Christmas at the Mill

The local festive event was at held on Saturday the 10th of December at our windmill
There was craft and charity stalls, raffle, refreshments, live music provided by a band and school choir and a visit from Santa in his mill grotto.

Thanks go to my wonderful fiance Alex for his
help setting up, packing up and for taking these lovely photos of the stall.
This year the stalls were moved upstairs above the granary tearoom. I think this worked well as there was more space, and it was lighter and warmer up there.

I did surprisingly well at this event which shows that as an event it is improving every year which is very good for the community.
The lavender bags were popular as always particularly the Christmas designs.
The fabric tissue holders and nail file holders also went down well as useful stocking fillers.

The knitted Christmas stockings and crochet quirky birds also attracted some attention. Overall I sold a good mix of items which was nice.









More pictures of the even can be seen here on the town website. this event was my last fair of the year and we're looking forward to next years events already. Here's to a new year full of crafting.
Merry Christmas to all my readers.  

Gunby Hall Apple Day

Our third and final engagement of the year at this lovely venue, we have really enjoyed having stalls at Gunby this year and look forward to next years.

This was also the last outing for the coleman shelter this year the rest of our stalls will be inside. it held up reasonably well  to the rather damp seasonal weather with just a few tiny leaks along the seams in one particularly heavy downpour. Luckily the ex scout leader in me had the foresight to pack an extra ground sheet to throw over the stock when this happened. so all was well. The stall had the usual L shaped set up and I was pleased with how it looked.

 We snuck out a few Christmas items at this event just to see how they went, felt decorations in festive shapes including robin, gingerbread house, holly leaf and bauble shapes and knitted stockings in three colours of sparkly wool. The stocking drew quite alot of attention. They were displayed on our new silver glittered tree.

There were also some Christmas scented tealights in set of three for 99p these pair up with our popular tealight jars.
We also had some Christmas design lavender bags which were very popular along with our normal lavender bags.  Other well selling items included the felt cat decorations with us selling half of the stock taken. I wonder if this is because many cat lovers visit Gunby hoping to catch a glimpse of the famous Committee and Craig.

A quick picture of a few extra cards being added to the stock, I really must find time to make more. The top four were done with a Stampin  up set called pedal pusher which I picked up earlier in the year. The main tandem bicycle stamp as lots of little complimenting stamps to make each one different including a basket  with variety of contents, flowers, hearts and bread and wine, a flag and adorable little birds.





The next stall will be at the Lincolnshire Food and Gift fair on the Lincolnshire show ground on the 26th and 27th of November this is a rather large event with over 150 traders. Really looking forward to it fingers crossed it goes well.

Wragby Show and country fayre

On Sunday the 4th of September we attended Wagby Show and country fayre this was the first time we had attended this event and it is abit further afield for us. This was a craft marquee event which makes a nice change from having to set up the event shelter. The show had many attractions. Including Cattle, sheep, and poultry, equine events, dog show, displays in the main ring and traditional produce show.  

The day had an early start, the information said the show started at 9am with the show ground being open for setting up from 6am, I didn't wish to be late and make the organizers think I wasn't coming or have trouble getting on to a busy show ground so we arrived in good time around 7am, surprised to find only one other exhibitor in the marquee who had had the same idea. this gave us plenty of time and space to get set up before most of the others arrived at around 8am. Tables were provided and space was a little tight compared with our normal layout but I think in the end the stall looked good.

 The candle jars were sporting new Hannah's Craft Cottage labels as I try to include abit more branding on the stand. These dozen pretty patterned tealights presented in a clip top jar are a lovely present, great for thank-yous, new home or any occasion. I hope they will sell well in the run up to Christmas. Only £4.99 each.

The new felt toadstool and oak leaf ornaments looking good on the Shepard crook display stands.I sold some of each of these which I was pleased with as well as a good selection of other items.  I heard someone say afterwards that visitor numbers were abit down on last year this may have been due to the slightly damp weather, and I personally thought that the marquee could have done with some more signage to say what was inside but over all we were pleased with the day and will be looking to attend next year.


Our next stall weather permitting is Gunby hall apple day on Sunday the 9th of October. Where we will be starting to display some of our Christmas items.

Partney Fair 16

On Saturday we attended Partney fair this was the third time we had been and so far every year has been an improvement.  The fair its self was the village's 930th with records of the original ones appearing in the doomsday book. Its a lovely traditional fair with a real village atmosphere.

 Like the week before at Gunby it was a little breezy setting up but we expected this after experiencing windy conditions here before.  I felt the stall looked nice with things laid out well and the bunting displayed at the side. We sold a good mix of items and people seemed very impressed with what was on offer. It was lovely to meet customers old and new.

Again the Shepard's crooks were working well this one displaying the new felt toadstool decorations these are the first of a new autumn/woodland collection I'm designing.

Plenty of entertainment was provided at the fair including two sets from Horncastle Ukulele Group or "HUG" as their t-shirts state. Who played a good selection of sing along songs. And circus skills and comedy knights from Earthbound misfits who scoured the field looking for damsels in distress and dragons to slay.

A closer look at the new felt toadstools. Check back soon to see which other designs have been added to the collection.

Next Fair is on Sunday the 4th of September Wragby Show & country fayre.

