Postivity

I have been off work for a bit, just dealing with some stuff at home, and trying to have a bit of a relax. I thought this would mean I had loads more time for crafting, but of course, I haven't. I have managed to go to my local craft store again, which was great, and I have been working on my packaging. Luckily, my Dad has lent (and it is a lend, I am under no false impression!!) me his camera, and it's much better than the two I broke recently I am being very careful with it indeed. It will probably still smash it's self up somehow, that is just my luck!

Anyway, onto craftier news. I got a whole bunch of business cards printed:

I love them! They are from http://www.moo.com/ and they feel so smooth and shiny! I can;t wait to start giving them out, I'm just waiting for the email address to be activated them I'm going to spread the pink and green joy all around town.

I have been working on more new pieces for the 'Edible' range. I love shrink plastic and I think I have perfected the right materials and techniques to make some really unusual pieces. Tomorrow I'll be releasing a new batch of teeny heart studs with fab colours and textures. They should go will with these bracelets and neclaces that are on sale now:

I love the chain that these are made with, and I grabbed up another lot of it this week too, so I'll be designed some gorgeous new pendants and charms to go with it. I think they have a really fab rock-chic feel. Buy yours here in dollars or here in pounds!

Have a great day, and look out over the next week for more Edible goodness :)

Shrink Plastic Joy & Busy, Tired Times

Here I am at work on Saturday, basically the only time in the week when I have the time to post a full blog entry.

First, BIG twinklyspangle news! You will no longer be able to access my blog through http://www.twinklyspangle.com/ or http://www.twinklyspangle.co.uk/ instead these sites now lead to the draft version of my new website. The website will be ready to fully launch on September 1st 2008. Until then you'll probably see a variety of old and new goodies as we get things working, test things out and generally start trying to work through getting jewellery up there for sale. Meanwhile, you can still carry on purchasing lovely, delicate jewellery at my two shops:

• http://keepsakekatie.etsy.com/


• http://twinklyspangle.folksy.com/

I have been working on a new range of shrink plastic jewellery recently. One of the problems with shrink plastic is that it can look a little tacky and cheap. Now, I know I'm no fine jewellery artisan, but I do like to think that my designs mean you can wear plastic kitschyness with a little bit of class. So, shrink plastic was a difficult medium for me to tackle. I'll be launching a new range of rock, colourful bracelets and necklaces in my shops this week, but for now, here is a sneaky peak at the kind of thing I have been creating:

What do you think? The connector charm is coloured in watercolour pencil using my own, swirly, colour mixing designs. Then layers and layers of clear glossy varnish are applied, drying between coats to present a clear, glassy finish. They look pretty delectable, and I can't wait to start listing my fab new pieces. I've been wearing mine all the time, and I bet you will to!

Sadly, I am currently sans photographic equipment due to small accident involving my camera and a very destructive little fellow. My son loves anything with buttons and dials, and screens. He practically climbed up on the table to get it, and promptly knocked it on the floor. Cue much screaming. He was pretty sad too, although I consoled him before looking at the damage. One smashed lens, one broken flash and a pretty pissed off Mummy. I will be buying a new camera on Friday, so that will be fab listing day. I will probably run a little sale of some kind on some less recent designs, I'm trying to clear out my massive pile of jewellery making supplies, and I have a bunch of stuff I have only been able to create once, so a truckload of unique pieces will be appearing on Folksy soon - keep your eyes peeled!

I think that's it for today, I'm off to try and keep my eyes open whilst slumped over my desk at work.

Let me know what you think of my latest pieces, the state of the world, your boyfriends new haircut, or anything you like, really, using the 'comments' option.

Folksy

Folksy is a brand-spanking new site for crafters to sell their wares from a UK standpoint. I think this puts us UK crafty types in a stronger position than before, as we have somewhere to purchase our wares under our own currency.

