Creative Crafting - March 2019

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You will be in good company at the PCG! Erika Price Artisan Jew ellery ~Sapphire M ember

The Professional Crafters Guild was established in 2011 to provide small craft businesses with the recognition that they deserve.

Join our community of professional crafters and gain support, advice, workshops and publicity for your business.

Add your unique guild badges to your websites and display your membership certificate on your craft stalls to show the world you mean business!

Be part of an international network of Professional Crafters and Small Business owners ry K.D Jewelle Member ~Sapphire

Helenka

White Design ~Sapphire Member

ed membership receive discount d an g tin af Cr e eativ Interview for Cr

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www.procraftersguild.com

Welcome Spring has finally arrived!

This month at Creative Crafting we’ve met even more fabulous crafters and found out their stories.

We have also launched our new gardening series ‘The Handmade Garden’ and welcome The Professional Crafters Guild who will be providing us with a showcase each month of some of their talented Guild Members.

Our recipe section has also returned with one of my very own creations, I invite you all to submit your recipes for future issues.

I am looking forward to receiving some awesome Easter projects and features from our readers. Don’t be shy! Get in touch!

We are ready to publish you and your fabulous creations.

So how can you help?

Well we would love to hear from you if you’d like to: ● Write an article, how to guide, feature, your story etc. ● Have products that you would like us to review or promote. ● Would like to be Interviewed.

Click this image in our magazine to visit the online version of the

● Would like to work with us at Creative Crafting.

article to share.

We have lots of ideas but always have room for more so get in touch.

Email us at articles@creative-crafting.com or visit our website www.creative-crafting.com

This Month Features:

CreativeCraftingMagazine CreativeCraftin CreativeCraftingMagazine

CreativeCraftingMagazine

Fiona Finlayson Art & Design Fantastic Fairy Gardens Arthyan Etsy Fights Carbon Emissions Mothers Day Gift Ideas WIN! An Apron and Fabric Paints Lovingly Handmade Crochet Tales from the Disabled Crafter Catching Up With Loopy’s Place The Handmade Garden Michael Harrigan Chicken Mash Pie Recipe Daffodil Fun Craft Bloggers Laney’s Crafts Easter Gifts Craft with Lucy - A Nappy Cake Make Helenka White Design A Professional Crafters Guild Showcase

ADVERTISING Anna-Marie Miles theycrystallady@creative-crafting.com Tel: 07763 566636 ARTICLE SUBMISSION To: articles@creative-crafting.com www.creative-crafting.com Creative Crafting publishes articles, features and projects provided to us by crafters and suppliers. By submitting articles to be published the author grants Creative Crafting copyright of each piece.

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Tell us a bit about the artist behind your beautiful creations.

I live in Livingston, Scotland, with my partner and our lovely yellow Labrador, Dexter. I love travelling around the highland and islands of Scotland, especially Orkney.

Have you always been creative or did your talent evolve over time?

I have always drawn and painted since I was young and graduated from Edinburgh College of Art in Illustration and animation. I still love to paint and also enjoy knitting and of course, needle felting, which I started 18 months ago and is my main focus as I enjoy it so much.

What is it that you enjoy most about your work?

I always enjoyed 3D work at art college, so I love that part of needle felting and I adore animals, so it is a match made in heaven!

Have you achieved anything in your crafting life that you are particularly proud of?

I think setting up my Etsy shop and creating stock to sell at my first craft fair at the end of last year. It is lovely to sell your work directly and making bespoke portraits for special pets is such a special and rewarding thing to do. I also held my first beginner’s needle felting class and I loved to helping others to learn to needle felt.

Other than crafting what else do you like to do?

I like travelling and decorating my house with my eBay and charity shop finds.

If you had to choose your favourite from your creations, which would it be?

It’s hard as I kind of love them all but I think the sleepy Labrador, because it was modelled on Dexter and is has proved to be very popular.

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What advice would you offer to someone new starting out in the craft world?

Make sure what you do makes you happy as it will show in your work.

If you could change one thing about what you do, what would it be?

To have more time, there are not enough hours in the day.

What do you think has helped your business the most?

I had a really good needle felt teacher who have great tips and suggestions and I am now trying to pass this on in my classes.

Has any person helped or supported you more than any other?

Nancy at Orkney Tweed in Kirkwall has been great. She was the first store to sell my work and has given my some lovely wool from her own Zwartbles flock to work with and I am looking forward to collaborating with her this year.

Tell us a random fact about yourself.

I have a collection of over 60 bottles of Gin!

How would our readers find you?

I am on Twitter and Instagram (@ffinlaysonart), Facebook (Fiona Finlayson Art) and my Etsy shop (ffinlaysonart)

www.instagram.com/ffinlaysonart

www.facebook.com/ffinlaysonart

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Source – This Fairy House belongs to The Creamer Chronicles

As the weather is brightening up our thoughts are turning to outside projects. One thing that never fails to capture my imagination are all of the beautiful Fairy Gardens that you see springing up across the Internet. These are not only very creative but suit fair sized gardens and small. I’ve also seen them inside!

Beautiful miniature gardens that are created in a container or flower pot. You can use almost anything for the base, in some cases it can even be broken. Small plants are added along with decorations and ornaments to create a small world. Let your imagination run wild!

If you need houses and props for your Fairy Garden don’t forget to check out all of the beautiful options on ETSY

Scale is all important for your garden so if you need a little help to choose the perfect plants. Better Homes and Gardens has a wonderful list of plants that are great to use.

These are a fabulous idea to make use of any broken garden pots. We all have them lying around don’t we. Instead of just throwing them out, why not create a beautiful, magical world in miniature?

You can let your imagination run wild and make them as fantastical as you like.

There is a tutorial for this beauty HERE Found at whoot.com

Size really doesn't matter, take a look at this lovely teacup Fairy Garden by Lifeisaparty.

Magical Lights in the Fairy Garden by Little Tudor on the Prairie

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So you have your pot, container or part of the garden. You've found your plants and stones etc. But unless you want to liberate the furniture from your daughters dolls house you may be a bit short of props to give your freshly created miniature world that lived in feeling. Well we can help you there!

Etsy has a wealth of incredible hand made fairy garden props. Who knew!

I've had a wander through and selected some of my favourites. Here is a link where you can find lots more.

Fairy Bed, Bedside Table, Lamp & Bedding

By FairiesofTranquility Buy Here

Miniature Rain Boots for Fairy Garden

By FlyingToFairyland Buy Here

Country Cottage Wooden 3D Fairy Door Craft Kit

By AlchemyEngraving Buy Here

Fairy garden house

By DreamFairyGardens Buy Here

Fair Garden Kit

By LittleSucculents Buy Here

Fairy Wheelbarrow

By FairiesofTranquility Buy Here

It’s a wonderful idea isn’t it!

