Craft, Hobby & Stitch International at the NEC

Yesterday was the start of the 2014 CHSI event at the huge and amazing NEC:

I hadn't planned on attending this year, as it's more relevant to retailers, looking for suppliers of craft and stitch products, but I was invited to attend the British Craft Awards, which was being hosted by Immediate Media, who I made the hearts for last week so I thought it would be a good networking opportunity.

I met up with a friend who lives near Birmingham and we had a lovely, child-free, husband-free day, we nattered, shopped, drank copious cups of tea and had a great time!

I stopped by the CRS Fur Fabric stand and bought a small fortune's worth of teddy bear making materials (guess what'll be coming this way soon?!) and also some lovely ribbon from Unitrim which I'm really excited about getting my hands on!

I also had a very exciting conversation with a lady who manufactures soft toy kits.... but more of that to come soon (hopefully!)

The awards ceremony was a lovely event:

The awards were mainly for retailers, best retail websites, best gadgets and most useful products, etc but it was hosted in a conference room just up from the main hall the exhibition takes place in, there was a lovely buffet and free bar laid on and the amazing Singing Waiters who had us all in stitches!

For me this was just a nice extra at the end of a good day at the show and a bit of gentle networking, which is always useful.

All in all, a great day.

Oh, and I nearly forgot... the rest of the hearts that I made for Immediate Media!!

All packaged up, ready for the postie :-)

I might be a little quiet for the rest of the week as it's half term and we're out everyday (trying to keep my little monsters busy and wear them out!) so have a lovely week everyone!

Hearts for Craftseller's owner Immediate Media

Well, I had a very exciting moment on Thursday when I responded to a post that I'd seen CraftSeller Magazine's Facebook page:

So I emailed Jane straight away and was delighted to receive a reply within the hour saying, yes please, they'd love me to make the hearts!!

Yay!

So I immediately had a panic... 50 hearts in 5 days, I could manage that, right? Er, lets hope so!

I wanted to make them a bit more exciting than just gingham so (having first confirmed that they were happy for me to be more adventurous!) I set about creating my hearts.

These are the first 3 designs:

I'm really pleased with them so far, although they're SO fiddly to make as they're only 6cm by 6cm!

This is what the backs look like:

They're taking quite a long time, but definitely worth doing right as they'll be going to advertisers and agencies that Immediate Media work with as part of a promotion for Craftseller, which is very exciting as it means my little hearts will be heading out to all sorts of different companies and will also be passing under the eyes of the editor of Craftseller and the other crafty publications that Immediate Media run.

Normally I try not to work too much at the weekend, so I can spend time with my husband and my kids, but this weekend my lovely husband has taken the kids out for a day of fun (which I'm secretly jealous of missing out on) so I can crack on.... So I suppose I'd best go and make sure I have lots to show for my alone-time!

Have a good weekend xxx

PS. I've already had an enquiry about turning these little beauties into Pincushions, so keep an eye on the Etsy Shop and the Uniquely UK website for them!

Sewing for my Kids

When I first started sewing, I made loads of things for my kids. Since it's become my day job, I make less and less for them, which I constantly feel guilty about, especially when they ask if every pretty, brightly coloured object is for them!

So this weekend I did some sewing just for them, and just because I could.

Seren had spotted this gorgeous 'make your own kit' on my Facebook news feed:

From Clara & Macy: Do you fancy a 'get your very own squirrel kit first before they are available anywhere else and at a super marvellous price' kind of offer. You do? Of course you do! 

Okay so I'm offering 20 squirrel kits with a super pre-launch offer of 30% off their usual price of £18. That makes them a mere £12.60. 

P&P is £1 for the UK, £2.50 for Europe, £3.50 for everywhere else.

The lovely Laura from Clara & Macy has designed a new kit which is going on sale soon and this was a chance to get one before they were on general release.

