Slightly saucy Tuesday.

Craft Britannia's shop of the week this time is Sarah of Red Ribbon. Her handmade pretties are a little different to those featured previously, not only does Laura make lovely and very glamerous hats and headpieces, she also caters for the more adventurous person, in that she also makes and sells fire eating equipment, stilts and burlesque accessories.
 

A very elegant black and white cocktail hat.

Queen of hearts hat.

Blue swallow cocktail hat.

Interchangeable burlesque pasties

Sarah also offers gift vouchers, including the one below, which would be a fun gift for the more adventurous girl!

 Burlesque tassel twirling voucher.

Sarah's interview can be found here at the Craft Britannia blog and is a very interesting read, not least because together with her Etsy shop, Sarah is also a Circus performer.

Red Ribbons, Sarah's Etsy shop can be found here and I hope you enjoy having a browse around.

Inspired by nature.

Happy Friday everyone! The week has flown by again, mainly due to being knee deep in my accounts. It feels like this week has slipped by without me even noticing it.

We've reached number 17 in Craft Britannia's shop of the week, where does the time go?
This time is Laura of KitzieG and her gorgeous nature inspired creations.
Her shop is chock full of coordinated cards, magnets, bunting and lots more and all inspired by nature. Her beautiful items are so well coordinated, that you could buy a couple of sets of something and still mix and match them together.

These are the first things that caught my eye, a set of her beautiful harvest garden magnets.

 which you can find here.

Anyone reading my earlier posts might know that I have a love of bunting, this summer pastel bunting is a steal at 30% off in Laura's shop.

Click here to find this lovely bunting.

And these coordinating cards are just beautiful, I love how all the colours are bright but muted at the same time.

the link to her lovely card set.

To visit Laura's shop please click the link here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/KitzieG

And you can read Laura's interview on the Craft Britannia blog here.

Merry Go Round UK

This week's Craft Britannia's shop of the week on Etsy, is Merry Go Round UK.

Julia, who is the face behind the name, makes a lovely selection of goodies, such as crochet mug cozies, bunting and hair clips. Other items in her shop include button magnets, like the red, white and blue ones below and also decorative micro wreaths.

For the full range in Julia's shop, please clock on the link here

Red white and blue button magnets

Red white and blue micro wreath

Pastel micro wreaths

Peach, green and yellow crochet bunting

    

My favorite has to be the beautiful crochet bunting above, it wouldn't look out of place in a photo shoot in Molly Makes magazine and would be perfect for a young girls room or a garden picnic or party.


To read Julia's full interview on the Craft Britannia's team blog, please go here

That's all for today, hope you enjoy browsing in Julia's lovely shop.

End of the week & a special offer!

Hello again!

I've been really busy this week, added a few more handmade goodies to my Etsy shop and I've also been tweaking photos and promoting CRAFTfest like mad on Twitter.

A quick peek at a few of my new goodies. I've had a lot of positive comments about my new brooches.

handmade freemotion applique bird brooch

handmade freemotion applique owl brooch

another of my handmade freemotion applique owl brooches

 

 

While I'm here, I thought I'd also mention that it's the final day of the CRAFTfest online fair tomorrow (Saturday 16th June). To mark the end of our fab week, I've decided to hold a freebie offer in my Etsy shop. The offer is only for CRAFTfest buyers and for readers of this blog.


The offer is as follows, spend £10.00 or more and you will receive a lovely free surprise handmade gift. Spend £30.00 or more and receive two free surprise handmade gifts. All gifts will be handmade by myself and the same lovely quality as shown in my shop.

Just click the link here to go straight to my CRAFTfest stall. From there you can go directly to any item in Etsy that I've listed on my stall. When you make your purchase from my Etsy shop, If you go via the CRAFtfest website, leave a note saying #CRAFTfest freebie or #Blogger freebie if you have visited here first. It's as simple as that.

Just to add that Etsy.com are having some 'downtime' for maintenance from 7am GMT tomorrow (Saturday). Although you won't be able to access Etsy while they are tweaking it, it will be open again later in the day.It's a bit frustrating to UK Etsy sellers but there isn't anything we can do about it.

