It's been a while...

Oh dear! It's been ages since I've blogged! Other things always seem to get int the way! I've been pretty busy this weekend though, starting with a beer festival between Sheffield and Rotherham on Thursday, going to the pub on Friday with friends which ivolved me selling 3 bookmark and1 pair of earrings! Hooray! (We shoulall take more items out with us to 'show off' and hopefuly sell!) That means I've sold a grand total of 6 items! Yipee! Although it does put me slightly further away frm my goal of havin enough stock to go to a craft fair. (i'm most definately NOT complaining though).

Phew! Saturday and Sunday were more relaxing at least, I had a lovely stroll with my boyfriend on Sunday afternoon, and then went out for an Indin! yummy! Unfortunately, ll this has left me short of time for crafting! oh well, I've got plent of time to make things tonight.....

Personalised and Proud!

All handmade gifts are unique, even if several items with the design have been made, that is the joy of handmade. There are all sorts of handmade pieces available, from all sorts of jewellry, to vintage clothing, to the very unusual, all you have to do is look hard enough to find the perfect gift for any person's preferances, howver, you can make many things even more unique by buying a personalised item. many crafters will sell custom made items, lots of folksy advertise personalised items, here is just a small selection!

This is mine! A bit cheeky to feature myself, but why not! This is my first advertised custom made design, the name (obviously) can be anyones, but the colours of the stitching and background can all also be chosen. Like many other folksy sellers, I can also do custom designs on request.

I love items made from real wood! (maybe because my dad used to make walking sticks in his spare time) And this gorgous clock certainly caught my eye! A clock is an item I wold never expect to be personalised, but the wording on it can be specified. This is made by Natural Wood www.folksy/shops/NaturalWood who also make many other beautiful items, along with custom made items. Well worth checking out!

These are gorgous! When my friends got married last year, I would have loved to have know about Amys Clay Critters and her fabulous wedding toppers. www.folksy.com/shops/amysclaycritters Still, I will remember her if anyone else ties the knot! She also makes many animal wedding toppers, along with general cake toppers, magnets, rings, cards, and so on.

Apron are always useful, but are normally mass made and fairly plain and boring. Not anymore with this prsonalised one from SilkFlora! www.folksy.com/shops/Silkflora your apron is your own! She also can personalise tea towels, an has made plenty of gorgous hanging hearts, and heart cushions!

These cuffflinks are fabulouly unique! (Handmade items aren't just for girls) These caught my eye as my boyfriend loves maps! They are truly different and a perfect gift, made by bookity. They also make round ones, and plenty of other 'book' items for sale at www.folksy.com/bookity


This is just  very small taste of all that's out there that can be personalised fo that extra little bit of uniquness, and although it does require a little more preperation, as the items have to be made upon request, You may be suprised at how qickly they can be made, and the extra-specialness of a truly unique gift is well worth the effort!

Seed Bead Earrings!

Here is the finished product! they are ctually quite big, but very pretty, I'm pleased with the result!

Seed Beads

Adding bead detail to my cross stitch is great for giving it a bit of extra 'oomph!' However, it's also given me a desire to try seed beading! My first pair of earrings was coming along nicely, I've early finished, when I ran out of beads last night. Annoyingly I've had to buy more, but really this is just an excuse to try out making more earrings and possibly necklaces! hopefuly I'll get some photo's up once I've finally finished these earrings! So much to do and so little time!

Beads Galore!

I've finally got round to blogging again! I've been thinking about trying out beadin for a while, so the other day I purchased instructions for makinga pair of beaded dangly earrings, (this shows what they should look like when done http://www.beadedpatterns.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=22_485&products_id=2289) I'm half-way through a pair so far though!

This has made m think abou adding beads to my cross stitch items, so I've had a couple of attempts with thse cupcake earrings, and butterfly earrings (both for sale at http://www.folksy.com/)

of course, this is jst a start, I'm hoping to try making broches and pendants and using my (to be accquired) beading skills to add a pretty frame to them! All I need to do now is find some suitable pendant and brooch blanks....

Valentines gifts on Folksy

It's that time of year again. Valentines Day is just around the corner, and in honor of it I'm featuring some gorgous items by other folksy sellers, which would make fantastic gifts for your loved one, or just to yourself if, like me, your other half isn't the most romantic of people when it comes to Valentines day!

Of course, this is just a small selection, there are countless more beautiful, funky, quirky, pretty, interesting...you name it, and it's there somewhere on folksy ( http://www.folksy.com/). Valentines isn't just about you're other half though, why not treat yourself too...

Anyway, here is my pick of valentines items from folksy.