The thing is, I'm not sure that it's a great idea to split my selling up anymore over different websites. I did apply to Trunkt but was rejected, which dented my confidence slightly. I mean, at least four of my last Etsy sales have been Ukers. If they no longer bought from my Etsy site, I wouldn't be featured in Pounce, or the Time Machine on there, plus my sales total wouldn't go up. So I'm not sure. What I might do is use Folksy, but increase my prices slightly on there. I have been thinking of doing this anyway, but the extra work that it takes to maintain a whole extra selling site is definitely worth the extra 20p or so that I'm thinking of adding to my prices. Then, I can keep the Etsy prices low and hopefully still encourage sales there. Of course, all this will be pretty irrelevant when my website launches in September, but I still hope to use Etsy and Folksy to get my name out and about in the crafting community and also try out new prototypes of things to sell in batches.

I think that will work out fine. So, basically, if you decide to treat yourself something kitsch and colourful, it is definitely better to do via Etsy. Unless you fancy doing in via Folksy. See? I am all confused now.

Friends, buyers, countrymen

Another long, long week without Internet access, although I have spent more time mucking around on the floor with my titchy-boy, I have felt rather cut off from society. Luckily being back at work has allowed me to check emails (and increasingly regular purchases!) nightly.

I have been on a bit of a making spree this week as well, no Internet access does wonders for my creative flow, as I'm not pissing about on the forums, I can actually get down to creating!

I totally love both of these designs (now available in my shop, here!)

I have also been working on my wholesale price list. If you would like a copy, and you are the buyer for a business or retail outlet, you can grab yourself a copy of the list by emailing me at cakeadaykatie@hotmail.co.uk. I'm talking to two shops right now about stocking my jewellery in the UK, and a website already carries twinklyspangle.com jewellery. So things are going well in that respect. Plus, my Dad has finally finished the catalogue stage of the website, so that will be up for your viewing (and purchasing) pleasure shortly. He is also sorted out my Internet connection at home, so provided my laptop doesn't give up the ghost - the adapter is buggered. Seriously, it's not even funny, Ramsey has been pulling at the cord (do you know something funny? I actually put "corn" there, and it was only when I read it back through that I noticed) and all the wires are dangling loose, I'm surprised that it still even works.

I hope you are all well, my lovely readers. I'm off to get myself an extra strong coffee. Tomorrow, my boyfriend IS going to finish my crafty cupboard, so I'm going to have my own little studio, I'm so excited!

P.S I'm looking for fun blogs to add to my blogroll - if you post in the comments here, I'll be checking out your blog and if I like it, I'll add your link to the side.

Gift Guide Glory

Well, I'm having a great Internet week! Firstly I have made enough sales this week to get another lot of Moo cards as I have stupidly LOST a whole pack - I can't believe it! I'm so annoyed, I have like, two left. Anyway, I'm going to order some more because they were super cute.

So, not only is my paypal looking a little flusher, I have also been featured in an Etsy Gift Guide. Everyday Gifts under 15$! Here is a screen shot my my Tattoo earrings being pimped in the guide:

Now, I wouldn't have noticed this if it wasn't for a certain Etsy member. The lovely alisonkelleydesigns who makes beautiful jewellery such as this gorgeous watch that I totally covet but can't quite justify buying this month, what with the losing of the Moo cards:

I think I love her stuff because of her attention to detail and the gorgeous colours she uses. Anyway, I told her this and she noticed me in the gift guide and let me know, it really made my day!

I am totally sitting down and getting crafty on Sunday. I'm not going to Mass, because I'm not religious, and my boyfriend can easily take the baby. That will give me a good hour to get my glue gun out in the morning. Right-o, I'm off to sort out my Etsy fees for the month.

20th Sale

Yay! The 20th sale is completed and I can no longer call myself a nooby seller on Etsy.

The lovely, British, knitty NiftyKnits purchased my Meadow Bracelet prototype, the only one I'll be selling in my Etsy shop (the batch I made of them was for the launch of my website,and will be more expensive than the prototype version)

So I'll be spending the afternoon packaging up three new orders and making up a cute swaggy baggy for my 20th customer. I also have some new pieces up my sleeve, which I hope to have listed by the weekend, so look out for them!

