I won!

One of the best things about joining this wonderful crafting community is finding out about giveaways. A year ago I had no idea that people ran giveaways. Big competitions yes, but I always figured they weren't worth entering because I had so little chance of winning with all the hundreds of people who entered. Handmade giveaways, however, are totally amazing.

This amazing parcel of goodies arrived through my letterbox on Friday. I was so excited to open it!

Here is Mr Lilypad chicken. He's why I entered. Isn't he wonderful! He's going to join the cow, ladybird and snowman that sit on the windowsill in my craft room.

I must say a massive thank you to Lynsey from Swirlyarts for running the giveaway and picking me as the winner. Thank you Thank you Thank you. If you'd like to get yourself your very own chicken, head over to the Swirlyarts Folksy shop or take a look at Lynsey's blog.

Interesting reads

I love reading craft blogs. To be honest, I probably spend too much time reading them when I should be getting on with advertising or making up orders. But there are so many fantastic blogs out there, with so many wonderfully interesting posts to browse. I thought I'd share a few of my recent favourites.

Paper ball tutorial from How about Orange

I made one, and I'm chuffed to bits with it. 

Polymer clay pebble buttons made by Handmade Harbour

Definitely one to try

A selection of handmade small businesses chosen by Shinypigeon

Will you be supporting handmade this Christmas?

How to make your white backgrounds whiter. 
A photoshop tutorial from Nicole's Classes. 

This is a tool I have recently learnt to use.

Steering Creativity.
An extract from a new book called 'Get paid for your passion'.

Something to get you thinking.

Inspiring business cards by Discover Paper.
Well this just makes mine look boring! 


Really helpful blog post on SEO by Kerry Roberts Designs
The first thing I've read about SEO that I understand and can actually implement! 

Folksy Five #10

Just in case you've not seen the previous nine Folksy Five posts - this is a series of mini interviews with some of my favourite shops on Folksy. Many thanks to today's five sellers for taking part. Click on the shop banners to head over to their Folksy shops and see more of the lovely things they have made.

PS. Have you entered our giveaway yet? Win some free handmade cards!






Your name: Lizzie

Shop name: Lizzie Loves

Describe the items you make in 3 words: Bespoke textile gifts

How long have you been selling on Folksy: 3 months

How do you decide what to make next: At the moment I'm working on a couple of commissions so the decision on what I should make next has been taken out of my hands. I produce a lot of personalised cards and textile pictures so these have to be made to order. However, when I do find myself with spare time I have a note book brimming with new ideas that I jot down as and when they pop into my head. Sometimes I might find a piece of fabric, or a button that inspires me to start a design, luckily I'm never short on ideas.

You can also find Lizzie Loves on facebook where there are lots more designs available.

What are your 3 favourite items from your shop:

Your name: Fiona

Shop name: Inkyprints Originals

Describe the items you make in 3 words: Hand-printed, linocuts, journals

How long have you been selling on Folksy: 8 months

How do you decide what to make next: Juggling new design ideas with my printmaking, binding and exhibition schedules is one of the toughest tasks of all (aside from marketing) and I have to channel creative endeavour to run alongside commercial needs. New designs should enhance the development of the range. Next in my carving schedule I’m looking forward to romantic designs for Valentine’s Day and next year’s Wedding Season. I have more designs than time to carve and print them so I jot them down in one of my notebooks to make sure they get their turn under the lino knife.

What are your 3 favourite items from your shop:

Your name: Jennie & Dyfrig

Shop name: Peris and Corr

Describe the items you make in 3 words: screen-printed home wares

How long have you been selling on Folksy: Since 2010

How did you choose your shop name: This took us ages to come up with! But its our surnames.

What are your 3 favourite items from your shop:

Your name: Bonita Keay

Shop name: Beaky

Describe the items you make in 3 words: handmade, fun, unique

How long have you been selling on Folksy: About 3 years but have been selling my stuff elsewhere for 6

How did you choose your shop name: My shop name is really an anagram of my first initial and my last name (which is pronounced key). I can't take the credit though as it was a friend that started calling me Beaky years ago. When I started by business and was thinking of a business name that was the first thing that came to mind.

What are your 3 favourite items from your shop:

Your name: Helen

Shop name: Helle Belles Cards

Describe the items you make in 3 words: Quality Handmade Cards

How long have you been selling on Folksy: Just over a year

What How did you choose your shop name: This was simple, I just choose the pet name that my family have for me “Helle Belles”.

What are your 3 favourite items from your shop:

And their favourite items from the say it shop are:

Skiddaw button magnets chosen by Lizzie Loves

Chlef music birthday card chosen by Beaky

Essen bookmark chosen by Peris & Corr

Baku birthday card chosen by Inkyprints Originals

Seoul beaded necklace chosen by Helle Belles Cards

Folksy Friday: Postcards

It's Friday :-) Now I don't go out to work in an office any more, Fridays usually don't have quite the same excitement as they used to. Saturdays just aren't that different when you work for yourself. But this weekend I am having a proper weekend off (*whispers* because it's my birthday!) - no checking emails, no tweeting, no "I'm just going to finish this order off". So for once, I'm really excited that it's Friday and very almost the weekend.

I've been browsing Folksy again. I try to persuade my husband that it really is for work, but I know he thinks I'm actually shopping! This week I've been looking for my favourite postcards. I think they're a great way to keep in touch with friends, and perfect if you don't want to say much but really want to send something to say hello and let them know you're thinking of them.

So here's my pick of the top postcards on Folksy. All handmade by designer-makers right here in the UK. Click on the pictures to find out more (or even buy one!).

