Virtual Craft Fair!

Next weekend, 17th and 18th September, I will be attending my first ever virtual craft fair! I haven't done a craft fair at all this year, so why not a virtual one?

It's being hosted by Anna and Avril of Creative Connections. There are already well over 100 stallholders, so it promises to be a fun event, full of quality handmade items. Why not start your Christmas shopping now?!

I'll be selling photos, photo gifts and polymer clay items. I'll possibly add some of my illustrations too. We'll see how much time I have to set up!

Anyway, please come along and visit next weekend. Hope to see you there.

First new glass painted photo set in a while...

As I mentioned in my last post, I've been working on some new glass painted photos. I really need a name to describe this technique, as it sounds a little odd - glass painted photos! But that's what they are, after all.

Anyway, my second new set after 3 Funky Flowers, is Naughty But Nice. This is a set of four delicious-looking (I hope) images:

A chocolate cupcake covered with sticky strawberry icing and a cherry on top:



Awhite-coated doughnut sprinkled with hundreds and thousands:


A wibbly wobbly orange jelly:




A triple-scoop ice-cream cone with strawberry, vanilla and coffee ice-creams plus flake:



Now the set's for sale on Folksy, I'm getting to work on my wild animal set. I'm hoping people will buy them for their kids' bedrooms or nursery.

Other crafty stuff... I sold one of my polymer clay bookmarks the other day through Facebook. Facebook seems to be working well for the promotion at the moment. I've also signed up to Twitter, but haven't got the hang of it yet. Will I ever??

It's nearly my birthday and I've ordered a few lovely items from Folksy which I can't wait to open! They're actually from my husband, but you know how it is, it's often easier to buy your own gifts! I'll make sure I blog about them next week. I'll also be able to make a start on those bag charms as I'm waiting for a letter stamp set which my mum and dad have bought me!

Completely off-topic... just looking out of the window at my washing blowing gently in the breeze and thinking how wonderful it is to be able to get 3 or 4 loads done in a day at the moment!

Back to the Fimo and other new creations

I ordered some bag charms today and am looking forward to playing with the Fimo again to make something a little different. I don't know why everything always takes me so long, but I've had plans to make these charms for... a year maybe?! I designed them and everything and then, well, maybe it was just toddlers and babies and little things like that keeping me occupied...

Here are some pics of phone charms and bookmarks that I may also make into bag charms:

I'm also starting to sell my photos in sets, as I have a feeling that grouping images on your wall is the 'in' thing at the moment. I've listed two sets on Folksy:

I'm also in the middle of drawing/glass painting some new animal images which I'll probably sell as a group of 4. If they work out I think they'll look great on a kid's bedroom wall or nursery.

Anyway, I'm off to enjoy the sunshine...

Getting the creativitiy going again

I feel as though I've disappeared from the crafty world for the past couple of months. I've no idea where the time has gone, but I now have a nearly 7-week-old daughter. She's an absolute delight and my son adores her. He's so good with her, which is somewhat of a relief, seeing as he can be a rather boisterous 2 and a half year-old! You should've seen our living room the other day. Two words: shredded paper.

Anyway, I'm hoping to get back into things soon. I'm looking forward to getting some of my photos in a new shop in York. More details of that soon.

Also trying to sort my own personal photos out. I've so many I want to display in the house, so I'm trying to organise them creatively and get them printed and framed. I've also been trying to do my family tree in photos for many years now and the longer I leave it the more additions that come along!

Oh, before I go, just want to say a hello and thank you to my new followers!

To Do Lists

I love making to do lists and I love notebooks, so I thought I'd write my latest list in one of my newest notebooks. I made these recently, which feature three of my lakes photos:


I was really pleased they sold quite quickly. I've made myself a set and thought I'd use this one for my things to do. This book has a photo of Lake Patricia in Canada, one of my favourite places.

And here's my little list...

On the first page are things to list on Folksy and on my website, then the other pages are for all sorts of things from marketing, blog posts, admin stuff and then general life things.