That's it for now, I'll be popping back over the weekend to add the Craft Britannia shop of the week post! 

Time for a long relaxing soak...

  .... with last weeks Craft Britannia shop of the week, which is the Natural Bathing Co.
I'm a little bit late this week, due to the craft fair I did in Cheadle (which was pretty fab & I'll be doing a review very soon!)

Onto the Natural Bathing co and her indulgent treats!

The bath treats she makes and sells in her Etsy shop look gorgeous and I really want to try some of her soaps and lip balms, which I think are ideal for any age or time of year.

                       For a relaxing bath, try her   Lavender & amber bath bomb
                       Lavender is one of my favorite fragrances, especially for a long
                       soak in the bath.

         Sandalwood & vanilla soap this sounds like the type of fragrance my DH likes!

                      Very exotic and such a lovely colour, try her Dragonsblood soap

       I'm very tempted by this Ginger lip balm & it sounds just the thing to use
       if you're a little bit 'under the weather'.

To read the full interview, please go to the Craft Britannia blog.
You can visit the Natural bathing co shop here  (it's well worth a peek if you need a pampering session or quick gift!)
   
          

Just a quick ramble to say that next time, I'll be featuring Craft Britannia's team member Merry Go round UK. Which I'll try my best to post before the end of this week. I'm still frantically trying to catch up with myself, as it was 'all go' last week with my craft fair preparations. My craft room looks like it's been ransacked by a hoard of hyperactive crafters and I have my remaining stock to list on Etsy by Wednesday as I'm also taking part in CRAFTfest, the online event (which has trended on Twitter and had over 30,000 views so far (and it's only Monday!).

CRAFTfest June 2012

                                              
                                                           

If you want to check out the stalls (over 175 of them), please click on the link to the Creative Connections website HERE. Then it's just a matter of clicking on the blue CRAFTfest icon for the section you'd like to view, and all the stalls are accessible from there.

Happy browsing (and hopefully shopping!) 
Katie

Spinning in a world of yarn!

       This week's Craft Britannia Etsy team shop of the week is Spinning Streak.

 If you want hand knitted goodies, or some lovely hand dyed and destash yarn for your own stash, then Spinning Streak's Etsy shop is a good place to start.

Spinning also makes some gorgeous hand knitted items, like the tea cozy below, which I love for it's mix of colours and textures.

One of Spinning Streak's gorgeous chunky textured cozies.

Some of her beautiful hand spun and hand dyed yarn.

Spinning also knits some beautiful hats. I have my eye on a couple of her slouch

beanies, perfect for my countryside foraging sessions, or even bad hair days!

To read all about Spinning Streak and her work, please visit the Craft Britannia's SOTW blog post for her interview.

I'm not sure who's going to be the next SOTW as we've had a slight re-shuffle around, due to someone being on holiday when it was their turn. It was my last week, and if by any chance you'd like to read my interview and know more about me and my small world, please click here visit the Craft Britannia blog.

I'd just like to add a huge thank you, to everyone on the Craft Britannia team on Etsy. All their hard work made my turn at shop of the week really enjoyable and I felt very spoiled getting all the attention.

Catch up Tuesday & craft fairs.

I meant to post something about this last week, but time just ran away from me again!

Last week it was my turn to be featured as the Etsy team - Craft Britannia's shop of the week, and what a fun week it was. I had so many lovely comments and items favorited in my Etsy shop that I felt quite spoiled! It's the turn of Spinning streak this week, I'll be posting a review of her shop a bit later on.

I'm going to be a busy girl in June, my next adventures are both in the virtual and real crafting world.  I've already mentioned in an earlier post that I signed up to CRAFTfest, which is a week long online craft event. It runs from 9th June until 16th June and can be found here on the Creative Connections website..

I'm also a stallholder at Cheadle Crafted, which is a craft fair that's been organised by Fliss of Sukistyle.co.uk.
I've been beavering away making some new pieces, which include felt owl and flower brooches and miniature freemotion embroidery and applique canvases like these:

The fair is being held at Trinity Church, Massie street, Cheadle (near Stockport) on Saturday 9th June 2012. The event starts at 10.00 am until 2.00 pm and is promising to be a fab day for adults and children alike. I hope if you'll be able to pop along if you're in the area?

