Craft Fair Bore?

All I seem to be thinking about these days is craft fairs - having many lined up is great, but I am wondering if Christmas is getting too close for comfort all too quickly now!

I did a fair in the small town of Hedon at the weekend - it's got quite a lot of different shops on the main route through, and I expected it to be quite a busy day for me, especially with passing trade - the venue is situated on the main road so I really hoped we would see a high number of visitors. However, this was not to be, sadly. Despite the large hall and good variety of stalls, it seemed most shoppers were going elsewhere and we just chatted amongst ourselves a lot of the time - which was pleasant enough, I admit, but does your creative soul no good when you've spent a lot of time making new items!

However, I did at least make a few sales and the more my work is out there, then hopefully word will spread and more people will start looking for me at fairs (that's how I like to view it, anyway).

Here's the selection of items I sold:

I also sold a numbered birthday card from my range featured previously in this blog post: New Range of Cards - it was the number 10, which a young girl bought for her friend.

I'm busy preparing now for a full weekend at a venue which already has an established gift shop and art gallery, so hopefully there will be plenty of people visiting this time. I've just finished a commission for six tree decorations, and painted two more hardbacked notebooks, now I need to get some more tree ornaments decorated.

Sorry for sounding like a craft fair bore, but since that's mostly what I've been creating for recently, I'm afraid there's not a lot else to say!!!

New range of greetings cards...

Here is a preview of my newly created batch of cards aimed at children aged 1 to 9. I took inspiration from my notebook designs when my sister asked me a while ago if I did birthday cards with numbers on. I've created a few with numbers on them previously, but these take advantage of all the space possible on the front of the card, and I am pleased with the overall design.

They take about 20 minutes to do each one, as I sketch the outline of the number first in pencil, rubbing out any marks that I don't want seen, if possible. You will still see some of the pencil marks in the finished card, but in my view, that adds to the originality and unique aspect of hand-made cards. I then decide which two colours I'm going to use for the outline, as they need to be painted on very precisely in alternating dots of colour. Finally, making sure I don't smudge the outline (as I very nearly have done on occasions) I fill the centre of the number in using 3 or 4 colours - usually the 2 already used in the outline and one more. I love the textural nature of these and I'm sure they will appeal to children because of that, too. I plan on creating lots of these for the next Craft Fair I attend, which will be at the beginning of November. I am also planning on increasing the range to include older ages (but probably by using the card in a landscape position instead) and then possibly names or perhaps titles such as "Mum", "Dad" etc. I have deliberately avoided using a stencil or template to create the numbers, as I rather like the fact that they are not perfect in shape - it adds that bit more character and individuality to each card. These will only be for sale at craft fairs at the moment, but I will quite happily take orders for specific cards by post if you wish!

Winners awarded prizes

Apologies for the delay in writing this and posting the image - my mind has been a bit distracted by other things of late.

Here are three of the four talented winners in the competition we held to design a Mother's Day card at the Craft Fair last month.

Pictured left to right are Chloe Gray (6), Laura Jones (15) and Mikey Kellaway (8).

The cards were judged by the adult members of BADS and it was a close thing but winning the 1st prize in the 10years and under category was Chloe Gray, whose simple yet heartfelt message on the front melted our hearts - and everyone adored the little bumble bee she'd added to the scene. In second place, Mikey Kellaway was praised for the amount of time and effort that he had spent in creating the card.

A clear winner in the 11 to 16 year age group was Laura Jones. Her drawing skills impressed everyone, particularly the shading she'd created on the vase of flowers, the heart and the table.
Second place went to 14 year old Amy Burnitt, whose card stood out from the others due to the inclusion of an image of her mum created through a combination of drawing and collage. Unfortunately Amy could not be there to receive her prize. Congratulations to all the winners - we look forward to more entries from them at the next craft fair (which will probably be a Christmas themed competition).

L-R: Chloe Gray, Laura Jones and Mikey Kellaway.

Card Making Supplies, Craft supplies, Pound shop, Card Blanks, Scrapbooking, Cardmaking Ideas, Projects

Card Making Supplies, Craft supplies, Pound shop, Card Blanks, Scrapbooking, Cardmaking Ideas, Projects

This is a great online store for locating all sorts of items for card-making! The prices are amazing, too!

Just thought I'd share that with you all in between my usual posts on here.