The Great British Craft Festival

Last Sunday me and Fiona (of My Queen Bee) headed off to The Great British Craft Festival at Bolton Arena.  

I was very lucky as I had won a pair of tickets on Twitter - I'm not 100% sure how much tickets where, but I think they where around the £5 mark.  Slightly less than some of the other craft shows I've been to at Event City in Manchester.

I have to begin by saying just how amazingly well organised it all was.  The Facebook and Twitter feeds kept you up-to-date with where to park and other little tit-bits of information.  Parking was very clearly signed and there where parking attendants to make sure you parked in the right place and knew how to get across to the arena.  We didn't queue for long at all (and we arrived just after it opened) and where given a very handy guide with a map, all the different stalls and a few discount vouchers.  Toilets, refreshments and other important areas where clearly sign posted to.

I was pleased to see that there was plenty of space to walk around between the stalls so there was no pushing and shoving, elbows to the ribs or walking sticks on toes.  It was pleasant to walk around and I didn't get the 'I need to get out of here now' feeling I have sometimes had at these events.

We headed over to the Make and Take area first to book onto the MDF and Papers mini workshop and then grabbed a drink before hitting the stalls.  We walked around first, taking it all in and making a mental note of which stalls we wanted to revisit then we shopped.  

The majority of stalls where paper craft.  There was lots if you where really into card making!  I'm not a big card maker but I did buy some lovely decoupage sheets from House of Zandra to use in my journals.  There was a small amount of fabric and wool, a couple of bead stalls and some decopatch as well as MDF shapes. 

Our MDF and Paper Make and Take workshop was fabulous.  We both really enjoyed it and did go and buy some MDF pieces to play around with.  You can see us below admiring each others works of art!

We had a good morning at the festival and enjoyed it.  We had a good discussion afterwards and would love to see a much wider range of crafts next year - more wool and fabric, some buttons and Fiona would like to see candle making to.  

There is another event in the Midlands later in the year and I'm hoping they'll be back at Bolton Arena next year. Check out their website here

Diary of a Craft Fair Seller

Me and my stall.  I know the banner is a bit wonky but if I'd complained
I think Mr Bunny would have taken the scissors to it!

The day finally arrived today - my first every craft fair as a seller and not as a customer!  This fair has been in my diary since earlier on this year and, rather nicely, it was held at the primary school where I work meaning I knew lots of people and the atmosphere was very friendly and relaxed.  I have to be honest that yesterday I was worried that I would not sell anything but, you will be pleased to know, I sold many things and people even placed orders!

Preparing for the craft fair has been a long and time consuming task.  Making plenty of items to fill the stall, pricing up and preparing my table has taken up most of my spare time for the past month or so.  I had a really clear image in my mind of what I wanted my stall to look like and I was really pleased with it.  My table covering came from Abakhan, the banner was from Vistaprint (free!) and I decorated boxes and a picture stand to co-ordinate.  I am also one of those people who likes prices to be visible so I made sure everything had a price on or near it.  Knowing what and how much to make was tricky to but today has helped me to see the sorts of things that sell well and what to have plenty of in the future - I have come to the conclusion that I need a good range of prices and plenty of the lower priced items. 

This morning I arrived nice and early to set up.  Luckily Mr Bunny had volunteered (??) to help and so he tied the banner up whilst I did the pretty things.  I'm glad I left plenty of time to set up my stall as, despite setting it up on the dining table at home as a practise, it still took me a while to decide where things should go. 

The Cake Queen!  Sarah's cupcakes are delicious -
check her out on Facebook!

All in all the day was a success.  Being in a room with lots of creative people (and gorgeous cupcakes) and having the opportunioty to talk about my crafting was great. Listening to people comments and getting feedback on my items was great.  There where lots of positive points to take away and I am really looking forward to my next fair!

Just checking in!

Hello lovely followers of my blog!  I hope you are all well and have been getting up to lots of craftiness.  I have to say, I haven't been since going back to school after the summer holidays.  Mainly I have been working on 3 projects, a knitted ribbed scarf for my Grandad for Christmas (yes, this is the one I began back in July!) and 2 crocheted shawls as well as making for a craft fair.

The scarf is getting there and, to be honest, there isn't far to go.  It is currently my driving to dancing, waiting for the dance lesson and lunch time knitting project.  Little and often seems to be working for me as it is a bit repepitive and, with my inability to concentrate on one thing for long, a great way to actually get it done.  It may be finished for Christmas yet.

The 2 shawls are slow, slow progress.  Both are crocheted, 1 being the lovely frill shawl I posted about recently and the other a gorgeous zig zag pointy shaped shawl.  I have decided to concentrate my efforts on the frill shawl, as I am nearer to completion with it, and I am pleased to say that the main body is pretty much done and I will soon be ready to start the frilly edge.  Yay!  The zig zag pointy shawl I am crocheting in King Cole Riot, which is a gorgeous variagated yarn, is very slow progress as it is worked in double crochet and in DK weight yarn.  I am determined to get it finished as it is just so beautiful and will look great in winter (this one, not next)!

Last weekend a lot of my crafting was devoted to making for a craft fair which the PTA are holding at the school I work in in October.  I have been busy crocheting mug hugs and have even designed some fingerless mitts to sell as well.  They now need buttons adding to fasten but are looking great.  Once complete I will post some photos.

You will be pleased to know that there is much more craftiness to come; I start my textiles course at night school next Monday and have a trip to the new Abakhan in Bolton planned for after school on Friday as well as getting more done on my shawl and finishing those mug hugs for the fair.  If only there where more hours in the day!!

Me, me, me!

