haptree and me

Inspired by...

2011-05-25T12:59:00.001+01:00

I'm Listening - haptree

The Folksy team have recently created a series of posts called 'Inspired by...' and they have invited all of us, wherever you come from to write a post to celebrate the special people in our lives who have inspired us to be who we are, take a few chances and get on with our careers and creative lives.

I know now from raising my own children how important it is to support ideas and be enthusiastic about the slightest achievements. It's not just about paying for something, it's about listening and being interested, asking questions and getting someone motivated and inspired to do more - letting people know that nothing is unachievable and giving them the help needed to try and get there. My mother is exceptionally well read and extremely intelligent, she studied law at UCL and her general knowledge puts me to shame. However, she has pretty much devoted her life to raising her children rather than any grand career ambitions, and single handedly too.

When I was about 6 or 7 I was allowed to play with my grandmothers camera - it wasn't used much as far as I remember (she had died a few years before) and occasionally there was even a film in it, just flicking on the winder was exciting enough. A particular favourite was to try and get pictures of anything in mid air - anything at all, my brother jumping off gateposts was excellent but mostly it was soft toys flung high - a little like clay pidgeon shooting, 20 shots of the sky and then maybe 4 of an indistinguishable blurred object at some distance - my mother got them developed. I look back and think, wow - she must have known they'd be mostly rubbish, but she knew how much it meant to me to see the photos. She then bought me a little 35mm compact halina camera for my birthday (I think 8th), which my brother smashed with a rock at a lake (by mistake) - so she bought me another one and a book on how to take great photos, then an SLR, then money towards a darkroom and more books to help me improve...

I think I'm lucky to have been been raised by someone who could see the beauty of that thrill of creating something as well as learning and researching as much as you can to find out how to be better at it - I hope I can encourage my kids to feel the same way - I'm doing ok I think as my seven year old will already reach for the chambers dictionary to look something up!

I still have a passion for trying to stop motion as you can see in a recent trip to the zoo above where I asked my other half to fling our daughter through the air in the interest of a great shot! Even my final piece for my degree (architecture BA) was based around the idea that a photographer had captured a moment in time of giant cube smashing through a concrete building - the resultant destruction forming the house, yep really... sounds ridiculous now, think I'll leave it there!

Oh and remember if you write your own inspired by piece to add it to the comments on the folksy blog post - Collective Inspiration or to the Folksy facebook page - anyone's welcome to join in :)

Thanks for reading :)

Tweet me @haptree or find me on facebook!

Bramble - my new puppy :)

2011-05-03T13:21:00.002+01:00

I'll add more as I get them to this Flickr set - Bramble the Puppy

Tweet me @haptree or find me on facebook!

punting, knitting and retsina

2011-04-10T22:52:00.000+01:00

Had a picnic with my brother yesterday, well an egg sandwich or two and some retsina :) - got a bit obsessed by the beautiful yellow label (more on my flickr!) and also spotted this lovely couple punting on the River Cam - what a great place to knit! I think this lady has her priorities right!

Tweet me @haptree or find me on facebook!

Heavy Red Tulip

2011-04-07T14:40:00.003+01:00

Heavy Red Tulip, originally uploaded by haptree.

I think I have become addicted to flickr - who knew how much fun the competitions are and how addictive. Yesterday I managed to get an image into level three of one group, the one of a little ladybird on a cherry blossom.

Does anyone else use flickr groups? The type I've been entering are post one comment on 3 or 5 etc and they give you a little snippet of html code to 'award' other images in their flickr pool. Maybe I should do this with my CBuk group?

This tulip has one award so far! need to stop clicking to check all the time, so much more to do but it's so rewarding (quite literally)!

Was thinking after Easter I may make up some nice art cards to list at Folksy, once I've built up my portfolio that is. I really struggle to get the time to get out there and use my camera.

Have a great weekend all, see you next week no doubt :)

Most visited blog post of all time! - what's yours?

2011-03-30T14:08:00.007+01:00

I hope you are all enjoying spring so far, I am and I've had an idea. I thought it would be fun to find out from my fellow bloggers what their most popular blog post has been since they began blogging - it would be an interesting way of trying to work out why some posts fly and seem to be really popular and some get read by just a handful of people and then never see the light of day. I also want to create a really cool list if enough people post theirs - so think of it as a way of promoting your best post too :)

I'll start the ball rolling but I'm really looking forward to finding some fascinating blog posts so please do add a comment with your own results (you don't need to share the figures, just the link) I know it wont be terribly scientific as some of us have 2 regular readers and others have 1000's but it will still be interesting to see what does well for people and should make for an interesting discussion and list of posts.

To find which is your most visited blog post, you can use google analytics. Use a content search and change the dates so it takes into account every post you have ever written and see what is top. Or if you started blogging after June 2010 then you can use the stats on blogger, just click 'all time' and then see what comes up as top.

I'm going to share 2 of mine - They are both tutorials that do really well on google.

The first is my tutorial for adding a link bar to blogger - I posted it back in September 2009, it's still gets lots of hits and it's actually top for a search on google for 'adding a link bar'. I used to promote this lots on places like the Folksy forum and I also made sure I responded to comments on there but now it just trickles visitors in. It's the post that really got me interested in learning more and more about html and sharing little blog template hacks to make our blogs look cool.

The second is my purse tutorial - again this does really well in google and was published almost extactly a year later in September 2010 - it's actually doing better than the link bar tutorial so I don't think it will be long before it takes over :)

They probably aren't my favourite posts just because they have done the best, although I am very proud of them. Clearly they attract visitors and so they help get people over to see me and hopefully a few follows or a squiz at my (empty) shop. I think tutorials do that and they enable you to use keywords and offer something back which helps attract visitors and gives them a good reason for looking around or subscribing.

So those are my all time most popular posts but what are yours - please share the links as a comment and I'll collect them up and add them to a super list which I'll blog next week or whenever I have lots to share :)

Hilary :) - @haptree

Guess the seedling

2011-03-25T19:47:00.008Z

Some mystery seedlings are starting to emerge in the greenhouse...

I decided that now I have more space in my new greenhouse that I'd just sow all of the dribs and drabs of seed packs I had regardless of use by dates, didn't even use seed compost just some really scraggy stuff I had. Normally I worry that they wont come up so end up buying a new pack of everything, but this year I've just sown masses of stuff!

This pack was unamed, just the white tin foil bit in my box - so not sure what they are but I emptied the entire pack into a seed tray... these came up pretty quick (about a week), could be something as boring as mustard (should I taste it?), really I just haven't a clue - anyone care for a guess? They are all different colours from acid green to purple and the first leaves are heart shaped each side - they do look a bit salad like.

x Hilary :)

Ladybirds are ace

2011-03-23T18:22:00.002Z

Ladybird on Black Cherry Blossom courtesy of a beautiful sunny day in the garden today, the ladybirds are out in force and are one of my favourite things to photograph because of their dynamic design - aint nature brilliant!

You can see more on my Flickr set - 'Nature'

When did I become an art collector?

2011-03-18T20:44:00.002Z

I am a very lucky girl, not only for having a lovely day out at the zoo but also I got a painting by Paul Bailey for my birthday last weekend (oh and a rather nice bottle of Veuve Cliquot, which went down a little too easily!) Up close the painting looks like this -

Isn't it fabulous. Whilst knocking back quite alot of the good stuff we decided that we all desperately wanted to be inside the little cottage and looking out, a warm fire roaring away - we probably spent the rest of the evening in that cottage in fact. Great paintings do that, they take you off to another place even if you are alone and they also create conversation when you are in company (friends or complete strangers in a gallery). I haven't made a decision about the frame yet... I always find this difficult, you want something that allows the painting to shine not recede, so it's a conundrum I will ponder whilst I also ponder where it might go... mmmm a nice quandry to have :)

I want to collect more, not champagne as is suggested by this picture above, but art. It's so exciting to have a growing collection. From the photos you can see a few pieces I have (mostly gratis), the colourful piece on the wall, is one of two I have by the artist Walter Nessler (see his obit - here) he was a friend of my great aunt and I was lucky to inherit them - I only met her twice, once at her brother's funeral and the second time when I was at university and we had a g&t in her garden and mostly talked about plants. She was an interesting woman and wrote her memoirs in the last decade of her life (alongside an OU degree!), so I feel I know more about her than I would otherwise. The painting 'boats' is so bright, it has lots of texture, and the light from above casts these interesting shadows - looks to me as if it were painted in the 80's not the 50's.

The plate you can see is by my ex boss and friend Simon Moore a glass maestro who gave me this plate amongst other pieces as a leaving present when I worked for him back in 2005 - it has been with me for 4 house moves now and always travels seperatley in the car wrapped in a duvet, it's bright and fun and I love it - I put it up on a wall and along with my other pictures I feel I am home.

There's more but maybe I'll blog about them another time!

PS - Just time to fit in a quick random sun dance prayer -

Dear God of Crafts,

Could you please please please make the sun shine tomorrow so that on the off chance that I have just one hour of freedom I could possibly take one or two photographs of the lovely handmade purses that are hidden away and unsold in a plastic box in my wardrobe. (I'll accept overcast gladly, but no rain please)

x Hilary
(your servant as always)

mmm, not sure what's more likely, the one hour of freedom or it not raining!

Wanna see some awesome cupcakes?

2011-03-15T20:41:00.001Z

Made by my other half for my daughters birthday. He should really be a professional cake artist - what do you reckon!

They are chocolate cupcakes with a butter icing, they tasted delicious but the impressive part was the melted white chocolate decorations. These were made by piping out melted white chocolate onto baking parchment.

It's not messy because you pop the chocolate into a freezer bag, microwave it until melted (take it slow!) and then voila a perfect piping bag after a quick snip to one corner and no washing up. I asked him what this part was officially called but he said he wasn't sure if there was a term, so please let me know - it's kind of chocolate art really.

Sprinkles added because she is 7 and you need sprinkles! We even made a cake stand for them but no pictures of that without copious amounts of other peoples children and I'm not sure I should blog them!

We carried them very carefully!

As you can imagine my 7 year old and her friends were pretty impressed! her name and her co-birthday girls on a cake! He made so many we were able to offer them out freely to all our grown up friends that helped with the party too.

I wrote a whole post about cup cakes last year called the cupcake class, you may be interested if you love cupcakes too and are interested in the socio-economic drive behind them (or maybe not, there's lots of nice pictures of cake too!)

Kitchen Garden

2011-03-01T11:26:00.000Z

Why break your back when a 3yr old is the perfect height and he can actually handle a screwdriver pretty well :) We are in the process of transforming the kitchen. We're making all the new doors ourselves so it's going to take ages, but should be beautifully bespoke and glorious and even in it's unplastered half done state it is an improvement on the hideous cat tiles we have had to put up with since we moved in.

We're hoping to sell next year so just the kitchen and bathroom to go and hopefully the house will be snapped up. (Check out Nifty Knits latest 'escape from the neighbours' blog competition if you want moving house tips or if you are a fan of doctor who)

Here's what I'm more excited about - yes a greenhouse!

We hadn't bothered with one as we thought we would have moved this year but as it's taken longer than we thought to get the house sorted then when we saw a bargainous deal in b&q we had to buy one - it's polycarbonate and 6 x 4, we've kind of plonked it on a raised bed and I've laid a loose brick floor so we can grow tomatoes in there just by removing a few bricks. The bricks should keep it warm in the night too (thermal mass and all that!)

Oh and that's a beautiful single flower from our only hellebore in the garden - I want more of these, they're just stunning.

Has anyone started sewing seeds yet - lots of the packets I have say March so I'm hoping to get out there tomorrow once I've finished a Mother's day card gift guide for the Folksy blog :)

News Flash...

2011-02-23T23:26:00.003Z

I'm selling purses at a craft fair on Saturday! Wish me luck :) It's the very first fair from this organiser in Tring, so fingers crossed it will go well and I'll be back as it's a monthly affair. I haven't opened my stock box since Christmas, hope all is well in there! I'll try and take photos and report back, as a first fair I'm not expecting much but as it's as local as can get for me I'm hoping for a good turn out.

Anybody else doing a fair this weekend?

It's in Tring... Sat 26th Feb, The Victoria Hall, Akeman Street 10am - 4pm

Little red riding hood

2011-02-13T00:10:00.001Z

Just wanted to share our spot of some deer in the woods today, click to look a bit closer... my 2 very nearly 3yr old shouted DOGS! when he saw them otherwise my daughter and I may have crept a little closer. I have more photos I'm playing with and given it was so dark and with such amazing bolts of sunshine had some interesting work to do trying to get a few good pics (using iso 3200) - a good challenge for my new camera. I like the darkness contrasting with the deer in the sunshine, it makes the woods look like a very terrifying prospect (especially as they do look like massive dogs)

Hilary :)

More than a Mama

2010-12-07T21:46:00.000Z

Yes - I am officially "more than a mama"

A couple of months ago the wonderful Heartfelt Handmade invited me to have a stall at this great fair. It's a pamper evening with booze included too so it should be a good laugh and a great place to sell my purses and share lots of Folksy Festive Samplers I have stashed and ready. (if you don't know what these are then shame on you!)

If you live within 20 miles of Berkhamsted Town hall I expect you to be there, if you don't (or you're prebooked) perhaps you could go and join the More than a Mama Fan Page on facebook and wish us all good luck - tell them @haptree sent you!