Internet Outage & New Designs

Uurgg! My bloody internet connection has been crap this week so although I have been taking photos and creating gorgeous new pieces, as well as working on a huge wholesale order, I haven't been able to upload anything to Flickr or Etsy :(

So, this is a bit of a meaty update.

Firstly, I made a whole batch of 'Meadow' bracelets.

Here are a bunch of the charms I have made for each of the bracelets. Each bracelet takes 15 flowery charms to create, so I had to do over a 100 of these to create the amount of bracelets that I was trying to!

And here is a snap of some of the completed bracelets! I ended up making 8 of them, because I ran out of the flower beads, which are from Hong Kong, so I'll need to order some more pretty soon (I hope!)

You can read more about how I made these bracelet on my Flickr photostream, plus see some more lovely colourful snaps of them! You can purchase one in my Etsy shop for a reduced price right now, as I really need to see how popular they are before the launch of my website on September 1st. Click here to purchase yours!

So after all that, I had a bunch of these left:

Which are the pieces I cut off the end of the headpins that wasn't needed. So I wracked my brains for something I could do with these bits. I added a couple of beads to each, and curled the end: And basically, I made this cute, nu-rave coloured set!

I was really happy with how this turned out, and although this colour combo will be a one-off, I might do it again in a different colourway!

So, I think that is probably about it. I'm off to the Harvester now, I just adore their lovely Salad Cart and Lemon and Herb chicken - yum, my belly is totally rumbling right now. I'd love to know what you think of my newest jewellery, it's always nice to receive comments on posts. I know people are reading because I can see on my stats, so make yourself heard!

EDIT:

Stupid Harvester have changed their menu! They no longer do the bloody chicken that I love so, I had to make do with some yucky pasta, it was rank and bland. Down with menu changes!

Digging Out

I was hunting for something under my bed yesterday, and I found some drawings that I did a while ago when I worked in a very boring job.

I took a photograph of each of them, then fiddled with the Threshold on photoshop, and they have come up looking quite snazzy. I might use one of them for a new project I have got involved in;

http://www.fantazya.ca/diary2009.html

It's basically, you design a page for a diary, you can advertise your shop, or simply make it super-original. I love being part of something like this, and I'm quite excited about designing my page. I nabbed my birthday, I think some dates are still available, if you fancy giving it a shot.

You can view more of my found designs on my Flickr account. Feel free to add me as a Flickr friend too!

I also made a new bracelet today for my boyfriends sister. She wanted something pink and blue so I made her this;

I hope she likes it! It's very girly, lots of hearts and spangly stars, and her initials right in the centre. I'm not sure whether to list this as a custom item, I could do pretty much any colour combination and any initials, although I have only one 'M' which is a little bit weird, but serves me right for buying a mixed bag of random letters!

Loads of stash pics and work-in-progress snaps coming over the weekend!

Rainbow Fun

Etsy has this searching tool called a 'Treasury'

Basically, it's a group of 12 items that match a certain theme or look good together. Anyone can make one, but there are only 333 spots, so you have to wait for one to expire before you can nab one. I sat waiting last night for the number to drop and YES! I got it!

Here is my Rainbowtastic Treasury (you can click here to see the real thing if you are a member of Etsy - leave a comment so that my treasury gets pushed higher up the list!)

And yes, Captain Eagle Eye, I did sneak in my gorgeous Meadow bracelet, because what's a bit of shameless self-promotion between friends?

I got a little packet in the post this morning, it was a bunch of butterfly charms to make bracelets with - they are so cute! I was really pleased because I ordered 12, and the lovely seller sent me 15, plus a little bag of freebie goodies! The post this morning bought another revelation too. I'm going back to work! I have been on maternity leave for 9 months, and although I love being at home with my little boy, we need the moola really. So...I am going back, evenings only, 6-9and one weekend day. This with give us 50% more again than what I am getting now, so plenty for treats for little dude and me! I start June 02. I know, I'm going to be knackered aren't I?