Initially I said no, I wouldn't buy one for Seren as I could make her something similar without needing to spend anything (as I already had the felt, threads & stuffing), but then I thought that a) she said she liked this and copying it would be wrong and b) it would be quite nice to sit with all the things I needed, with the instructions and pattern all worked out for me, by someone else and just do what I was told, rather than trying, reworking, retrying, getting annoyed, leaving it for 2 weeks, coming back to it later.... etc!

So I got the kit. I was thinking maybe Seren could try sewing it herself, but it's a bit too advanced for her (the packaging says 8+ and I think that's about right) Seren is only 5 and although I like to think she's advanced... I didn't want to set her up to fail with something too fiddly.

I was really pleased that when I measured it all out, there was actually enough felt in there to make 2 squirrels, because of course as soon as Patrick saw it, he needed one too!

So here are the two finished squirrels: (Ellie, Seren's one on the left and Bertie, Patrick's one on the right)

Front and back of the squirrels

Irritatingly not as neat as the one on the box!!

The gorgeous packaging the kit came in, including a Clara paper doll and clothes (Seren's claimed that!)

I think the kits are lovely. They do expect a level of experience, not in terms of understanding the instructions, but in terms of getting the finished product looking anywhere near as cute as the one on the box... my first attempt shows Bertie (on the right of the pic above) with very skewiff eyes and not the neatest of stitching. But Ellie (2nd attempt) fared better!

In terms of the time it took me to create these little critters... I started at 5pm on Saturday evening and finished at about 11.30pm the same evening.

As I'd expected, I needed to add more stuffing and a tiny bit of extra brown felt for the second one, but to make one squirrel, there's more than enough of everything you need in the kit and I'd definitely recommend them to anyone who wants something cute and fun to make, without needing a sewing machine or too many fancy stitches.

The other bit of sewing I did was in honour of Chinese New Year and it was to make a couple of dragons on sticks to be taken into school today:

I spotted something similar to this funny little dragony chap on a google search and decided that I could adapt it quite easily to make up a couple of dragons on a Sunday evening... so that's what I did.

The kids loved parading them off into school today and I really enjoyed the stress free experience of making things this week, just to be enjoyed and played with by my two little monsters!

How to - Valentine's Day Felt Card Tutorial

Ohhh it's that smoochy time of year coming up again and so I thought I'd do a fun little no-sew felt tutorial for you.

Here's what we're making:

It's a fairly simple tutorial, so I'm going to put the step by step instructions in the comment field for each photo.

If you're looking for presents to go with your handmade card, have a look in my Etsy Shop and also at Uniquely UK for masses of gorgeous pressie ideas!

Obviously you can change the slogan, but as it's supposed to be a jigsaw puzzle I chose 'We are a perfect fit!'

Materials:

Card (I had a pre-fold card in my stash, but you can always fold in both ends to meet like a door)
Thick red felt (if you want to make your felt thicker you can glue two layers together but it doesn't matter if it's thinner felt)
Paper
Pencil
Ruler
Red Pen
Glue

Instructions:

1. All the materials you'll need

Fold the piece of paper in half and draw half a heart shape as shown

Cut out the heart shape (with the paper folded over so you have a perfect heart shape)

Using your pencil, draw around the heart onto the felt.

Draw a jigsaw shape into the heart. I went straight down the middle, but you can do it in any shape and on any angle you like.

Cut the heart into two pieces according to your jigsaw line

Draw around the jigsaw line, using one side of the paper template (it doesn't matter which you use)

The trickiest bit is to cut out the heart and cut the jigsaw line into the shape keeping both sides looking perfect... small cuts and take it slowly is the best advice.

Your cut out heart should look like this when placed back together.

Using your paper heart, work out where to draw your lines on the card (you may need more or less lines, depending on what you want to say)

Write your message in pencil first, to make sure it fits on ok.

Go over the pencil writing with your red pen.

Then stick your heart onto either side of the card, so when it's closed, the heart fits together.

If you don't want to use a card like the one above with two doors, you can use a standard folded piece of card and either stick the heart pieces together, or just apart to make the jigsaw shape more obvious.

