The Big Craft Event

I had a good day at the Big Craft Event on Sunday.  The weather was bright and sunny and there were lots of visitors.  Chris and Rachael were wonderful - I couldn't have done it without them.  Chris had made me a shelf last week, when I realised that I needed something substantial to put my framed work on (nothing like leaving things to the last minute, Ellie!).  Rachael was great with arranging the items and having ideas for how to improve for next year and generally being fun to be with. 

Lots of people were very interested in my felt work and in the screen printed pieces in particular, so this is an area I am going to work on next year.  There were enquiries about cards, so that will be another focus, as will smaller pieces.  The birthstone hearts (felt hearts with geniune gemstone charms for the different months - they are on the seasonal tree display) weren't as popular as I had hoped, so I will move away from those, although there were so many hearts on so many stalls, that perhaps people had reached saturation point with them.  Out of all the hearts, the small ones were the best sellers, so I may continue with a few of those.

The biggest surprise was the needle felted sheep, which I had added as a bit of a last minute thing, in order to catch people's eye and encourage them to look at the other items.  I had managed to make six in the end and they all sold.

 They had all been given names and customers seemed to be drawn to them. 

 They are very cute, but I was delighted that customers liked them as much as I did.

I did stab my finger several times making them, but I am getting better at that and I also need to pay attention to my posture as the hours I spent on the last two sheep took their toll on my back. So, more sheep is definitely the way to go!
It was an enjoyable experience and I like meeting people and spreading the joy of felt making.  I also need to look at providing workshops as I had a few enquiries about that too.  In the end, I covered the cost of having the stall and made a little bit of profit too.  I have signed up for next year, so will be working on new items and lots of new ideas over the months.

Send a Little Love Swap 2017

I have just taken part in Tracy (at Mad About Bags') 'Send a Little Love' swap 2017.  I have taken part in this swap for several years and always enjoy it.  This year I was partnered up with Pilar from Cenefas de Flores who is from Barcelona.  We were given some guidelines with this swap:

"The idea of this swap is to send 5 things to include :

Some sewing or yarny notions that have a love theme

Something heart shaped or themed

Something deliciously edible

Something handmade

Something red "

So, we emailed and looked at each other's blogs, as usual, to pick up some clues and then we got making and swapping.  My parcel from Spain arrived and it was the hardest thing not to peek before grand opening day, although I did manage to leave it alone until then.  As you can see from the top photo, I had been sent the most beautifully packaged gifts.  I loved the floral tissue paper with the labels.

Here's what was inside...wow!  There was ribbon, lip balm, heart shaped decorations, rose scented flower petals, violet flavoured sweets, heart shaped buttons, pompoms, red flower linen material, two beautifully made cross stitched pin cushions/decorations, a fridge magnet and two recipes.

 I was, yet again, extremely lucky.

 She had been so generous.

 Aren't these absolutely stunning? I found out that the little black cat was inspired by Scruffy.

The wooden decorations will be added to my seasonal tree stash.  Thank you Pilar (she has put her post up about the swap too) at Cenefas de Flores so much for all the lovely gifts - they are fantastic - you were an amazing swap partner. 

So here's what I sent to her.  The heart swap things are on the left, including heart bunting, heart cutters, love heart sweets, heart ribbon and washi tape, a felt heart (of course), a heart mug and a polymer clay and gemstone bookmark.  On the right are the extras, a UK cross stitch magazine, some pearl earrings and some wooden pegs.

 Here's the heart things...

...and the extras.  I did wrap them in heart wrapping paper, but forgot to take a photo before I packaged it all up.  Thanks to my lovely swap partner and also to Tracy for doing the organising. 

Scruffy enjoyed playing in the wrapping paper, but of course he moved when he saw the camera and although he does actually have his eyes open in this photo (amazingly), he is studiously ignoring looking at the camera.

I love hearts swap - what I sent

So, as promised, here's what I sent for the heart swap.  Heart shaped necklace and earrings made from polymer clay and with striped agate beads on the necklace.

 A heart paper punch, pad and decorated notebook/sketchbook.  Mirjam had said that her favourite colours at the moment were pink and red, which did dictate the colours for the jewellery and the notebook.

 Biscuit cutters.

 Heart buttons and ribbon.

 A hand made felt heart decoration (made from the wool from my sister's sheep).

 Of course, these just HAD to be included!

Here are the packages all ready to be sent off.  I really enjoyed this swap. Here's to the next two!

BLOG GIVEAWAY!

To celebrate my 400th blog post (which you may have noticed me mention a couple of times!) and say thank you to my loyal followers, I am having a Blog Giveaway.  There will be three sets of giveaway gifts of a macrame bracelet similar to the one above...

...and a handmade, handfelted heart, similar to those above.
All you have to do to be in with a chance of winning is to leave a comment below, saying you would like to be included in the giveaway.  You don't have to be a follower to take part, but it would be lovely to welcome you if you wanted to be.  You don't have to do anything else - easy, eh?
The closing date will be 2nd November 2012 and I'll either get Chris to pick names out of a hat, or if there are lots of entries, I may even try using the random number generator thingy that seems to be quite popular.
Good Luck!