Are you going to have a go at making your own Fairy Garden? I do hope so.

If you do make one please send in some pictures as I’d love to catch up and see them all.

Email them to me at articles@creative-crafting.com

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Signature arthyan jewellery is carefully handcrafted with lightweight resin, real vibrant flowers collected by hand from the wild Cornish beaches and English rose gardens before being encased in resin, and finished with a touch of gemstones. When you wear an arthyan piece, you carry with you the glorious beauty of the Earth – forever!

My name is Ellanor and I'm the artist, designer and owner behind Arthyan. I was born next to the sea in South Devon, and I grew up as a child that would spend every day swimming in the ocean, picnicking in wildflower meadows, making daisy chains and sketching the landscape around me on lazy summer afternoons. I spent almost all of my free time in nature where it was peaceful and calm and full of life as opposed to the stress and anxiety of imposed life. I quit school and decided to follow my passion in life which was all about creation and gathering the self-empowerment to work for myself. I officially launched Arthyan a year ago, and now I work from home in a little city apartment with my partner in Manchester. Living in the city, I miss the countryside from my childhood and in a way my work at Arthyan captures that beauty for people like me who fell in love with nature and want to be close to it everyday.

Creativity has always been in my blood. I loved to learn, which is why I think my creative talents blossomed from an early age.

My curiosity about how things were made led me to experiment with my hands and make rafts, mini-motorised boats for the bath and lighthouses with lamps at the top! I managed to find creativity and beauty in everything - for example, I loved Maths because I was fascinated by the correlation between nature's patterns and the way we can make the same patterns with numbers the way I saw it, everything was connected to art because the world was art.

It always takes time to become proficient at something, but if you enjoy what you're doing then you'll naturally dedicate enough time to it to build your skills.

I really love travelling and finding the beautiful flowers to use in my jewellery. The flowers hold memories for me - and I love being able to put those sweet moments into jewellery to share with others. I also offer a service for people to send their own special flowers for me to make something with, and I just adore being able to capture those moments for them too.

It's also wonderful attending fairs and exhibitions when you get to hear the feedback from attendants seeing my handcrafted jewellery for the first time. It means so much to me that other people find beauty in my work, and I'm so proud that I created something so unique that everybody comments they've never seen anything like it before!

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Every achievement and success is deserving of pride when you're a small business. It means a lot to me when I get critical recognition from peers in the industry who have selected me for their curated shows, but at the same time it is equally as touching when a customer picks my shop to buy from.

One of my biggest passions in life is travelling. It's an incredible feeling to be able to see all the beautiful natural wonders around the world, and as an artist unsurpassably inspiring. As I also absolutely love street photography and landscape photography, travelling gives me a great excuse to practise with a camera (I also take all my own brand photos for Arthyan)! Amongst other things, I also adore creative writing, reading, fashion and cooking.

That's so hard! I couldn't possibly pick a favourite, but this choker holds a special place in my heart because of the time that went into making it and the absolute Victorian royalty that excludes from it. Hundreds of seed pearls are actually strung together at the sides to make up the band of the choker, which is just the definition of extravagance. I also feel sentimentally about these jhumka earrings because they are one of the first I ever made.

It can be amazing to do something you love, but there are going to be hard times as well. Every crafter suffers rejections, loneliness, self doubt, imposter syndrome and a variety of other struggles: you need to work out what powers you through those moments. For some people, it's time off and setting a good routine. For other people it can be attending events or joining communities with other like-minded crafters - the important thing is that you have a healthy way of dealing with setbacks. Make sure you always keep faith in yourself and keep clear boundaries between your relaxing time and your work time, especially if you work at home. I actually wrote an interesting article on my website (http://arthyan.com/smallbusiness-owners-and-depression/) about small business owners and depression which I think could really help people just starting out not fall into the pitfalls many of us do.

I'd love to have an outdoors studio space where I can work and store all of the components and machinery that I need. At the moment I only have one storage draw and I work from from living room, so that would make the whole process so much easier!

I'd also love to eliminate the need for marketing as it takes up so much time, and fast forward to when my brand was already well known!

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A year in, this question is really hard to answer. I have to say that having a website from when I first launched the business has helped tremendously: it's helped me get accepted to fairs, trade shows and exhibitions, and given customers more trust in the professionalism of my work when they want to buy from me. In the same vein, having good (and different) product photography really helps when advertising and marketing your products.

Most of all though, I have to say that I think my products have helped my business the most! The decision I took to take resin work in a completely new direction by fusing natural inclusions with traditional shapes from different cultures across the world such as Greek, Persian and Indian, has really helped to set my work apart from any other jeweller.

From the very beginning I think my parents have been incredibly encouraging of my creative pursuits and directly influenced the confidence I felt to make the decisions that have allowed me to reach this point in my life. My partner is also a great help to me, especially when I do shows and exhibitions and he wakes up at the crack of dawn and travels with me to help run the stand!

It's something he doesn't have to do but chooses to, and I really appreciate that. He has also fearlessly supported and stood up for me and my career choices, because he knows me well enough to know that this is what I was born to do and where my talents lie.

I was named after the English and French Queen of the High Middle Ages, Eleanor of Aquitaine. Maybe it destined me to become a strong woman with a love for antique royal jewellery!

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Etsy Becomes the First Global eCommerce Company to Completely Offset Carbon Emissions from Shipping The daily fight that we all face against Global Warming is never far from the news. Where many changes are part of the ecological cycle of our planet it is impossible to ignore the facts that as a species we have done it great harm and continue to do so.

It is important for us all to play our part in reducing any future effects that we have. This isn't made any easier by our modern lifestyles. We live in a world where everything comes to us. We no longer have to make the effort to go out into our local towns and fetch our purchases ourselves. Not that I am complaining! I live in a very rural location and having everything I need delivered to my door has become an essential part of my world. But all of these fabulous things cause a lot of packaging to be used. Boxes, bags, packaging materials, delivery costs, fuel, sorting machines... The list is endless!

When I learnt of the new Etsy initiative I just had to write a post about it for our magazine. I will use their words to tell you about it, please see below.

If you would like to read the full article and discover all of the wonderful projects that are being helped please follow this link to the main article

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Mothers Day Gift Ideas Mothers Day in the UK is on the 31st March this year. (I'm looking forward to it and am dropping hints to my kids like crazy already!)

I have to say that this is one area of gift giving that doesn't cause me much trouble as my mum is wonderfully easy to buy for.

If I have difficulty at all is it choosing just between the many options that she would love. As a mother myself I know how lovely it is to feel appreciated and having a truly incredible mum I always enjoy a chance to spoil her.