When the red pen is dry, rub out the pencil marks and you're done :-)

I hope you all have a very Happy Valentine's Day!

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!

Belated Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!!

Sorry it's a little late, but as with everything, when you have two over excited kids underfoot, nothing quite gets done on time.

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas - we were visiting family in London and Hampshire and then came back for New Year, which we had at home, with friends over (for that, read: too much food & booze and not enough sleep!)

Presents with their cousin at the Great Grandparents' house

Meeting Santa (again!)

Patrick modelling one of his pressies at Grandad's on Christmas Morning

Seren modelling a pressie at Grandad's house on Christmas Morning

I didn't take any pictures on New Year's Eve, but I do have a link to the fabulous recipe I used for our 'grown up' meal (once the kids were in bed)

We were given two pheasants by our local pub landlord, plucked, gutted and frozen... so initially I thought I'd just put them into the casserole whole, but there were some sharp shards of bone already sticking out, so I decided to joint them. Well. That was a whole saga on it's own! But 2 plasters, lots of swearing and an hour and a half later, two jointed pheasants!

I meant to do all the prep and cooking the day before, so that it had time to settle, but of course, I ran out of time (for that read: I drank too much to remember to take the damn birds out of the freezer!) so had to cook them on the morning of New Year's Eve. Still, the meal was delicious!

I added an apple, cored and chopped and some leaks and served it with just crusty bread as we'd already had a starter and had pudding, I didn't want everyone too sleepy after an enormous meal!

The kids are (thankfully) back to school on Monday, so I can get back to some kind of routine and some desperately needed sewing time as I have orders piling up!

Keep your eyes peeled here as the first Spring Patterns will be going on sale next week!

Creating Felt Baby Mobiles

As regular readers of this blog will know, I have joined with a group of other UK based artists, designers and creators to try and highlight the quality of Handmade products in this country. The new website is called Uniquely UK

We have started a blog, to try and raise the profile of the site and I recently wrote a piece about the process of creating a bespoke item for a customer.

The item in question was 3 enormous cloud baby mobiles, definitely the largest things I'd ever tackled!

If you want to hear more about the steps I went through to get to this point of having a 3.5 foot wide cloud hanging in the only room in my house with a high enough ceiling to take a decent photo, have a read here

Tutorial: How to Ladder Stitch - The Secret to Hidden Sewing

I've been thinking about how good demonstrating ladder stitch would be for my first video tutorial and for anyone who's seen my Facebook posts this week will know that I've been manically producing large rainbow coloured raindrops for a collection of huge baby mobiles that are due to be sent off tomorrow to The States.

So I've created the following video to show how to sew up a stuffed object (such a soft toy, a cushion, part of a baby mobile like this) without your stitches showing. Ladder stitch is a wonderful took, that once learnt will make all your stuffed plush creations look so much more professional.

 

 Feel free to leave any comments below, especially if you have any questions. Hopefully as I get more practice at making video tutorials they'll get a bit more professional too!

 Thanks for watching :-)

One Pitfall of Running a Small Business - Scam Artists

This blog post isn't a happy one really, although thankfully in neither experience did I lose any money, but I wanted to share a couple of potential scams that have been tried on me in the last couple of months.

The first was a lady who contacted me from a shop abroad, wanting to buy a large quantity of my products for her shop.

I was suspicious from the start because she only chose items that appear on my gallery page:

Which I thought was a bit odd as there's so many different things in my shop, but the one thing that wasn't listed at the time was the 'Specs' case.

However initially I couldn't see where the scam was, so I cautiously went along with it, got very quietly excited and started panicking about how I was going to fulfill this mammoth order!

The scam appeared when the buyer announced that her shipping company, who already had some of her goods from another small business, needed paying by me because of a problem at their end accepting her credit card using their machine and she did not use PayPal, so wanted me to pay the shipping company £300 which she would reimburse me.

It's such a ridiculously small amount in some way, but obviously to a small company that is a large amount of money.

This situation in itself did not upset me overly as I knew it sounded too good to be true really and I was just glad to be able to move on.