                     
I've been told there's parking in the same street and the church has a coffee shop, which is open until 12.00. There will also be a stallholder selling her handmade cupcakes, from her photos, I'm definitely going to pay her stall a visit!  

     

You can also check out the Cheadle Crafted Facebook page, I've just checked out the latest news and there's going to be a spinning demonstration, which I'll be looking forward to watching.

Oooh it's time for Man of the week!

OK that should really be Craft Britannia shop of the week, but since we're featuring one of the few men in our team I couldn't resist saying it!

This week we're featuring Tony of Axevictimus. He's a wood and metal jewellery crafter, who makes his contemporary pieces from exotic hardwoods, metals and cubic zirconia.


                            When choosing my favorites, this piece immediately jumped                                             out at me. I love the contrast of the metal against the ebony.

                              Limited edition Ebony and sterling silver with a yellow gold rivet, 
                              which can be purchased here

                        Or how about this colourful piece, made from paduak wood, set with a

                        garnet cubic zirconia.

                           A lovely wild olive wood pendant, inset with a sapphire cubic zirconia.

I love the simplicity of Tony's pieces, they're decorative without being 'fussy', and are something both men and women could wear. 

                 And if jewellery isn't your 'thing', why not go for a keyring like this one, which

                 can be personalized.

       

For further info about Tony and his work, please visit Craft Britannia's blog and you can see more of Tony's work here in his Etsy shop.

Just time to mention, that it's yours truly featuring in next week's shop of the week, so I won't do a review of myself (although it's very tempting to see what fun I can have with it!)

Yummy Flying Cheese Toastie!

No it's not a food fight, it's Etsy's Craft Britannia team's shop of the week spot!

This week is the turn of FlyingCheeseToastie (don't you just love that name!)
and Rachel Elliott, who is the face and talent behind the name.

Rachel's shop is full of her beautiful handmade jewellery, glass ware and amazing glass sculptures. My favorites have to be her glass hare sculptures, like the ones shown below.

Kissing hares - a pair of glass sculptures

Patriotic glass hare sculpture

Rachel also makes glass fox sculptures and jewellery, which are stunning.

 

I was never a fan of paisley designs until I saw Rachel's sculptures, now I love it!

A selection of some of the glass trinket dishes that Rachel makes

Rachel is a full time self employed glass artist, with her own studio. She mostly works with glass using kiln-forming techniques, but also incorporate other materials with it, ranging from metals and woods to textiles and paper. She has her own website and she can be contacted via her website or her Etsy shop. Her interview on the Craft Britannia's team website can be found here

I hope you can take the time to visit Rachel's shop, she has some beautiful and unique glass pieces that would be perfect in any setting.
 

It's May and the sun is shining!

Wow what a change in the weather today. For the past few days it's been miserable, cold and raining, today has been so very welcome with it's warm sunny spring weather!
On a personal note, I've been experimenting with freemotion embroidery and my badge making machine. So far I've had really good results and now I just need more hours in the day and lots of new designs to embroider. I'll be giving you a sneak peek in my next post.


Now, it's on to the Etsy 'Craft Britannia shop of the week' spot.

This week I'm featuring Joy of Cutey Critters. She makes lovable knitted and sewn collector animals, artist bears, rag dolls, quilts, blankets and pillows.

Her artist bears are adorable and if you're after a traditional looking bear that's got a more modern twist then please visit her Etsy shop by clicking the link here

              I love this little guy, he's looks like he's ready to take home and cuddle!

                            And this one of a kind panda, called Kiki is adorable!

                                                   "Oh hai there"

Joy also makes lovely crochet items like this blanket, which is both practical and lovely to look at. I'm a big fan of the granny square blanket!


Among the other items Joy makes, are traditional style rag dolls, which I can imagine being loved by any girl (little or not so little).

                                    Wouldn't she look sweet, sitting at the end of your bed?


Well, that's all for the moment. More shop of the week and personal crafty stuff coming soon!

It's that shop of the week time again.

And this week it's Bex' turn from Rebecca's Emporium. You can click here  for a peek at her Etsy shop.

