Christmas Gift Guide

I've joined another of Folksy's daily listing clubs and have only missed two days so far. Not as good as I did in March, but better than July! This month's club is called November Nexus.

I thought it was about time I did a blog post about some of the lovely items you could buy as a Christmas pressie. So these are some wonderful offerings from some of the shops in the club. Each stands for a letter of 'Christmas' in some way (plus two extra!):

C - card and Christmas pudding from Aunty Joan Crafts. Such a cute festive card!



H - hat from UniquleyYours. Get into the Christmas spirit and keep warm at the same time with this fun Santa hat!



R - retro robin from Audrey's Cat. Decorate your home a little differently this year with this adorable retro robin.



I - iPad sleeve from Whimsy Woo Designs. Perfect protection for your iPad in such beautiful fabric too.


S - snowflake from Ritzy Swish. Beautiful embroidered snowflake Christmas card. Who wouldn't want to receive this card??


T - tartan bow and beret from Imogen's Imagination. Black and red tartan bow on a lovely wine red beret to keep you warm and stylish this winter.



M - William Morris-style quilt from SewFlair. Snuggle up next to the fire with this gorgeous quilt.



A - Apple Kindle case from BaggieAggie. Keep your Kindle warm too with this festively-coloured Apple Kindle case!


S - silver watch from CloverJewels. This stunning beaded watch would make a wonderful gift for someone special.


And thanks to Natalie of NOfkantsCurios for organising the listing clubs, here are some beautiful Mother of Pearl earrings:I'm also going to include a wintery ACEO from Brenda at Teabreaks/Gweddus Art. Brenda's always been very supportive of my ACEO attempts!

Have fun shopping!

Altered Photography and Coptic Bound Books

I logged on to the PC today to find I'd had 7 sales! Think that must be an online record for me!

This week I've relaunched my Folksy shop. I said a few weeks ago that I was going to concentrate on handbound books and while they will be a lot of what I sell, I realised that I didn't want to be restricted, so I'm branding myself as mixed media art and gifts. I hope this combines the type of things I like to make. I want to make sure I can include altered imagery, polymer clay, glass paints, fabric and watercolour (they're the main materials I like to use!).

So, here are some of the books I've made:


I love the Coptic stitching! On the fronts are some of my altered photos. At the moment I've just used a distressing technique on two of them and two others are my glass painted photos. The fifth book has no photo - just pretty paper!

And here's an ACEO I listed today:

Again, I've used one of my photos and altered it (digitally this time) to create a unique image. The pink swirls are actually a photo of a colourful glass exhibit I saw at Kew Gardens a few years ago.

I've got many more images that I'm having lots of fun altering. I'm thinking of selling these images as sheets of paper for people's crafty needs.

Here's another ACEO I made with one of the butterfly images I took last week:

The only thing I'm not sure about now is the banner. I wanted something that covers everything, but also wanted to include Frederick Frog as he's my avatar and I didn't want to change him... But the white background, whilst it looks OK on Folksy, it doesn't look right here! I wonder how people manage to get their branding right so it fits everywhere?! I guess I could change the blog background, but I like it as it is... Then there's the shop name... I want to change it, but then I can't change my blog or Facebook... and on Folksy people will still see me as Careford Creations as that's my username. Aaaarrghh!