Covered Journal

 Reusable Covers for your Journals

As a lover of pretty stationary, one of the items I have started to sew for my craft stall, is a fabric Journal Cover. The journal slips into the cover so that when you have filled it up you can slip it out and re-use the cover on the next journal you use. 

 I have then added a decorative closure 

As I enjoy making charm & beaded danglies I have added them to one or two of my Journals.

The two above use the same fabric, one decorated with an elastic fastener with a decorative button.The other one has a printed elastic closure with a large elephant charm.

Both have been made with embroidered fabric.

The third  one also used embroidered fabric with a lovely red flower. On this one I added a beaded dangly I had made from recycled jewellery..

These will be a regular on my stall as I see people using notebooks all the time and I think a lot of people like the action of writing down their daily lives rather than just using their phones and iPads, both of which I have but I find it much easier to look back over my memorable moments when they are written down, so I keep a journal for design and craft ideas, travel-logs and notes from meetings etc.

Back soon with the outcome of my spring fair.

Dee

Another Craft Fair item

 Travel Bag & Makeup Bag

So here are my bag sets for holidays and weekends away. I think they would make great Mothers stay gifts.

The larger bag will hold lingerie , nightwear etc , while the smaller bag is o perfect for makeup 

I have decorated the larger bag with a solid cream tassel .

I have several sets  in a  good choice of fabric patterns.already made and packaged.

Back with another show item tomorrow

Happy Crafting 

Dee

Easter Egg Collecting bags

 More items for the Craft Fair next week

So my machine came out ready to make items for the Craft Fair next week. I had some items to finish and I wanted to make some small bags suitable for Easter egg collecting. 

These bags were made with 2 pieces of fabric 12” x 15”. I used one piece of fabric from my fat quarter stash and I piece from the upholstery fabric end of rolls fabric, as this saved using a stiffener to form the basket. The handles were made from a yarn that is made from recycled cotton called Bobbing. I love it for craft work and purchased it from a shop called  Magpies  in Bideford, when I was visiting North Devon last year. The yarn is strong enough for this type of small bag and is soft enough for little hands.

I added a pocket to the front with a piece of matching “fat Quarter” fabric which was embellished with an Easter Bunny.

These cute baskets will hold enough eggs for anyone to enjoy.

I have made just 5 to try at the Craft Fair. 

Check back soon to hear more about the Craft Fair.

Happy Crafting 

Dee.

Next Workshop

Easter Workshop 

With the new year underway, I am looking forward to trying to work through some of my craft stash. After recycling my Christmas cards, I am moving on to pastures new. 

I have been asked to do a workshop in March and was looking for an Easter based project. Looking at the papers in my stash I decided to offer a gift bag and matching card. The papers were The Paper Tree card pad and to decorate I just love Tim Holtz Leaping Rabbits, for Easter. 

I cut the rabbits from Kraft Card, and used distress inks around the outer edges to give them some colour layers. One of the 3 rabbits in the set was used on the card. I  l cut 2 layers of  the same papers as the bag, with a few strands of string around the top layer, before the rabbit was added to the top 

I

The bag is made using a video from Sam Calcott.

I thought  the bag would be the right size for Easter Egg hunt or for an Easter Gift ..

My problem now is: I have a craft fair coming up at the beginning of March and some sewing to do to make my stock levels up, but now keep seeing paper projects I want to try. So keep watching to see which craft gets my attention 

Happy Crafting 

Dee 

Recycling Christmas Cards

 Recycling My Cards

It’s January and first craft groups of the year are dedicated to recycling the Christmas Cards.

This year I want to sort out my craft materials so having kept my Christmas cards in a ready pile and for speed decided to select a couple of designs and blitz the card making ready to move on. 

This method was helped by the fact that in recent years it has become popular to donate to charity in lieu of giving cards and so I have fewer cards to recycle. 

I started by sorting my cards into those suitable with suitable prints for trees and stars  for the  designs I had decided to make and those that would be re layered into new cards.

My designs were simple:

The first one used A6 cards landscape. I used Pearlie doodles to make a snow landscape in the lower half, then cut tree triangles from the cards using templates made from scrap card. Using 2 sizes of trees I placed one slightly behind the other and then drew a tree trunk at the base. 

Lastly I added the greeting.

Design 2

This was using stars cut from the cards that had appropriate colours or prints.

I cut 2 sizes. On the blank card I stamped a lovely swirl, and added some glitter glue, I use sticklers.  I then added cut out stars to the bottom of the swirl. I mixed it up a little, some had one larger star and some had 2 stars. 

After i used up the stars the remaining cards were used for layering cards and tags 

Everyone knows how to re-use cards by layering them onto fresh blanks so I will just show a couple I have re-used

These have now been put away ready for next Christmas

Here’s to happy crafting in 2024.

Dee

Christmas Craft Fairs & Me

 Christmas Fairs 2023

Hello Crafters

It ‘s been nearly 2 months since my last post, so what has happened and how did  I do at Christmas Fairs, with my new products.

Well as anyone who reads my blogs will know, this has not been a good year for me, and Nov and December continued the trend. My first Christmas Fair was a lovely large one in a country town near Bristol. Run by the Methodist church it is spread over 3 halls and runs from 10-4, with their members supporting the event and coming out from Bristol to buy their Christmas presents. It has in the past been my best event for income and I was looking forward to seeing how my new products went. Unfortunately I had Covid the week before the event and although I was showing clear on the Friday before the event I would not attend as I may pass it on, but also this Covid was totally exhausting and even with a friends help for the day I could not have managed the 10 hour day with the loading, unloading and standing most of the 6 hours of the Fair, so that was the main event of the year gone.

