Cold Weather

Well, I'm freezing! Really cold here right now, it's going to snow today. I'm not the biggest fan of snow, to be honest. I know it's pretty at first, but making sure the baby is warm, the horrible slush, cold feet & hands, icy cars, all cancel the initial joy of the white stuff out, in my opinion.

I've been buying new supplies this week. Found these gorgeous cabs in a shop in town, 32 lovely spangly flowers. I'm thinking some gorgeous stud earrings if I embellish them a little, possibly a bracelet.

I went on a 'sourcing' mission to London earlier in the week, had a wander down the achingly trendy Brick Lane in Shoreditch. I love London, it always has a feeling of excitement and possibility. I found a fabulous little gallery selling hand made jewellery for a pretty penny, and I'm going to submit a portfolio. It's time to get my name out there. I know I have a talent, I just need to get people to know my brand, and create a fabulous collection to launch in January. The credit crunch is of course, affecting most of us in the handmade jewellery trade. Not many people have money for little luxuries. I know we are struggling to pay our heating bills this winter. I keep seeing things on TV, "How to look glam on a budget" that kind of thing. It's not great for those of us that pride ourselves in making original pieces when all over the media people are being encouraged to cut back, buy cheap. I think the important thing is to stand out, to create things that people think about after they have closed the window. Everyone needs to loosen up a little this winter, and treat yourself to something twinkly and spangly :)

Do you have a little girl to buy for? How about a specially tailored 'Swaggy Baggy'? Currently priced at only $10 (that's around £6!!) You'll get 5 gorgeous pieces of twinklyspangle loveliness. You can specify if you don't want earrings for pierced ears, or if your little treasure (or you!) would prefer all PINK goodness in your baggy, a perfect stocking stuffer!

www.twinklyspangle.com

I spent most of the day yesterday relisting all the extra stuff I had leftover on Etsy, Folksy and on the website. Currently, there is no purchase system on my website, but if you want to purchase something that way, you can email my address, katie@twinklyspangle.com with the name of the items you wish to purchase, and I'll send you a paypal invoice.

Some fabulous new things I have listed recently:

I love these new designs! The bracelet is a one-off at the moment, I may make a cherry and tangerine version at some point, if I can hunt down some more round red beads with a teeny hole in the middle.

Another breakthrough this week, I finally, finally hunted down some vintage lucite swallow cabs to make these fabulous earrings:

I only have a small batch though, so snap up your pair here in dollars or here in sterling.

My little man started walking recently, and he is all over the place now! I can't leave him for a single second. He is so interested in stuff, and loves dogs and balloons. I love seeing his little personality developing. Right now, he is slumped over alsleep in his high chair, with a big bit of toast stuffed halfway in his mouth. I love that little ratbag <3.>

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.

Hectic Week

My Dad had my teenybobble this weekend, so I was meant to be relaxing. Getting up at 6am every morning is still a daily shock to my system so I had a great sleep on Friday night. I went to the craft shop on Saturday and got some new square bezels, and talked to the guy about putting up a sign for the craft fair that I am in the process of organising with a few fellow Etsians. You can find out more information, sign up, and find out the latest goss at the blog and our brand new flickr group. We are still accepting table reservations, although Jewellery spots are now filled.

Also, in regard to the craft fair, we are working hard to have some great promo bags to hand out to customers. Our minuscule advertising budget is being stretched to breaking point in order to buy up some cute reusable shoppers, but we need to fill them. I have offered myself up to be in charge of receiving the goodies, and we have had loads of interest so far. We really want to make these bags a great promotional tool for Etsians and Folksy users across the globe, so I thought you might interested in a few tips for sending in promos.

• Contact me directly for the address. I'm just reluctant to put it out here in the public domain, but send me and email to cakeadaykatie@hotmail.co.uk, flickrmail me or convo me on Etsy and I'll send you the address.


• Quality is preferable to quantity. We will be using every single promo we receive (provided it has not been damaged in the post or have some hideously obvious flaw) however, you will reach customers more with 10 fab samples, than 100 badly printed flyers.


• You may choose to include: a small sample (a teeny pot of something, some earrings or a charm, a little notecard, any tiny doodad!), a coupon for money off at your online store, a flyer or business card. If you do decide to use more than one of these options, please remember to keep everything nicely bunched together. A whole load of plastic isn't very economical, but a little paper bag tied with a nice ribbon, or some other way of packaging to make it like a weeny gift for the bag-getters could really boost your business.


• I will be photographing each batch of promos that I receive. Bags will be carefully co-ordinated to include a range of samples and business cards. Don't freak out if you can't afford or don't want to include a sample, business cards can be just as good!


• Any bags left over (although, let's be honest, who would say no to a free bag stuffed with goodies?) will be donated to the next UK Team craft fair.


• We don't need to receive the items until mid October, but remember, this is international shipping we are talking about. I wouldn't post any later than the end of August from the USA. A couple of people have said they are going to start filling a flat-rate small shipping box between now and then, with little samples and anything else they find that may promote their business, this is a great idea!


