Designer Saturday

Not really sure exactly what I want to do tomorrow. I need to work on a handful of new designs of Knotted Jewellery. I got a couple of very nice books last week, which have given me some ideas and one has some fantastic knots that I am going to practice and see how I can incorporate them into Jewellery.

My hubby is off early in the morning to work so I'm planning on getting up nice and early to so I can spend all day designing and making. As well as a few new designs I also want to make at least a couple of things to sell as I need to get more of the knotted designs in the shops. I may also at least start a new design for some cards and I really should do my Thank You Cards. I will be in deep trouble with my Mum if i don't!!

On the non creative side of things I need to clean out my rats and post my Dad's Birthday present.

I will also have a Saturday Shopping List from Folksy and I've already got a theme decided. You'll have to take a look tomorrow to see what it is though!

Etsy Favourites - Get Knotted!

No I haven't suddenly lost all my manners. Today's theme is based around one of my favourite things - knots. Today specifically Macrame. This fantastic craft is based around 4 or 5 main knots than can be combined in as many fantastic combinations as you can think of. Here are 5 sellers that show how creatively it can be used.

Melanie Miljan

Melanie makes Jewellery & Accessories, including this fab Belt tied with hemp and featuring green Aventurine nuggets and a Bamboo buckle. She uses natural materials and her shop mostly features Jewellery, made with either Fine Silver or Sterling Silver. Melanie also has a blog at http://macramewithmelaniemiljan.blogspot.com/

Intrinsic Imagination

This shop is full of amazing items that are works of a very creative imagination. The Barefoot Sandals caught my eye mainly because I'd never heard of them before! They are made with hemp and glass beads and can be worn in bare feet at the beach or a summer party or to brighten up plain flip flops or sandals. I think they're lovely. The shop also features handmade jewellery, hair falls and some very funky feather eyelashes.

My Imperfections

This is only a new shop but already has some really nice items in it. The knotted cord necklace pictured is made with silver rattail, shells and rings. This shop features big, bold Jewellery that are real dramatic, statement pieces combining so many different elements into pieces that just shout gorgeous at you!

Freedom Market

Freedom Market features lots of lovely Hemp and Beaded Macrame Jewellery. The Necklace featured contains Hemp with fire agate, antique brass, wood and hand carved bone beads. Hemp creates a lovely natural look especially when combined with natural material beads and the items listed in this shop are very wearable.

Katie's Basement

Handmade & Custom Jewellery from a modern day hippy. This is what Katie says about her shop. Being a bit of a modern day hippy myself I fell in love with it. It's a fairly new store, only opening at the end of May this year but already features many items that are all beautifully photographed. The bracelet featured is a Jasper Hemp bracelet, tied with hemp with a Jasper centrepiece and smaller wooden beads. Katie also has a blog: http://katiesbasementblog.blogspot.com/

Two new listings

I have listed two new items today, both Chain Maille Jewellery, one in each Northern Dawn Shop.

• A purple and pink Chain Maille Bracelet on Etsy
• A pair of Purple Chain Maille earrings on Folksy
  

Mobius Link Bracelet

This Bracelet has 25 Mobius balls linked together with bright aluminium jump rings. The mobius balls are made up with one each of a purple, violet & pink anodised aluminium jump ring. It is 19cm long and is fastened with a silver plated Lobster Clasp.

I think it is really pretty. It is also comfortable to wear, moves nicely as you move your hands and arms and catches the light as well!

FOR SALE: £12.00

Japanes 4-1 Earrings

These Earrings are made using a delicate, fiddly weave called a Japanese 4-1. The purple anodised aluminium jump rings are approx 7mm in size and are linked together with 3mm silver plated jump rings. They dangle to a fantastic 7cm.

These Earrings make a real statement with both their length and colour.

FOR SALE: $21.00 (approx. £13.00)

New Photos & Descriptions

I didn't get any new makes done today but did have a very productive day working on what may be a big project for next year.

I did take some new photographs of my Jewellery in my Etsy shop, though. All the new photographs were taken outside with a nice natural backdrop of stone from the garden and I found a post that my earrings hung nicely off of and the wood created a lovely coloured and texture background. I also amended some of my descriptions on the pieces I listed when I first opened the shop. I had planned on listing two new items this evening but ran out of time. They will go on tomorrow and the shop will be all updated and shiny for any new visitors the new items may generate. A huge thanks to Sparklerama for providing this fantastic forum post on item descriptions.

Tomorrow I am also going to make some labels for my new Jewellery Boxes and wrap one up as I would to post to a customer, then add the photograph of this to my listings so people know what to expect. I got this tip from this very interesting Storque article: Packaging and Shipping.

Google Friend Connect

If I have any more widgets added to the sidebar of this blog, it'll be amazing! It's getting longer every day. Today i eventually worked out how to add a Google Friend Connect widget, so people can now follow the blog using that. I already follow a few this way:

• So much yarn, so little time
• Fuzzy dragons
• How to buy art online
• Black on grey on white

So, add yourself to my followers and I'll check you out too. I love reading people's blogs.

It's Raining Cats & Dogs

An Etsy Favourites theme for a typical British Summer!

Spiraln

Spiraln is Steven Leary's shop, selling Limited Edition Prints, T-shirts and notecards all featuring his original artwork. His style is cartoony with lovely bright, friendly characters. I loved the bright colours in this cute print, called Puss In Boots.

Shaggy Creations

Valerie of Shaggy Creations describes her art as 'a little bit of whimsy and a touch of class'. Her shop contains bright and fun art prints featuring dogs and cats in many different guises. This wonderful print of a Valentine's Welsh Corgi caught my eye for this week's favourites.

