Dahlia Flower Brooches

Here's the felt dahlia flower brooches that I had left over from the craft market the other weekend... I absolutely love them, so I was quite hurt by some miserable womens' comments as they passed. One said 'Oh what are they?' The other replied 'felt dahlia brooches, darling', 'Oh well they just look a bit weird what would you do with it?!' How rude I was standing 2ft away from them and yes they are entitled to their opinions but perhaps they could have taken them away from my stall where there were appreciative customers looking to buy these lovely brooches that mum and I were sporting on our jackets that day too!

Some people do just annoy me, if it's not your cup of tea why make a fuss, just walk on by and go buy some generic shop brooch that everyone else has! I've made many of these as gifts for friends and family, donated a few as prizes for charity raffles and never had bad feedback on them. These lovelies are still up for sale on my facebook page and I'm always making more in different colours too.

Rant over, I just wish people were a little more openminded or stayed away from things they don't understand.

Butterfly Canvasses

 Been a little bit busy this last week getting myself all prepared for the craft market (see previous post) so I haven't had much time to be blogging, sorry!

Thought I'd share with you my new, improved version of my Butterfly Canvas...

Learnt a few things from the first attempt... don't use the same flower template with 2 different colour inks if you can't wipe it clean... coat in enamel not modpodge to seal the ink work in...

Clairabella (the craft shop running the market) have asked if I'd like to try selling these in their shop, so seeing as these 3 didn't sell today I've dropped them in to see how it goes instore...

I just love these canvasses, they got a lot of compliments today and I've had some lovely feedback from people I've given them to as gifts... hopefully people will snap them up in the shop or order different colours from me...

Once again far too many butterflies were punched out so there's plenty spare for more canvasses to be made in the future or added to other items... I foresee butterfly cards in the very near future!

Today I Went To Market...

 So today I went to market with my things for the very first time! Never really sold my items by anything more than word of mouth and via facebook... so this was a very big step for me!

The market was run by Clairabella a shop in High Wycombe that sells goods made by local crafters, that once a month has a market for sellers to get together and sell their new things.

First score of the day... I only booked a half table, to be on the safe side as it's first attempt... but when we arrived the lady I was sharing a table with had cancelled... so I got the other half of the table as well for free :)

So here's my set up at a glance...

Check out the snazzy sign I had made in the graphics shop at work... and the catalogue on the bottom right that my friend made for me the other night to display my custom order larger items..

Loving the 2 jewellery trees I had to display everything on...

Definitely needed the full table to spread out over though... don't think it would have all crammed on together very well at all!

And here's me looking cheerful at my stall (even though at that point I hadn't sold anything lol)...

So how many things that I'm wearing does everybody recognise then? I decked mum out in all the best pieces I've made her over the years too :) 
Had a lovely day out, meet some wonderful people and hopefully found myself some new customers that will come back and place orders in the future.

Autumn Wreath

It appears the UK is having somewhat of a late Indian Summer this year, it's hotter now than most of August was for us so making our house an Autumn Wreath may seem out of place, though the forecasts say by the weekend the weather could be cool and rubbish again so I'm prepared!

I've grown bored of my burlap wreath and whilst walking round Hobbycraft last weekend I saw all these lovely bits and pieces that would knock together and make a wonderful wreath... so I bought them and whipped up this wreath... (yes I should have been making things for my craft stall but the temptation to make something for us was too much)..

My favourite bit is the cute little wooden hedgehog, all the other animals they had were just too large or looked tacky. The leaves are from a long wire garland of leaves, still got half of it left so may have to think of another autumn based project to use them on at a later date. Quick, simple, yet very effective on our inner porch doorway... I'm even more impressed with the quality of the photos of the wreath from my new SLR camera :)