• If you have any further questions at all, please do not hesitate to contact me. I check my email religiously throughout the day and night (I have a baby - I'm up at totally random times!) and I will endeavor to respond quickly.

I know this is a bit of a meaty entry, but just a couple more things! I have been designing and thinking hard about the direction that I want my jewellery to take this week. I have created these fab rocky charms, they look great as a bracelet, plus I used one to make this gorgeously girly-rock necklace. Check out that platinum chunky chain!

I'm going a bit wacky, and currently these are ONLY available in my brand-new Folksy store. I have yet to get a sale on this fab UK-based Beta site. If you are my first sale, I'll throw in a cute ring free of charge - so you should definitely get shopping!

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.

I wordled my bloog

Isn't this cool? It's a tag cloud taken from the words I use in my blog. I can't quite figure out why I say "week" so much. I am going to have to work on this I think, I'm clearly a week-freak! I use it more than jewellery! More than Etsy! You can click on it to make it bigger. You can make your own at http://www.wordle.com

I also seem to use "getting", "going" and "can" a lot - weird!

Got a cute swap package this morning from the UK swappage group, a pack a fab pink glittery earring stands for the studs that I sell, I plan to use them at my craft show.

EDIT: I just read the last two entries, an I do say "week" loads - how very boring of me!

Shiny Happy Fun

I received some great feedback this week on various bits of jewellery I have created, which has really boosted my confidence. I also spent about three hours organizing my stash (I just made up a joke. What do you call a cow's collection? A MOO-STASH!) so now I'm almost too scared to get everything out again and make a mess.

I'm being ultra-OCD this weekend too, because my bubba's christening is finally here and I have tried to keep the house super-tidy. My parents and uncle and auntie and cousins and my lovely gran will be coming down for the big day. Here is what I am wearing:

So I plan to have a super-crafty week all next week, with all my beads and bobbles and fandangles spread all over the dining table from Monday to Friday - woo! Bead porn! I also had my BT Home Hub delivered on Friday although it isn't up and running yet, but pretty soon I'm going to be 24/7 internet ratbag!

So expect loads of spangly new creations all next week, I aim to list a new piece every day :)

Phlog!

Photos + Blog = Phlog!

Yesterday I thought, "Hmm...I haven't updated my blog for a few days so I had better think of something. I know!" So I took loads of photos of my day, one every hour, on the half hour, so you have have a thrilling, enticing glimpse into my life and all it's interesting twists and turns. Ahem.
So, here we go!

8.30am: Enjoying my morning coffee. I have a small piece of weetabix in it, and it's cold, and in a Christmas mug. I'm pure elegance, me.

9.30am: Trying to check my email, but not getting a moments peace.

10.30am: Watching This Morning!

11.30am: Feeding

my bubba

12.30pm: My bubba is sleeping, it's crafty time.

1.30pm: Ramseys awake and lunch is ready - we always have lunch together :)

2.30pm: Playing with my chubba on the floor!

3.30pm: Going to post a letter quickly, while Daddy is home for lunch to look after the baby

4.30pm: Getting ready for work

5.30pm: Waiting for Daddy to pick us up to take me to work

6.30pm: Talking to a customer on the telephone!

7.30pm: Can it get more exciting? Getting a form to fax to someone!

8.30pm: Nearly home time, getting a bit silly!

9.30pm: Can finally relax with a glass of wine and some telly!

So that was my day yesterday! During my little craftytime there, I made a fab new range of jewellery. Using sparkly little beads and wire, in the same style as my Fluro set, I made this gorgeous necklace, which you can purchase in my Etsy shop as a set or on their own. If you buy the set, you even get a free pair of matching earrings, what more could you ask for? I think you should treat yourself :)

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!

Window Shopping

I feel a little like I am in some kind of black hole of space and time. Where is all my time going otherwise? It's Sunday afternoon and I haven't picked up a pair of pliers for days, it feels.

I have not had the crafty weekend that I wanted to have, but I will do next weekend, come hell or high water!

Meanwhile, I have been gazing enviously at some gorgeous pieces on Etsy. It's great to browse and see such a variety of stuff, but it's even better when you see something you would never have dreamed up but you wish you had. It's fab what comes out of people's minds and supplies. I just adore these:

The Tea Party Resin Pendant Necklace crafted by stoopidgerl.etsy.com. She makes a whole range of them, her stuff is so vibrant and her photos are fab too - I want to eat them!

I also just LOVE these, how much of a fab idea is this? I adore odd, crazy, fun stuff like this, so if anyone wants to buy me one, please go right ahead.

Lego Book with Build Your Own Cover created by Moonlightbindery. I can just imagine sitting at my desk at work (which is going fine, thanks for asking. I'm exhausted but pleased to get out of the house!) fiddling with the Lego pieces and being so, so happy!

I'm at work right now, as it goes. Updating my blog. How much of a coop is that? I'm also watching BBLB - Big Brother rules! It's super quiet today and I still have a good few hours to go.

