Last Handmade Monday Post

I haven't linked up with Handmade Monday for a while, so I thought I'd add a post this week, as it's the last one before Christmas.

CRAFTSELLER MAGAZINE

I was very pleased to see my cardmaking tips printed in the last Craftseller magazine. I enjoy writing and I'd definitely like to do more craft writing next year.

CHRISTMAS CRAFTFEST

I also had a stall at Craftfest which ran for a week at the end of Nov. I would recommend this to anyone who likes to make new friends and get involved with lots of promoting through social media. Creative Connections is also a fantastic community to be part of. You can pop in anytime and ask a question, or help someone else.

I've been doing lots of cardmaking for family and friends, and working on a scrapbook for Christmas memories. The scrapbook is coming on very slowly, but I hope to get it finished soon.

I'd like to wish everyone a very Happy Christmas, and looking forward to reading more of your blogs on Handmade Monday in the new year.


Best wishes,

Melanie x.

Sneak Peek Christmas Scrapbook Album

Today I had the chance to spend a few hours on my new Christmas mini scrapbook album...so I thought I'd show you a sneak peek of what I've been doing.

I used two 6x6ins chipboard covers for the front & back, and used slightly smaller card stock pages for the inside. I covered the pages with some lovely vintage scrapbook papers - the name eludes me at the moment, but they were bought on ebay at a very cheap price.

I wanted to make sure this album has lots of pages for photo's and journaling, so I'm making lots of tags and pockets. I sanded the edges and lightly inked them using Tim Holtz Distress ink in Walnut...I just love this colour!

Hopefully this album will be on sale soon in my Etsy shop!

CRAFTfest week is still going on, if you haven't had a chance yet to drop in, and have a look at all the wonderful handmade products, just click here!

My stall also has lots of goodies - Christmas cards, Birthday cards, gift bags & tags and mini scrapbook albums. Click here to visit my stall. Enjoy!

Visit CRAFTFEST This Week

CRAFTFEST

Come along and visit CRAFTfest this week, which is running from 24th Nov - 1st Dec. Craftfest which is hosted by Creative Connections is an online extravaganza of all things handmade. You're sure to find some lovely Christmas gifts for all your family and friends.

My stall has lots of goodies including Christmas cards, scrapbook albums, tags & gift bags. If you buy an item through my Etsy shop, you'll get 20% discount, which ends tomorrow at midnight (26th Nov).

CRAFTfest Christmas Gifts Mini Treasury

CRAFTFEST VIRTUAL ONLINE CRAFT FAIR.

Not long left now to book for CRAFTFEST which runs from 24th Nov-1st Dec, with an extra preview day on 23rd Nov (Black Friday). If you'd like to book a stall, just click on the link above. It should be a fantastic week with lots of opportunities to promote each others work, make lots of new friends...and hopefully sell lots too!

MINI TREASURY - GIFTS.

If you're looking for some nice handmade gifts for Christmas presents, have a look at some of the lovely websites below, in my mini treasury.

Pencil Case by Lynsey Loves xxx

Reindeer Tree Hanging by BadEricBoutique

Mini Hessian Gift Bag by BerryNiceCushions

 

Christmas & Craftseller Magazine

This week I've had a few orders from my family for Christmas and Birthday cards. But the best news this week was receiving an email from Steve at Craftseller magazine.... He was looking for someone to send in some tips about cardmaking. They are doing a small piece with the top 5 tips, and hopefully a photo of me and a couple of photo's of my cards and details. I was so excited about this, as I've never had anything published in a magazine before. I'm not sure when it will be published yet, but I'll keep you posted on that!

I'm signed up for my first Craftfest in Nov, so I'm getting more involved with that, and trying to do more promotional stuff. If you fancy having a virtual craft stall, then click on the link above to book your stall.

I'm still busy making Christmas cards, gift bags & tags to sell on Etsy. I'm always trying to think of new ideas, so this week I made a Christmas gift tag kit, for those people who like to have a go at making their own. Don't know if this will work, as Etsy seems to be saturated with almost every idea I have at the moment.

Sorry! I couldn't add the pic of my Gift Tag Kit, as blogger seems to be doing something silly with my photo's & won't let me upload it.

Hope you have a great week :0) I'm off to Handmade Monday to have a look at all the crafty makes over there.

