Welcome to my little corner of the blogosphere to share the ups and downs of starting a craft business, with plenty of tips, mishaps and the odd glass of wine!

Sunday 26 August 2012

Calling all winners

Phew - that was a long couple of weeks in the GF household... this was the biggest order to date and it was interesting as I'd not made the items before so I was designing the trophies as I went along (I know, I know... I'm supposed to design it, make a prototype, modify the designs and then begin full scale production - but I only had 2 weeks!)

Here are some pics of the trophies before I packaged them up to take down to the event:

The full collection - 14 in total
A Large Summer Tree Trophy

A Small Autumn Tree Trophy
A Small Winter Tree Trophy


A Small Summer Tree Trophy

A Small Spring Tree Trophy

Back of each one had a label with Grace's Favours details
A Large Autumn Tree Trophy



















I decided to make the trees in the 4 seasons to give a bit of variation and as the company who placed the order is called Black Sheep Sports, there was a little black sheep on each trophy!

Now onto some smaller orders from my Etsy shop and then another large order to complete, this time for a soon-to-be-open shop in Scarborough!

Tuesday 21 August 2012

So Many Ideas... So Little Time

Just a quickie today... I am still working merrily on my little forest of trees (see previous post) which need to be finished by the end of Friday! Eek!

I'm really enjoying this custom order, it's been a lovely challenge, to come up with something completely different and I'm excited about seeing the finished product - pics shared here first :-)

It is a little frustrating though as I've got SO many ideas kicking around my head for Halloween goodies, Baby Mobiles, Christmassy things and more... I can't wait to get started on them!

However, before all of that, I'm very excited as I've been contacted by a lovely lady through my Etsy shop as she's in the process of setting up a children's boutique full of exlusive handmade British products and she'd potentially like to stock my London Bus:

 The full listing can be found here
So keep your fingers crossed that the 'Ole Routemaster makes it through the selection stage!

Tuesday 14 August 2012

Can't see the Wood for the Trees!


So, last week, just as I was getting well and truly stuck into the idea of Christmas crafting and concentrating on all things cold & snowy… I got an order from a good friend of mine Trev, to make 14 trophies for a triathlon that he runs every year at the end of August. It’s called The Big Woody (actually there are two, with the smaller version called The Little Woody) so all the trophies needed to be based on a tree theme!
I love the fact that Black Sheep Sports (the company my friend Trev runs) like to hire local people to make the trophies each year and am so proud that this time they’ve asked me!
Would y’all like a sneak peek of the trophies? Course you would!

3 stages of creation... trunk, leaves & writing
Summer Tree

Autumn Tree - this is my favourite colour combo!


The races take place a week on Saturday, so I can see that my sleep to coffee ratio is going to fall dramatically for the next week and a half!
I also have a Charity Fun Day at The Crown in Coleway (Forest of Dean!) that I’m attending this coming weekend, but will have to rely on the stock I had left over from the last fayre I did as I won’t have time to make any more… as I’m sharing my stall with a friend I’m not too worried as I’m sure between us we’ll have plenty of stock!
Oh and one more thing (I always feel rather like Columbo whenever I say that!) thought  you might like to see the finished Snowman stocking:




They’re now being listed in my Etsy shop

Saturday 4 August 2012

Christmas is coming....


I know, I know, it's a little early, but you all know that I've been thinking about and working on some Christmas Goodies for a while now and in fact this latest batch of new items have been prompted by the same, very organised and very lovely Etsy customer. He was my first customer on Etsy last Autumn, ordering 2 stockings and now would like 3 more, this time for family, including a more exciting looking stocking for the baby, so here's a sneak peek:



More photos to follow once it's all finish :-)

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