A bright bold and beautiful Fabric Card Wallet from BaggieAggieToo. She also has a matching keyfob and plenty of other's with lots of other fabrics so you'll definately find one you like!

This delicious chocolate lovers heart card by GailGriggs compliments the classic chocolates for valentines. It is also available framed for you wall, along with many other beautiful photographs.

If you're looking for something a bit more unusal this fabric ACEO from ShabbybySharon is perfect. She also has a gorgous heart keyring fob for valentines, and plenty of other lovely items to peruse.

Paris is the City of Romance, so what better way to be romantic than giving your loved one this Paris By Night necklace from Bedecked Beads. Plenty of other equally gorgous jewelry is also available in her shop.

I hope these lovely items have helped inspire you, either in finding the perfect valentines gift, or just a little something for yourself! After all, a little treat to yourself goes a long long way....!

So much to do, so little time!

There is always way more to do than I ever seem to have time for! Crafting around a full time job and social life is pretty hard, epecialy when it takes about 1 hour to make 1 pair of earrings. It's then end of January and I have 11 itemsin my Folksy shop, and 2 more at home waiting to be photographed and listed. My target of getting to a craft fair seems ever further away! My new hope is to make a couple of larger pieces, such a a framedcross stitch to have on my stall (assuming I finally get one) to make it look like my stall has plenty of things, unfortunately, desgining these is going to be no short task either. If only my lunch break lasted all afternoon! Oh well, fingers crossed! I'll just have to make things like crazy when I'm at home, and publicise like crazy when I can!

I'm also hoping to d some folksy featuring of fellow crafters on this blog, I just need the time to write it and do it! maybe later this week...

Featured in a Blog!

I've been featured in Uniquely Yours blog http://myblogfinallymadeit.blogspot.com/! Thankyou very much for doing so, I'm really excited about my product being featured! Here's the keyring that featured.

It'sall very exciting! I'm hoping to be able to return the favour soon wih some folksy featuring of my own! x

Valentines

WOOP!

My Facebook group ha just reached 101 likes! hooray! I'm lucky to have gained so many followers from friends and fellow crafters who all have shops on Folksy, so a big thank you to all!

It's still only January, but valentines is fast approaching. What do you think of my lovely heart earrings?

 Personally I think they're pretty cute, but then I am biased! These are for sle for only £5.00 on http://www.folksy.com/items/1204033-Heart-Earrings?shop=yes so check them out!

Valentines day is a lovely day to show your loved one how much they mean, but it's only one day in a whole year! I'm lucky that my boyfriend is thoughtful and does nice things for me throughout the year, (I'm hoping he's cooking my dinner tonight) but it sholdn't just be reserved for our partners.

Friends also play a huge part in our lives, so I for one would like to thank all mine for putting up with me, and for being interested in my cross stitch items!

Fabric earrings!

Hello again!

No more sales yet, but I've been a bit slacker than normal with promotion thanks to my birthday and having visitors up. Still, my folksy views have increased which is great, and my facebook page http://www.facebook.com/YouSewShould has reached 99 likes! I can't wait to get to 100!

I've been doing more experimenting, and instead of just cross stitch earrings, I will soon be adding fabric covered earrings to my growing collection! I'm working on some which have gold seashell sequins sewn onto a blue fabric, a nice summary holiday theme to help us all forget the dreary coldness of winter! hopefuly these will go down a treat! Also, as my goal this year is to have enough stock to go to a craft fair, I am slowly edging closer to achieving that!

I'll be trying a few other sequin and fabric earring combinations, I've got various flower, heart, and leaf sequins as well as the usual round ones, so fingers crossed that with my additional stock and new quirky designs I'll get some more sales! As to that, I'd best get working on producing a few more to list at http://www.folksy.com/shops/YouSewShould! Until next time, keep crafty! x

Hello!

This is my first ever blog, and I'm not really sure what to write! I've introduced myself in the about me section, so I guess there's not much else left to say introductory-wise anyhow.

I set up a shop on Folksy in October 2010, and i currently have sold 1 keyring, and have 8 other items up for sale.  You can see them here http://www.folksy.com/shops/YouSewShould. I'm busy trying to publicise my shop via facebook, www.facebook.com/YouSewShould and now on this blog!

It's a nerve wracking experience putting my creations up to be sold, and seen by all. Until I started this I had only ever shown my things to family and my boyfriend, who of course have to say they like it, but what if people in the big wide world don't? I guess they're not going to tell me if they don't, but I still want them to like my designs. It was a huge boost to my ego to sell my first ever item, an anchor keyring, within hours of listing it. Unfortunately I've not had any since, but I've improved my photographs and edited my listings, and I'm now working harder to publicise it, so fingers crossed! x