Phones and Jam

2010-10-05T10:31:00.001+01:00

Hello,I'm after a new super phone, just don't know which phone to go for, I've been a pay as you go don't spend more than £50 on a phone person for ages but I need to be able to access the internet more often. I spend time at my mothers house and they have such a bad connection, as it's on the side of a North Welsh mountain. Do any of you have any advice on what I should get? Do they get coverage everywhere? Blackberry, I phone what else is there?

Also today, I wanted to say thanks to @spoonergregory off of twittah (who sells amazing prints on Folksy as Lapwing Printworks) for sending me her recipe for Marrow & Ginger Jam (it's a Sarah Raven recipe, google it!). I substituted the lemon jelly for orange jelly, as my local tesco is too little to manage to stock more than 2 flavours hopefully it won't make too much difference, managed to use up two massive marrows!

I like this print from their shop - not sure my kids would appreciate me selling our tv, I'd quite happily flog it otherwise.

Other news have sold 3 purses this week, so either my competition is working (enter it here) or Christmas buying has started. I must find time to make up some new ones, I'm only doing one fair this year in December and it's an evening event. 2hrs of selling and I requested a 3ft table! Just didn't want the stress of trying to make up all that stock, sometimes it can take away the joy of sewing.

Right must get back to my coursework, learning about frames in web pages today.

x H :)

Handmade Gifts from Folksy

2010-09-24T17:40:00.000+01:00

This is amazing - you can read about the artist in this article in the Telegraph (via wordsandeggs)

www.folksy.com

And here's my top 3 from Folksy. Please click images for more details :) Pencils are lovely, these coloured pencils are very pretty but my favourite has to be a nice 2B.

Have a lovely weekend x Hilary :)

Easy Padded Coin Purse Tutorial

2010-09-18T20:31:00.008+01:00

How to make a little zip up purse - a really easy tutorial.

This cute little fabric coin purse makes an ideal gift or stocking filler, especially for a little girl to keep pocket money, hair clips or any other little treasures inside. It's very simple to sew up too, and makes an ideal sewing project for a beginner.

You can buy ready made zip up purses at www.haptree.folksy.com

I wrote this tutorial originally for Sew Hip Magazine last spring. The purse pattern is simple and easy to sew up (zips are really easy I promise!) and it can be made to any size. I still make and sell these little purses online at my Folksy shop. So if you love it but you don't have time to make your own purse then you can buy one ready made at Haptree!

Here's my tutorial in Sew Hip, a popular UK Sewing Magazine!

Haptree Mini Coin Purse Tutorial

This cute little padded purse has a useful little tab for clipping inside a larger bag or attaching to a keyring.

This purse is made using a cotton/linen mix fabric, lightly stiffened using lightweight interfacing. It is fully lined using co-ordinating cotton and lightly padded with 2oz wadding. I use the lining material to make the tab for the d ring but any keyring or piece of ribbon would work equally well.

Cutting list –
2 x 10cm squares of outer fabric, lining fabric, interfacing and wadding.
1 x small zip – see pattern notes
1 x 1cm d ring / small key ring
1 x 4cm wide strip of lining fabric – see pattern notes
1 x 4cm wide strip of interfacing for tab (to match above strip)

Finished Size
This purse will be approximately 8 x 8 cm

This simple pattern can be made to any size, with the length of the zip being the only limiting factor, any size zip will do as long as it is of equal or larger size to your available fabric. You will also need a zipper foot for your sewing machine.

The size of the tab can also vary in length to your own requirements but I advise making it no shorter than 4cm in length for ease of sewing, you can always trim to size later. I usually make a long strip so that I can clip off tab pieces as and when I make a new purse.

Instructions

1. Cut fabric and iron on interfacing - Cut all of your fabric pieces and interfacing. Press the interfacing onto the reverse side of your outer fabric and onto the strip of lining fabric for the tab following the manufacturers instructions.

2. Making the Tab - Whilst the iron is still hot press the strip in half lengthways. Then fold each half in towards the centre line pressing each flat and being careful not to burn your fingers. Finally fold in half again pressing flat to create a 1cm strip.

3. Sewing the tab - Using the same colour cotton as the lining fabric sew down each side, equidistant from the edge, to create an attractive and sturdy 1cm wide tab to thread through your d-ring (or key-ring).

4. Attach the zipper foot - Attach your zipper foot to your machine, zips are such a pain without it, if you don’t have one I would say it is well worth the investment.

5. Sewing in the zip (a) - Sandwich the zip between the lining and outer fabric as shown with the right side of the zip and the outer fabric facing. Make sure the zip and the fabric are in line and pin if necessary. If you are using a zip that is longer than your fabric (which I am as this is such a mini purse) position the fabric towards the end of the zip, keeping the zip pull closed and at the other end, out of the way.

6. Sewing in the zip (b) - Sew along the zip edge allowing the raised bump of the zip to be your guide against the protruding section of the zipper foot. Consider the amount of zip you wish to be showing and set your stitch width accordingly, too close and you risk the zip getting caught. I usually have my needle position set to 2 or 3.

7. Sewing in the zip (c )- Now you need to repeat the process for the other side of the purse. Flap down the side you have already stitched to reveal the other side of the zip. Make sure you take care to line up the fabric pieces exactly and again pin if necessary. (If you are using a shorter zip it may be necessary to stop halfway and lift the zipper foot to allow the zipper pull to pass through without causing your line of stitching to be uneven.)

8. Sewing down the lining - This is not an essential step but I think it is important to add quality and stop the lining ever being caught in the zip. When you lay out the fabric ready to sew the lining down ensure that you have both of the outer pieces to the other side, you are just adding an extra line of stitching to each lining piece. Pull the fabric pieces gently as you stitch down the line.

9. Use the zipper foot as a guide - I use the edge of the zipper foot as a guide to ensure I get an even width along both sides, keeping the stitch width at the same setting.

10. Sewing up the edges - Sew up the side of the purse that will not have the tab attached first – be sure to position the end cap of the zip inside your line of stitching and be extra careful not to allow your needle to hit the metal cap as you pass from the outer fabric, over the zip and onto the lining fabric. Now sew along the bottom of the outer section of the purse.

11. Seam Width - I allow a seam width of approx 1cm in order to leave room for a second line of stitching when I attach the wadding.

12. Attaching the tab – At this point ensure that your zip is in the open position. Position the tab about 1cm below the zip with the d-ring facing in. Consider your seam width to judge how far in to position the d-ring. I usually clip my tab to 4cm long and line up the edges with the fabric, Giving a tab of 1cm if I use a seam width of 1cm. Pin into postion. As before, sew up the layers ensuring that the zip is laying flat. I usually add a few extra lines of stitching to the tab section for strength.

13. Attaching the wadding – Sandwich the outer fabric section of the purse between the two squares of wadding you have cut out. Stitch around 3 sides to secure the wadding. I use this as an opportunity to add a strengthening second line of stitching all around the purse leaving the bottom of the lining open to turn through. At this point trim off any excess fabric.

14. Turn through and press!- Turn through the purse, pushing out all of the corners. Then gently press the raw edges of the lining. Be careful of the wadding which will melt and stiffen if pressed on a hot iron.

15. Stitch the lining - To create a neat finish to the lining piece, press the raw edges in and stitch across. Then push the lining into the purse and that’s it – you have a neat little purse!

I'd love to know if you enjoyed this tutorial!

Come and visit my shop at Folksy! I make all of my purses using gorgeous japanese fabric - I love all the fun patterns. Also if you like crafty blogs like mine then you should check out Craft Blog UK, my directory of crafty blogs!

ps - the giveaway is closed now, the winner has been contacted! But please do continue to add your favourite purse tutorials as you find them :)

Handmade Gifts from Folksy

2010-09-16T23:24:00.005+01:00

www.folksy.com

My top 3 Please click images for more details, included are Lovely Pigeon, Realicoul and Anna Clifton Jewellery

x Hilary :)

'An important message about the arts' - an animated video by artist David Shrigley

2010-09-14T09:28:00.000+01:00

Jewellery Roll

2010-09-05T21:30:00.002+01:00

I made this! Really pleased with a recent commission and thought I'd share some pics :)

There are so many compartments, ring holder, zippy purse section and it's padded inside too.

I'm thinking about making up a pdf tutorial on how to make this... it's actually not that complicated, you just need to make it all in the correct order!

Follow...

2010-09-03T15:01:00.001+01:00

1. to go or come after in the same direction

2. to accompany

3. to come after as a logical or natural consequence

4. to keep to the course or track of

5. to act in accordance with; obey

6. to accept the ideas or beliefs of

7. to understand

8. to watch closely or continuously

9. to have a keen interest in

10. to help in the cause of or accept the leadership of

All of these are definitions of the word FOLLOW!

So which is most apt when it comes to tweeting and blogging or should there be a new version? What is your perception of the word 'Follow' as used by tweeters and bloggers worldwide - does it mean anything at all?- (do you care who follows you - do you display it proudly on your blog? ) Has facebook got it right by using the terminology 'like'?

answers on a postcard... or you could just leave a comment :)

Winner! The Empty Nest!

2010-07-06T20:57:00.000+01:00

I actually couldn't have made this up - I've been delaying writing this post and picking a winner for my new blog post advertising space as I've been so busy recently, but lo and behold whose name do I pick out of my hat (aka random number generator) but that of my online pal, blogger and pie maker extroadinaire Janet from the Empty Nest! She's on my blog roll and one of my all time favourite bloggers and sellers on the Big E.

"They are newlyweds, just like Jane Fonda and Robert Redford in the movie 'Barefoot in the Park'. Her favorite scene from that movie is where Jane and Robert are saying goodbye in the morning as he goes off the work. He is smartly dressed in a new suit and she is wearing only a crisp dress shirt of his. She loves how she feels with that cool cotton against her...as if he is still holding her. This apron pays homage to that wonderfully romantic scene and she loves to wear it. She will keep it on all day until they are together again at night. She dabs a bit of his cologne on the fabric to keep his smell with her...heavens..she loves that man!"

Wow - what a beautiful description and that's why Janet is approaching her 100th sale on Etsy - she has a real way with words as well as a talent for creating pretty aprons, stylised paintings (her banner for example), knitting and upcycling items to give them a second lease of life. You have to visit her etsy shop to see all the talents she has!

Janets blog - The Empty Nest is a really terrific read, it hits all my must haves in a blog. I should rephrase that - it hits both my must haves, humour and intelligence. I've mentioned this blog numerous times when I've been writing critiques for CBuk members. In my opinion (and I've seen alot of crafty blogs) Janets blog hits all the right notes and really makes you feel a part of the items that she's making. If you sell aprons you have to blog about baking pies and the only thing that used to tear me away from Folksy Friday was Janets Friday is Pieday (unfortunately everyone got too fat and Janet got too busy, so it had to stop!)

I've decided that this is the end of my giveaways as I'm not promoting this blog in the same way I used to, with my efforts being spent on my new web design course, CBuk and the Folksy blog.

So there's no rules and requirements this time - except please take a look at Janets shop and blog!

(I'll get that add up there asap!)

#Busy

2010-06-24T10:45:00.003+01:00

I'll be back soon with lots of extremely interesting stuff that you wont be able to resist sharing with all of your social media friends leading to an amazingly intense viral marketing phenomenon where all of my designs are sold for oodles and oodles of pounds (thats alot of money) and I move to the South of France just to get away from the media frenzy. (Is anyone else too busy to blog, or is it just me!)

Haptree in Peru

2010-06-08T18:00:00.000+01:00

No it's not me - but one of my wristlets being used by my brother's girlfriend. They are both archaeologists and currently on a dig in Peru. It's lovely to see one of my creations in action in such magestic surroundings - couldn't ask for a more fantastic product shot!!!

This is the wristlet / pencil case a little closer!

Bad news though - I'm all sold out of this fabric :( (but I do have lots more funky japanese fabric so take a peek at my Folksy shop)

New Job

2010-05-24T16:47:00.000+01:00

I've been selling on Folksy for nearly a year, it's a great marketplace and has a very friendly community. I'm really pleased that I've been asked to help out with their blog. I'm hoping to get the whole Folksy community involved in the blog alot more.

The Folksy blog will be featuring interviews, treasuries and seller tips to help members of Folksy with their shops. I'll be planning schedules of posting and asking for input from members of Folksy. If you aren't already a member of Folksy (as a buyer or seller) then do join up! Even if you are an international crafter, you can register with Folksy. I'll also be choosing a seller to guest post a Folksy Friday treasury every week and including links back to their blog and shops - so if you're not sure how to write a treasury post, take a look at this tutorial.

You can follow Folksy on twitter too! I hope that you will all be able to help support the Folksy Blog by leaving comments and retweeting when @folksy posts a blog link!, I know alot of you are sellers there and this extra exposure will really help to bring the customers in!

Thanks to those of you who have already said congrats on my new job! It was announced here by Anne the community manager at Folksy :)

x Hilary

Folksy Friday Mini Treasury - Green Party Victory....

2010-05-07T12:53:00.002+01:00

Congratulations Caroline Lucas!

Caroline Lucas has just gone down in history as the first Green party candidate ever to win a seat in the House of commons - congratulations to Brighton what a lot of fantastic and enlightened individuals you all are! (We didn't have a green party candidate standing in my constituency, hopefully that will change for the next election)

I thought the above would make a lovely selection for Caroline to take to her new office, and wear in her new roll!