Just in case you aren't sure what to get this year I have been having a wander through Etsy and have brought back a selection of ideas for you. If you prefer to have a browse yourself here is a link to to their Mothers Day Picks Page

Created by threepeakscompany

Created by BiccieTime Created by tickledinkart

Created by SarahsCraftChest

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Created by WylloWytch

Created by ArtGlassByJessica

Created by PongoandPembe

Created by LoveAbode

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*Please note: This article contains affiliate links

Created by SarahsCraftChest

We have a creative for you from the wonderful folk at The Clever Baggers

are a textile printing company based in Shrewsbury, UK. As well as offering a printing service for all manner of bags, tea towels, aprons and cushion covers etc they also have a great range of creative kits to decorate them with.

Perfect for handmade gifts - Birthdays, Mothers Day, Fathers Day Take a wander through the Clever Bagger website and let your imagination run wild. Great to do with the kids, you could:

● Decorate a cushion cover for Mothers Day ● Paint a bag for Mum's Birthday ● Add a clever design to a pencil case or tablet case ● Decorate a PE bag and stand out from the crowd ● Make Dad a special Apron for Fathers Day!

The list just goes on and on and The Clever Baggers can provide you with paints, stamps, pens, transfers and bits to stick on.

Endless fun!

Would you like to give a personalised gift this Fathers Day? I'm sure Dad would love an apron of his very own, decorated by the kids.

We have a colourful starter set of fabric paints - 8 x 28ml pots. Use straight from the pot, mix together for lovely tones or mix with metallic paints for interesting effects.

There are multiple ways to enter, complete them all to get the maximum chance of winning the prize!

www.thecleverbaggers.co.uk

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Pawfect Memories plushies capture the likeness and the very essence of your beloved furry family member

Hi! I am Laura and I am the founder of Lovingly Handmade Crochet and creator of our Pawfect Memories plushies! Both my wonderful fiancé Riccardo and I create our wonderful crocheted cuddly plush pet clones. My journey started when I had to give up my career as a specialist autism teacher as my disability became worse and I was unable to work. I took up crocheting as a new hobby and a way to keep myself busy when I was bed or sofa bound – and I fell in love straight away! I started making little flowers and then following patterns. After our beloved cat was killed in a car accident, I decided to try making a plushy version of her as a way to cope with the loss. It was difficult at first, not having a pattern and trying to work out how to make the shapes of her but I really enjoyed the challenge and loved doing it! From then, the business idea just developed! I created a few plushies for my fellow disabled crafters to build up a portfolio and things took off. Riccardo ended up having to leave work to take care of me, but I also taught him to crochet to help me with all the orders and he loved it too. Now we have made over 400 pet plushies for pet owners and families.

I have always been artistic and have a foundation degree in art. I have always had loads of creative hobbies and loved anything to do with making and creating. I also make my own jewellery and do paper crafts too, as well as a bit of sculpture and anything else I fancy turning my hand to! For me, being creative is a way for me to express myself and gives me escape from the body I sometimes feel so trapped in. The only limitation I face with my arts is my imagination!

I think the thing I enjoy most about my job is making a difference to people. So many people struggle so much with the loss of a pet and I think grief for an animal is never fully appreciated by those who don’t have furry family members! We have had people collect plushies from our home and cry when they open them. We have received the most wonderful emails and letters from our customers saying how much their Pawfect Memories plush means to them. That’s what we enjoy most – knowing we have given someone something so personalised and such a tangible way to remember a family member that gave them so much and means the world. Even the people who have their pets made that haven’t passed away are always so grateful too that they will have something to keep forever. Pets offer us so much so to find a way to keep that alive and package all those emotions and memories into a cuddly clone is just the most wonderful thing to do!

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I think having people want to write about my story and having others find it inspirational makes me really proud. It’s always lovely to hear you have inspired others or that people also suffering from disability and chronic illness feel hope from hearing your story. Running two businesses as a disabled woman is not without its challenges – but something I feel immensely proud of achieving!

Art and crafting are kind of my life now! When I feel well enough, I do enjoy being in nature and have a love of history so visiting historical ruins and museums is always fun when I am able to do it. I also love reading and am animal mad!

I can’t possibly ever choose a favourite! Each Pawfect Memories plush we have made presented its own challenges and rewards, so it is always very difficult to part with ANY of them! We put so much work into every single one that it’s almost like a piece of you becomes part of it.

They can take between 40-100 hours each, so it is a huge investment of time and energy. But I do have a couple of favourite breeds I love making… I love basset hounds and border terriers!

Riccardo loves making Labradors and the bigger breeds.

I think it is most important to do something you love. Your passion and love will be the thing people buy! You should love making every piece you create, and I always know something is good if I don’t want to sell it or give it to the customer once it is finished ha-ha! Try loads of different things and never be afraid to do your own thing and make something new. Also… make sure you never undersell yourself!

I think the only thing I would change is to be more well-known! I’d like anyone who would benefit from having a Pawfect Memories plush to know that we offer this service and that it can be such a help to anyone struggling with pet loss! But it’s not just about that – they’re also the most wonderful gifts for any crazy cat lady or dog mum or dad too! We have made them for women to give to their men who work away from home and miss their dogs or cats while they’re away too!

I think offering something unique and handcrafted has been really helpful. I also think the support of my disabled crafting community for networking has also been a huge help.

Networking is so important, especially running a business because it can feel very lonely sometimes!

Riccardo has been my biggest help and support through this whole thing. He has gone from being my fiancé to also being my carer and had to change his whole life and plans too in order to support me. The strength, loyalty and love he shows me every day is something I never take for granted and he means the world to me!

I hate tomatoes so much the very thought of them makes me feel sick! www.lovinglyhandmadecrochet.co.uk

www.twitter.com/LovinglyHM

www.instagram.com/lovinglyhandmade

www.facebook.com/LovinglyHandmadeCrochet

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This inspirational story from Sarah was first shared in 2016 with The Professional Crafters Guild in which Sarah is a valued Sapphire Member.

It’s a bit of an obvious title isn’t it but there is no point in hiding the fact, yes, I’m a crafter. Oh, you meant the other, the disabled bit, well yeah I’m that too and together they can make a very interesting life for me, and I hope to tell you some of what goes on in my daily life and along the way introduce you to things that have helped or hindered me in the hope that you will find them useful.

Crafting became my work when ill health caused me to be medically retired at the age of forty. Now I was left not able to work in employment but with a brain still active, I’d like to say fully functioning but I doubt anyone would believe me. Well I needed to do something, and I have always crafted, so with encouragement what was a hobby making gifts for friends and family was launched to a wider audience.

Currently as I write this, I’m in a Hospital bed in a Specialist Unit in Salford where I have been for the last twelve weeks. In truth it’s quite an inconvenience as it has taken me away from my crafting, well almost……..

