This weekend, The Craft Fantastic will be among a huge array of stalls at the autumn wedding show in Milton Keynes, ready to help make your wedding dreams a reality. Come along to Middleton Hall in The Centre MK and see what’s on offer!
I’ll be taking orders for handmade origami wedding flowers as well as having a range of extras available, such as hand-bound guestbooks, origami garlands, and bridesmaid gifts.
The show opens Friday 14th at 9:30, and closes at 17:00 Sunday 16th. Full details can be found on the event organisers site here, or The Centre MK site here.
Crafters around the world have been busy working on their Christmas stock for quite some time already – but hold up! We have Halloween to go first!
If you have enough time on your hands, it’s really easy to put together these simple ideas for a seasonally spooky home. I’ve been scouring the web for ideas and I think this list shows a great range of different styles to suit any house this Halloween:
Loads of ideas here for a frighteningly good Halloween party for any age group! Pumpkin ice buckets, orange jack-o-lanterns and more. How about these ribs?
I hope these sites have given you some inspiration. Don’t forget to check out my seasonal page over on The Craft Fantastic etsy shop, featuring my handmade Halloween garlands and spooky fang charm notebooks.
There’s a different theme for every anniversary. I just Googled it to see. It’s CONFUSING. Who’d have thought? There seems to be UK/USA/traditional/modern…
Now, I’ve been married 5 years, and I’ve tried to get something appropriate for each year; and to be honest, I pick and mix from all the lists I’ve found. However it does seem that out of the various suggestions, paper is generally the winner for the first wedding anniversary.
It’s an easy one to do yourself. A couple of the easiest ideas would be:
Make a card! Handmade is lovely to receive, and if you’re ever going to do it, this is the occasion for it.
Write a letter! Everyone loves post, and a letter to your other half celebrating a year of marriage would make an amazing gift.
…and if you’re not up for that, then of course the lovely crafters of the world have got your back.
I put together this treasury on Etsy to give you same idea of what’s out there:
If you don’t already know, paper is my main medium! And, as it happens, I’ve just launched a range of handmade first anniversary gifts over in my Etsy store. I’ve made origami coasters/vase mats, miniature hardback books with coloured pages and some paper bead necklaces. I’ll be adding to my collection over the next week or so – look out for more paper bead jewellery, origami flower keepsakes and more!
I’ve been busy making Coptic-bound notebooks lately – and they’re all up for sale in my Etsy store. All hand stitched, I’ve done an A6 one and a couple of A5 books; use them for what you will – notebooks, sketchbooks, guestbooks, journals – they’re all very versatile! Here’s a peek at the newbies:
As well as stock, I’ve been playing with my new origami paper – making these gorgeous gingham elephants!
I’m thinking they’ll make lovely greetings cards – what do you reckon? What other things do you think I could use them for?
Last but not least – I’ve booked a summer fete for later in the year. It’s a local affair for a good cause; my stall fee went straight to the hosts Just Giving page for SWAN – syndromes without a name, supporting undiagnosed children. It’s on July 24th at The Elgar Centre in Northampton, more details on their Facebook page.
Lately I’ve been working on my wedding stock and I’m pleased to announce that I’ve got the first handmade guest books up for sale on etsy!
These have both been covered in beautiful paper, with lovely open-view hand stitching and ribbon fastenings.
These ones are A5 and are £18 each – P&P is £2.50. You can order these ones from my etsy shop, or contact me directly for custom orders if you would like a particular colour/style.
I’m pleased to announce that The Craft Fantastic has a stall at the Castle Ashby fair the the end of May! This craft fair falls on the Bank Holiday – Sunday 29th and Monday 30th May. Also, THERE WILL BE FALCONS. Falcons!
Run by Palladian Events, the fair will be set in the beautiful Castle Ashby walled gardens, and over the 2 days there will be a fantastic range of quality crafters from all over the country, plus food, music, demonstrations, a falconry display… what more could you want?
I’ll have a full range of handmade notebooks, journals, sketchbooks, miniature notebook necklaces, as well as origami flowers for all occasions.
It will cost just £5.50 for adults (£5 concession, under 10’s go free) to gain access to the show and gardens. Cross your fingers now for good weather!
Up till now, I’ve been making simple notebooks or amending existing templates to create my own notebooks. But now I’m working for myself, I’m starting to have time to create my own designs and templates. This is the first!
Friends and family have kindly donated old leather bags for me to up-cycle; as soon as I saw this yellow leather, I knew it would work beautifully with the map print paper I bought in Amalfi a few years ago. I’d been hoarding the paper for the right project and this was definitely it.
Taking what I’ve learned over the years I’ve been making notebooks, I combined a flexible leather spine with solid boards front and back, covered in that beautiful quality map paper, finishing off the corners with leather for durability (and because it looks gorgeous!).
Hope you like it as much as I do! I’ll be making more of these and also designing new books, so keep a look out 🙂
With Valentine’s Day fast approaching, there’s not much time left to order your gifts! There’s a range of handmade goodies over at my Valentine’s page. As Valentine’s Day is on a Sunday this year, I suggest ordering by Monday Feb 8th to guarantee getting your items on time.