The items above are handmade in the UK and available from www.folksy.com the online marketplace to buy the best handmade and handcrafted items! (Click the images for more details)

★Link Karma★

2010-05-03T00:08:00.003+01:00

I just invented ★Link Karma★

In case you can't read the image -

Link Karma!
The rules are post a link and click on a link!
- whether it’s a new listing, old listing, twitter, blog, giveaway, sale, facebook or whatever, add your link to this thread.
BUT! You must follow, tweet or facebook at least one other person on this thread for the privilege of posting your own!
You can keep coming back and adding links but you have to click on and promote other peoples links first in order to fulfil your link karma!
(tweet about this thread – here’s the link http://bit.ly/9GXUs8 )

Please post and click and tweet to your hearts content! here's the original thread link but why not start your own ★Link Karma★ - the stars aren't obligatory!

http://forums.folksy.com/forums/6/topics/37301

Feel free to★Link Karma★ my comments, I promise to tweet out yours if you tweet mine ;o)

Facebook Shop Front (like?)

2010-04-23T20:09:00.001+01:00

Cute wristlets and bead kits handmade in England using quality Japanese fabric and stunning glass millefiori beads. I have many cute patterns available for purses and bead kits. See more designs on my website

I made up this template above for my new facebook store front as I know I haven't got time to sort through all my stock and list it all at the moment, every image clicks through to my website www.haptree.co.uk I wanted to use the storefront as a temporary advert but unfortunately it doesn't seem to want this much code, it has taken a few of the images though so I'll keep working at it! If you want your own facebook shop click here.

Here's the link to my store - haptree's facebook shop

PS - don't forget to add my facebook fan page to your 'I Like' list, just leave your own fan page link on my wall and I'll 'like' you back.

Folksy Friday Mini Treasury - Custom Graphics or make your own!

2010-04-23T11:33:00.002+01:00

Wot no degree in Graphic design?

If you have a brand new folksy shop, or even an old folksy shop that go do with a little help with branding and promotion then look no further than folksy itself. Why spend hours slaving over your laptop when here are just 6 of the great designers who for very affordable fees will design you a custom banner, avatar or even an entire marketing pack. (Click the images for further details and lead times)

If you are penniless (most of us are I think!) then I recommend using a free program like gimp which is similar (not as good as but free!) to photoshop. Here's an Etsy seller who has used gimp to make her own banner, she explains exactly how to do it. For Folksy just remember that you'll need to change the dimensions to 100px high and 920 wide, to change your banner on Folksy you'll need to go to 'edit appearance and settings' once you are in 'your account'- if any one has a tutorial for doing this on Folksy specifically please do add the link in the comments box below :o)

Feel free to post links to your shops if you are particularly proud of your custom bought or indeed handmade banners!

Giveaway! Win a Month of free advertising on this blog!

2010-04-13T16:14:00.003+01:00

Would you like to win a feature all about your work and a month or more of free advertising on this blog, just like this months lucky winner? Details are at the end of this post (it's easy peasy and open to everybody!)

The winner of the April advertising Spot is...

Check out her Folksy shop here and she also writes a great blog too!

Dottie Designs creates personalised Photograph Albums, Guest Books and Keepsake Boxes and has a fully stocked Folksy shop! If you are going through one of life's memorable moments, weddings, christenings, anniversaries then be sure to add this great shop to your 'to-do' list!

I noticed that Dottie also sells this great card kit shown above, it's aimed at kids and I know my daughter would love it. Good luck with your Folksy shop and blog Dottie!

*HOW TO ENTER THIS MONTHS GIVEAWAY!*

It is so simple! You need to visit my NEW! blog www.craftbloguk.blogspot.com become a follower and then leave a comment below (on this blog!!!) to let me know what you think of it! If you are following already then just leave me a comment to let me know! You may also post a link to your blog, shop or website and let me know your latest news, think of it as a mini advert!

OPEN TO ALL!!!

(click here for my guide to leaving clickable blog comments)

How simple is that!

MORE PUBLICITY FOR THE WINNER!

Entry to this months competition ends at 12pm on the 31st May. The winning entrant will be featured in a blog post like the one above, which will then become the new entry form for next months competition - so you'll have everyone who enters over the next 6 weeks seeing your feature too - it's the giveaway that just keeps giving!!!

I will make you an advert if you do not already have one - so don't let that stop you entering!

Good Luck! I can't wait to read your comments...

Folksy Friday Mini Treasury - DIY Treasury...

2010-04-02T00:04:00.018+01:00

...a blank canvas for you to fill!

I hope you are having a Good Friday! Hopefully you are familiar with my Folksy Treasury template and by now you will have noticed there are a certain important 6 1 elements missing! Now's your chance to get featured!

I'll add images and links based on your suggestions throughout the day, I'm actually laying turf tomorrow in my garden square by square too, but I'll keep checking in and keep adding those little squares until we have ourselves a really pretty treasury... please leave your suggestions as a comment below, it can be your own item or someone elses... The theme is open so all items are welcome you can even suggest a background colour if you like! First Item will be picked at 10am and the final treasury will be created by 7pm :o)

We did it! Thank you so much for all the great contributions :o) I'm very happy!

Thanks for all the lovely items listed below so far - as promised I have picked the first - "Phil the Penguin" from the Folksy Seller - Pink Sherbert! I can't believe that this seller hasn't had a sale yet! Click the image for more details. The second item is this pretty bracelet from Blue Forest Jewellery and I couldn't resist this loopy corsage from Seventy Seventy One Design. My fourth pick is a really cute stretchy bracelet from Odd Girl Creates Item number 5, from the stained glass artist Amy Orangejuice was chosen because I have spent many a fantastic day (and night) in Croyde. The very last item chosen had to be this cute tote from Fosscards

Make your own Folksy Friday Mini Treasury Template Tutorial

Take alook on this thread if you want to see all of the FOLKSY FRIDAY BLOGS this week!

Meet the Trainee Website Designer!

2010-03-25T17:38:00.001Z

Yes Me! As of about 4.30pm today when I handed over my credit card details to Computeach. I've just signed up for a distance learning course to become a Certified Internet Webmaster. So today is the first step to getting myself a brand new career.

It should take about a year (they say!) - I'm hoping that I'll be qualified by the time my son starts at nursery - a year doesn't seem long to become a webmaster but I think maybe it's just the term webmaster that's freaking me out! Watch out spidey!

(Image from here)

I went on maternity leave in November 2003 (can't believe it's been so long) and haven't had a full time job since - the most I've worked is 20hrs a week and not doing anything particularly stretching. I've been thinking for ages what I want to do and I keep coming back to freelance web design every time. I need a job that will grow with me and is portable in case we relocate at any point, which is always a likelihood. I have a passion for research, writing and design and I'm fairly technically minded so I think it will be perfect for me. I have a completely unused degree in architecture too which is all about conceptual design principles. When I was designing buildings during my degree, I really enjoyed that you could lead people on a journey through a space and that's how I see great websites, visual clues and hints to help you explore a site in a predetermined way, albeit in 2 dimensions.

Anyway, enough fantisising about 6 figure salaries (junior web designers earn naff all, so part time junior web designers probably don't exist!) I'm fairly certain that this course (given it's only a year long) will be pretty basic stuff, and I've already got the heebiejeebies about it having watched what looked like a 17yr old talk about their experiences on their website, she didn't look like the shiniest button I've ever seen. It's alot of money, but I'd like the confidence of being able to say I have an industry recognised qualification when I set up my own freelance design business. I'm fairly sure I could learn it all from books but I want the security that they offer with regard to recruitment etc in case my dreams of freelance get scuppered by my mortgage interest going up.

I'm really excited about being able to redesign Craft Blog UK as a website too - it will be awesome... but in a year or so! I'll keep you posted about how my coursework is going, please tell me if I'm turning into a geek! I'm going to go and make myself a new pencil case now and buy a tonne of notepads! I love being a student again already, is it beer o clock yet!

Video! Bead Kit and Easter Bunnies Wristlet

2010-03-22T14:14:00.000Z

Here is a video of a Haptree Beadkit so you can see all the little bits inside :o)

Would love to know what you all think!

Beautiful Things

2010-03-18T13:08:00.000Z

I received the most wonderful surprise gift in the post today from a fantastic folksy seller, she ran a competition on twitter

Lovely packaging!
Very Cute label!

Wow - a Pinny - It's fab!

The stitching is perfect on this sweet little pocket! Would show you what it looks like on but I'm not feeling very photogenic today - I will wear it next time I'm baking cookies with a 50's up do :o)

Please visit this lovely (and very generous) lady's shop here - http://www.folksy.com/shops/artyfartymack
and her blog here http://beautifulthingsbyclaire.blogspot.com/ and don't forget to follow her on twitter, you never know when she may be feeling generous again! @ClaireMackaness

Jewellery Roll

2010-03-17T11:14:00.000Z

I made up this jewellery roll a few weeks ago - it was a commision and although it came just at the same time as my CBuk stuff was all going on so I was worried it took too long but I really enjoyed designing it and making it up. I'd never made a jewellery roll befor and I was really keen not to be influenced too much by what other people had made already, so I made it up in paper, then made a mock up in some old material I had before finally getting it just right!

My lovely customer, Gail from Florio Designs at Folksy who I met at a fair last December, kept assuring me she had no deadline but still I hate to have things waiting in my to do list for too long and unlike computer work my sewing needs my complete, undistracted attention (which is a rare occurance!)

I was given a great brief with lots of detail about which sections were needed (there are lots) and yet it was broad enough to give me a really free hand. I wanted it to be recognisable as a 'haptree' creation so I incorporated an internal purse and for the ring holder I used one of my lobster clips. I also used the same method I use for making straps as a way of controlling pendants, they can wrap around or be clasped around it and then are tucked into a little padded pocket. Gail also told me she liked cats, and I had just enough of this Japanese material left! She liked it and left me some really lovely feedback via folksy so I'm really chuffed!

I don't know if you can see from the photos but my camera has developed a little blurry blob - so I'm going to have to take it apart and clean it out, it has had one too many trips to the beach I think! (Oh how I need a new camera!)

If you would like a jewellery roll then please let me know - I'm also thinking of writing up the pattern as a PDF, although with all the little sections and pockets it's going to be quite a task!

Folksy Friday Mini Treasury - Sugar and Spice...

2010-03-12T10:42:00.000Z

...and all thing nice

Here come the girls! A selection of very girly and pink items from some of Folksy's most talented artists and crafters. Dollies, handbags, flowers, softies, ribbons and a bit of fru fru - girls don't stop being girls just because they grow up! Add these shops to your favourites so you'll know just what to buy next time you are in the pink!

Images are clickable for more details! Have a lovely weekend - I will as it's my birthday tomorrow and Mothers day on Sunday! :o)

Folksy Friday Mini Treasury - Dust off your Wellies...

2010-03-05T13:53:00.001Z

...time to sort out the garden!

It's March now and it's definitely getting warmer and lighter, so no more excuses, give the greenhouse a thorough spring clean and start preparing your seed beds! I've been growing veg and gardening for a few years now and March is always the time of year when I am most enthused about getting my plot in shape for this years growing season but there is so much to do!

All of the items above are handmade by sellers from www.folksy.com an artisan marketplace based in the UK. Please click the images for further details. I'd love to hear your comments about my selection this week!

To all of you with twitter accounts!

I'm looking for gardening types to follow on twitter having had a lovely chat about this years growing season this morning with a few folksy sellers @maggie1981 and @wellydogdesigns - please recommend some if you can! I wonder if Monty Don tweets?

Feedback, Cillit Bang and Handmade Marketing

2010-03-04T11:02:00.001Z

I have a daily struggle between my 'to do' list and my 'what I want to do' list - I suppose that's the same for everybody. I've been working really hard over the last few weeks to get the new blog up and running, including starting a fan page on facebook - it's starting to tick over nicely though and I can begin getting back to normality, or just marginally less hectic anyway. My house needs a bit of TLC and perhaps some cillit bang here and there - so it's back to the to do list and not so much of the what I want to do list (boooooo!)

Last week I sold this purse which has been like an old friend to me as I've used this image in lots of publicity because I love the graduated background - the buyer left me some great feedback , she said

Lovely quality, very impressed. Thank you!

No, thank you! For me feedback is by far the most important part of the sale and when I see my feedback number has gone up by one I have to half look away as I click, it's a bit like getting exam results - you know you've done okay but it doesn't stop you getting that heart sinking feeling that something may have gone terribly wrong and that ecstatic leaping about when you find out you got an A+ ! If any buyers of handmade goods are reading you are now aware of the power you wield just by writing a simple sentence!

Late last night I had a google alert to let me know that Handmade Marketing had featured me in a new post! See it here. I sent them the details some time ago but they were on hiatus and said they'd be back - and now they are! It's a great site absolutely packed with tips, mostly from etsy sellers - well worth delving into if you have a spare few hours and if you don't then follow them on twitter - they send out a bunch of tweets with every new article they publish so you wont miss a thing.

It was a post I wrote a few months back when they introduced twitter lists onto twitter - I was talking about Listorious and Twibes and also mentioned 6 links that had just about everything you needed to know about twitter. (talking of lists don't forget my folksy and CBuk twitter lists!)