I never expected to continue work whilst an inpatient, or for that matter have hospital actually be good for business. Now had my hospital stay been a bit more of a ‘routine’ elective surgery type, where I would have come in, had my operation and then gone home a few days after, I know this experience would never have occurred. However there is some planning that I had done that could have been relevant for even a short stay.

Many Crafters use social media, and the Internet for business, be it complete sales or just advertising. Yet we are mainly a sole trader, we are the designer, maker, secretary, accountant, advertising executive, shall I go on? So when we can’t work we may have no one in place to pick up the pieces, putting ourselves at risk of damaging our business. It may be as simple as not posting advertising as much and dropping off visibility, to not responding to a potential customer, losing a sale and perhaps your reputation you have worked hard to build. It can be hard to let people in and be part of your business but it makes sense, you may end up in a situation where you end up in hospital tomorrow. Myself I have suffered from ill health for some time, after all it’s being disabled that got me into a crafting business, so I have been in this situation from the outset. So what can you do?

Well in my case I have few people around me that help me out all the time, but at times like this when I’m in hospital they have stepped up to do more. I have a good friend (who I actually met through social media), and she keeps an eye on my Facebook, Instagram and Etsy pages, she helps me out in general but has been there even more so all the time I’m in hospital. We have a wonderful set of neighbours and one family have a spare key to the house and they take in deliveries. Then there is my husband, not comfortable with my pages but is a second on them in case my friend needs to query anything. He has processed orders that could be done, also I have taught him remotely how to complete some of my crafts that needed finishing at home, He has been a great delivery man, bringing in crafts for me to make orders and then packaging them up and shipping them off. Without them I couldn’t have done the orders I have in the time I’ve been in hospital, in addition they help me maintain my business when at home too.

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So as you hear despite being in hospital I am still working. Now don’t get me wrong there have been a couple of potential orders that would have required me to be at home to make, and which were impossible to remotely train my hubby to do on my behalf. I found however being honest with them and admitting I was in hospital meant that although I had to disappoint them I didn’t cause them to be dissatisfied in my service and therefore my business.

One thing I didn’t expect from being in hospital was to actually grow sales.

But as I sat in my hospital bed finishing the hand painting on my Fairy Tea Light Lanterns and Jam Jars, Nurses and Patients would see what I was creating and then ask me to do them some. From that they would ask me what else I did, and I could direct them to my website or Facebook page, and sales started to grow. As items were finished and waited to be collected others would see them and ask me to do creations for them. In truth I’ve never been so busy. Now this put challenges in my path to overcome, how to do the work, I started with taking orders with the plan to do them when I got home and send them out. I got a weekend leave and completed a lot of orders, it was then I realised that I couldn’t let them build up, and as I passed my initial discharge deadline I couldn’t offer a date. So I sat down with Hubby and we worked out a way of him preparing some of my creations, and then the issue arose, how can I work on my designs on the PC I can hardly take my computer in and then if I was able to work on them in the hospital how could hubby access them to put them through the cutter?

Computers and access have come a long way in only a short time and storing and moving documents has become much easier. It’s a great help to me that Hubby is an IT technician, but for those without that sort of access to hand there is great IT help in high street computer stores, but even the little local independent PC stores can have great knowledge. Hubby dug out a laptop we inherited a while ago. The Laptop wasn’t the fastest or newest, but it was more than suitable for what I needed to do. He loaded on only the graphic programs that I would need. Also a while back he had invested in a Terabyte (that’s big storage in my language) to run backup’s on a regular basis’s my PC. Now let’s stop and talk about Backup’s, if you don’t do it, you should be doing it. Backing up your PC means if you were to lose the PC and you take it somewhere to be saved and they turn to you and say nothing can be retrieved, you then know that you can buy a new PC and pick up from where your last back up was recorded, without it you may just find yourself rocking and crying in a corner for all that work you have ever saved on your PC, accounts, photos, designs, articles, price lists and more.

Now these days hard drives have come right down in price and it won’t take you long to learn how to back up and you could even run one weekly. OK Backup discussed. But how does backup help me? My PC hadn’t died. It helped because on a device really no bigger than my mobile phone sat a copy of all my work that was on my main PC, this meant that I could plug it into the laptop like you would a USB or CD and access all my documents, awesome.

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Next was the to-and-fro of a design from me creating it to hubby then cutting it, so that he could bring it back for me to unpick, before he brought in a prepped glass block for me to lay the vinyl on. This was actually easy, I was already using an online storage system called Dropbox (there are others out there) to get designs to customers and printers, so we would fling the design in Dropbox at the hospital, hubby would pick it up at home and cut the vinyl, I could then archive the document off of Dropbox onto the hard drive so as not to use too much storage space on Dropbox.

OK so things are looking good but this meant one more thing I would need internet access in the hospital. Well here in Salford I was lucky they had free Wi-Fi access for the patients, it did however get overused at peak times and on occasion I needed something more. Hubby being technical had for a long time been renting (like you would a mobile phone) a Mi-Fi system, this gave us roaming Wi-Fi data on a monthly contract. Now we’ve used this for years, being able to use Facebook, email etc. when out and about, that in turn prevented us using our data up on our phones. These Dongle devices (as they are called) have also come down in price, and in most places give good connection, so if you want to use a mobile credit card device or PayPal at a craft fair, a stringer connection can make it so much easier. So I was sorted I now had a strong connection to pass my documents back and forth.

So there it was, from my hospital bed and with the help of others I not only didn’t have to put up the closed sign while in hospital, and with still being in after 3 months it could have been fatal to the craft business and reputation I had built, but also I gained business from patients and nurses seeing me crafting from my Hospital Bed. I’ll leave you with this idea, for you that are crafters out there that do craft fairs etc. Some hospitals have stalls in their main atriums every month or so, I remember Liverpool Women’s Hospital having some in their Main Entrance when I used to Teach, now if I can do business from my hospital bed, I can imagine that booking one of these regular stalls at your local hospital if they run such things could be good business.

I hope you have enjoyed my ramblings; I’ll catch up with you again in another issue.

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A Creative Crafting Catch Up! Occasionally we like to check in with some of our previous contributors to see what they have been up to.

Welcome back - Jane from Loopy’s Place who contributed in 2013.

It was such a lovely surprise to see Creative Crafting popping up in my newsfeed on Facebook again. Funnily enough, it had only been a couple of days before that I had been wondering what everyone was doing. Having made contact on the new group, Anna asked me if I’d be happy to tell everyone what I was doing now. Here’s a brief review.

My first contact with Creative Crafting was through one of the My was very new and it was the first time I had done an online event. My online business was so new, social media was something of a mystery and doing anything website related was like a foreign language. I had to learn very quickly how to resize photos, get a proper logo and learn new marketing skills. You can imagine how flabbergasted I was when I was asked if I would join the CRAFTfest team as one of the team leaders for the next event.