NGS Gunby Hall

With the summer we are in full swing fair mode and this last weekend was our second trip of the year to the local national trust property Gunby Hall  to take part in their National Garden Scheme day.

It was abit of a breezy morning but we got the tent up and once the walls were on it was a very nice sheltered spot. Again I'm very impressed with  the coleman it is very sturdy and attracted alot of attention from the other stall holders who were finding their shelters not so solid.

I used a couple of the new mini shepard hooks to display some of the felt decorations, These were a bargain and are proving very useful I think they and the larger ones I have in the shop will be particularly good at Christmas.

A new felt decoration which launched at this show was these super cute felt cats. Like the other felt decorations they are all hand sewn. At the moment I'm just producing them in normalish catty colours. They proved very popular with half of them selling I'm now having to whip up some more in time for out next fair this weekend.

A couple of other new bits on the stall this weekend included a few extra cards I really must find time to build up  the stock of these again.

And a few extra friendship teas these are always well received. Other popular items at this show included lavender bags and candle jars,

All in all a very nice day and looking forward to the next fair this Saturday the 13th August Partney Fair 11am till 4pm.

A couple of recent stalls

 Keeping my weekends busy with lots of stalls at the moment. On Sunday the 26th of June we had a stall at Gunby Hall and Gardens our local national trust property for their Rose day. This is the first time we've had a stall at this venue and had a very enjoyable day. There was a good range of different stalls there for the visitors to peruse. The other stall holders where friendly and the stall very organised.

I was really pleased with how the stall looked and we got lots of favorable comments about the event shelter, this was the first event with the new sides we have purchased which work really well. 

 In this picture you can see the new nail file covers which made a debut at this event. they went well along with a good mix of other items. Looking forward to our next day here on Sunday the 7th of August for the NGS open day.

As it was rose day and proceeds were going to St peters Church in the grounds I provided a floral basket to decorate the church with pleasant yellow and orange tones it sat well in the small window opposite the door greeting people as they entered the church.

 The other recent stall was at the village festival Day. This is becoming a very popular event to replace the old carnival and is in a lovely location in the shadow of the windmill which was proudly turning in the sunshine.

We had a good afternoon despite the odd sharp shower and lavender bags were a popular item as always. More pictures from the event can be seen on the village website here.

I also sold a couple of crochet flower brooches at the event and noticed the stock was getting abit low so have whipped up a batch of them this week. they are super cute in a range of colours some with pretty floral printed wooden buttons.

Latest Craft style samples. Christmas 2016

It really does seem to get earlier every year.
It's been a while since I've had time to do any craft style samples but I can never pass-up the chance to make some Christmas ones, so here they are, they are from the cut and create range, which over the years has built up to include a large range of characters.

The first one is made on a large card base with scalloped edge.   I have layered a piece of red card, a piece of embossed white card with holly pattern and a backing paper of tiny holly pattern.
I have used all the topper of the carol singing children. Except on holly sprig which a saved to attach to the sentiment.  The toppers are such a good size you really don't need to add much else to them to easily create lovely cards.

 Here you can see the depth which can be achieved by using the whole topper, however it also shows how many layers there are in a full topper. The designs of them also lend themselves to being split up to make two of three cards out of one sheet if you want to.

I  caught a glimpse of this card on the Craft with Style show on Create and Craft yesterday (Sunday)  you can catch up with the show for 7 days here

 The next card is a smaller scalloped edged base. This one was pre embossed with stars so I decided to keep it as the card background and just add a few peel-off gold stars.

With this card I was playing with how these lovely chunky characters can lend themselves to being creative and maybe abit quirky. I didn't use the full topper just added some layers to the head and extra bits for the arms.

I cut the arms off one of the drummer characters and then reattached them with split pins with the arm behind the body and an extra shoulder piece in front of it to neaten it up. I attached strings to the arms and carefully positioned them between the foam pads which are holding the character to the card base. If you look between the two pictures you can see how his arms move when the strings are gently pulled.  Like an old fashioned puppet.

For my next card I took a gate fold base and covered the two fronts with a swirly green backing paper and added strips of matching pattern in red. This is a really lovely backing paper pattern and its lovely how all the different backing papers which are sold with the toppers co-ordinate making it really easy. To the fronts I added two sentiments one at the top on one side and one at the bottom on the other. And the middle is finished off with the Santa character. The photo doesn't show it very well but I've added glitter to his beard.These characters really lend themselves to this sort of embellishment.

The last sample I made was a double easel card which really showcases the toppers and shoes that you don't have to just make cards with them you could easily use them for creating home decor items which children will love to look at. Here a miss Christmas and Snowman are used and the stoppers have been made out of strips from a striped backing paper which is idea for using in the ribbon strips getting lots out of it and really value for money.  

 In my pack of sample stuff I did receive  this card blank which no mater which way I folded it I couldn't work out what it was supposed to do. I was abit disheartened as it was clearly a new shape and it would have been nice to use it.

After watching the show I now realize how it goes and that I was looking at it upside down. It makes this rather fun pyramid card which if the sides are joined together with velcro dots (I believe supplied with them when purchased) they still fold flat for posting. This shape would make some really fun Christmas cards as it is perfect to be a Christmas tree.












So there are my latest samples, Christmas already. I'm not quite ready to start me own Christmas card making thou, maybe in August.