Take a look at the article and please do comment if you have a minute as that will mean I may get more articles published by them!!!

Thanks for reading today, f you sell handmade, what's the best feedback you've ever had - why not cut and paste it into a comment for me and link back to your shop if you have one :o)

Folksy Friday Mini Treasury - Be the First...

2010-02-26T11:01:00.001Z

Folksy's Undiscovered Talent

In my 'Be the First' post in October 2009 I wrote -

...rewire yourself and think handmade one off loveliness, the seller with no sales is a clean slate just the same as the seller with the 100% positive feedback, the only people you should avoid buying from are those with dodgy feedback.

So here is another selection of sellers all waiting for that elusive first sale - Each and every one of these gifts would make a marvellous mothers day present! So why not be impulsive today, treat yourself, your mum and make a Folksy seller very happy - but don't forget to leave great feedback!

The items chosen in todays Mini Treasury were selected via this thread

- please take a look at all the other sellers looking for a first sale :o)

I'll update this list ! Just let me know if you aren't on the list and you're looking for your first sale!

REMEMBER TO CHECK MY SIDEBAR FOR THE FOLKSY FRIDAY CLUB MEMBERS POSTS!

A New Award!

2010-02-24T23:21:00.001Z

I have been awarded a Sunshine Award by lots of brilliant bloggers for both my blogs! Thanks so much to you all, especially for all the lovely comments you have left.

Dinky Daisy
Quernus Crafts
Blue Forest Jewellery
Trinket Box
Fairly Girly
Charlotte Hupfield Ceramics
Sparrow Primitives
Cinnamon Jewellery
Mrs G Knits

So I'm giving you all back my own pretty flower award to say thanks, it's called the I LOVE CRAFT BLOGS AWARD! Feel free to pass it on to any crafty blogs you love, oh and make up your own rules, nominate as many or as few blogs as you like - or just keep it for yourself!

Happy Blogging x

(I hope I didn't miss anyone out, I got a bit lost with all the awards flying around)

Giveaway - Win a Month of Free Advertising! (April)

2010-02-19T12:33:00.002Z

Would you like to win a feature all about your work and a month or more of free advertising on this blog, just like January's lucky winner? Details are at the end of this post (it's easy peasy and open to everybody!)

The winner of the February advertising Spot is...

Pam Southernwood is the talented lady behind Avril Pam, a successful Folksy shop selling beautiful jewellery, handwoven scarves and intricate felted brooches and purses. Pam seems to be able to put her hand to any craft! Pam has also recently created a brand new website - www.averilpam.co.uk where you can see a gallery of her latest work.

These pieces above really caught my eye, I particularly like the background Pam has used for the black and white necklace. The little droplets of dew reflect the spots on the beads so well! This felted and embellished brooch would look fabulous on the lapel of your winter coat, it makes me think of a beautiful peacocks feathers all fanned out.

HOW TO ENTER THIS MONTHS GIVEAWAY!

It is so simple! You need to visit my NEW! blog www.craftbloguk.blogspot.com become a follower and then leave a comment below (on this blog!!!) to let me know what you think of it! You may also post a link to your blog, shop or website and let me know your latest news, think of it as a mini advert!
OPEN TO ALL!!!

(click here for my guide to leaving clickable blog comments)

How simple is that!

(here's a little tip - hold down shift whilst you click a link and page will open a new page rather than navigating away from the page you are on - try it! - or if that doesn't work using your browser left click a link to bring up options of how and where to open it, as a tab or as a new page etc)

MORE PUBLICITY FOR THE WINNER!

Entry to this months competition ends at 12pm on the 1st April 2010. The winning entrant will be featured in a blog post like the one above, which will then become the new entry form for next months competition - so you'll have everyone who enters next month seeing your feature too - it's the giveaway that just keeps giving!!!

I will make you an advert if you do not already have one - so don't let that stop you entering!

Good Luck!

Sewing and Sowing

2010-02-09T11:34:00.000Z

Sewing....

I've been asked to do a jewellery roll for one of my fellow Folksy sellers Florio Designs - I had to put it on a bit of a back burner because of the fair I did at the weekend amongst a zillion other things but I'm hoping to get the prototype finished for her soon, if she likes it I can then take the plunge and make it up in some of my Japanese fabric. I've already had to do a redesign but I think my new plan will work!

Gail sells these beautiful fascinators - I just wish I had an outfit to go with them, haven't had any wedding invites for this spring! Probably a good thing as I'm way too busy.

I have been invited to write a tutorial for one of my coin purses for Sew Hip Magazine. The deadline is March 1st, who knows at what point it will appear (if at all!) I'm off to visit my mother in North Wales for half term so I'm going to take all my sewing bits / machine and do the tutorial pics up there, then it's just a case of writing it up when I get back and posting it all off. ('just'! )

I need to do the pics in the day, can't stand flash photos - my mother has a wonderful light sun lounge I can use to set up in and get some nice bright images - they may also keep the kiddiwinks occupied so I can actually get on with it! Wish me luck!

...& Sowing?

Ok not actually sowing anything yet, I'm Not sure what happens, must be the extra light or the emergence of little green shoots but suddenly I've got back my gardening head. This dead thing above is my great big Hosta, you have to have a lot of faith in mother nature to believe this will be looking like this a few months (fingers crossed the snow didn't kill them all , at what point will I know?)

Perhaps it's little bulbs poking their heads up for the first time that makes everyone get excited about spring!

The veg patch is a little bare! just take a look at the 'my garden' link at the top to see what they were like last year - all green and lush full of produce. We're remodelling this area, there will be a new big shed and a kind of deck where the large bed is, leaving us with 4 x 4ft square beds which is plenty, I had the top bed as my salad bed last year and it was too much so I'll scale it down a little this year and concentrate on getting some decent tomatoes.

Arts & Craft Market - Berkhamsted

2010-02-01T18:08:00.000Z

My first attempt at a more local fair - fingers crossed it's going to be a busy shopping day being the week before Valentines day. If any of you are near by would love to see you. Here are the details -

I've been really busy with craftblog uk but now it's launched hopefully things will get back to normal (I even missed Folksy Friday last week - but please check the sidebar as I have links to everyone's in there) I've been lucky enough that http://www.ukhandmade.com/ have asked if the new blog can be their official blog roll - as they were struglling to manage their own. I'm really chuffed to be connected to such a great website, they have added my new CBuk badge on their ning and their blog and invited all their new members to add their blogs!

The only differences to this blog will be the blogging tips and tutorials will be posted over there, but I'll link to them on my tips page here too.

I'll also be restarting my gardening posts, actually got into the garden and did some bits and bobs last weekend - there was just an inkling of a spring feeling, can't wait to start the seedlings off, a little while to wait yet I think, we had a massive frost this morning.

www.craftbloguk.blogspot.com

2010-01-28T16:58:00.000Z

www.craftbloguk.blogspot.com

My brand new blog is up and running and I'd be so pleased if you could all spread the word for me :o) It's a directory of uk blogs but it will have blogging tips and interesting features that will hold interest for everyone from the crafty blogosphere!

x H

UK Handmade Gift Guide - Valentines Day

2010-01-26T11:23:00.000Z

Click to launch the full edition in a new window

Flora Dunwoody is at it again - she just can't stop shopping!

Please take a look and comment over on the UK handmade blog which is fab and responsible for producing this guide. Karen Jinks is the founder of UK handmade and after the success of the xmas guide featuring the Dunwoody's and their dog - asked if I'd mind helping out with this one - I hope you all enjoy it. Big thanks to Karen for doing such a great job of editing the mish mash of notes I gave her into this beautiful guide.

x Hilary

Folksy Friday Mini Treasury - It's time to...

2010-01-22T11:04:00.005Z

...buy a new watch!

Clocks, pocket watches and time pieces are most definitely on-trend at the moment. Steampunk has been around a while now but it just takes a Blockbuster movie like Sherlock Holmes to arrive on the scene and now fob watches are selling out everywhere - I expect to see them in Top Shop next! Here are a few chosen from Folksy's finest - all images are clickable for more details.

More Folksy Friday's - Please check my side bar for the Folksy Friday Club where you can see lots more picks from other bloggers!

Folksy Friday Mini Treasury - Keep warm...

2010-01-15T11:17:00.009Z

...and Snuggle up in a Blanket

Why not turn down the central heating and invest in a knitted blanket. Warm, snuggly and environmentally friendly too. Buy a big one and snuggle up with a loved one - what a great idea for a valentines day present! The work that has gone into these beautiful blankets and throws is incredible and with these freezing temperatures they are worth every penny and every laborious stitch! (ps. cot and baby blankets make excellent knee warmers for grown ups too)

All of the work above has been handmade by artists resident in the UK and is available for sale at http://www.folksy.com/ please click the images for further details and to search for more beautiful creations.

More Folksy Friday's

I love all these different themes we come up with every Friday!

Please let me know if you also have a Folksy Friday blog, I would love to add your links to my regular Friday posts, the more the merrier!

Connect your Blog to Facebook with Networkedblogs

2010-01-14T16:02:00.002Z

Do you have a Facebook fan page and a blog?

You can now connect the two so that your blog posts are automatically posted to facebook fan page... it is so easy to do you just click on this link http://networkedblogs.com/ which will take you to the networked blog site and click on the the big orange button that says add your blog.

You can choose to have your posts automatically posted to your wall and all your fans, or you can just have it posted to a new tab called blog on your fan page.

Do you also see the large follow button - well, it's another way to make connections - exactly the same as google friend connect that most bloggers have, you have to insert the follow widget into your blog to verify that it belongs to you but after that you can choose to remove it. I've kept mine, well just to see if anyone clicks it!

I discovered networkedblogs whilst I was joining in with the latest link love phenomena where you add a discussion called 'links' to your facebook page and invite everyone to post their links, encouraging a mass link swap follow fest kind of chain reaction - well that's the plan! You have to take some time to go and look at everyone's links mind otherwise you wont see the benefit. (blimey that sounded mumsy, don't forget your hats and scarves too!) My facebook page is www.facebook.com/haptree - please feel free to add some links and become a fan and I'll be sure to fan you back!

Add more Gadgets and Widgets in Blogger

2010-01-13T13:03:00.005Z

This is a simple breakdown of how to maximise the areas you can add gadgets or page elements in your blogger template.

Take a look at all the places I can add gadgets in this screen shot of my 'layout'. At the end of this post I'll let you know why I think having all these spaces for gadgets is useful!

As you can see I can add gadgets all over the place and there are a few customisations in order to be able to have this many, but there is one really easy way I have found to immediately add more gadget space just by changing a simple 'no' to 'yes' in a few places. I've also added some links to enable you to convert your two column blog into a 3 column and 3 footer column blog like this one. But try this simple trick first!

How it's done!

Open up the 'layout' tab of your blogger dashboard, now go to 'Edit HTML' part of your blog layout.

Use Ctrl and F to search for the following - showaddelement='no'

Everywhere you find this change it to showaddelement='yes' if you haven't made any adjustments to your template you should find this in 2 places at least. I think some of the newer blog templates may already have more 'add page element' sections than when I started out last year but if you feel you've been lacking in page elements then try this.

Now click save (using preview wont show you anything new) and go to the layout and take a look to see if you have any new 'add page elements' sections to play with! Just drag and drop to move all your gadgets around. If you want to completely makeover your blog then you'll need some of the tutorials that I've linked to below to add extra columns.

Adding More Columns to your Blogger Template

If you want three columns there are dozens of tutorials that show you how - here's a google search that will get you a zillion different 3 column blogger tutorials - my advice is to go straight to the comments section of any blogger customisation tutorial and see what people have said and whether the author responds to questions in the comments - just like buying a product, looking at the feedback is a good way to guage the quality of the tutorial!

You will notice I also have 3 columns at the bottom of my blog (my footer) - you can have 3 columns and one stretching beneath it too - just follow one of these tutorials, to add columns to your blogger footer

Here's my tutorial for adding a horizontal link bar!

Make sure you take heed of the 'padding' as not adding the margins can make your blog look like a car crash! Also ALWAYS make an up to date copy of your blog template - really can't emphasise how important this is!

Why do I need all these gadgets?

It's quite easy to get carried away with gadgets and widgets - but I'd advise thinking hard about what you want them for so you don't end up with a cluttered looking blog where people have trouble finding the actual content which is above everything else the most important element of your blog. Here are a few reasons you may need them.

You need to de clutter and put some of the more clunky items into a bigger space - I use the middle page elements section for my text heavy widget, previous posts. I've tried to maximise the number of posts that people can easily see and also the number of page views I recieve by not having all my posts in one long scroll. You could also use the 'peekaboo post' option when your writing you posts to achieve this effect.
You have masses of 'badges and buttons' from blog boosters like blogflux, blogerama etc and want somewhere to neatly tidy them away to - mine are all way down at the bottom of my blog. this also works for awards and badge swaps.
You want to put advertising on your blog - some places are more lucrative than others, for example a banner advert below your header but beware of ticking off your readers! I think my project wonderful adverts are in a good position but having them there means I lose space for other more interesting widgets.
You want to add a Latest News! banner.
Social media and followers - facebook and twitter have some great gadgets that it would be a shame to leave off your blog due to lack of room! Most of these widgets will fit automatically into the space you insert them.

Would love to hear your comments or about any amazing new gadgets you've found space for!