I am eternally grateful for the help and guidance that Anna and the other members of the team gave me, teaching me how to navigate the website and being the catalyst to getting to know so many other small business owners. For a short while, I was responsible for one of the Facebook pages too, getting to do some interviews with some talented artists.

At the time, I was home educating my boys while running Loopy’s Place. They were growing up quickly and my own business was taking up more of my time. I made the hard decision to stand back from both Craftfest and the Magazine, I couldn’t give them the attention they deserved. Very soon, the boys went to college, then left and went out into the world of work.

This marked a very big change in my life. It meant I now had to out of the house to work, but I couldn’t give up Loopy’s Place. It was a big part of who I was and I was very fortunate to find a job that meant I could run my own business at the same time. I spend four days a week for 38 weeks of the year, working as a Learning Support Assistant at a local college, the rest of the time, I’m here, still running my own business.

And passing on my The business has changed focus over the years. I now concentrate on making crafting knowledge to others. I run an online craft club, as well as stand alone classes and workshops. Last year, I published a calendar with a new craft project every month supported by online video tutorials and a Facebook group. This year I am hosting the free . You can find out more information here.

To support the change of focus, I have a that went live at the beginning of the year. It will support the smoother running of the and means are accessible immediately after purchase.

As well as my own on the website, I am a regular contributor on . I also have a where you can subscribe to keep up to date with lots of crafty hints and tips. I will be adding stitch guide and quilting blocks during the course of the year.

Over the coming months, I’m looking forward to reconnecting with friends old and new through the new look Creative Crafting.

www.creative-crafting.com

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The Handmade Garden I do everything by hand in my garden I hear you say!

That isn't what I mean. What I plan to bring to you in this series of articles is all of the fabulous ideas I can find for creating things for your garden and accessories to help you in your garden. For those of you that don't feel like making the items yourselves don't worry, I have a ready supply of beautifully handmade items ready to be shipped your way. If you would like to get involved and add an article or two yourself, I would LOVE that and you can email them to me at articles@creative-crafting.com (Please add some images too).Are you a company that supplies garden accessories or tools Now, where do we start?

There are just SO many things to cover in the garden aren't there! The sky really is the limit. As the weather gets better (and I'm saying this with my fingers crossed as it's taking it's sweet time) the garden begins to call to us. What shall we do first?

Crafty Accessories to aid with seed planting Spring is the time when many seeds need to be planted. Sometimes a crafty accessories can make the job quicker and easier.

Such as: Seed Planting Rulers When planting seeds it's important to space them adequately so that when the plants grow they are not too close together.

It's easy enough to do by eye but certain plants do need a specific amount of space so having a handy gadget can help.

How to make a seed planting ruler

by My Frugal Home See that funny piece of wood with the holes in it? It’s a seed planting ruler, and it makes planting your garden faster and easier. Just lay it down in your garden bed, and drop seeds into the holes to get your spacing right and to keep your rows straight.

Erin from My Frugal Home shows us how HERE

Make Your Own Seed Tape for Easy Planting of Small Seeds

by LearningandYearning Seed tape is a great product for planting your garden that has seeds embedded right into it. It’s perfect for planting tiny seeds like carrot that are difficult to space in the garden.

Susan from LearningandYearning shows us how to make some HERE No time or inclination to make your own?

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You can purchase something handmade and beautiful and it will be on it's way to you and your garden.

Sowing Planting Ruler

by LNWoodcraft

Planting Ruler by Dalatho

BUY HERE

BUY HERE

www.creative-crafting.com

Of course you will need somewhere suitable to keep all of your seeds A biscuit tin or empty ice cream tub will suffice but sometimes it's nice to be a bit more organised. Let's see what I can find...

The Best Ways To Store Seeds

By The Spruce This post is absolutely AWESOME! There are so many great ideas on here from pill sorters, to photo albums to filing cabinets. It's a must read article if you are looking for a way to store your seeds.

Angela shares her ideas HERE Recreated

Make A Seed Box From Upcycled Shoe Boxes

By A Piece of Rainbow Ananda is a home and garden designer who lives in California. Fed up with over-stuffed seed boxes she came up with a lovely design to make a much more organised system from an old shoe box.

Ananda show us how to make one HERE

Once again, you may prefer to purchase a ready made seed storage box.

I’ve found some lovely ones for you.

By ChesterandCooke

By LoveEmmaDesign

BUY HERE

BUY HERE

by CloudsandCurrents BUY HERE

Look out for my next instalment of ‘The Handmade Garden’

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We are lucky to have Michael with us again this month! If you missed Michael’s story you should catch up HERE

The Master Hand Knitter certification is offered by The Knitting Guild Association (www.tkga.org).

Over the past 18 months I have submitted an extensive amount of work to the Guild's committee for review, with a total of 9 Master Knitters critiquing the work. It included: ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

4 research reports 6 book reviews 2 magazine reviews 63 questions about knitting techniques 4 knitting gauge worksheets 57 sample squares of stitch patterns 6 projects, including an original sweater (right) and hat design extensive bibliography

The letter reads, in part: "Congratulations, you have successfully completed all of the requirements for Level 3 of the Master Hand Knitting Program. You are now a fully qualified Master Knitter with all of the rewards and responsibilities associated with that title. We hope you will use your extensive knowledge to help other knitters achieve better results in their work."

As you can imagine there are not very many men who have participated. A historical fact, however, is that men were master hand knitters for centuries – from the Middle Ages to the Victorian Era, when powerful knitting guilds controlled the training of master knitters and the production of hand knit goods. It was the introduction of the knitting machine and commercially produced knitwear that made the years of training no longer necessary and hand knitting became a pastime for women.

With the current popularity and resurgence of interest in hand knitting, I’m pleased to be one of the men who is committed to mastering and preserving the tradition.

As knitted garments became fashionable and sought after by the wealthy class, professional guilds started to appear in Europe, with men controlling the development of the craft and the market. The earliest guilds were established in France by the mid-13th century. The craftsmen of the guilds were required to pass rigorous tests to demonstrate a high level of skill before membership was granted.

Elsewhere in Europe knitting guilds appeared as well. Craft guilds were set up in the Netherlands in 1429, and by the mid-16th century, Dutch stocking knitters were so skilled that the King of Denmark hired them to teach their technique to Danish knitters.

English knitted stockings were exported in quantity by this time but there were no knitters’ guilds in that country.

Knitting was established in the Scottish lowlands by the 15th century. The history of Scottish knitting basically paralleled that of the English, although Dundee bonnet makers formed a trade guild in 1496.

For a young man to become a Master Knitter was a major commitment. It required spending three years as an apprentice or journeyman and an additional three years travelling throughout Europe learning new techniques and finding new patterns.