Bex is of course another member of the Craft Britannia Etsy team and she makes one of a kind fabric and felted sculptures. Her Etsy shop is filled with beautiful felted jewellery and little creatures like the ones shown below.

                           Felted mushroom rings

                          And I love this little cute bear brooch!


Along with her other felted treats, Bex makes  unique felted creatures called Pheeples, they're  one of a kind and really adorable.
I'd love to see how someone could make an animation based on her little creations.

    This little one's in disguise! A cute blue felt Pheeple

   I think this little one is a bit shy! 

 A cute smiley purple and white Pheeple.




This is what Bex has to say about her Pheeples: 

"You might've seen a Pheeple recently; They use to hide all over the place, being scared of humans. But recently, they've started scuttering out from behind sofas, peering out from the bookcase and sneaking out from under the fridge. 

Pheeples are curiously inquisitive, and just like to watch us going about our lives and some of them have become quite friendly with us humans and have made lots of new friends in the process.   

Some try to be scary, using fake fangs and other bits and bobs but they just wind up looking adorable! (but be sure to pretend to be scared or they get upset!) 

Others find every little thing we do hilarious, and can be found rolling around on their bums and doing high pitched belly laughs on desks all over the country. 

And some are just happy to quietly sit and observe us going about our days, taking in the new giant world around them."

 You can also find Bex on her blog here.

Virtual Craft Extravaganza

After reading a tweet from a fellow Etsian Kozmicdreams, I booked my spot for a stall on a virtual craft fair, which is being held between 9th and 16th of June 2012.
The virtual fair is being held on the CRAFTfest website and at present they already have 101 stalls (not including mine, which has to be confirmed).

The cost of a virtual stall for a week is a very reasonable £5, you can book a stall here

The idea of the fair, is that stall holders connect their own online shop to the Craftfest site, it can be Etsy, Folksy etc.

They also have another website called Creative Connections, which has a forum and lots of other things. Just to add that you'll need to join Creative Connections before you can book a stall.

Coming up next time, is the Craft Britannia shop of the week promotion, which is the turn of Rebeccas Emporium More about her cute needle felted critters later.

Happy Crafting everyone! I'm off to think up a few new ideas for my virtual stall!

Hello again!

Well it's only a short time since I posted something on here, I must be getting used to more regular postings. The past few days, I've been thinking up some new ideas for my freehand machine embroidery and yes I know I still haven't done the review for my Silver 1040 machine yet (oops!).

Well, my main reason for todays ramble is, It's time for Craft Britannia's 'shop of the week' promotion.

This week it's the turn of katiedidonline. 
Katie wrote an online interview for the Craft Britannia blog, it's well worth a read as you can always learn something new about the lives of crafters and Etsy sellers. http://craftbritannia.wordpress.com/2012/04/15/craft-britannia-shop-of-the-week-8-katiedidonline/

In the Craft Britannia interview, Katie says the following about her choice of materials:

"I love the whole upcycling idea. It’s the make-do-and mend sort of attitude. Not only is it eco-friendly – I love how creative it can be, to make something new and completely different out of something old. Most of our Christmas gifts last year were upcycled, which was really challenging but also very rewarding. I really liked the plant markers I made from old shampoo bottles, and I’m thinking of starting a gardening section in my shop and seeing how they do".

 Anyway, I checked out Katie's Etsy shop and liked what I saw, she's a lady after my own heart as she upcycles fabric to make some of her items, like her gorgeous aprons shown below.

 Yes all of the above are aprons, I love how Katie makes some of hers look like skirts, it's a nice touch for anyone not wanting to look too traditional. From her photographs, her items look beautifully made.

This is something else I really love from her shop, it's a set of bunting, favor (party) bags and mini cake flags, just think how lovely it would be to celebrate the Queen's jubilee by having a party in your garden using this set! 

Her party set can be found here:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/79556078/party-set-fabric-bunting-favor-bags-and

 

Here's a link to Katie's Etsy shop  etsy.com/shop/KatieDidOnline

Well time for me to go and put on the kettle for another cuppa, I have to admit to becoming a real tea addict since trying Morrison's own brand 27p tea bags - even my DH prefers them to the regular brands!