GIVEAWAY HQ

2010-01-12T09:25:00.022Z

This page is dedicated to displaying craft giveaways! Everyone loves giveaways, so if you want to advertise yours or you're just looking for some giveaways to enter you've chosen the right place!

Giveaway HQ is having a break whilst I get Craftblog UK up and running - my giveaway is still live and kicking though so please enter by clicking on the link below.

Haptree
Win a whole month of free advertising on this blog! Including a feature post all about your shop and products Click to Enter

Your giveaway will be displayed here, new giveaways take the top spot -Please supply an image and link for your giveaway. For a chance to win a free advertising spot for a month on this blog click here.

click here to submit your giveaway now!

Folksy Mini Treasury - Nature Tale

2010-01-08T13:46:00.004Z

Preservation

Mother Nature has a funny way of letting us know what's best, I think that the snow and ice we have had recently is her way of saying slow down, wrap up warm, get a good book and wait for spring.

More Folksy Friday's

Fairly Girly - Orange http://fairlygirly.blogspot.com/2010/01/folksy-friday.html
Ellie's Treasures - Winter http://elliestreasurescrafts.blogspot.com/2010/01/folksy-friday.html
Ginger Nut - Snow! http://gingernutknits.blogspot.com/2010/01/folksy-friday-snow-day.html

looks like we're all drawing our inspiration from the cold weather! Bbrrrrrrrrr...

Please let me know if you also have a Folksy Friday blog, I would love to add your links to my regular Friday posts.

Giveaway - win a months free advertising!

2010-01-06T22:53:00.002Z

Would you like to win a feature all about your work and a months free advertising on this blog, just like January's lucky winner? Details are at the end of this post (it's easy peasy and open to everybody!)

The winner of the December advertising Spot is...

I was really excited when I drew this months winner as she comes from North Devon, I lived in Instow for 4 years and then Bideford for a year before relocating to Hertfordshire. So when Lorraine mentioned on her website that she sells her Jewellery in the fantastic Bideford Pannier Market approximately 20ft from my old house I was stunned - small world or what!

North Devon is beautiful, with gorgeous and dramatic coatslines and cliffs, it's a great place to surf too, and it's full of welcoming and creative people, just like this months winner, Lorraine who is behind the Folksy and Misi shops, Fairly Girly. Lorraine is a part-time working mum and makes all this pretty jewellery from her North Devon home. She uses a selection of lampwork beads, crystals, glass beads and silver. This collection of bracelets above has to be my favourite, I love the Keats poem that Lorraine uses as her background - just a little excerpt but it's so sweet.

A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:

Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness...

This pretty bookmark and earrings would also make a girly valentines day gift - take a look at the Fairly Girly shops for more jewellery featuring these cute little hearts http://www.fairlygirly.com/

[Awaiting new advert from fairlygirly!]

HOW TO ENTER THIS MONTHS GIVEAWAY!

It is so simple! You need to become a follower of my blog, facebook or twitter to enter this competition.
1. Leave a comment on this post with a link to your blog, shop or website and let me know your latest news, think of it as a mini advert! (click here for my guide to leaving clickable blog comments)
How simple is that!

MORE PUBLICITY FOR THE WINNER!

Entry to this months competition ends at 12pm on the 14th of February 2010. The winning entrant will be featured in a blog post like the one above, which will then become the new entry form for January's competition - so you'll have everyone who enters next month seeing your feature too - it's the giveaway that just keeps giving!!!

I will make you an advert if you do not already have one - so don't let that stop you entering!

Good Luck!

(PS. Don't forget to visit Fairly Girly's excellent blog including her Misi Monday and Folksy Friday features)

Hello Teenies

2010-01-06T11:21:00.001Z

Ok so the noughties have gone, hello Teenies - had a pretty busy decade, degree, 2 kids, 5 house moves, 6 jobs to mention but a few... so the teenies will hopefully be a little more laid back with a bit more cash to burn.

A few little updates, I've been away from crafty blog land for a few weeks, those of you who are familiar with this blog will know that is unusual for me - I didn't look at my computer at all the whole of the holidays!

My competition ends at midday today!!!! Click Now to Enter!

I mentioned this before I went away, I've been working on Craftblog UK a blogspot blog which will (hopefully) be a really useful resource and a nice place for promoting all of the UK crafters who have wonderful blogs to complement their work - I know how hard everyone works to keep them updated and full of great content so a bit of recognition will be nice for everyone. Let me know your blog addresses as I'm trying to compile a database and organise it into craft types but so far I have just made a start on the banner! I've got too many ideas and I need to try to start small and work it up!I'll do a grand opening soon! What do you think of the banner/logo? - I went for simple and easy to read with room for adding a few seasonal twiddles or wotnots round the sides...

You can also follow craftbloguk on twitter - www.twitter.com/craftbloguk thank you to those who are already following. I'll start tweeting all your new blogposts soon once I get myself organised.

I'm also working on http://www.haptree.co.uk/ I bought it from MrSite just before Christmas, the most basic one, it was about £20 for the whole thing - but have yet to get any of my stock on there or make it look beautiful - I'll do a post when I'm happy with it. Primarily I have bought it as I want a memorable address to put on my cards and stationary.
Haptree and me blog - I'm hoping to get back to gardening and in an effort to help myself to start a gardening calendar with to do's for the month ahead, although with all the snow I can't actually see my garden! I'll take some snaps today - it's looking like a winter wonderland. I get some really useful tips from all of you crafty types, seems home grown goes naturally with handmade.

Happy Christmas, see you in 2010!

2009-12-18T22:53:00.004Z

If you are a member of Folksy or Etsy then you will no doubt be familiar with the fantastic work of NiftyKnits who kindly gave me permission to use her nativity meerkats as my Christmas Blog greeting card to you all as I sign off for 2009. Funny that I am now so familiar with these meerkats that this concept doesn't seem at all unusual!

If you would like to know more about Nifty, including the adventures of the world famous touring meerkat twins, currently in Jerusalem and New York respectively (yep I just wrote that) then click here for her lovely blog which is not all about meerkats and is a jolly good read!)

SO! Merry Christmas, Nadollig Llawen and Shalom! - have a fantastic new Year, see you in 2010 when I will be launching Craftblog UK!

You can register your interest on Twitter www.twitter.com/craftbloguk or just leave me a comment and I will find your blog and make sure you are included, I'm hoping it will be a really useful resource and lots of promotion for everybody involved.

Now please share your Christmassy blog posts or news with me here, I'm looking forward to having time to read all the blogs I'm following and find a few new ones!

(Oh, one last thing! Don't forget you can enter my blog advert giveaway (simple entry) and win just like my previous winners, The Copper Swallow, Emma in Wonderland and Natalie Wilson - click the links to see the feature posts they also won. If you win you'll have advertising from 7th Jan until Valentines day 2010. Enter here now!)

UK Handmade Gift Guide

2009-12-14T09:34:00.001Z

Click to launch the full edition in a new window.

I hope you have all seen this!

I'm feeling very proud to have been a small part of creating this and to be associated with the talented team behind UKhandmade. Take a look at all the stunning gifts in here and let me know what you think or leave a comment over at the UKhandmade blog and if for some unknown reason you have yet to encounter UKhandmade then why not take a look now at the brilliant website and quarterly publications which are jam packed with inspiring crafty articles. http://www.ukhandmade.co.uk/http://ukhandmade.co.uk/main/

x H

Shop Update - Jewellery Kits with Wristlets

2009-12-08T12:10:00.000Z

I have finally got round to taking some photos of my new stock - still many more to do! Here's a selection of the bead kits - all available on Folksy now at £12.00 + P&P. Perfect little gift for a girl and all hand made from quality Japanese fabric. Every kit contains these gorgeous glass millefiori beads, cute candy coloured seed beads and enough elastic to make lots of cute necklaces and bracelets.

Giveaway - win a months free advertising!

2009-12-07T14:29:00.004Z

Would you like to win a feature all about your work and a months free advertising on this blog, just like December's lucky winner? Just follow this blog and leave a comment at the end of this post - that's it!

The winner of the December advertising Spot is...

Also known as Serena Cowdy from the succesful blog Cowdy Calling, a humourous and friendly blog about Serena's many and varied talents, actress, photographer, artist and freelance finance journalist...

The Copper Swallow Folksy shop opened a few months ago selling 1930's inspired, handmade paper goods, greeting cards, tags and notelets and has become a popular shop already.

"Why 'The Copper Swallow'? Well, I've got copper-coloured hair and I tend to zip here and there at half the speed of light. A bit like a swallow, in fact - although with a lot less grace..."

She may not be graceful, but her work is stylish and elegant and Serena has a strong brand awareness, as she uses a very select palette of materials for her current range. Old stamps, manilla card and a typewriter from the 1930's are used to make each piece.

This apple place name tag is a perfect example of her work, which is all refreshingly uncomplicated and original. It also shows off her photography skills! I'm fairly sure there will be more than a few sophisticated brides-to-be wanting Serena to take on their wedding stationary order - I'd get in their fast if I were you, she's a busy lady!

If you would like to learn more about Serena and the Copper Swallow take a look at her professional website http://www.serenacowdy.com/ or follow her on twitter http://twitter.com/SerenaCowdy

HOW TO ENTER THIS MONTHS GIVEAWAY!

It is so simple! You must become a follower to enter this competition (or be one already!).

1. Leave a comment on this post with a link to your blog, shop or website and let me know your latest news, think of it as a mini advert! (click here for my guide to leaving clickable blog comments)
How simple is that!

MORE PUBLICITY FOR THE WINNER!

Entry to this months competition ends at 12pm on the 6th of January 2010. The winning entrant will be featured in a blog post like the one above, which will then become the new entry form for January's competition - so you'll have everyone who enters next month seeing your feature too - it's the giveaway that just keeps giving!!!

I will make you an advert if you do not already have one - so don't let that stop you entering!

Good Luck!

(PS. Don't forget to visit The Copper Swallow! to see her new range of notebooks )

Folksy Mini Treasury - Tree Time!

2009-12-04T19:25:00.003Z

...Happy Handmade Xmas

If you love handmade, (think quality, unique and beautiful) items but you look mournfully at your list of electrical gizmos and gadgets requested by your nearest and dearest, then at least grab yourself a selection of gorgeous handmade chrimbo decs! (I wonder if you can buy a hand knitted nunchuck case - now there's a niche market???)

Take a look here for more...

Sneak peak!

2009-12-02T10:22:00.000Z

It's not finished yet - still needs the butterfly and stitching painting on but the sign is looking good! Excuse this photo it was taken last night with no flash or tripod - the others are all so blurred. My painting in the background also steals the show a little! I'm still umming an arring and moving bits around but I'm happy with the feel of the display - I'm going to try not to put too much stuff out all at once so it maintains a clean look as all my stuff is so highly patterned, but it's difficult to decide what, where, how... still have all the price labels and more straps to make!

First Craft Fair... Saturday 5th December - Stanmore, North london

2009-12-01T15:21:00.001Z

How cute are these stickers, my daughter adores being given stickers so I thought I'd not only stick them to my product packaging but also offer them to any kids too. W has been sorting all my stationary during his lunch hour at work for me, I've given him a huge list and so far everything has been great - including these below, which are intended to hang off the little pink paper bags I have, but I need some method of cutting a perfect circle as they look a little scruffy using scissors.

In terms of stock I think I am doing ok, I just did a little trial run and I'm feeling happy with what I've got and my display is finally all coming together. I just need to finish off some straps and make up a few more purses (as people keep buying them!) Will try to get everything photographed this week so I can show you all my new things.

Would be lovely to see you , my helper who is my brother's girlfriend has offered to bake biscuits to hand out and she's a pretty good biscuit maker so you wont want to miss those!

There are instructions of how to get there here - http://www.delapoleevents.co.uk/ and it also lists all the exhibitors, looks like something for everyone, so fingers crossed it will be a really good fair for everybody. The venue looks gorgeous, lets hope everyone is feeling really Christmassey now it's December. Happy Advent x H

Purses (enough for everyone)

2009-11-27T16:12:00.000Z

Just updated my shop - all of these purses are available at £4.50 + p&p they make perfect stocking fillers for little girls and not so little girls too. Email me haptree@yahoo.com or message me at my Folksy shop if you are interested and I can make you up a custom listing.

Folksy Mini Treasury - Christmas Cards and Last Posting Dates

2009-11-27T09:29:00.006Z

Quick - Buy stuff!

Time is running out folks - do you have your cards yet? Why not take some time to browse around these gorgeous and unique Christmas cards available at http://www.folksy.com/ All of the images will click through to the sellers shops so please click click and take a look at all of their beautiful crafts.

Last posting dates are:

UK Last Posting Dates

Friday 18th December for Second Class
Monday 21st December for First Class
Recorded Signed For™ has the same last posting dates as the 1st or 2nd Class service that the customer has chosen to apply it to.
Tuesday 15th December for Standard Parcels
Special Delivery™ - Wednesday 23rd December for Special Delivery™
Parcelforce - Worldwide, Tuesday 22nd December for express48, Wednesday 23rd December for express24, Wednesday 2nd December until Friday 18th December for Global Priority
International Airmail. - Friday 4th December for South & Central America, Caribbean, Africa, Middle East, Far East, Asia, New Zealand and Australia - Thursday 10th December Japan, USA, Canada and Eastern Europe - Friday 11th December Western Europe

(Copied from http://www.lastpostingdates.co.uk/ )

Centralise your side bars! - Blogging Tip

2009-11-24T11:46:00.002Z

This is so easy but makes such a difference to the look of your blog.