After the time spent in training, the apprentice would be required to pass an exam in order to be admitted to the guild. There were several items that had to be produced – at the level of a master – including a cap, a pair of stockings or gloves, a shirt, waistcoat or woollen jacked, and a knitted carpet or wall hanging.

Apprentices had 13 weeks to complete the exam and the items they produced were judged on mastery and artistry.

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Chicken Mash Pie

Mondays are always a bit of a downer aren’t they! Noone likes to go back to school or work after what always seems a too short weekend. So on a Monday I like to give my family a little something to look forward to. Something to finish the day off well and make it a little less difficult.

On a Monday, I make what I call ‘Chicken Mash Pie’. A year or so ago I had an idea to combine a couple of different recipes in one dish to make something new. And it was a hit! My family loved it and it has become something they look forward to.

The combination is a variation of the filling from a chicken pie recipe and the lovely cheesy, mash topping of an awesome cottage pie I make. It seems fairly flexible so feel free to experiment with the ingredients to your hearts content. And don’t worry if you make a little too much mash as in my experience it is never turned down as a side dish.

Ingredients

Method 1. Peel the potatoes and set them off boiling while you prepare the chicken mixture.

● 4 – 500g Chicken Breast (chopped) ● 1 Leek (chopped) ● 1/2 packet of smoked streaky bacon cut into small pieces ● 1 chicken stock cube in 1 cup of boiling water ● 1/2 cup of milk ● 1tbsp plain flour ● 1tbsp milk ● oil and butter for cooking

2. Put some oil in a large frying pan and cook the chicken. (I sprinkle with salt and pepper whilst cooking). Then set aside in a dish.

3. Saute the leek and bacon in a knob butter and and a splash of oil. (I cook the bacon first and then add the leek as we like the fat to be cooked well) When cooked add the flour and mix to coat.

4. Add the stock, stirring continuously, then add the milk so that the sauce is rich and creamy.

5. Add the chicken and stir until the meal is completely coated.

6. Put the chicken, bacon and leek mixture into the bottom of a large oven proof dish.

● For the Mash Topping

7. Your potatoes should now be soft and ready to mash so drain them well and mash with a large fork or masher.

● Potatoes (lots) I just do a pan full, it depends how much you like mash.

8. Mix in the butter and milk to taste. The mix should be nice and soft.

● butter (to taste)

9. Grate the cheese and add to the mash until it tastes fabulously cheesy.

● Milk (about 1/2 cup)

10. Carefully lay the mash on top of your chicken mixture making sure that it completely covers all of the mix.

● Lots of strong cheddar cheese 11. Grate some more cheese over the top and bake in the oven at 200 degrees for 25 minutes until the top is gloriously golden.

12. Allow to sit for a few minutes and then dish up onto plates and serve with a healthy selection of steamed veggies.

13. Enjoy!

Here is the chicken mix as I add the mash on top

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Daffodil Fun! We would like to wish our Welsh readers a Happy St Davids Day! St David plays a very important role in Welsh culture but little is known about his life. It is believed that he lived to be 100 years old and that he died in 589, but the first texts on his life only appeared around five hundred years after his death. This means that it is difficult to tell which aspects of the St David’s story are true and which are legend. He was supposed to have been very gentle and physically strong and tall despite eating a frugal diet. His parents were Sant, the grandson of a prince of Ceredigion in south-west Wales, and Non, a niece of the legendary King Arthur.

St David travelled widely throughout Wales, Cornwall in the south-west of England, Brittany in France and possibly to Ireland and Jerusalem. He founded several churches and a monastery in Wales and eventually became an archbishop. St David was canonized in 1120 and March 1 was included in the church calendar as St David’s Day. People started making pilgrimages to St David’s monastery after he was canonized. A cathedral still stands on its original site.

Details from www.timeanddate.com One of the symbols of St Davids Day alongside the Leek and Welsh Flag is the Daffodil. As well as the usual annuals I have lots of miniature Daffodils this year and they are gorgeous! So perfect in every way, I am thoroughly enjoying them.

There are some rather interesting facts about Daffodils: ● The Daffodil is the flower of the 10th anniversary of marriage. ● In Victorian times, daffodils represented chivalry. Today they symbolise hope. ● In China, the daffodil is seen as a symbol of wealth and good fortune. ● Giving a bunch of daffodils as a gift is believed to ensure happiness but giving only one can is said to bring bad luck. ● I’m not sure what this means for Prince Charles who receives a single daffodil every year as a rent payment for land in the Isles of Scilly. ● Daffodils contain sap that is poisonous to other plants so don’t mix and match in your vases. ● Daffodils are poisonous to squirrels so keep them away from your dogs too. ● Poultry farmers believe daffodils keep hens from laying so they are often banned from their homes.

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All this talk of the lovely daffodil would not be complete without the most famous and most loved poem about them.

I wandered lonely as a Cloud That floats on high o’er Vales and Hills, When all at once I saw a crowd A host of dancing Daffodils; Along the Lake, beneath the trees, Ten thousand dancing in the breeze.

The waves beside them danced, but they Outdid the sparkling waves in glee: — A poet could not but be gay In such a laughing company: I gazed — and gazed — but little thought What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft when on my couch I lie In vacant or in pensive mood, They flash upon that inward eye Which is the bliss of solitude, And then my heart with pleasure fills, And dances with the Daffodils.

By William Wordsworth 1804

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What are you waiting for - find us at:

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Twitter

Instagram

@CreativeCraftin

@CreativeCraftingMagazine

Facebook

Pinterest

@CreativeCraftingMagazine

@CreativeCraftingMagazine

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Do you love to read craft blogs?

I love to discover new ones but it can be a bit of a job to track them down. So I am starting a list of Craft Blogs To Follow in 2019.

Do you think you should be on it? Visit the January list post HERE and leave a comment or contact me by email.

Thank you to everyone who has already submitted their blogs to me.

LOOPY’S PLACE I have had a lifelong love of crafts which started when I was taught to knit at a very young age. It didn’t take too long to realise that great joy and satisfaction came from making things.Even now, I get a thrill seeing something that started just as an idea, become a finished product. It doesn’t matter if it’s something I’ve made or whether it’s when I teach someone else how to make it.You can be sure that every item I make, is made with love whether it’s custom made quilts, or other bespoke handmade items.

VISIT LOOPY’S PLACE HERE Getas quilting studio Hello and Welcome! I am Geta Grama, a Romanian quilter.

I design quilt and bag patterns. Here you will find inspiration, enthusiasm and encouragement for all your quilting dreams

VISIT GETAS QUILTING STUDIO HERE

www.creative-crafting.com

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TILLY AND THE BUTTONS Hello! I'm Tilly. This blog is where I share sewing tips and inspiration, plus news about Tilly and the Buttons books, sewing patterns and online workshops. Enjoy!

