbo whenever I say that!) thought  you might like to see the finished Snowman stocking:

They’re now being listed in my Etsy shop

Christmas is coming....

I know, I know, it's a little early, but you all know that I've been thinking about and working on some Christmas Goodies for a while now and in fact this latest batch of new items have been prompted by the same, very organised and very lovely Etsy customer. He was my first customer on Etsy last Autumn, ordering 2 stockings and now would like 3 more, this time for family, including a more exciting looking stocking for the baby, so here's a sneak peek:

More photos to follow once it's all finish :-)

Craft Fair

It turns out that I was a little (teensy, weensy) bit stressed before the Orchard Trust Summer Fayre last weekend... I know this because as soon as it was over I stopped shouting at my nearest and dearest. Oops. The Fayre was a fantastic event though, attended by hundreds of people, far more than I expected (given how worried I was about not doing well at it, it's probably just as well I didn't know it would be that big!) and I had a FANTASTIC afternoon... both in terms of enjoyment & also business!

The day didn't start out too well weather-wise... half an hour before I had to go and set up the rain was coming down in sheets and bouncing up so high it was hitting our windows! But then, glorious sunshine for the rest of the day... and here are some pics of my stall all set up:

It was lovely to see some familiar faces - thank you to everyone who came along & supported both the charity & also little old me :-)

I've got a stall at a charity Fun Day on Sunday 19th August but I think after that I'll give it a break until the Christmas markets get underway.... it's just too stressful whilst also trying to hold down a part time job, look after the sprogs and fulfill orders!

We also had the excitement of Patrick's 2nd Birthday last week and his party on Saturday - great fun was had by all, especially when it came to the eating of the cake:

Prolonged Holiday...

So if everything had gone according to plan I would have been writing this post on Sunday, waiting for my Dad to arrive for a couple of days (to celebrate the little man's 2nd Birthday) as we would have arrived back from holiday on Saturday afternoon... everything would be unpacked & washed and I'd be nicely relaxed. Instead it's Tuesday and none of that is done! Just as we were packing up on Friday night, Brian looked at the tickets and discovered that he'd inadvertently booked us tickets home for Sunday, not Saturday!! Oops! Still an extra day's holiday is all good :-)

We had a wonderful time in Ireland... the weather was, as always, mixed, but the kids enjoyed the rainy days as much as the sunny ones. It was great to catch up with not only Brian's close family, but also some cousins who we often don't get to see, as we headed out West to a friend's wedding and luckily for us it was very close to a number of Brian's cousins and a couple of mine, so we caught up with almost all of them in one weekend - hectic :-)

Seren had her first trip to the cinema while we were away (to see Ice Age 4 - I enjoyed it too!) and she LOVED it :-) It was such a pleasure to take her and spend some quality time as Mummy & Daughter on our own (Patrick is definitely still too young to sit still or quietly for long enough!)


The most popular things though, were the 1st of the 3 birthday cakes to celebrate Patrick's 2nd Birthday, playing at the beach & playing with their big cousins:

  

And while you might think I did nothing except for relaxing I can assure you I was busy busy busy - making this lot:

All of these are for the Summer Fayre that I'm attending this coming Sunday:

We're all going on a summer holiday...

.... Okay, now I'm showing my age with that title aren't I?!?! (Or I could just blame it on my Mum's love of Sir Cliff!)

We're off to Ireland tomorrow to visit my lovely 'out-laws' (don't quite know why my hubby's wonderful parents have always been called that, but it's stuck now!) and I honestly don't know who is more excited... me & Brian or the kids :-)

Brian & his brother Tony braving the sea last summer

Seren & Patrick refusing to leave the blanket!

I've got a ton of sewing to take with me as I'm doing a summer fate when we get back - anyone local to the Forest of Dean if you're around on Sunday 29th July we'd love it if you'd pop in and say hello. I've been so busy with orders that I've not had much chance to build up stock for things like this (which is great in one sense!) so this fortnight is going to be a nice change for me.