Melanie x.

Autumn Glow - Folksy Friday Treasury

I love Autumn - I think it's all the gorgeous rich colours of the trees, that inspire my crafting. My two favourite things to do in the Autumn, when I was little, were to collect shiny conkers and pretty leaves to press in my books.

So, for my first blog treasury, I'm celebrating Autumn, and showcasing some wonderful craft goodies over on Folksy.

Orange Fox Brooch from OddSox

Sewing Purse from Handmade By Edwina

Yellow Cable Tea Cosy from The Cosy Daisy

Yellow Felt Flower Brooch from Whimberrypie

Red Button Bracelet from Mrs Gibson

Lavender Bags from Chris Made This 

Hope you enjoy this selection. Comments welcome :0)

Vintage Ribbon Flower Christmas Card

My plan last week was to get a lot of Christmas cards made, so that I could make some packs up for my Etsy shop. But as life often gets in the way, plans don't always work. So, this week I've written down what I'd like to achieve in the next few weeks with getting prepared for Christmas, and the November Craftfest.

When I was on YouTube the other day, I saw a video on how to make a flower from ribbon. The finished look was very pretty and could be made to give a vintage feel to Christmas cards.

 

The red ribbon flower takes longer to make. You start with a circle piece of scrap card, about 1 1/2ins in diameter, a circle punch is good for this. Then stick the end of approx 16ins piece of ribbon to the middle of the card, and knot it to make the ribbon center. You then keep twisting the ribbon around in a circle until you get to the end of the card, sticking the ribbon down with a glue gun as you go. Wrap the ribbon over the back of the card and stick down to secure. The flower can then be embellished with buttons, brads or any gems from old jewellery add a nice touch.

The second ribbon is quicker to make, you just put a running stitch through the top edge of approx 15ins ribbon, then pull the cotton to gather it together tightly, and knot at the bag. I then added a brad from the Dovecraft vintage range.

Another website I found this week for promoting your blog is the blog Guidebook. You can submit your blog to their directory, as yet I haven't had any views through from them.

That's it for this week, I'm now popping over to Handmade Monday to see what everyone else has been making this week.

I'm also linking up to  Clares Craftroom.

Melanie x.

 

Promoting My Blog & Mini Makes!

Promoting My Blog

This week I've spent some time looking at different ways to promote my blog. I submitted my blog to blognation a while ago, and then forgot about visiting their website - but recently I've noticed that I'm getting quite a lot of views from them. They also have a blog called craftblogs.org where you can find loads of interesting blogs and vote for them.

Another good site is ukcraftblog which has lots of articles about what to write on your blog, and how to get more traffic on to your blog, plus lots more helpful tips about blogging.

Mini Makes

On to what I've made this week.

Mini post-it Note Holder

I thought this mini post-it note holder would make great stocking fillers for my Mum & Sister.

Small Decorated Notebook

I had some stickers and new washi tape that I wanted to use on this notebook. This was a cheap notebook I bought and covered with scrapbook papers. I was very pleased with how it turned out.

Mini Christmas Gift Bag

I wanted to try some gift bags in my Etsy shop, so I bought some plain brown bags with handles to decorate, but I just couldn't come up with any ideas to decorate them. So, I decided that maybe something small would be easier to start with. These little bags are tiny & would only hold chocolates or jewellery. I'm now going to make the bags bigger, possibly so they would hold a cd.






Hope you all have a good week.

I'm going to settle down with a cup of tea, and see what everyone else has been making this week over at Handmade Monday. Why not check it out too!

Melanie x.

Favourite Craft Material - What's Yours?

What is your favourite 'go to' craft material, that you can't resist using on your craft projects?

Mine is ribbon... and twine, hemp cord, wool, craft string the list goes on!

I have quite a collection, as you can see from the photo's - and this is not all of it.

I love these rich colours.

Up-cycling

I often use up-cycled ribbons as well - sometimes you get ribbons on packaging such as chocolates or clothing wrapped up in ribbon. The pyjamas I buy always have lovely wide ribbon wrapped around them. It just seems a waste to throw the ribbon away. As with all my crafting I try to be thrifty, and keep any little pieces of ribbon or twine etc. It's surprising how they often come in handy!

The photo's below are some ribbons and wool I found on one of my crafty shopping adventures.