VISIT TILLY AND THE BUTTONS HERE

MAD MAN KNITTING Gregory Patrick is an author and knitter who began his knitting career after becoming homeless in 2011, knitting teddy bears in order to raise the money for food and eventually a place to live. He currently lives in Orlando, FL with his husband, Phillip.

We featured Gregory in our December 2013 Issue. Find it HERE

VISIT MAD MAN KNITTING HERE

CRAFT GOSSIP CraftGossip.com covers news written by craft people telling you about all the good stuff. We scour the net looking for the best craft ideas and projects and review them for you.

VISIT CRAFT GOSSIP HERE

CRAFTAHOLICS ANONYMOUS My name is Linda and I'm a hopeless Craft Addict. Welcome to Craftaholics Anonymous® where you can find all sorts of craft tutorials and creative ideas for your home, kids, and holidays

VISIT THESE CRAFTAHOLICS ANONYMOUS HERE

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SEW CAN SHE My name is Caroline and I love to sew. Even though we're all busy, fitting in time to sew (or do whatever else you love) makes life more than just a day to day race to the finish.

VISIT SEW CAN SHE HERE

DIARY OF A QUILTER I am a mom, wife, and quilter. I’ve been blogging in this space since 2008!

VISIT DIARY OF A QUILTER HEER

Share

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ith w w e i v r e t n I An

We started out as Paper crafters and after many years of crafting and thousands spent on supplies we had several life changing events. I lost my job and my partner became very ill around about the same time, thus needing me home to care for her. It was around this time with very little money coming in that we realised how expensive crafting actually is so in September last year we decided to open our craft Business ‘Laney’s Crafts’ not just to provide us with an income but to also wherever we can supply craft products at a price that anyone can afford. As a Doctor did quote that Crafting is a great help with Mental Illness and also Depression I thought about all the crafters that cannot work because of illness so cannot afford the prices asked by the big shops and so I try as best I can to keep my prices as low as possible but that isn’t always possible.

As a Craft supply business owner I don't have any particular Artist but I do have a love of cutting dies as my background lies in Mechanical Engineering so I have had first hand experience of the process involved to create the many intricate dies that are produced. My Wife is the creative part of our business and she loves anything Cute, Pink or Disney. I do craft myself but not on a huge scale like the wife.

I am gradually becoming more creative as I see all the new product releases from the many companies I deal with for stock supplies and it is making me think more like a maker plus I get badgered a lot from the wife and her Crafty Friends to make things, lol.

For me the most enjoyable part of my work is getting to look at and try new products before they hit our Online shop. Elaine my wife loves the fact that she has the prime pickings of all the new goodies as they arrive.

I have met several Crafting celebs over my time as a Craft business including Debbie Moore, Dawn Bibby to name a few but I think my best achievement was as a Scout leader being able to get so many young people to pass their Craft badge and then go on to continue crafting.

Besides crafting and running the business I like to pursue Archery of which I am a GNAS qualified instructor. I also read, Listen to music and do DIY.

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An Elvis Presley Wood Burning I did at High School.

I would advise to attend craft fairs where they have make and takes especially the Creative Craft Live ones. Where there is chance to try a few different crafts and try several different crafts before settling on one.

If I could change anything it would be to keep more up to date than i do with new products.

I think having my own website has helped my business the most as now I have a World Wide audience to sell my craft supplies to as before I was limited just to UK sales.

Yes my wife Elaine has been my Rock from the very beginning of me setting up the business as I didn't have a clue as to what to sell or how to sell it and she was so supportive and knowledgeable.

I was once a semi professional singer.

www.laneyscrafts.co.uk www.facebook.com/Laneyscraftycreations www.ebuygumm.co.uk

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Easter Picks For Handmade Gifts!

Easter Unicorn Egg Shaped Chocolate Bar

Created by

Created by BUY HERE

Baby Animal Finger Puppets Created by BUY HERE

EASTER Bunny Mouse Created by BUY HERE

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White and Yellow Daffodil Brooch

Easter Tic Tac Toe Created by

BUY HERE

Easter Bunny Ear Headband Created by

BUY HERE

Easter Fondant Cupcake Toppers Created by

BUY HERE

Spring Bunny Earrings Created by

BUY HERE

Easter Carrot Catnip Toy Created by

BUY HERE

www.creative-crafting.com

BUY HERE

Lucy is back with us at Creative Crafting to share her latest creation!

Hi there, My name is Lucy and I am the face behind the craft blog, Treasured Buttons. I enjoy a variety of crafts, from paper crafts to sewing but in recent years I have made several nappy cakes and it is one of these projects that I would like to share with you.

I made my first nappy cake about 3 years ago for a close friend of mine who was expecting her 2nd child. While helping to plan a baby shower for her, a mutual friend suggested ordering a nappy cake from online and while I agreed that it was a good idea I also wanted to have a go at making one myself and the rest, as they say is history! Since that first nappy cake, I have made several more mainly for friends, colleagues and family members of close friends.

I have made nappy cakes for those who have already found out what gender their baby is and for those that have not and it is often the latter that is more challenging. It seems that for several years now the trend has been for mums-to-be to find out what they are having and so shops seem to have catered for this by offering products in predominantly pink or blue. This then makes it quite tricky to find items such as muslin squares and baby grows that are in a neutral colour!

Once I have all the 'ingredients' for the nappy cake, I really enjoy laying them all out and designing how I will incorporate them together to create the cake itself.

Despite having already made several, I am still learning new ways of how to use the different materials and easier techniques to create the same effects. For example when making my most recent nappy cake, I laid the nappies flat to create a circular shape rather than roll them individually and fasten each one with an elastic band before then making the shape of the cake. I much prefer this newly discovered method and it also saves on the elastic bands!

One aspect of crafting that I love to do and particularly when creating a nappy cake is being able to personalise what I have created to suit the recipient. If I am making a nappy cake for a girl and I know that the mum-to-be is particularly girlie, I will use frilly ribbons and add feminine touches to decorate the outside of the cake. Likewise when I was asked to make a nappy cake for a friend's sister who knew that she was expecting a boy, I took the opportunity to try something different and decided to create a 'nappy plane' while also using the same materials that would be included in a more traditional cake. It was a big success (phew!) and I loved trying something new. I have not yet been asked to make a cake for a mum-to-be who has already named their baby but this would be really exciting and would take personalisation to another level. Who knows what the future holds?

Look out for Lucy with more of her craft projects in future issues.

Can’t wait? Find Lucy on her blog www.treasuredbuttons.co.uk

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Tell us a bit about the artist behind your creations.

I am a jewellery designer and sculptor based in Cardiff where I live with my husband Paul and our beautiful moggie Bobby. Bobby is my little muse and inspiration. I am a journalist by trade and have worked in PR, but have pretty much given up that part of my working life. I am originally from Cologne and moved to the Cardiff in 2002 to be with my Welsh husband, whom I met in New Zealand. Last year I became a British citizen (this was due to the Brexit referendum). Apart from my jewellery business I also provide German tuition for young students who want to pass their GCSE’s and A-Level and adults.