Have you added things like blog awards, photo's, adverts to your blog sidebars and they stick over to the left? (or even the little tags that you have to add to be on stumble or blogcatalog or other seo type site)

I recently added a section for doing badge swaps with fellow bloggers at the bottom of my blog and this will help to keep that whole section looking great too. I have a tutorial for making a grabbable blog or shop badge here if you don't know how to add one to your own site for other people to grab. So far I just have the lovely Dollipops - I gave her my sparkly giveaway HQ badge which you can grab down at the bottom or I can swap for this badge which will go to my shop. Let me know if you are interested in a swap, just leave me a comment.

Centralise your Sidebars

Here's how to make them all neat and tidy and centralised, just like mine on the left are.

Open up the gadget/widget in your blog layout section or directly from your blog if you have the editing mode (little tools crossed over beside each gadget)

Before all of the html text write <center> and afterwards write </center> (american spelling)

That's it, click save and you're done, all neat and tidy :o) worked especially well with my project wonderful adverts which looked very silly stuck over to the left as they are so slim.

Happy blogging - see more tips and tutorials here.

Folksy Mini Treasury - Baby Folksy

2009-11-20T10:18:00.002Z

...awwwwww booties

You'd have to have a heart of stone not to go a little goo goo ga ga over these cute baby knits!

I wrote this poem as a gift for my niece just before she was born. (When the next one comes along I'll be visiting Folksy! - Just look at the amount of fab baby products available here that I didn't have room to include this week)

Baby

You are new!
Now clean, now dry,
A small bright marble
(you have fingernails and hair!)

So who is she, it’s ok she’s safe
She knows everything about you
Every single minute of you
Why, she even smells like you!

And him, he’s yours too
You just met, he held your hand
He cried - You are too beautiful
He will protect you and talk softly about the world.

Baby, be sure to show them everything about you
(and impress their friends too!)
But that’s all for tomorrow
You must sleep now.

I said SLEEP NOW!
Mummy needs to sleep too
Don’t you remember?
She just gave birth to you.

Hilary Pullen September 2005

(NEXT WEEK = CHRISTMAS CARDS!)

PS.
Children in Need - Still Need You!

To all of you with twitter accounts, please, please send out this tweet to support the folksy Children in Need shop on Folksy, especially if you are unable to buy something from there yourself! Your followers may have money to burn?

Children in Need Folksy Shop, beautiful handmade gifts for xmas - all proceeds go to Children in Need http://tinyurl.com/ybkfb8z
Just click the link to tweet this now! It's that simple and that will cost you nothing (the least you can do, right?!) The link is shortened but it goes directly to Crafter oos charity shop.

Folksy Sellers Location Location location!

2009-11-18T09:51:00.000Z

View Folksy Shops in a larger map

This map has been created by Ravenwolf, one of our talented Folksy sellers, she creates gorgeous jewellery like this bangle below. Ravenwolf is putting together a list of everybody from Folksy that comments on this thread leaving their location, and a few details about themselves. I just commented this morning, hopefully this will keep building and building. It will be so useful to know who is nearby for sharing craft tables, meet ups etc. So far not too many people in Herts but looks like lots in London which is not too far for me.

Blogging Tips and Tutorials

2009-11-16T15:24:00.005Z

EDIT - Head over to Craft Blog UK for even more Blogging Tips and Tutorials

I've been writing and collecting lots of tips to make your blogger or any blog more appealing and easier to navigate. Making your blog look good and be user friendly will help you to attract and keep more followers and readers and hopefully direct more people to your shops, exposing more of your beautiful handmade items to the public.

There is a mix of easy html tutorials with some more conceptual and subjective tips here, but don't run off scared it's all really easily achievable, you just need to take it step by step. Please leave a comment and a way of contacting you if you get stuck with anything and I'll try my best to help!

See Craft Blog UK for all my new blogging tips!

Blogging Tips and HTML Tutorials

Make it Pretty!

Add a Shop Slideshow to your blog Nov 09
Photography Tips - Good photos = good blogs in my opinion!
Add a horizontal link bar (aka navigation bar) at the top of your blog below your blog title.

How, Why and When!
Ok so your blog looks amazing now but what's your motivation?

Why do I need a Blog to sell craft?
Tips from Etsy Bloggers
Blog Post Titles - are they important for SEO

Social Media and Advertising
Is anyone actually reading your blog posts?

Craft Link HQ - All the links you'll ever need to boost readers, increase sales and get yourself noticed!

Useful little Extras!

Make a grabbable blog badge - free advertising!
Make a Clickable Comment on someones blog, one click to get to your shop from their blog!
Add this - Social Media Sharing button - one click sharing.
Tweetable Links - Make it really easy for people to send out tweets, write it for them!

Let me know if you have any tips or tricks of your own for improving blogspot blogs, whether it be SEO related, html tutorials or just to make it aesthetically more pleasing! just write a comment.

I hope you have enjoyed reading through these ideas. :o)

haptree now 3D...

2009-11-14T18:48:00.001Z

I had an idea for my display, to make it really stand out and today we made a start on it... I'm getting a bit nervous as I've scrolled through lots of pictures of craft displays and I haven't seen anyone with a large sign above their heads yet... hopefully it will look as brilliant as the idea in my head. The idea is that it looks just like my shop and blog. Cost wise, we have most of the materials so it's working out pretty cheap.

W drew this up for me (I like that I'm a middle aged man!) and he's been working out all the logistics for attaching it, he's fairly expert at carpentry so I have faith that it wont collapse on me. He's made it so that it is in 3 parts and it'll be lightweight and screwed together with a few bolts and wingnuts - so easily assembled and dismantled. The struts come up from the back of the table (my kitchen table, an ikea one with drawers, very useful!) and I'll be able to hang some of my bags up high, I have read height is important for impact but have I gone too far?

We should really have been working on the house today, we have a bare concrete floor in the living room at the moment, but this fair is looming so I want to be sure it's all done in plenty of time. Also had a lovely lunch out at an italian restaurant just next to the DIY shop, maybe diy followed by an Italian is a new cultural phenomenon, a bit like a kebab after the pub? Why else would would they build them so close together?

Folksy Mini Treasury - Friday the 13th

2009-11-13T13:28:00.001Z

...get lost Freddy!

Or was it Jason, horror movies aren't really my thing - but if you're battling with demons from beyond the grave or just hiding in your house due to your paraskevidekatriaphobia (yep wikipedia has it's uses!) then get to Folksy and check out all of these lucky treasures! All the images are clickable (touch wood) or hover over for the prices.

PS.
Children in Need - Still Need You!

Children in Need Folksy Shop, beautiful handmade gifts for xmas - all proceeds go to Children in Need http://tinyurl.com/ybkfb8z
just click the link to tweet this now! It's that simple and that will cost you nothing (the least you can do, right?!) The link is shortened but it goes directly to Crafter oos charity shop.

Shop Slideshow Gadget - Blogging Tips

2009-11-12T10:21:00.004Z

I had a comment recently asking about one of the gadgets/widgets I have on my blog and I thought I'd share where they all come from over a few posts. I'm sure some of you already have these (and more) so please let me know your favourites too. Today I'll show you how to get the shop slideshow gadget.

Shop Slideshow

I think this will be particularly useful to any of you with a Folksy shop or other who is mourning the lack of an Etsy mini equivalent. Well in my opinion this is a better alternative and takes up less space in your sidebar. I have removed my Etsy mini and when my Etsy shop is restocked I'll just use one of these instead.

My slideshow is on the right titled "Available at my shop now" - it scrolls through all the items I currently have for sale in my Folksy shop. With one click people are taken directly to the item displayed. You can add as many of these as you like for all of your various shops. Neat huh!

In the 'layout' tab on your blogger dashboard click on 'add gadget'. Search for 'Slideshow' and click the plus sign. Change the dropdown 'source' menu to 'Other'. You now need to copy and paste the RSS feed from your shop into where it says 'Feed url' .

Finding your RSS - On Folksy this is a large orange button that says RSS just to the right of where your name is displayed on your main shop page, click it and then copy the address from the top of the page. With etsy you'll find the RSS by looking for the orange square in your tool bar called 'feeds'.

The RSS for my Folksy shop looks like this http://www.folksy.com/shops/haptree/rss and like this http://www.etsy.com/rss_shop.php?user_id=6302819 for my etsy shop.

You now need to click save and then drag the gadget to your desired location.

This will work for anything with an RSS feed!

Christmas fair and shop Update

2009-11-11T10:38:00.002Z

This week I have mostly been buying bits and pieces for my craft fair, ever the optimist I will of course be making back every penny (no self doubting here, no not me.... Aaaaargh!)

here's a few shots of what I have been making...

So lots of bead kits, wristlets and coin purses! I'm also hoping to make some library bags, they will be appliqued with a flower like this on a plainer fabric - if I used the Japanese fabric they would be way too expensive. I've bought yards and yards of new fabric but I've decided I must use up some of the fabric I have already - only 2 or 3 more things to make and I can start on the new stuff which has kittens, owls more gorgeous flowers and even some chritmassey stuff.

I've also got masses of millefiori beads and lovely opaque candy coloured seed beads which I have started turning into some very cute and bright jewellery. I'll take some pictures next week as the packaging is going to look gorgeous but I haven't printed it all up yet. Still LOTS more to do!

The shop is understocked at the moment but if you would like anything and you don't see it just convo me and I'll add a custom listing. Thanks x H

The fair is on December 5th at Bentley Priory in North London - it's an amazing venue and there will be antiques, collectables, books and crafts... if you live nearby please come and say hello!

Stumble - I need more Stumbling!

2009-11-08T18:07:00.001Z

This post is a recap from way back in June when I had just discovered Stumble, I have found so many interesting websites through using it since! Like finding Tokyo Plastic - wow, just keep clicking that red dot! The video I have embedded is from them too.

Check out some of my other favourites here, please bear in mind I share this computer so they are not all my favourites! If you are on stumble already click subscribe on my profile and we can be stumble buddies! (I'll subscribe to your too!) If you aren't using stumble then register it's so much fun!

Here's the post I wrote back in June -

Warning - reading this could rob you of many hours of your life but you'll also discover an amazing array of things you just never knew existed! One of the Folksy guys mentioned it in a chat room the other day. [that was Woody of WoodJewellery]

Stumble is an awesome idea where you click a button on your toolbar (it only takes a few seconds to download) and it takes you to a completely random website based on a few selections you've made about your interests - I chose humour, food, photography and craft. Then as you 'stumble' across these sites you can click like or dislike buttons (also on your toolbar) and stumble will take these choices into account and progressively bring you better and more interesting websites tailored to you!

Also you can add your own website, another way of getting people to visit my shops!

So if you do download stumble make sure you click 'I like it' next time you're on my blog! Leave me a comment if you want me to do likewise for your website or shop.

True to my word from June, if you let me know you clicked 'I like' then I will return the favour, just leave me the link!

Folksy Mini Treasury - Children in Need

2009-11-06T20:10:00.003Z

...please help any way you can!

A selection from the fantastic Crafteroo shop in aid of Children in Need. Custom animal portraits, jewellery, badges, cuddly toys... lots more too! Please click on any picture to take you directly to the shop for a good nose around!

All items for sale here [crafteroo] have been handmade by members of the Crafteroo forum (http://www.crafteroo.co.uk/). All proceeds will go towards Children in Need, so please don't hesitate to purchase- your money is going to a worthwhile cause in the UK and overseas

You can't buy Tess Daily at the Folksy Children in Need shop but you can help out in lots of other ways! Please read the rest to find out how!

Make a small donation and get a digital bandana for your twitter profile pic!

This link takes you to the official BBC Children in Need page where you can find out all of the amazing things that this charity does with your money and add a bandana to your profile pic to let everyone know you are supporting children in need.

To all of you with twitter accounts, please, please send out this tweet to support the folksy Children in Need shop, especially if you are unable to buy something from there yourself!

And for those of you with blogs - a quick mention of the Folksy Children in Need shop will really help to raise some more money for vunerable children who really need your help :o) Feel free to just copy and paste this post if you like.

And of course to those of you who would like to make something to donate - then click here for details of how to do so.

Twitter Lists and Listorious - Craft Link HQ

2009-11-05T09:37:00.005Z

Review of Twitter lists and Listorious

Including the only 6 links you need to understand Twitter!

Twitter now gives you the ability to curate lists of twitter users, I'll explain how and why you should be doing this if you are already on twitter. If you are new to twitter read through the 6 links below to get you started and you'll be the Bill Gates of the craft world by next week, with 100 billion followers. Alan Sugar will be coming to you for tips, and maybe a hand knitted scarf or a handbag too, although if you spent that much time on twitter I think your craft business may fold, perhaps just take it slow to start...

Twitip
Twitter Links
Twitter SEO tips
Twittinsecrets - 100 tips
Twitter Tools List
Online College Twitter Tips

Twitter is great for promoting your blog and business, it is instant gratification when you see your items views or google analytics stats shoot up with every tweet. But it can be difficult to fight through all the noise once you are following alot of people.