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?

Bead Porn!

I'm in a great group on Flickr called Born Porn, isn't that the cutest name? Well, I guess it's not really cute, but still. I liked it! I'm trying to expand my Flickrizing to spread the twinklyspangle gospel, so if you have a cute beady or jewellery group to invite me to, I would love to hear about it, even if it only has one member! Let me know in the comments :)

My grandmother has been to stay the last few days, and I have sent her on her way with a huge package of beads and fandangles to show my Dad, who is facilitating the designing of the website and all the accounting stuff. He wants to see the items and start trying to take some professional looking photos. We are thinking of going with a lightbox but I'm not sure exactly how that would work. They need to have a pure white background. I'm excited about seeing what comes of it, m photo's are getting better but they are not spot on yet.

My boyfriend has his horrible tarantula out. I want to squash the nasty clambering thing. I want to hear her go POP under my shoe. I hate her so much.

Gorgeous New Designs

In the process of setting up my new website, I have the task of creating 20 lines for the site. It's hard work, creating things that I think will sell and also that it is possible to create and sell in a profitable way. But, I think I have struck gold with this:

Isn't it cute? It's great because it's totally designed by me, I even made the flowers using three different types of beads, petals, leaves and tiny contrasting faceted round beads. It's so colourful and cute, I have put it up for sale on Etsy for a super-cheap £8, but it will be £10 when my website launches, and this is the ONLY one I will be selling at this price (my beautiful prototype - ooohh I'm so proud!) so snap it up!

I have been working on my packaging this week too, here is an order ready to send out:

I would love to know what you think of the stickers being used like this, and how I have tagged the jewellery. I want to make it look funky and original, I'm not really sure about this lime green. A couple of people have suggested black, which might look better, what do you reckon?

On a totally unrelated note, here is a picture of me with my little boy in Brighton over the bank holiday. It was such a beautiful day, I got a great tan, and the tiny fellow had his very first dip in the sea.

You can see more photos of us beaching it up on my flickr account - including the little one's first dip in the sea and my boyfriends mad hair - fun!

Newest Earrings & A Fab New Design!

I took some gorgeous photos of my newest earrings yesterday, the colours look amazing, the new camera is working out really well. (Thanks Dad!)

So I've listed those, and a new bracelet I created. Now this is something special, I think. I adore the colour combination, the look of the bracelet and it's general jangliness! It used about 100 charms beads and buttons, and I'm really having to resist wearing it, because it's so fab! It's up for sale on Etsy, and I have had loads of lovely comments about it. Let me know what you think!

Lee came back last night with a whole bunch of stuff for me to make more fab jewellery with. He already bought me these beads;

Which I have made some snazzy bracelets with, but the stuff he bought me yesterday was immense; giant heart and kitschy diamond charms, gorgeous ribbons, raspberries and butterflies, and loads of faux pearls and enamelled heart embellishments. I can't wait to start creating with them!

Gastro-Entroritis

You know this is going to be a glamorous entry with a title like that, eh?

Well, me and my little guy have both been struck down with a nasty tummy bug, there's nothing like throwing up over the side of the bed at 5 in the morning to really get those creative juices flowing.

I got a cool package from my parents this morning though, packed full of beads and a new digital camera! Well, it's not new, but it's their old one, and it's new to me. So I am going to spend tomorrow taking new pics of all of my jewellery and relisting them on Etsy.

I have made two funky new bracelets and a new ring, although the ring is based on a prototype I made a few weeks ago that sold without 3 minutes of being listed!

I have also spend three hours this evening attaching charms and beads to a stretchy bracelet. It's my wackiest design yet, all in shades of red and blue, and I can't wait to take photos of it tomorrow and get it listed. Hopefully this bug will have cleared up by then too.

Poor Little Man

What a weekend!

Firstly I made a plastercast of a rubber glove. I thought it would be great to use to display rings on when I find a craft show that is before December. It's taking a rather long while to dry, and there is an odd crack in one of the fingers, but it looks wicked, and I shall take a picture of it so you can gaze in wonderment at it's kitschy fabulousness!

Then my little cherub got taken ill. He has a funny tummy bog and an upper respiratory viral infection, his little cheeks are red as a pair of tomatoes and he is being sick all the time. It was our first visit to the hospital with him since he was born and it was terrifying. He is alright now, finally, finally sleeping soundly, bless his little cotton socks (well, sock. I haven't managed to keep a pair of socks on him all day yet without one going missing, I'm sure he eats them when I am not looking.

The website creation is going well. We have set a launch date for the 1st of September. My computer-whiz Dad is fiddling with it daily, it's starting to look very professional! See, right now, if you type in http://www.twinklyspangle.com/ you'll come to this blog, and the only sales outlet is Etsy, which you have to be a member to purchase from. But the new website will allow everyone with a credit card or paypal account to purchase twinklyspangle creations! It's all very exciting, but a lot of work. I need take loads of new pics of my stuff, as well as create 20 lines for the website to launch with. I'll keep you updated with the progress!