Dee's Craft Den
The Crafty Crafters Blog Cards Scrapbook and recycled paper crafts
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Wednesday, 15 January 2025
Trashing my Stash Project 2
Saturday, 11 January 2025
FIRST CLEAN-UP PROJECT
New Year New Ideas
These were then finished with ribbon and/or gems.
I then finished off with a last card made from strips of papers left over and another sticker added to a piece of card.
So from 6 cards from the set and 12 basic cards, 6 sheets of A4 papers and a few of the stickers plus a few gems I managed to make 18 cards. I have about 15 sheets of papers and 6 strips of stickers ( all the stickers are flowers and small fairy tags, with corners and ribbon strips etc) which I have popped into the charity bag..
Thursday, 9 January 2025
New Year New Outlook
Trashing my Stash
Mini books made from one sheet of 12 x 12 and decorated on the front with a recycled card |
The notepad was made using a small card with folded paper from my craft stash. I always keep any copy paper that is approximately A5 or larger and make notepads with them. These can be the leftover from scrapbooks, or the other half the page when I print postage labels. As I sell on ebay (5170 Denise) I gather up quite a few sheets, and they are just right for this project. The folder is made from a 12 x 12 paper, this is actually “The 12 days of Christmas by Crafters Companion” which I had completely over purchased when it was on offer. I am selling a couple of pads and decided to blitz the remaining sheets.
Sunday, 5 January 2025
Craft Fair RoundUp
Christmas Craft Fairs
Hello everyone. It’s been a while since my last post as I have been busy with 4 November Craft Fairs and life in general.
I thought I would finish 2024 off with a round up and look back at the year of crafting, what worked at the Craft Fairs and what did not sell so well.
So over the year I did 6 local craft fairs. The furthest I travel for a fair is 30 miles (45mins) from where I live. The shows are small local events mainly church and village hall affairs . The table prices range from £15 for 2hours to £10 for 10-3.30, so a very different mix. Three of the fairs run in my home town and are the 10 - 3.30, all day fairs, for £10 a table, but the results are very different during the year.
Christmas fairs are more consistent and generally better sales, but i like to take part in different venues during the year, even with low turnover for the day, as it is an opportunity to trial new makes and talk to customers and fellow crafters. You can see new trends and hear about other crafters successes.
As this was my first full year selling my bags I decided to keep a note of sales and stock movement, and compare the venues. To make a comparison I took into account the travel time and length of the fair, as well as the cost of the table.
The result was surprising with a 2 hour Christmas Craft fair coming in at over double the revenue of the other fairs.
Next I looked at the best selling items:
This was a surprise result. The highest selling item were my homemade cards, as I had only taken them to the Christmas fairs, to trial 2 new designs (Star cards, and Tag cards) I was really pleased with the 50 sales, which resulted in the 2nd highest revenue .
No 1: - were the brooches in jewellery pouches. These were packaged as a gift idea. You choose a brooch and a jewellery pouch for £5.
No 2 : I have been trying several different bags over the past 18 months, and this year the craft bag was the best selling bag, this is a wide tote with 4 outside pockets. I sold 8 with a total revenue of £53.
Tuesday, 10 September 2024
New Tote Bag
New Bag Inspired by the fabric
Back to Christmas crafting for now.
Happy Crafting
Dee
Sunday, 8 September 2024
Letting the Fabric decide the project
New small tote bag for a little
Friday, 6 September 2024
Getting Ready for the Christmas Fairs
Christmas Shopping Bags
- I had six already cut for me to make and it took about 1.5hours to make up.
- First I prepared the embellishment and sewed it onto the outside fabric
- Then I made the handles and placed them onto either end of the outer fabric
- Next I sewed my label onto the lining fabric
- I then sewed the lining to the the outer fabric top and bottom only
- The joined fabric is then pulled out and the top and bottom pieces lined up at thr sides so that the outer fabric is one side and the lining the other side.
- I sew down the 2 long sides leaving a gap in the middle of the lining on one side only, making sure the gap is not too far down and has left room for the corners to be cut out.
- From the four corners I cut a 2.5inch square, allowing for the side seams
- These corners are then pulled open and and matching up the centres I sew across then making sure to back sew well either end.
- Then using the gap I turn the bag out, sew up the gap and push the lining back into the bag.
- Lastly I set the stitch length for topstitching and sew all around the top of the bag to finish it nicely.
I need to pack my sewing machine away for a few days to tidy up a little, but I will be thinking about my next makes very soon.