I couldn't resist these beautiful country style ribbons

So... what is your favourite craft material? - the one thing you can't live without!

I'd love to hear from you, so please leave your comment, and I'll try and reply to all messages.

Melaniex.

Pink Cupcake Card

Hi! Hope you've had a good week.

This week has been a bit slow on the crafting front, even though my children went back to school, I just didn't get much done! But I have been thinking about new ideas for card making. One of the ideas I've been looking at on the internet is using fabric on my cards. The only problem is that fabric is expensive to buy! I only want to buy mixed packs of fabric, as I'll only need small pieces - so I wondered if anyone could recommend a good website for fabric :0)

Cupcakes are Everywhere!!

Cupcakes seem to have taken over the world! They are on everything from cards and notebooks to lining the shelves of cake shops. So, this week I made a template for a cupcake, and added it to a Birthday card.

I decorated the edge of the cupcake with glitter glue and hand stitched the cake case.

The other card I made was another Christmas card, using some papers called Christmas Tidings from Papermania.

That's all for this week, I'm off to checkout Handmade Monday to see all the lovely crafty things, everyone else has been making.

Melanie x.

Christmas is Coming!!

Last week I went to Yorkshire with my family, and although we had to put up with the British weather, we did have a lovely week. We stayed in a cottage that had been converted from farm buildings, in the village of Gristhorpe.

As always I took the opportunity to seek out craft shops in the area. Scarborough has two good craft shops - Craft Inspiration, which is mainly for card makers and The Craft Store, (Victoria Road) which  has a treasure trove of craft goodies. This shop has everything  for scrapbooking and card making, but also has wool, some beautiful fabrics and lots of ribbon. Another good shop for button lovers in York, is Duttons for Buttons, they have every colour and style of button you could possibly think of.

I came back from my holiday feeling very inspired and ready to get back to some card making. So, over the weekend I decided to get started on Christmas cards - I know! you're probably thinking it's a bit early, but as I'm doing the Nov Craftfest, I thought I'd get ahead while I have some spare time. Anyone else started yet?

This year I want to make some traditional cards and also try some modern themed cards. But I'm still looking for suitable scrapbook papers for modern cards.

That's all for this week, I'm now popping over to Handmade Monday to see what everyone else has been doing this week.

Have a great week,

Melanie :0)

Summertime Strawberry Card

I'd like to begin by saying thank you for the warm welcome from Handmade Monday and all the lovely comments I received.

This week I managed to make three cards, which is good for me!

I bought Cardmaking & Papercraft magazine this week, as they are giving away some lovely summertime luxury papers, they are nice quality & have lots of designs, so well worth buying the magazine. I made the card below with some of the papers & added a Kitschy Kitchen cardstock sticker from Melissa Frances.

I couldn't resist hand stitching this card!

The magazine has a section called 'First Past The Post' where they ask for readers to send cards they've made with the free papers, so I've emailed the card to them.

I used another Kitschy Kitchen sticker on the second card.

I've also been busy this week on Creative Connections, as I've signed up for the November Craftfest. There is quite a lot to do with getting my stall ready, but I've really enjoyed making some new friends, and promoting other members Craftfest stalls. Is anyone else signed up for Craftfest?

That's it for this week, I'm off to Handmade Monday to see what everyone else has been doing.

Have a great week x.

Hand Stitched Card with Flower Embellishment

I was quite busy last week, keeping the kids entertained over the school holidays - but at the week-end I found some time to finish a hand stitched card, and start making a few cards, which I'm going to try at a car boot sale. We're having a clear out of video games and other things that are filling the house up, so I thought I'd try selling a few cards too! I'll let you know how that works out.

The card I have to share with you today was hand stitched, as I don't have a sewing machine. I've seen loads of stitched cards on the internet, which I think adds a really pretty finish to a card.

I used a paper piercer and the foam back of an old mouse mat to make the holes. This made it really easy. I then used a tapestry needle and three strands of embroidery thread to make the zig-zag stitch pattern.

In the next photo you can see the pierced holes, and a back stitch pattern I did on another card.

And this is the first of my cards for the car boot!

New Baby Card

This week I thought I'd add my post to  Handmade Monday, for the first time. I'm really looking forward to reading all the other blog posts.