I haven't got through all the twitter tips and tools that are out there yet, just those 6 useful twitter links alone are jampacked with info and even more links. With twitters launch of 'Lists' I have recently started creating my own twitter lists and it has already had a positive effect on my blog stats and twitter following.

VITAL STATISTICS!

So now we have Following - Follower - Listed my vital statistics are currently 363 - 450 - 15 respectively.

I have made myself 5 lists so far, Folksy, Craft Links HQ, Giveaway HQ, News HQ and a private list, my favourites. I'm sure I'll be adding more soon and I have been added to 15 lists. Here are a few pointers to get you up to speed...

It's very easy to create a list you just click on the link 'new list' in the sidebar of your home page about half way down.
Lists can be public or private.
The option to add people to your list is found by clicking on their twitter name, their is a drop down list on the right hand side which shows all of your lists, just choose which list to put them in - very simple!
Alternitively you can start scrolling through your current following / follower lists and the same drop down box is available.
A link showing which of your lists each twitterer is in appears beneath their name, so you don't forget if you have already added them (for you to see only)
To access other peoples lists just go to their profile and look at their sidebar - this is such a great way to find people to follow or add to your own lists, you can also choose to become a follower of their list.
You do not have to follow someone to add them to your list.
Other people can become followers of your lists without becoming a follower of you.

There is a widget available from twitter here so you can have a live feed of your favourite lists on your blog. Twitter List Widget
IMPORTANT! Remember to add yourself to your lists too so if people have a widget of your lists then they will see your tweets too.

Now why is this great? Because you can have your main home page with all those voices and then go STOP! I just want to hear from my select buddies and click on your list, enabling more free flowing chat! Or maybe I just need to see what the crafty folk are up to today so I'll click on that list. I'm going to create a veg plot list soon.

BEWARE! As twitter users become more savvy to lists they will begin to spend more time just in their own private friends lists, they may not add you to lists if you are over link happy, boring or a spammer and if you aren't in lists then all your tweeting may be for nothing! A bit of balance is needed as always.

Note to self (stop being boring on twitter!)

Yes it sounds a bit like a disease but Listorious is actually more fun and could be a 'powerful tool' in the over used words of any one of the pro bloggers out there. I especially appreciate that it is not called twitliscious or twittylisty, and has a really classic branding, some might say dull, I say classic.

Listorious, launched Nov 2nd 09, has been promoted by twitter although is not their own. It's similar to twibes but it automatically imports your lists allowing people to search lists across twitter, including yours. So there's none of the hash tagging etc which is a bit of a faff. It is very easy to submit your lists and also great fun to search other peoples. With lists and Listorious now out there I was interested to see where Twibes would go next, when I asked them if they were now redundant they said @haptree quite the contrary - Twibes is an excellent source of lists. On their home page they have three references to dodgy (very dodgy) lists although they have informed me they are working on seperating adult lists, at the moment it looks a little flung together at the last minute, I guess they will be panicking a little!

My Folksy List is doing really well so far and slowly growing in numbers, there is a retweet button and an option to suggest someone for the list to the curator so it's all about getting links out there and is super excellent for promoting craft sites as members can retweet their lists to garner interest in their products collectively or singularly. (Please retweet!)

I'm going to be searching for bloggers like myself who review sites and offer tips to the crafting community to add to my Craft Links HQ list.

There will no doubt be top 100 lists created where people get bumped off and replaced by the next big thing to show what's on trend. Listorious and lists are a 'powerful tool' because by becomeing the curator of a cool list and promoting it, and letting it be promoted you will no doubt score followers, blog followers and potentially maybe even a sale! A sale,the holy grail of online crafters world wide, happy dance, Amen.

If you aren't on twitter and you think, I don't want to talk rubbish all day then you can now join and curate lists instead - you needn't tweet to be on twitter! You can call yourself a Curatorer which sounds much more high brow than a twitterer!

As I sign off BBC Radio 4 is talking about twitter and it's PEOPLE POWER!

I'd love to hear your comments about the new lists or listorious :o)

Cupcake Award (I mean Kreativ Award)

2009-11-03T13:20:00.002Z

Fancy Lady - my new cup cake and corset loving friend from the states nominated me for an award last week - Thankyou! It's actually called the "Kreativ Blog Award" and it looks like this.

I wrote a post all about cupcakes a few months back, I really enjoyed it and have developed a new interest in them now, it was called The Cupcake Class and I used lots of images from Etsy and Folksy sellers but I missed the Fancy lady's Gourmet - so to right that wrong here is one of her amazing creations to drool over!

The award is a bit like an old fashioned chain letter, but I think awards cheer people up so I'm going to go ahead and follow the rules! (I don't know why it's Kreativ and not creative and I'm worried I may look uncool if I ask but if you know can you tell me?)

1) Copy the pretty picture and post it on your blog.
2) Thank the person that gave it to you and link to their blog.
3) Write 7 things about yourself we don't know.
4) Choose 7 other bloggers to pass the award to.
5) Link to those 7 other bloggers.
6) Notify your 7 bloggers.

So I've done #1 and #2 here comes the tricky part...

Seven facts about myself...

I'm Welsh (but I don't have an accent and I can only speak it a little despite over 10yrs of lessons)
I can write forwards and backwards like Leonardo de Vinci
I drink too much red wine and not enough water
I have a degree in architecture which I have never used
If I can make something into a spreadsheet I will
I play the flute and the mandolin (but I'm not that good)
I'm 5ft and half an inch tall

Phew that bits over, Sorry its a bit boring I'm no good at writing about myself (another fact for free!)

So here are the 7 bloggers that I think deserve the award for Kreativ Blogger in alphabetical order... please don't ask me how I made the descision, I follow so many fab blogs but these are the ones that jumped off my list for me today!

ANDAMENTO

CHRISTIE COTTAGE

DRAW, GLUE, GLITTER & MAKE

MISSY MAOMAO

MORE THAN A MAMA

THE EMPTY NEST

WILDEDESIGNS

Thanks for reading :o)

Giveaway - win a months free advertising!

2009-11-02T13:28:00.002Z

Would you like to win a feature all about your work and a months free advertising on this blog, just like November's lucky winner? Entry details are at the end of this post.

The winner of the November advertising Spot is...

Emma's photo's are a really fascinating eclectic mix, but all of them are technically excellent and use very powerful imagery, perfect for adorning your walls. For me photography is more than just a record of a time or a place it is the art of capturing a concept or a feeling. "A Gentle Freak Out" by Emma below, is one of my personal favourites, so simple and yet it describes perfectly a feeling of loss of control and confusion - I can almost feel my head pounding, this would be a perfect image for the office wall! It's available from both her Folksy and Etsy shops. Emma is very open about her struggles with depression and I think her breadth of experience in this area really adds an edge to her images.

"I fell down the rabbit hole many years ago (clinical depression) but just like Alice I stumbled on a world of creativity, nonsense and wonder. Unlike Alice I'm not quite as keen to get home! Aside from all the photography, I'm also a full-time mummy and part-time street actor."

Here is a selection of Emma's other photographs, there are 50 plus to browse through in her shops and I thoroughly recommend you take a look - a print can make an excellent gift for a loved one and Emma's strong images can speak a thousand words. Emma has let me know today that she is running a promotion at the moment, until Dec 1st for a free 7x5" or 5x5" of the buyer's choice with EVERY single 10x8" sold - none of the one-per-transaction high street-type nonsense, either, she tells me! So it looks like now is the time to snap one of these prints up. For more about Emma take a look at her blog and her Flickr photos.

HOW TO ENTER THIS MONTHS GIVEAWAY!

You must become a follower to enter this competition (or be one already!).

1. Leave a comment on this post with a link to your blog, shop or website and let me know your latest news, think of it as a mini advert! (click here for my guide to leaving clickable blog comments)

2.For an extra chance to win please become a fan on facebook then leave a further comment letting me know your FB name/address so I can count your entry. My facebook page is http://www.facebook.com/haptree

Only 2 entries will be counted per person! (one entry per comment, as that way it's easier for me to count them up)

MORE PUBLICITY FOR THE WINNER!

I will publish the winner on the 7th of December 2009 in a feature style blog post like the one above, which will then become the new entry form for December's competition - so you'll have everyone who enters next month seeing your feature too - it's the giveaway that just keeps giving!!!

I will make you an advert if you do not already have one - so don't let that stop you entering!

Good Luck!

PS. Emma will be at the We Make Designer art and craft fair in Chelsea, London on Dec 5th!

Folksy Mini treasury - Be the first...

2009-10-30T08:44:00.002Z

...Folksy's undiscovered talent!

Has anyone ever looked at a person's number of sales and said well I can't possibly buy from them because they haven't made a sale yet? Did you look at the seller with 300 sales and think wow they must be good! If so then you have to rewire yourself and think handmade one off loveliness, the seller with no sales is a clean slate just the same as the seller with the 100% positive feedback, the only people you should avoid buying from are those with dodgy feedback. As an added bonus - who wouldn't really push the boat out to make sure that this sale was extra special and ensure positive (gushing) feedback when it's there very first sale! So to all of those Folksy cherry poppers please pop away! (My first was sew scrumptious!)

Driftwood Candle Sconce
£24.00 Driftwood Designs

Porcelain watering can
£20.00 CarolineNash Crafts

Pink & Orange Copper Earrings
£4.00Adornmoi

Tealeaves
£40.00Racheal Gardiner

Urban Safari Handbag
£25.00Violet Skies

Chunky autumnal beanie
£18.00Gingernut Knits

Any suggestions for upcoming theme's would be most welcome and rewarded, please leave a comment or send me a tweet. Remember you can also win a whole months free advertising just like Natalie's Nook did last month (see her advert up there on the left?) - enter now, it's easy peasy! Advertising Giveaway! THIS GIVEAWAY ENDS 31st OCTOBER at MIDNIGHT - winner will be announced on Monday 2nd November.

Devon Trip :o)

2009-10-28T16:51:00.000Z

We managed to get away for a few days to visit some friends and W's family who live in North Devon, we moved away from there a couple of years ago so it's great to go back and catch up with everyone and enjoy the scenery.

The perspective of the two shots of my daughter on the beach makes her look like a giant in a tiny landscape. It was a great trip to the sand dunes at Crow Point, E spent quite alot of time with her hat pulled over her face because the sand was really flying in the strong wind!

We also got to show off the new Delica to everyone and managed a rainy day picnic in it (fitting 5 adults and 3 kids!) but no off roading just yet.

Folksy Mini Treasury - He respects Owl...

2009-10-23T00:13:00.003+01:00

...because you can't help respecting anybody who can spell Tuesday!

From Winnie the Pooh, A.A. Milne. Owls and all things owly have a real following amongst the handmade market - I'm thinking of printing some fabric with owls sitting on mushrooms, how quickly would that sell! No longer are they considered sinister and mournful they have been reborn as cute and funky fabrics and plushies to adorn our houses and accesories in a kind of seventies nostalgic hoot. Folksy sellers certainly haven't been left behind - all images are clickable!

Kawaii owls cute chunky charm bracelet£15.00 FluffsStuffs
'Ruby' childs tote bag. Owls and hedgehogs£8.00NicsKnots
OwL£8.50colourspace
Rosa Owl£4.00 ai

Sew Me, Oswald Owl in Pink£22.00Rosie Savidge

Au Lait the Owl Felt Brooch£4.00 KookyKoolKreatures

This weeks theme was chosen by 'Fancy Lady' (cupcake queen!), Any suggestions for upcoming theme's would be most welcome and rewarded with a link or two, please leave a comment or send me a tweet. Remember you can also win a whole months free advertising just like Natalie's Nook did last month (see her advert up there on the left?) - enter now, it's easy peasy! Advertising Giveaway!

Review of www.byhand.com

2009-10-22T11:21:00.001+01:00

http://www.byhand.me/

For todays Link HQ post I'll be reviewing the features offered up by http://www.byhand.me/

Concept

ByHand is a website promoting the 'social experience' of handmade. It is a non profit community, all the funds are put back into advertising the site, the creator Adam Kendall, believes that his website is more of an artisan co-op than a consumerist social networking site. ByHand claims to actively advertise to buyers and not just sellers.

I like this analogy they give,

"We are the farmers market or craft fair that allows you to make those personal connections with your customers online, but there are no booth fees, because you already have 3 booths elsewhere. So now you have that single place that you can promote instead of three."

The site aims to help artisans to conglomorate all of their online shops and social media sites into one and gives you an address that you can use for 'one-stop' promotion - that really appeals to me so I registered to see how the site handled - my new address is http://haptree.byhand.me/ It's straightforward registration and profile building as with any online shop or Ning but it has a few extra features.

Its worth exploring all the bits on the profile as if you're using the site correctly a visitor really can get a whole picture of you and all of your online activity from the one place, which might prove very useful for business cards or for scribbling down just one webaddress if someone comments on your handmade purse at the supermarket! Also your twitter feed and any tweets mentioning your name show up on your profile page. For me this is great as you can see a whole conversation!

Features

Artisan Directory - An A-Z of all of the artisans in a gallery format. The creators have the top spots but they probably deserve that! It's searchable too.

Spotlights - Etsy, ArtFire, 1000Markets, DaWanda, SilkFair, Made It Myself, ShopHandmade, iCraft.ca, WinkElf, Foodzie and Zibbet - You can make fantastic 3 x 3 treasuries of work (including your own) using images from any of these shops - All your best stuff displayed in one place. Currently the most popular spotlight has been viewed 924 times since it was created 8 months ago - They compare very favourably with an etsy treasury spot as they are never removed. You can also easily tweet these spotlights with one click.