Hello to you all whether you are an existing follower of my blog or a new one (becuase I think I have acquired some new followers this past week!)

What a week I have had - and for great reasons!  So I have to warn you that, in the words of Louise from The Caithness Craft Collective podcast, this post is a bit ME ME ME!!!

Last weekend I was involved in the Art from the Heart bloghop to celebrate their 10th birthday (which is this weekend - Happy Birthday!)  Art from the Heart is my favourite art shop ever.  It is a good hour and a halfs drive from where I live, located in Harrogate in Yorkshire.  They sell the most amazing art and craft supplies and host fabulous workshops in art journaling amongst other things.  I am off there tomorrow morning, very early, for a gorgeous taster workshop with Dyan and maybe to spend some pennies!  So anyway, back to the bloghop, I signed up for it thinking it would be fun.  I was allocated to the 7 Gypsies team and so had to make anything using 7 Gypsies products, photograph it and then share my project in my blog hop post.  What fun!!! So, I made my journal page, filled in the template and set my post up to publish at 10am on Saturday morning.  Good, mission accomplished! 

Now, if you comment on my blog it has to be moderated before it goes live.  I check my iPhone and I have 6 comments to be moderated.  Ooooh, thinks me, how lovely!  However, it didn't stop there and I soon realised that this blog hop thing was going to be much bigger than I ever imagined.  To cut a long story short, I currently have something like 80, yes 80, comments on my bloghop post and, last Saturday, my blog was viewed 695 times!  I still cannot believe it - how amazing!!

So, after that most exciting event last weekend, my Craftseller magazine arrived.  This is a new magazine that is all about selling your crafts.  It is really good, has some great advice in it and projects that you can make and sell.  I got issue one back in May and made some little babushka dolls (you can find them in one of my past blog posts).  I joined the Facebook group and posted a link to my blog post about them (I like to share!) and that was it.  Until I received an email from a lovely lady at the magazine asking me if I wouldn't mind them featuring my dolls on their letters page.  So Issue 2 arrived on Thursday and I am in it, it is small but it counts.  I will also let you into a little secret, but I may be featured again in a future issue.  Squeal!




Me in print

 Now, you may think that that is enough excitment for 1 week, but no.  This morning I woke up rather early and was checking up on all the blogs I like to follow.  I was reading the lovely Random Wooliness blog by the gorgeous Ali, and her latest post, Seven things about me! is all about The Irresistbly Sweet Award she has received from another blog.  How gorgeous it was to read the post and then find that, as part of the award, she has to pass it onto 7 others and I am one of them!  Overwhelmed!  Thank you Ali x

Also this week, yes there is more, I have been asked to teach some workshops and to guest blog on another blog. (Slowly but surely I am taking over the World!)

I have to say that when I started to blog I never imagined that any of these things would happen, but it sure feels great that it has!  Blogging is a fabulous way of meeting like minded people and I have met so many.  So, whether you are an exsisting follower or a new one, thank you for stopping by and making my blog so special! 

A Grand Day Out!

I am not one to turn down the opportunity to spend money and Sunday was no different!  After a little hiccup due to illness (poor Mum) me and my friend Jo headed off to the Manchester Antique Textile Fair at the Armitage Centre in Fallowfield, hosted by The Textile Society.  We had never attended before and it sounded pretty interesting so we decided to see what it was all about.  Initially I thought it would be very much lots of old fabrics (the antique bit!) and it had said on the website that different society's would be there, but nothing prepared me for what met my eyes when I entered that sports hall!  WOW!  Overwhelmed did not describe it.

The hall was packed with a variety of different stalls.  Many of them where selling vintage fabrics, clothing and other such items, which to be honest I was not overly interested in, but there where a number of stalls that caught my eye and caused me to spend way too much money!


Jo admiring the beautiful Inidan textiles! 



There where several stalls selling Indian textiles, which we swooned over longingly, thinking about the different ways we could use these very beautiful, and very expensive, items in a costume for tribal bellydance.  We also gazed longingly at those stalls selling African textiles, batik and wax printed fabrics standing out from everything else.  We found stalls selling sewing accessories and other such exciting items for keen sewers, knitters and crafters alike!  I  purchased some African fabric, a stash of beautiful pink fabrics, some hand crafted elephant buttons that have been made by ladies in South Africa, some gorgeous handpainted buttons (I bought so many the lady gave me a discount) some sari yarn, henna stamps, felt brooches, Indian hair sticks and, oddly of all, coloured masking tape!  I was, obviously, very restrained!

After the excitment of all that shopping, we felt the need for a brew and a sit down.  This is the part, unfortunatley where I need to moan!  One very small, what can only be described as a hatch, was all there was to purchase something wet and a snack.  Jo will tell you that her said cup of tea was bad, very bad!  I was glad I had opted for the Fanta.  Our second dissapointment was the lack of seating to rest ones weary feet from too much shopping.  However, we soldiered on, leaning against a wall to drink and eat crisps and chocolate, before taking a look at some of stalls upstairs.
Representatives from various societies could be found upstairs.  We admired spinning wheels, talked to some lovely ladies from the Quilting Society and Gawthorpe Hall, and admired the work of students who had been awared bursaries, wishing we had studied textiles at university so that we too could make all day! The Knitting and Crochet Guild/Society taught me, and others, how to finger knit and I have been practising since I got home. 
All in all we had an enjoyable afternoon.  We spent some money, swooned over beautiful textiles and learnt how to finger knit.  Yes, it cost £6 to get in (my husband was a bit shocked when I told him this), the parking was difficult, some stalls did not put prices on ther items (which really bugs me) and the refreshments where limited but will we return next year?  Of course we will!