Have you always been creative or did your talent evolve over time?

I always loved art at school and took the German equivalent of art A-Level. My art teacher was quite inspirational and after my A-Levels I decided to study Art History (English linguistics & literature and Philosophy) at Cologne University which is all theory and no practice. Creating art took a back seat while I was at university and after I graduated, I pursued my journalism career. I spent a lot of my time writing.

In 2006 I attended a weekend course in silver-smithing in Loughborough at “In The Studio” (the teacher recently retired) to get a first taste of jewellery making. I really enjoyed it and enrolled in the local college to attend evening classes in silversmithing and received my City and Guilds’ certificate in 2007. In the run up to my wedding I created my own tiara and bridesmaids’ jewellery and eventually friends encouraged me to sell my designs. I launched my business Helenka White Design and website in September 2010 and it has been revamped twice since. I also have changed my logo from a nautilus to the current one which shows a cat.

Though I started with silver-smithing I mostly work with polymer clay. I love that it’s such a colourful and versatile medium. You can mimic all sorts of semi- precious stones, wood, dichroic glass and other surfaces with it and of course you can use it to sculpt with. I have mostly taught myself from books and attended a couple of polymer clay workshops. I also like to experiment a lot. My plan this year is to spend more time using silver clay, which is incredibly expensive and to create my own texture sheets using the carving method . One of the reasons why I haven’t worked much with silver is really the expense. I do have a hallmark though and am aiming to use it this year.

What is it that you enjoy most about your work?

Coming up with new designs and trying out new materials and tools. Just experimenting and enjoying the process and improving with each design. You never really stop learning. I also love when something works out well and I get nice comments by peers and fans. When people buy from me and are happy that is the best feeling. I love happy customers.

Have you achieved anything in your crafting life that you are particularly proud of?

The fact that I haven’t given up on the business despite the economic downturn is something I could be proud of. And the fact that I do this despite my disabling chronic pain.

Other than crafting what else do you like to do?

I love to chill out with our rescue cat Bobby who is now an older lady. She will be 14 this year. I read a lot too and I started to paint and draw. I am exploring different mediums to see which one I like the most. So currently I am learning how to use acrylic paints. I am following tutorial videos on Art Tutor which is a really good website. I also spend time at our allotment when the weather is not too rubbish. It still needs a lot of work. I am not really Mrs Green Finger but it’s great to be rewarded for your efforts with fresh produce you can cook your dinner with. Last year we ended up with a lot of salad and spinach. This April we have to plant lots of new veg. I am hoping that the strawberries will do well this year. Though we might have to wait for another year.

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If you had to choose your favourite from your creations, which would it be?

Oh, this is so hard. I love most of my sculptures – my most recent one is a Dalmatian dog. I also had fun with my Valais Blacknose Sheep (though they were very time consuming to make). I make a lot of cats and really like my curled up cats. I love my dragons and my unicorn. I also like my journal covers and my latest design which is a cover for a A6 sketch book. From my jewellery I would say I love my Nautilus designs, because they are fun to make and have been popular and my folded pendants. Gosh this is really hard.

What advice would you offer to someone new starting out in the craft world?

Experiment with tools and materials first and find your niche. Try to master one technique and build on your skills. Learn from others and connect with fellow crafters and people outside your own niche. Don’t waste your money on expensive branding or advertising. Take courses or teach yourself from books or YouTube videos. Road test your products first – so make only a couple of samples of an item and see if there’s a market for it. Don’t undersell yourself. Pricing is the biggest issue for crafters – they really get hung up about it. Make sure you acknowledge the hours you put into a design and also factor in the perceived value of your products. Handmade is special and people who really appreciate handmade are happy to pay for this accordingly!

And don’t be tempted to buy lots of supplies when you haven’t found your niche yet. Good luck and enjoy your crafting journey.

If you could change one thing about what you do, what would it be?

Have more confidence in approaching retailers and also getting more mobile. I am scared of driving and haven’t really driven much since passing my test in the 80’s. It has been a real stumbling block for me.So, I am relying on my husband for driving, which is not ideal. And pacing myself more. When you live with chronic pain it’s not easy to do.

What do you think has helped your business the most?

Haha – my customers of course. Seriously though, I think finding the right communities online has helped. Especially when times are tough it’s nice to know you’re not alone. Networking with peers has been helpful.

www.creative-crafting.com

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Has any person helped or supported you more than any other?

I wouldn’t say a particular person per se, but I feel a bit supported by the various groups I belong to including the Professional Crafter’s Guild. I do have a few loyal customers who have come back to me to buy more jewellery and have also been very supportive by sharing my work. I would say that my little sister (who is taller than me) is one of my most loyal customers and she really loves my work. So Lissy – if you’re reading this – thank you.

I also had a few friends who have supported me over the years.

Tell us a random fact about yourself.

When I was 16, I had acting lessons at a private acting school. It was pretty awful – 6 months of improvisation and not really getting to work on a role. I got bored with it and left. Acting is not for me as I am an introvert!

www.helenkawhitedesign.com www.facebook.com/HelenkaWhiteDesign

www.twitter.com/Helenka

www.instagram.com/helenkawhitedesign

www.pinterest.co.uk/helenka12/

www.youtube.com/c/HelenkawhitedesignCoUk

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Join our community of professional crafters and gain support, advice, workshops and publicity for your business.

We have some fabulously talented members in our Guild and I pounce on every opportunity to show them off so these monthly showcases in Creative Crafting Magazine are going to be great fun!

I have chosen a few of our Sapphire Guild Members to share with you this month.

Christine from Alfie Moon Designs has been a member of the PCG since 2015. Working from a small office and studio in the Shropshire town of Bridgnorth, they design and make character-led gifts, which can be personalised for special occasions.

They also cater for the corporate market producing merchandise and promotional items for small businesses.

www.alfiemoondesigns.co.uk www.facebook.com/AlfieMoonDesigns

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Alessandra has been a member of the PCG since 2017. She makes quilts, cushions, throws, table covers, table runners, placemats, bibs, bags, embroidered T-shirts, scarfs, book covers and bookmarks, phone covers and table covers, key-rings and luggage tags, table decorations and coasters, wall-hanging decorations and lavender sachets, tea-towels and bath-towels etc.

Available products can be found on Alessandra's website and also from a Showroom in Putney, West London and at Craft Markets and Private Sale Events.

www.alessandraHandmade.co.uk www.facebook.com/AlfieMoonDesigns You can join the Professional Crafters Guild from ÂŁ10 per year.

Found out how here www.procraftersguild.com

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