New Projects

Well I'm all ready for Christmas and this week is fairly clear of work and Christmas preparation. So I have been busy with some craft projects. One project was something I meant to start in the summer holidays but I have only just managed to get round to completing them. I was programming my bead cube this morning to fire some coasters that have been over glazed painted. Unfortunately the kiln is so tiny I can only fire one at a time so I either have to fire every day or twice a day. When they are fired I will take photos and show them off after Christmas  I can't show them before as they are gifts for my parents. 

But in the mean time I can show you another new project I have underway. 

These Green-men are Cloth Doll decorations, I bought a pattern from Colleen Babcock and they were very fun to make. I loved needle sculpting the faces and as you can see not one has the same face, which I like. Now there is only one thing, my sewing machine, its fifteen years old and apart from problems with the tension it does the job. But when I use it it smells like, well the only way to describe it is the smell of a party popper or a Christmas cracker when popped or snapped. So I think it may have had its day and its time to replace it. So you may see more of the cloth dolls from me in the new year. 

Christmas Robins

I have made Christmas decorations for sale this year.  Well not surprisingly they are made from glass. So my ETSY shop has glass Fairies, Angels, Snowmen and Robins.The Robins are in a brilliant Christmas Robin treasury by Nicola Dawber on ETSY.  Which is HERE if you want to have a look. Well as expected I had to have a go at making Elf Robins, I had great fun painting  them and sewing the eyes and beaks on the felt hats. I have a feeling you may see a few more bird and animal Elves next year.

Christmas Fairs and Something New

Its the Christmas Craft Fair season and I've just done my first one of two that I do every year. I only attend one or two Fairs at Christmas mainly because of family life and they are hard work. The Fair is admittedly the easy part, it is all the preparation before the Fair, pricing stock, checking stock , making new stock, printing out signs, sorting out displays and much more. Then I get to the fair and find the Body Shop or Pampered Chef nearby, which is frustrating but I will blog about that another time. 

So as I mentioned I've made new stock for the Fair, I have made some new Elves and the wooden Pig above which has been turned into a Blackboard  / Chalkboard. I had made some Chickens in the summer but they sold out completely, and I have ordered more so keep and eye out for some Chickens in the not to distant future. 

Halloween Elves

Yes its getting to that time of year again and I have made some Halloween Elves that have already been listed on Etsy. I had great fun with them, I already had the BOO! elves and the vampire elf Bite Me listed on Etsy. 

I thought it would be a good idea to make some more.  Well I had to make another vampire naturally but I didn't want to make wire wings as they can be a bit annoying to fix on. After a lot of thinking I settled on a design and made Count Dracula. I loved making him especially the bloody mess around his face and his cloak looks great even if it was a bit tricky to get it to stick on. 

I couldn't just leave it at the Count so I made a family set called the O'Lanterns, pumpkin elves.  Again I was so pleased with them as they turned out really well, also they seem to be popular on Etsy having been featured in a few treasuries. 

 Now I need to make a few beads and charms and make some Halloween Jewellery. Then it will be Christmas but as I have a few elves ready I have already started listing them on Etsy, which for me is unusually early especially as we haven't celebrated Halloween yet.

Busy Busy

 I wish I had a few more hours in the day to fit everything in its been a busy time. So I decided the other week to close down my Folksy shop and reopen with a new marketplace called Craft Cafe It does seem like a nice place.
Today I have realised apart from not blogging for a long time I haven't told you all about my new website. Its called the Creep Crew and it combines some of my Storm Glass Beads and some of the Cornish Dragon Gifts. I have made a couple of Elves to go on there and I will be making more beads etc.

I have been having some fun with the Elves this time, I made a couple of Knight and Princess sets, both have new homes now.

Thats it for now as I have to get to the post office to send some Elves to a new home. 

Office Work

I wish I could sit and create all day but in order to sell my work there is a certain amount of office work I need to do. I usually do the office work if the weather is so bad like this week cold and very very wet or it just needs doing.

So what does my office work consist of, well mainly it is taking photos of jewellery, beads, elves etc. then uploading them to the computer to edit them. Some get uploaded to Flickr, posted to forums and used for selling like in my ETSY listings which then I pin to my Pinterest boards. 