The other thing I've been working on this week (and it was a last minute request, so scuppered my chances of blogging for an evening or two!) was a Christmas Wreath which had been asked for by the Etsy UK Publicity team for their 'Christmas in July' event, which is held to promote a select number of UK based Etsy shops to journalists and publicity types in the hope that they will use some of the items in their festive shopping guides!

I was OVER THE MOON to be asked to participate and this morning I sent off my Christmas Wreath:

It is listed in my Etsy shop already because a lovely customer asked me in May (I dream of being that organised!) to put together a wreath for him to send to family in America and I am so pleased now that it was done in time to get into the Christmas marketing timescales.

The other thing that's been quite fun this week has been an order of rainbow VW Campervans:

Lastly I just wanted to finish with an apology... when I started this blog I intended to write a new post at least 2-3 times a week... well I've failed miserably on that score. So my mid-year resolution is to post more often when we get back from holiday (starting with the pre-requisite holiday snaps!)

Hope you have a good couple of weeks with some sunshine!!

Guest Tutorial - How to Make Gift Bags from Upcycled Greetings Cards

I was approached a couple of days ago by a lovely chap who wanted to know if I'd be interested in hosting a guest tutorial written by a friend of his... it was a really nice surprise to find that my blog is starting to get found amongst all the other fantastic craft blogs out there :-)

So, here for your delectation (and I will DEFINITELY be saving all our birthday cards from now on!) is the Tara's great tutorial:

If you’re anything like me you will have stacks of old greeting cards gathering dust in the back of a cupboard or under your bed. And let’s face it you are never going to read them again so why not do something useful with them and create a gift bag? It’s easy so let’s get started.

What you need:

Selection of old greetings cards

Template (I used the one from this site)

Scissors

Holepunch

Cellotape/Stapler/Glue

Ruler

Ribbon/bottons (optional) 

Print the template out on A3 paper or larger depending on the size you want your bag/box to be. If you want to make a box you will need all the tabs but tabs H and G aren’t necessary for a gift bag.

Decide on the theme of you bag/box and discard any cards or sections of a card that can’t be used. 

Cut around the template and lay on a flat surface. Make a note of the measurements for each section and then use those measurements to cut out accurate shapes from the cards. Make the side pieces (D) an extra 1cm wider so you can fold them later on. Choose your designs carefully, particularly for sections B, C and both D’s because these will be visible once the bag/box is finished.

Take both side pieces (D) and fold them in half vertically. This will form the crease in the side of the gift bag. Draw two lines at each end, forming a triangle. Use scissors to score these lines.

 Lay all the card pieces facedown and carefully begin to attach them together using Cellotape. Try not to overlap the pieces. Instead allow several layers of Cellotape to join the sides together. The flexibility of the Cellotape will allow all the pieces to fold easily.

 Once all sections are joined the bag/box will begin to take shape. Put Cellotable or glue on tab A and fold it over, attaching the sides together, forming an open ended box. If you are making a box avoid gluing this end tab because it forms the opening of the box; instead just close both ends instead using tabs E, F, G and H.

Close the bottom (and the top if you are making a box) using Cellotape or glue. You now have your gift bag. Fold the sides to make the bag a better shape.

Use the holepunch to make holes for the handles, which you can make from ribbon. I plaited ribbon but this isn’t necessary. Feed the ribbon through the holes or attach with a stapler. 

Note: If you don’t have any ribbon you can use another greeting card to make beads. Draw vertical lines on an opened card – gradually getting wider. Cut along the lines and then roll from the wider end. Use glue or Cellotape to attach the thin end to the coil. This effect creates a bead like shape and you can feed these onto string.

You can tidy up the bag and hide any Cellotape that might be visible by adding extra detail like ribbon or buttons.

Tag – This part is the easy bit. Find a card with something pretty on, cut out the section you want, hole punch just one hole and make a loop using ribbon or string.

Attach the tag to the bag and then all you need is a present to fill it and a greeting card. You can even buy these without leaving the house – just visit a site like Hallmark and get personalised greeting cards to go with your personalised bags!

                             

 And there you have one gorgeous handmade gift bag! I'm so glad Tara decided to share this fab tutorial with us - I hope it inspires some creative pressies this summer :-)

If you want to get in touch with Tara, you can find her on Twitter - Tara West