Forums - These are well laid out - I did post a new thread yesterday to ask people to let me know their thoughts about byhand but I didn't get a single view on it so it appears the forums aren't buzzing, but maybe I caught them at a bad time - there are lots of html and smilies to perk up your thread posts. Your recent forum posts can all be accessed from your profile page at the bottom which is useful.

Member Blogs - Again great for keeping everything in one place. You can also tick a box to post the link directly to twitter and the front page of ByHand! That has to be a boost for advertising your newest creations and shop news. It has all of the formatting features of Blogger so far as I can tell. here's mine http://haptree.byhand.me/blog Nice easy address to remember.

Social Networking - You can make 'connections' with other sellers or buyers and also make notes on these to remind you why you connected ie. great gifts for blokes.

Chat - I've never been any good at online chat and much prefer twitter for this sort of thing so I wont comment on this other than to say it has the feature!

Private Messaging - does what it says on the tin

RSS Feeds - I added my Blog, Folksy and my Etsy RSS. When you mouse over the links in your profile it shows the images and details, I really like this feature, apart from it not showing my Folksy images just the text (?)

Handmade Wishlists - Download the 'wishlist' toolbar gadget (easy instructions) and instantly add handmade items from a number of different handmade venues to your wishlist without having to navigate away from the page your on. You can also instantly grab all your favourites from Etsy! Very useful for gift buying and you can reorganise them to your hearts content.

Artisan Item of the Day

Look - they made me artisan of the day, Not sure what the requirements are for this - I guess they are handpicked but what a compliment - maybe it's because they just saw the thread I posted about writing this review!

Create n Trade - To begin with I thought this was where I had to upload my products but it's actually just a place to add an item you'd be interested in trading, look under My Creations in the My Stuff tab - you upload the details much like adding an etsy listing and then let people know what you'd be looking for in return. Basically Swap Shop without Noel Edmunds.

The Downsides

I think you can probably tell I like this site but I don't love it visually and I think in the handmade market that is so important, especially if you want people to stop and look around but the spotlights make up for that as it's such an easy way to find great new sellers, this is personal taste though so not such a big deal! I'd also like to be able to reorganise my profile page as it looks a little boring. There are a few niggles visually with some words overlapping and incomplete boxes - that may be due to my browser but it looks a little unproffesional. I was also getting lots of security warnings but they have a whole section on why this happens so I'm not too worried by that.

My biggest gripe is that until they add Folksy (my main selling venue) I can't really get the real benefit from spotlights and wishlists although it does give me a reason to stock up my Etsy shop! I've posted on a thread asking the site owner if he can share any news of future venue additions but haven't heard back yet. So far they have - Etsy, ArtFire, 1000Markets, DaWanda, SilkFair, Made It Myself, ShopHandmade, iCraft.ca, WinkElf, Foodzie and Zibbet. If you only sell on Folksy or Misi or another not listed I wouldn't discount it completely as there are still some good features - especially that your most recent blog posts go to the front page.

Let me know if you intend to register or you already are, I would love to hear all your comments on http://www.byhand.me/ :o)

Craft Links - List of Social Media and Promotional Websites for Craft Bloggers

2009-10-21T12:21:00.017+01:00

All of the links below are sites that will be useful to online sellers and bloggers. , I add links as and when I find them... [edit! I've recently created another really useful list of Craft links at craft Blog UK]

Social Media

Twitter - http://www.twitter.com/
     *Listorious - http://listorious.com/ - Twitter Lists & Listorious Review
     *Twibes - http://twibes.com/ - Twibes Review Haptree

MySpace - http://www.myspace.com/etsy
Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/
Stumble Upon - http://www.stumbleupon.com/

Craft Focussed Social Media

By Hand - http://www.byhand.me/ - ByHand Review
CraftStylish - http://craftstylish.com/
Mixxmade - http://www.mixxmade.com/
Blue Canvas - http://www.bluecanvas.com/ - Artists
Get Crafty - http://www.getcrafty.com/
Page Flakes - http://www.pageflakes.com/
You Craft - http://youcraft.org/
ArtsCollab - http://artscollab.com/

Online Handmade Market Places

Folksy - http://www.folksy.com/
Misi - http://www.misi.com/
Etsy - http://www.etsy.com/
     * CraftCult - Heartomatic - http://www.craftcult.com/heartomatic.php
     * Craftopolis - Treasury Clock - http://www.craftopolis.com/index.php?com=tc
     * Cr8tivity - http://cr8tivity.com/
Artfire - http://www.artfire.com/
1000 Markets - http://www.1000markets.com/
DaWanda -

Online Marketplaces- Sell Anything

http://www.ebay.com/
http://www.craigslist.com/

Voting Sites

http://www.votehandmade.com/
http://www.craftjuice.com/ - Craft Juice review (Swirly Arts)
http://www.plaincraft.com/

Search Engines

http://thehandmadedirectory.com/directory/

Blogging Hosts

http://www.blogger.com/
http://www.wordpress.com/

Directory Submissions and Pinging

http://craftbloguk.blogspot.com/
http://www.pingomatic.com/
http://www.craftlinks.co.uk/
http://www.100craftlinks.com/
http://www.bing.com/docs/submit.aspx

Advertising

http://www.adwords.google.com/
http://www.targetcrafts.com/
http://projectwonderful.com

Miscellaneous

http://www.stumbleupon.com/
http://www.postaroo.com/ - invite only?
http://card.ly/ - Profile Hub

Still to be categorised - this is a work in progress!

http://artzee.net/
http://www.blogger.com/start
http://www.bust.com/girlweb/index.html
http://www.cracker.com.au/
http://www.craftsitedirectory.com/index.html
http://craftylinks.com/
http://daisycraft.com/
http://www.designstolove.com/
http://www.dmoz.org/add.html
http://www.electroniccottage.com/
http://freecraftfair.com/
http://www.flickr.com/
http://froogle.google.com/
http://www.indiefriendly.com/
http://indiefixx.com/
http://www.indiepublic.com/
http://www.linkedin.com/
http://www.kaboodle.com/
http://www.linkreferral.com/adwel.pl
http://www.ryze.com/
http://www.squidoo.com/
http://www.craftytips.com/
http://www.creativity-portal.com/

If you would like to join in and write your own review of one of these links or another site you've found that should be on this list, then please email me and I will use your review to create a post. It doesn't need to be an essay, just a few pointers and I will of course include an image or two of your work and a link to your shop within the post by way of thanks!

Don't forget you can add a comment with a link to your own site if it's helpful to crafters/bloggers here and it may get reviewed!

Useful Links and Websites for Online Sellers

2009-10-21T12:20:00.002+01:00

Introducing 'The Linkathon!' aka Link HQ!

I found an amazing list of links from an Etsy thread posted by Nixcreations . All sorts of helpful websites from new places to sell, to increasing traffic to your blog or sales from your online shop!

Nixcreations is a very switched on etsy seller with a great site, here's one of his beautiful pendants available from his, successful Etsy shop. I love the background - it works so well! Wish I had known about this shop when I did my photo tips on backgrounds! (See my links above for photo tips)

I looked at the list of useful links, and although there are a few I recognise and have used I thought it would be a fun excercise to take each link by turn and review it for both my benefit and for those reading this! There just isn't enough time for all the promotional stuff so I hope by writing a few quick reviews every week I can find out what might work for me and what's just a waste of time. I'll be editing and adding links to the list on my main LINK HQ post (you may have noticed I like the abbreviation HQ, makes me feel important!), so please feel free to add a link to a site you have found useful by commenting or emailing me.

This beautiful ring is also available fro Nixcreations Etsy shop - Its made from a spoon!

Hopefully this series will become a really useful resource for me and other Etsy and Folksy sellers! I'm going to start the ball rolling tomorrow and this will occupy my Thursday slot for the forseeable future. Thanks again to Nixcreations for the list! See the post after this one for the list itself!

Folksy Mini Treasury - The Suppliers

2009-10-16T10:29:00.001+01:00

...Just Say NO!

My name is Hilary and I'm addicted to craft supplies... It started off with a few buttons, 10p a bag from the local charity shop, before long I was a regular on ebay (that was my real low point) "just another fat quarter wont hurt", I managed to keep it under control at first, my family didn't know but now I don't know which way to turn, how can they ever understand... It's too late for me, I'm onto the hard stuff now, Kokka Japanese import fabric! How can I stay clean with these Folksy dealers waving this beautiful stuff under my nose. Craft Stash Anonymous, anyone got the number?

Japanese fabric - ladybirds and flowers
£4.40 Isabelle & Kate

Kawaii Animal Faces Japanese Fabric FQ
£3.25 Uniquely Different Fabric

Kokka - Cute Pink Girl in Village
£3.50Alice's Wonderland

Russian Doll Fabric
£4.00TamsynG

FQ Large Mushroom Print Cotton
£4.00Ready Steady Sew

Half Metre COUNTRY FAYRE fabric
£8.00Paperfish

Next weeks theme is going to be OWLS! Chosen by the lovely Fancy Lady - check out her blog (I'm afraid her cupcakes don't travel overseas but if your in the states - here's her shop)

- so please let me have your owly links Folksy folk!

Let Battle Commence...

2009-10-14T12:15:00.000+01:00

I've just signed up for a Winter fair on december the 5th - having said I was way to busy to make up the stock, a sudden twinkling of christmas lights, the smell of mince pies and faint lull of silent night fell upon me and it was as if it was meant to be... (also a little moral support from my W helped) so I've chosen to do this fabulous one (I hope) to be held at the site of the Battle of Britain HQ. In case you're unfamiliar and need directions that would be Bentley Priory, Stanmore, North London - Yes my WW2 history isn't up to much either.

Look it's beautiful! Apparently there is an Italianate garden too -oooh! I wonder if the fair itself will be in these beautiful rooms... just imagine them all decorated beautifully too!

So I may not be blogging quite so frequently but rest assured Giveaway HQ will be updated and promoted daily! Check the links in the sidebar for some new ones added yesterday.

Bead Kits - Girly Gifts for Christmas

2009-10-12T09:46:00.000+01:00

I hate to say it but xmas is certainly looming and although I've banned my daughter from mentioning it until mid November I think I'm going to have to start getting haptree stocked up. This is my first post with the label Christmas!

I'm awaiting a delivery of millefiori beads for my kits and I need to assess my stock pile of fabric and probably order a little more as I already have quite a few orders - the green and pink matryoshka fabric is really popular. So you will soon be seeing oodles of my haptree bead kits making their way into my shops, with lots of fabrics to choose from.

They are really popular with little girls - from all the feedback I've had most of the kits have been bought for little girls aged around 8 or 9. My own daughter is 5 and manages really well with the threading. I use a little bulldog clip on one end of the elastic, which is the thick elastic not that limp stuff I've seen in other kits - I've also chosen the largest seed beads I can so that little fingers can easily pick them up and there are lots of beads inluded. One of my friends in her 30's bought a kit for herself so she could keep the wristlet and give the contents to her niece!

So if you know any little girls, have daughters, nieces or granddaughters and you think they would love to receive one of my wristlets & bead kits for Christmas - get your order in nice and early - I have a feeling I'm going to be quite busy! (The kits are £11.50 +p&p and I ship worldwide) Please email me if you would like one and I will list it on Folksy for you as a custom order or you can paypal me directly. I prefer to list on Folksy than Etsy as currently they don't charge commission (it's free to register with them as a buyer or seller).

I'd love to know what you think of my kits - please leave a comment!

Folksy Mini Treasury - Mushroom Magic

2009-10-09T09:53:00.001+01:00

...fancy a forage?

Crafters just love mushrooms! So if your local woods are not producing the chanterelles and shaggy ink caps you were expecting why not treat yourself with a little retail foray. All these wonderful items are available to buy on Folksy right now - all images are clickable for more details.

Green and Pink mushroom baby booties £13.95 Funky Shapes

Box of mushrooms £4.50 Grandma's Miniature Market

Mushroom Candles £25.00madeREAL

mushroom brooch £18.00 Kate Broughton

Buutton Ring Toadstool £4.50 Realicoul

Red Mushroom Phone Charm £2.00 Hand Over your Fairy Cakes

Tiger Tiger - National Poetry Day

2009-10-08T10:58:00.001+01:00

National Poetry Day

The theme for the fancy dress was 'Hero's and Heroines' - I know... she's a tiger. I just happened to have some orange felt and Blake is one of the most famous of our poets after all, can't tigers be heroic? And yes it's less 'fearful symmetry' more 'cutely haphazard', but she was happy and went off to school roaring and growling at everyone, especially the snow whites and spidermen...

Tiger Tiger. burning bright,
In the forests of the night;
What immortal hand or eye.
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies.
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand, dare seize the fire?

And what shoulder, & what art,
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat.
What dread hand? & what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain,
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp.
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears
And watered heaven with their tears:
Did he smile His work to see?
Did he who made the lamb make thee?

Tiger Tiger burning bright,
In the forests of the night:
What immortal hand or eye,
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

The Tiger
William Blake

It's the all new Folksy Friday Mini treasury tomorrow and as yet the theme is undecided... I like to leave it all last minute, adds to the fun. Please check in to take a look at all the lovely finds.