Blogging is part of my office work as it is part of my self promotion getting my name out there so people get to know me and what I do. That also means I have to update my Facebook page and of course Tweet.

I also have a side where I want to help out others, like recently I made my first Squidoo lens on Jewellery Parties, I could have written it on here I know but I thought I would give it a try. I hope to add to that lens with a few more hopefully about display, craft fairs, etc. I include going on to the forums I'm a member of as part of my office work, well it is a bit lonely working for yourself and going on the forums helps.

Office work doesn't just include the above its the accounts as well, and possible my favorite part, ordering. Yes ordering glass, beads, metal and elf bodies is all part of the office work. So for now I had better get on and update my other blog and order some glass and go and chat to some lovely crafters on my favorite forums. 

Giveaway Winner

Thank you everyone who took the time to leave great comments. The Elves will continue as they are perhaps not so many plain ones.

So to the bit you are all waiting for, yesterday evening I put all the names in a bowl and blindfolded   the girlie and she picked out ...........................

                        Awrylemming

Congratulations and the Elf and Bead will be in the post to you. 

Beach Huts to a Street.

The creative process is a fun one, anything can spark it, a word, music, colour, photos, the list is endless. I have been fascinated by Jo Walker, a fellow Craft Pimp Forum member and part of the forum team on ETSY, and how she has been inspired to make the lovely creations below.

First she was inspired by beach huts to make these lovely and original lampwork beads.

But it didn't stop there, Jo created these beauties in copper & silver.

Then a street developed, including a castle.

Well I just had to treat myself so I'm the proud owner of one of Jo's houses. It has been interesting seeing the creative development from making the lampwork beach huts to the houses. I'm looking forward to see what type of house she will make next. 

Have a look at her shop on ETSY to see more.

 Studio Jewellery by Jo. 

Its a giveaway

Yes I have decided to have a giveaway on the blog, now you have to do a little work for me, don't worry its nothing to bad just need a little marketing advice.
As you may know I make cute little Elves and some of those are in my ETSY shop, I love making them but I really want to concentrate on making limited edition ones a bit like these.

So my Question is: Should I keep making the Elves and just Limited Editions?

So for the chance to win an Elf and one of my Lampwork beads just leave a comment below, you have until Sunday 22nd April 2012 and I'll put all the names in a hat and announce the lucky winner on Monday 23rd. 

This is what you could win.

 

Good Luck. xxx

Sorry

Well I was supposed to be keeping up with this blog, eek slapped wrist for me. Anyway I set up a Twitterfeed last night and I was a bit tired and ended up with all the posts tweeted. Never mind it was fun rereading a few posts. I've added a widget to the blog so you can see my tweets and there is a link if you want to follow me.

So the next post is the important one, so make sure you look you could win something from me.

Book Binding Tutorial

As you may have read on an earlier post I mentioned my new craft Book Binding. I made this fabric covered book as a gift for a friend.

I was trying to find a tutorial for it but I couldn't really find anything close to how I made this one, so I have written my own. This is my first Tutorial so I hope I cover everything clearly.

Materials:

A5 thick card i.e. grey board / mount board, I used Tim Holtz grunge board.

Fabric, if the fabric is thin I would interface it, and ensure you have about a cm all round to glue inside for neat edges.

Ribbon

Paper

Inside cover paper or card

Thread, ordinary thread is fine just check you can pull it without it snapping or if wrapped round a finger it will cut of the blood supply, which means it will be strong enough.

Glue, Fabric & PVA.

Ruler

Pencil & Eraser

Sharp Knife

Bone / Paper folder

Needle 

Awl 

How to make the book.

First you will need to cut the spine and the covers from the A5 thick card. The spine I cut measured  2.5 cm wide x 12.5 cm tall, measure this onto the card with a pencil and then cut with the sharp knife. You can then cut the rest of the card in half for the covers or measure and cut. My covers when cut measured 9 cm wide x 12.5 cm tall.