Woodland animal postcards Lil3birdy

Buttons postcard Beaky

Butterfly postcards CraftyCrocs Card Shop

Set of four garden postcards Cassia Beck

Art postcard say it

Hello flower postcard Little Green Shed

Marlow the cat postcard Lisa Hunt Illustration Doodle Shop

Hand printed postcards Bread and Jam

Christmas cards

It might be a little early for most people to be thinking about Christmas, but believe it or not Christmas shopping season has started. Last year I didn't put Christmas cards into my shop until the middle of October, and when advertising them I got some comments from people saying they had already bought theirs!

So this year I started making Christmas cards at the beginning of September, and I've now got most of them up in the shop. This year they're available individually or in a pack of three of the same design. They're also part of my 3 cards for £6 deal if you would like to pick and choose your favourites. And the mini cards are back too; four little cards that are perfect for hand delivering or attaching to presents.

The most popular cards from last year are back again, along with some new designs that I've been working hard to perfect over the past couple of weeks.

I appreciate that sending a handmade card to everyone will get a little bit pricey, but why not think about giving a special Christmas card to your nearest and dearest? You can (almost!) guarantee they won't get another one like it.

***Fancy a chance to win your favourite three designs? The GIVEAWAY is still running - find out how to enter.***

And if you're not quite ready to think about Christmas yet, why not take a look at what other crafty peeps have been making this week over at Handmade Monday. I'm also linking up with a new blog this week - check out Sweet Sharing Monday.

Giveaway

It's competition time! To celebrate say it's first birthday, we're offering you the chance to win some free handmade cards.

One lucky blog reader will win any three handmade Christmas cards from the say it Folksy shop.

Would you like to get your hands on some say it Christmas cards?

To be in with a chance of winning all you need to do is:

1. Be our friend. You can sign up to the blog, follow us on Twitter or like us on Facebook.

2. Visit the say it shop and choose your favourite three Christmas card designs that you would like to win.

3. Leave a comment on this blog post to let me know that you've done 1 and 2. For example:

"I'd love a chance to win some say it Christmas cards. I'm now following you on Twitter and my favourite cards are Hallelujah, Christmas Valley and Bethlehem."

You can also gain extra entries for telling your friends about this giveaway:

• Share a link to this giveaway blog post on Facebook 
• Tweet or retweet about the giveaway 
• Mention the giveaway on your blog 

Just tell us which you've done and your name will be entered into the (virtual) hat an extra time for each mention.

You've got until midnight on 21 October to enter. The winner will be announced on Tuesday 23 October. Good luck!

The Best of British Handmade

Have you seen The Best of British Handmade - a new site promoting products that have been handmade in the UK? It was launched in late July 2012 and is "dedicated to supporting and promoting UK based, designers and makers".

I was lucky enough to be featured in their August and September showcases and am loving the site so far. So I thought I'd have a chat to Jenny who set up The Best of British Handmade to find out a bit more. I'll let Jenny introduce herself:

"I am married to Paul and am Mum to 3 Boys and 1 Little Girl. Currently I am a stay at home mum, but I have plenty to keep me busy. I have also just started to learn about working with Metal Art Clay."

Say it music notebooks featured on the home page

I asked Jenny if she could tell us about why she set up The Best of British Handmade and what her hopes for it are. She says:

"The idea for The Best Of British Handmade came about because of my passion for handmade. I think that there are so many talented people who produce such a wide range of hand crafted items, I wanted to set up a website that could promote and advertise individual designers, whilst showing the variety of items that are available. There are a few sites out there but often the high fees associated with advertising are too much for the smallest businesses.

I wanted the site to be available to everyone, from those that have trained in their crafts to the smallest, self taught designer, I wanted to be able to treat everyone the same. There are only a few of "rules" for people that want to be involved with us. 1. They must be in the UK. 2. Their website or shop must comply with the Distance selling Regulations. 3. We are looking for a factor that makes their work stand out from the crowd, that could be that they only use sustainable materials or their unique designs, traditional craftsmanship. That "factor" will be different for everyone."

There are a number of different ways that you can get involved with The Best of British Handmade. You can get your website or shop listed in the directory for FREE. There are categories for different types of crafts, as well as supplies, courses and events. You can even get your craft blog listed. Then for a small fee you can apply to be in their monthly handmade showcase or be one of five featured designers, with a photo of one of your items on the front page. Jenny works hard to promote you if you sign up, with plenty of tweets and facebook posts linking to your website sent out to her growing number of followers.

September showcase at The Best of British Handmade

You can also get involved with the Best of British Handmade blog. Jenny is currently looking for sponsors for the site who will get their button displayed on the blog, and for bloggers who would like to write a guest post about some of their new products, craft tutorials or a special event.

Is it worth getting involved? I was curious to find out how much interest Jenny has had in the site so far.

"I launched the site in late July 2012, and so far it has grown massively. We had over 1500 visitors in August and we have already matched that for september. We have added over 100 sites to the directory so far and we get new applications every day. I would like The Best Of British Handmade to develop as a community, everyone working together to promote British Handmade."

I would say that's pretty good for a site that's only two months old! For August and September The Best of British Handmade was my 8th best referral site for the say it folksy shop, only being beaten by sites that I use to actively promote my shop such as twitter and facebook. I'd definitely recommend getting involved and supporting The Best of British Handmade.

Many thanks to Jenny for taking the time to share more about her new venture. I'm looking forward to watching the community grow.

Website - http://www.thebestofbritishhandmade.co.uk/
Blog - http://www.thebestofbritishhandmade.co.uk/the-best-of-british-handmade-blog.html
Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/TBOBHandmade
Twitter - http://twitter.com/tbobhandmade


Looking for more interesting blog reading? Why not hop over to Handmade Monday - Wendy's got some news about giveaways today!