I did a local fair in a neighbouring village in early November and this was to be my only Christmas Fair for 2023. As it only lasted from 10 - 1.30, I had decided I could manage it on my own and set off in time to set up for 10am. All ready and with my table set up with my lovely Christmas pieces I stood at the side of the table happy to converse and show my products. Imagine my horror, when after an hour and a quarter , I had not sold an item. Being an experienced seller I did not let it show, but I was very worried that this could be the first show where I did not sell an item. At times like this you have to put a smile on, look around and see how everyone else is doing and if you can learn anything from their successses. 

The table next to me was a friend I know from Craft group and she was doing reasonably well with her beautifully painted Plant Pots and other items, although from chatting to her (probably not quite up to previous years). Other tables were selling though not in large numbers. 

After the Bell-ringers had performed for 15 minutes or so, I made my first sell. 4 Christmas cards, which whilst not a vast amount, it represented a good sell for me as Christmas cards have become a difficult sell and I had decided only to take my individual cards which I was selling at £1.95 each or 2 for £3.50. So to sell 4 to one customer was very pleasing. Behind this customer another lady came up to the stall picked up 4 of my Christmas shopper bags, and handed me the money without blinking or conversation. This helped my confidence and I continued to make steady sells with a little burst at the end of the day. 

So what did  not sell:-

Surprisingly I did not sell one of the lovely origami boxes filled  with Quality Street and Roses chocolates inside 

Nor did my Fabric Covered Journals, or the wallet Christmas gift bags, large shopper bags or Very disappointing the Worry Worms. 

What did sell:-

Well, as mentioned before my Christmas cards and I sold a few more after the initial sell. 

My Christmas shopper bags went well, and I sold a few Shoe Bags, and 3 more of the Craft Bags which had been my best seller at the Autumn craft fair I attended. 

All in all I sold reasonably well for a half day fair, and if the dates fall right next year I will attend again. I have already booked the larger fair previously mentioned as I feel this will be a good test of my products.

As you know I. Make these items for the fun of it and sell them for Charity. So the disappointment of not being able to attend the larger Christmas Fair meant I had a much smaller amount to give to the local hospital, however this was boosted with money taken at Pawlett Village Hall Coffee morning in December. The committee kindly offered me a table free of charge, as it was for the local hospital. And in the hour I was there I took £53, which meant I am able to add this to the pot.  I was also asked to have a stall at a coffee morning in a nearby parish who were holding the Coffee morning for SURE. Although this was open for 3 hours I only managed to raise £35 form them. This event suffered from the number of events going on in the vicinity, and was not therefore that well attended. At both coffee mornings I did sell items not previously sold such as the origami boxes and the Worry Worms, so it was good for the soul, and you always learn from attending any events, by chatting to customers and event organisers and others attending. 

Mock-up Table for Christmas Craft fair

By the end of the events I had rallied from  the disappointment of missed opportunities and already planning tables for next year. Selecting items to keep in stock and letting go those that do not work so well. I passed on bags and cards to a friends daughter, who sells to colleagues and friends for a Cancer charity, I do this with my paper products that I make and are surplus to requirements, and Sarah recently emailed me to say her sails this year from items I had given her had raised £200. So I am happy with the amount of money raised over the last year for various Cancer charities and the 2 hospitals where my husband received his treatments. 

Crafting is a great comfort and stress releaser, and I would recommend it to anyone facing difficult times. It has certainly helped me get through this year and feel ready to go into 2024 with a little more hope. 

WISHING YOU ALL A HAPPY CHRISTMAS and PEACEFUL NEW YEAR

Dee

Using up Your Stash

 Using up my Stash

As I said in my last post I am sorting through my stash and trying to look at it from the point of view, ‘what would that be best for’ and then designing projects to go with the stash. I would like to be able to say this has stopped me purchasing more and it has slowed it down a little, but as an avid crafter, there are always new exciting items on sale, so there have been a few additions as well.

The first box I looked at was the spare 6 x 6 and A4 paper box. I went through a phase where I purchased a lot of papers from the The Paper Tree collection as they were being sold off on CraftClearance website. I have placed a couple of sets on Ebay to reduce the stash, but still had a few in the cupboard. I do not tend to use the insert papers A4, but still bought them as the prints were pretty. So I pulled out a pack and decided to make something from it.

To make one a 6 notelet set with a folder requires:

4 sheets of A4 papers

6 A6 envelopes

1 A4 laminate sheet and laminator 

Kampress poppers

Fold the  3 0f the A4 papers in half lengthways and then cut in half to make 2 notelets

As the papers are one sided this is all that is required to make your six notelets

Then I took  the other sheet and cut a 2” strip off the bottom, folded the paper in half.

With the 2” strip fold in half loosely hold between the fingers and cut the top corner around You can use a punch for this but scissors work well if you hold the paper tight between the scissors. 

Place the folded larger piece into the A4 laminator and place the 2” strip above the open end with the rounded corners up the top and printed side down. Leave approx 2mm between the 2 parts.

Laminate, and then trim the edges and slit the opening off along what was the open end. You can find several videos on YouTube showing you how to do this. Just look for laminated folders. ( SAm Calcott has a very good one)

Add your kampress poppers. IF you do not have these you can use velcro dots.

The other set of notelets I made the motets in the same way and then I placed 2 sheets of papers back to back (print side out) into the laminator, I used a  matt sheet for this style and just laminated one side of the paper. Then folded into the folder shape added narrow red double sided tape to the bottom sides to hold it together, and then tied ribbon around for the closure. 

The pack had 36 sheets so I was able to make 7 sets with a few sheets left over 

The problem with this project it made me want to do more laminating projects, as I love them. So I thought I would run a laminating workshop and show several projects you can make with your laminator, and finish with making this set so everyone has a set to take home. 

Happy Crafting 

Dee