Next spread fabric glue onto the card and place onto the fabric I left a small gap of a few mm between the spine card and covers. If the fabric is thin the glue may come through the fabric it can be gently sponged off when dry but interfacing the fabric may prevent this and also give some strength to the cover. Spread glue on the inside edges of the card and fold the fabric onto the inside, you could cut the corners at a diagonal to get neat corners or glue in on the diagonal first. Turn over to ensure the cover of the book is smooth, if not turn back over and lift up the glued fabric and pull to smooth out the front. Leave to dry.

While the cover is drying it is time to cut the inside cover paper and the paper for the individual booklets. To get the measurement needed I measured the width of the book and the whole length, I then adjusted this to show the fabric around the edges. 

Cut the paper for the inside cover, mine measured 12 wide/ tall x 20 cm in length.

Next get the paper for the booklets and decided how many pages you will need and how many booklets.  I cut 10 sheets for each booklet so when folded that would give 20 sheets per booklet and had a total of 6 booklets.

Measure out on the paper the width / height of the booklet, I kept the same as the inside cover which was 12 cm, and cut out. 

After cutting all the sheets you need for each booklet fold then in half using the bone / paper folder to give a sharp fold. 

Now you will need to cut the booklets to fit in the cover, I leave this until they have been folded so that all the edges are the same length. Mine measured 8.5 cm.

Now you need to attach the ribbon to the cover, measure how far down and in you would like the ribbon, and make a mark. Measure the width of the ribbon and draw a pencil line on the mark the width of the ribbon. Now cut the mark with the sharp knife through the card, turn the card over and neaten the cut through the fabric. Push the ribbon through the hole, it might need a push through, and attach it to the inside with glue, I also use some tape to cover the ribbon to be more secure. Cut the ribbon to the length you require.

Now cover the inside cover paper with glue and place on the card, to complete the cover and leave to dry.

Nearly there. You will need to measure the holes for sewing in the booklets, I made about 4 holes, you can make more or less. Mark this on the spine and them mark holes for all you booklets. Use an off cut of paper the size of your booklets and mark on to this the hole marks. Then use this as a template to mark the holes in the centre pages of the booklets.

Use the awl and make holes in the spine, and through the booklets. 

Thread the needle with an length of thread and sew through the booklet and spine (leave a tail of thread for knotting later). Sew through as may times as you want, I did it twice. Knot the thread together, I used a surgeons knot and cut the thread neat. If you can hide the knot in the holes. Sew in the other booklets in the same way. 

If you find the corners of the cover have curled a bit but the completed book under a heavy weight if needed.

And there you have a completed book.

Blogs and Goals

I have been meaning to recommend a blog to you all, it is written by a local lady who is a writer.
muddy lobster  I love it.

So New Year Resolutions do you make them and then end up breaking them, I used to so I don't make them any more. What I do instead is set myself goals for the year, most of those I set last year I achieved, there are a couple I didn't complete but I made progress on them. I heard someone mention on the radio yesterday about one resolution to loose weight, you expect to loose that weight straight away and you get fed up and then you've broken that resolution. That is a good example where a goal is more attainable. My children have to make resolutions at school and they we struggling so I made up one for them, "No more resolutions to break, but goals that I can make" I expect they won't use it at school but it did make them think.
I haven't set my goals for the year yet but I will do soon, right of to get some mood / inspiration boards up for well inspiration.

New Year and another new craft

eek I have been so busy I haven't updated the blogs oops. So hello 2012 and from the title you may have guessed I'm enjoying another craft. I do hope this one will actually save me money, well sort of lol. I'm hopelessly addicted to stationery, notebooks in particular, my hubby got me some books on book binding and making your own books for Christmas. I was hoping to find the time over the holidays and have a go, but I was having great fun with my children. They went back to school yesterday so I now have the time.

So I made these books in the past couple of days.

The good thing was they didn't take too long to make. The black book is fabric covered, I chose the fabric because of the paper inside the cover, as you can see in this picture.

I found this paper in the box of all my paper and card from when I made cards, It has a lovely red embossed Chinese style pattern with a gold sheen. I then remembered I had some scrap fabric that would go very well. I really enjoyed making them and I will certainly make more, well I have lots of ideas for them so I will need a notebook to write those ideas down.