A&C Weekly Challenge 2008

[Whizzz]

New Year & a New thread - post what you hope to start/finish this week!

I have bought lots of fabby gemstones & I want to try & make some different types of jewellery, different ways of stringing etc.

DH also bought me some rainbow fluorite & I want to make myself a necklace & bracelet, although am still pondering what style I fancy!

(& my bog is sadly neglected, I must try harder!)

Nbg- have emailed you.. and look on with dispair at that sketch... will find something else to witter on about now... DS having whingy whiny day today.. woke up at six and hasn't stopped annoying me for 3and a half hours.. gerrrr

Thank you meri.

Dior - I will have a go, just need to see how many jump rings I have! What size did you use?
I suppose its the same ideas as these earrings I made a while back?

Message withdrawn

not sure if i'm going to sign up for lucy lockets easter swap (although it is very tempting!), really should concentrate on getting etsy shop up and running, easter was my date for getting it all sorted by.

am off to the nec tomorrow morning fro a trade fair, don't know how i'm going to manage walking round, my feet are really sore, well my toes to be exact, chilblains on almost every toe.

no crafting today but i have made roasted onion and garlic hummus, butternut squash soup, a mountain of cornflake crispy cake squares, and dd and ds made puppets this afternoon, dd did a full puppet show after tea as she's even drawn a backdrop

It was domestic goddess day yesterday was it LK?
The hoummas sounds delish.

I've posted the latest creations on my blog but I've also somehow managed to get it on the mn craftings one too????!!!

This week I need to;

Order more beads
Make 2 boy dolls when the fabric arrives
Make hanging hearts for friends dd
Order labels and display things for the stall.

was an awful morning till I turned on the computer to find I have sold 2 bracelets to somone in Maryland... completly buzzing now... that something has actually sold.. so now I can order more beads .. and put a few of my pipsqueek paintings up if I don't chicken out again.

my list for this week:

*order rounded square beads ( i ordered some last week but they are miniscule and not quite right)
*add some more jewellery to etsy shop
*want to get some earring things to attempt to make earrings.. bit dubious about that
*I have a pile of blank canvases that i have been ignoring
*DS has requested I knit a scarf for another of his toys..
*see if a have to make loads of mothers day cards for the studio.

• oh and get buisness cards finished.. DH has been helping me design them but not quite right yet...

Yey Meridian!!! Well done

I know what i meant to tell you. You know the band Maroon five? Well i was listening to them yesterday and i noticed that the drawing on the front of their first album is very similar to the sketch you did the other day!

nbg- I know the band but not thier album covers..been trying to organize my crafting boxes.. blah... going out for the day now.. with Frizbe and her lot.. to Bakewell for the day.. so the kids can all freeze in the park.

Made a few more cards and popped on my blog but still really unsure what to do about this next craft fair. It's next Saturday and I suppose I don't know if I can be bothered after last months huge flop!!!

If I don't try...what is the point? How else could I sell? Should I try to get an Etsy shop? Is papercrafting just so competetive? Should I doi more knitting or beading or....Shall I just give up?
Do I make cheaper,bargain cards or more complicated, eyecatching creations like exploding boxes and concertinaed cards?

Goodness....so many questions floating in my little hollow brain!

dingle - your cards are lovely - i think selling cards at craft fairs is just plain hard - could you try a few local shops?

i makes me when you see how much cards cost in clintons etc - that's why i make my own!!

i rarely sell my cards but i do get commisions which i do charge quite a lot for ; people don't seem to mind paying if it's designed exclusively/personalized for them - though to be honest i'm not making any money as i spend so long designing them - have you thought of approaching a magazine and publishing your designs?

I just looked back at what my last challenge list was :
to finish my scarf - DONE & worn this weekend!
Do my Blue challenge -DONE & the Recycle challenge too!
Sort out craft fair things - ie work out what I need to make to take along - Have made a few bits
POssibly get my polymer clay out to play with - NOPE

but I have made quite a few things so I'm pleased
A few more targets:
Finish my swappie thing
Decide on what to make Mum for Mums Day
PLay with Polymer clay

Dingle, stick with the cards but maybe do more of the exploding boxes and things.
Seeing something different like that would attract the customers over.

I've been giving my carft fair alot of thought.
I can't stop thinking about how I'm going to display it all.
I think the ex retail display worker in me is coming out lol

dingle- your cards are brilliant... don't give up... you could do an etsy shop if you wanted but I would include more of a comission/design based shop... so that its all very friendly and personalized... but I think you should take some stuff round to various shops to sell.. flower/gift shops/ craft shops.. coffee shops...

I love the ladies stamped cards they are stunning... I would like a notebook or two like that.. little ones.. will email you tommrow if ok? heading out in a minute.. and I think i'm getting a bit of a cold too and i can't stop sneezing and thumping headache..

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Dior - not my cards! Do you mean DIngle?

Dingle - agree with Dior - I think? Your cards are lovely.

Trouble with craft fairs is I think if the people there are after a bargain they wont buy cards cos they can get them cheaper from a shop. And unfortunately other card makers probably have enough of their own and wont need to buy.

Agree with the idea of you approaching mags as a designer. A lot of the mags have the same old gaudy designs in them, and never seem to stray from a certain style. Which is why I stopped my subscription to Beautiful cards, as I felt Id seen every variation on where to place an embellishment!

Ive got a freebie mag somewhere that has a lot of stuff more like yours, i will see if its still running.

Hmm - this is the mag, but they seem to have stopped at summer 07, which is a shame.

But I would def try some of the other mags - your stuff is different enough to stand out, and your style is lovely

ARGHHHhhh - here's me been saying about this craft fair 'at the end of the month' and I've just realised it's NEXT SUNDAY !!!

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whoo! Well done Meridian - it's great when you sell to a complete stranger, isn't it?
That thumping headache sounds like the cold I've had for the past week - it's blooming awful, one of those that gets right into your eyes and makes you feel really grumpy. So I hope you feel better soon.

Dingle - I think you know how I feel about your cards, dontcha? They are fab, and you should be in magazines.

TB - how are you feeling? Poor little lamb

dingle, i would contact some of the papercraft magazines if i were you. i used to place a lot of the magazine editorials when i worked for coats.

crafts beautiful is quite hard to get into, but i would def recommend trying both -

future publishing

origin publishing

talking of magazines - i tend to buy crafts beautiful, i love certain designers but i never make anything from it, quite often think i could do better

i used to get a gorgeous american scrapbooking mag {scrapbook answers} but it stopped publishing and i miss it

so what does everyone else buy?

My subscription to Beautiful Cards is about to end. I loved it to begin with, but found the designs became a bit repetitive. But Ive kept them all, so Ive always got something to browse for inspiration. Im not very good at coming up with ideas on my own!

I'm now subscribing to Lets Knit, which is feeding my current obsession for quick, interesting knits.

Otherwise I just browse the shops and pick up a mag if there's something interesting in it.

marie claire idees - all in french but for crafty inspiration it's fantastic to look at, looks really arty on your coffee table too