However the second one really has upset me.

A lady called, ostensibly from a children's charity, asking if I'd like to place an ad in their magazine, which is published quarterly. As it was a local (or so I thought) charity, I said yes and the fee was £100 plus VAT, which again, although quite a large amount for my business, was something that I felt comfortable doing given that it was advertising and it was helping a local children's charity.

When it came down to it though, it turns out that this is not a real charity and although they would have sent me a copy of the first quarter's 'magazine' - it is not actually published and distributed anywhere else!

I found a number of forums where people had experienced this whole scenario from start to finish, dating back to Feb 2010, all for the same alleged charity.

Again, I was lucky in that I found out before I'd parted with any money, but I am absolutely disgusted. I am quite a trusting person by nature and I know sometimes I need to be more cynical, but a children's charity?!

I really don't want to have to be the sort of person who goes into every situation doubting the truth and validity of people who approach me, but at the same time, not only could it be potentially very costly, but also such a waste of my time, giving thoughts & putting groundwork into these situations.

Anyway. This is the first post of this type I've done, but I thought it was worthwhile as there are bound to be other people who have already or will be approached by these despicable individuals and it's not something I'd really given any thought to in terms of being a business owner.

I'm going to cheer myself up now with some Terry's Chocolate Orange and a Cuppa, whilst reading everyone else's Handmade Monday posts. Hopefully more cheery news from me in the next post!

Crafty Christmas Tutorial Link Up - Free Christmas Tutorials & DIYs

Remember how I said that my Gingerbread Man Felt Gift Tag Tutorial was part of a link up?

Well I've got the details of all the other fantastic tutorials that make up the link up!

The Lovely Laura (BugsandFishes) has put together 30 amazing looking tutorials for you guys to have some crafty fun with over the festive period this year!

Mosaic A

Mosaic B

The links to the individual tutorials can be found on Laura's blog or you can follow the links here, but you'll need to refer back to the 2 mosaic pics above.

(Links for mosaic A)

Felt House Gift Tag Holder – I ManuFatti

Christmas Trinket Hoop Mobile – Carina’s Craft Blog

Felt Polar Bear Ornament – La Creature and You

Christmas Hoop – Claire Payne

Embroidered Christmas Mug Rug – Button Button

Polymer Clay Star Ornaments - Saraccino

Knitted Christmas Stockings Garland – Knit Me a Cake

DIY Christmas Ribbon – Adventures & Tea Parties

Embroidered Mistletoe Ornament – Bugs and Fishes

Scented Salt Dough Ornaments – Retro Delicious

Crochet Christmas Tree Decorations – Homemade@MyPlace

Christmas Cross Stitch Raccoon Ornament – Hugs are Fun

Polymer Clay Christmas Tree – Little Creatures

Christmas Wish-List Felt Envelope - Jumbleberries

Felt Christmas Tree Toy – Pinwheels and Stories

(Links for mosaic B)

Let it Snow Embroidery Pattern – A Little Happy Place

Festive Wanderers Embroidery Pattern – Unexpected Kitty

Festive Felt and Fabric Coasters – Betz White

Holiday Ribbon Pillow – Mrs. Saint Nick

Felt Gingerbread Man Gift Tag – Grace’s Favours (ME!!)

Crochet Christmas Star Jar Covers – Dinki Dots

Edible Christmas Ornaments – Hydrangea Girl

Cross Stitch Christmas Trees – Made by Mrs M

Secret Love Letter Christmas Gift Tag – Crafts of Texture

Applique Love Christmas Card – Halcyon Threads

Christmas Mini Mitts – The Crimson Rabbit

Felt Reindeer Ornament – Pickle-Lily

Christmas Carousel – Aura Verde Crafts

Embroidered Christmas Stocking Ornament - Cocojude

Stencilled Christmas Embroidery Hoop - Angharad

Phewey.... that is a LOT of crafty goodness! 

I hope you get to visit some of these fab sites and would love to see any gift tags that you make using my tutorial!

Happy Crafting!