Now I've just got to find time to do everything! I do find that I'm one who thinks about doing things and writes it all down, but has trouble getting round to doing anything. Which is silly really as it's very satisfying to cross something off your to do list!

My children's notebooks are one thing I want to get made. Here's the materials:

I really should go and put it all together now...

Vintage Photographs

I blogged a few weeks ago about the Kodak Duaflex camera I won on ebay. I've now managed to make a 'contraption' and take some TtV photos. A 'contraption' is the black tube you need to put between the two cameras - the Duaflex and my usual Canon macro lens - to block out the light.

There's four shots I'm pleased with. Here's two of them:

You can buy them through my website and there's another one on Folksy.

I love the grainy effect of these images, although they're really not easy to set up. It took me a whole afternoon just to take these shots. That meant a whole afternoon of rearranging the furniture and getting into all sorts of odd positions - not easy when you're pregnant! Hope no-one was looking through the window!

I hope to get around to experimenting more with this technique and producing some more vintage images. Need to get thinking about some interesting subjects...

Shop Handmade Gift Boxes now for Sale!

Belinda at Shop Handmade UK has been working hard putting together some wonderful gift boxes. They're currently for sale on Folksy: http://www.folksy.com/shops/ShopHandmadeUK but will be taken to Oxford Handm@de Fair on November 29th, so hurry if you see something you like!

Each gift box includes a variety of handmade items which designers have supplied at discount prices, so the customer will save a huge 45%!! My items are in the turquoise, jade and purple boxes. Here's Frederick amongst all the other lovely things in the Jade box: Thanks Belinda!

Fun in the Park

It was Chico time on Sunday, when Fun in the Park got underway in aid of Fight for Sight. There were live bands, sports events, food and crafts and of course, Chico!

As for me, well, I was selling photos and for the first time, some polymer clay creations. I'm delighted to say that I made a profit! I also had lots of really lovely comments about my photos, which I was obviously rather pleased about. It makes it all worthwhile after all your efforts, when someone says something nice!

Here's my mum helping to arrange the stall. It had a few adjustments after this mind you. The cards were put further back and the bookmarks and mobile phone charms brought forward.

The weather was perfect in temperature terms, but as we were by the side of the lake and had no shelter, it was, let's say, rather windy. The stall next to us packed up and left early when her gazebo nearly took off and my mum and I were constantly taping things down and blu-tacking and holding on to anything loose! It didn't stop the twirly display thingy blowing over at one point though. Luckily, I came prepared with some extra pegs and some string and managed to secure it.

All in all, we had a good day. Hope to get a little bit of my life back now. It's amazing how much preparation exhibiting takes.

Alphabet Chart

Another package today. This time it was some prints I'd ordered for my stall at Fun in the Park (Stanborough Lakes 5th July). One of the prints is a new alphabet chart I made using the same technique as for the frog, sheep, jelly etc.


I really like the effect of these prints. For those of you who haven't seen them before, I draw an image onto acetate in outliner, paint with glass paints and then take a photo using my macro lens. I've never come across anyone else who does this, although I'm sure I'm not the only person in the world who does!

Shiny new books

The postman knocked today with a big(ish) parcel for me. I knew exactly what it was and became very excited as I opened it. Hurrah! My new polymer clay books! And here they are...

I just love books and these ones are full of delightful pictures. I've been playing around with some ideas for clay photos (fairies and elves in particular) for a while now and they're not turning out quite like I'd hoped, so I thought I should get some books to help with the basic techniques. I always have little niggling concerns that I'm going to copy something and not realise so I try to do things on my own, but I guess there's no harm learning from others and adapting things to make them your own, is there? Oh, by the way, three of these books are meant to be from my husband for my birthday, but hey, I only had a little peek...

Also while I was out in the garden I tried taking some photos of roses, which my cousin's asked me to do. Only problem is, the slightest breeze and the photos blur. I really don't want to cut them and bring them indoors!