Hayward Prints

This is David Hayward's art print shop on Etsy. He says, " There is something mystical, contemplative and minimal in my art", and I would agree with this. The ACEO print that caught my eye, called Shelter of Another is very simple, but tells a great story. It made me smile and I think it is truly gorgeous.

Paint All Night Studios

This shop features the work of two artists, Robert David and Marie Bretz. It contains original artwork, prints and other products such as notecards. The painting that caught my eye is called Silver Lining and is a Limited Edition 8" x 10" print. It is lovely and bright and reminded me of me, walking my own dogs in the rain!

Sheona Hamilton Grant

Last but definitely not least is this shop featuring some absoloutely brilliant pencil drawings. As an artist who draws in graphite myself, I love looking at other pencil artist's work. Sheona's is highly detailed and realistic. If you are a Horse lover, this is the place to visit. The drawing that caught my eye though, was this ever so cute Labrador Puppy, peering round a pair of wellies.

I hope you have enjoyed this week's favourites, even though they were so late. I had great fun finding them, I love looking at other artists' work. The great thing about all the featured art is they are available as prints or notecards, so are a very affordable way of owning some great pieces of art.

Storage

I have been at my 'day job' all day today so haven't had any time to do anything even remotely creative. I have found my sellers to feature on this week's Etsy favourites, but I will add them to the blog tomorrow.

Today I risked Argos on the day of the New Catalogue and bought myself a plastic tower with draws storage thingy. I have spent this evening filling it with art, card making and jewellery making stuff. I have loads of stuff, particularly for the card making. I went through a mad phase of buying paper so I managed to fill a whole draw just with paper! That doesn't include the vast quantities of pre-made card blanks and envelopes. I will definitely have to dedicate some time to make a whole load of one off cards for whichever occasion the paper & embelishments suggest!

I know have all my beads neatly in a draw, with the findings all in one tub, rather than it all muddled together in vast numbers of envelopes.

I am off to bed now and I will see you tomorrow with a seasonal British Summertime themed Etsy Favourites.

Folksy Fairies on Friday

My first Folksy favourites list, based on the magic of fairies at the bottom of the garden...

Heartfelt

There are lot of Tooth Fairy cushions listed on Folksy, but I just loved these because they are so different. They contain a little pocket for placing the tooth in and it is here that the Tooth Fairy leaves her payment. They are made with felt & fabric and the Tooth Fairy Monsters are made to order. Heartfelt is owned by a busy Mum of two who makes personalised felt creations such as padded names as well as Tooth Fairy Monsters.

Soaps by Laura

This Handmade Sugar Plum Fairy Soap is just one of many very sweet, pretty handmade soaps in Laura's shop. Her soaps have been certified and comply with EU regulations and are not tested on animals. Soaps are made fresh to order and Laura also sells bath salts, gift sets and bath bombs.

Cherryloco

Cherryloco is Lauren's shop. She sells handmade jewellery created in her home and she describes her pieces as unique, colourful & somewhat naive, laced with a quirky sense of fun. This pretty fairy pendant is hand pierced entirly from Sterling Silver.

Golcar House

This fairy image is a Limited Edition Hand Printed Screenprint. It's called 'Eat my dust'. Golcar House is an independant design studio that produces silk screen prints, printed textiles, eco friendly bags and hand made accessories, all handmade. Many of the designs in this shop are Limited Edition or originals so the perfect place to visit for something truly different.

Mirabilis

I thought the fairy on this charm bracelet was so cute. This bracelet is very girly and would make a perfect gift for a real 'girly girl'! The Mirabilis shop is run by Vicki who handmakes the Jewellery on offer, which includes earrings and bag charms amongst other items.

So, whether you believe in Fairies or not, i'm sure you'll agree there's some magical items for sale in these shops. Happy Shopping!

Friday To Do List

I know, it's Thursday and I've not done my favourites. Again. I ended up having to go in to work 4 hours earlier than I was meant to so didn't get a lot done today and had no time to compile my favourites. I did, however, compile a pretty impressive list of articles about sales and related issues on Etsy. I will put them in some sort of resources blog post at some point. One good thing about going in early today means I get tomorrow off. Woohoo! So I have compiled a To Do List for tomorrow:

• Start on my Thank You cards
• Make a cross knot & seed bead bracelet
• Do some more chain maille experimenting
• Do an Etsy Favourites & Folksy favourites blog posts
• Put my resource list into a sensible blog post
• Start a new ACEO for cards

I also have some bits coming through the post for my exciting new project so will get a look at those, and my lovely hubby has bought a load of craft stuff worth £100 for £20 off of someone advertising on a local website, so it'll be like Christmas when he comes home!

See you tomorrow.

Etsy & Folksy Selling Action Plan

I have just added my new items to my Etsy and Folksy Shops. Follow the links below to have a look:

Pink & Black Tartan & Chain Necklace
Pink and Black Chain Maille Earrings
Blank Golden Retriever Greetings Card

I have also been busy updating my profiles on both Etsy and Folksy. Both now have blog links on as well my Twitter username and Etsy has the details of the McEtsy team as well, so people know that i'm 'joining in'.

I've been reading a lot of bits on Etsy about successful selling and listing techniques and today's Etsy Success article was on 'tags' so I read through that and hopefully implemented some of the useful pointers. The Etsy blog, Storque and the forums are a fantastic source of information, but it is so huge it takes time to go through it all. I have stolen a little idea from another UK seller and put a note on the bottom of my Etsy listings of the price in UK pounds and on the bottom of my profile that i'm based in the UK and all items are despatched from here.

I don't know how successful either Etsy or Folksy will be for me, but I don't see why they can't be. One thing I have learnt is they need to be worked at. Both sites are so big, you can't just sit there or no-one will ever notice you! I wonder which one is better but can't decide. Etsy is bigger and more well known, but because of this it is easier to get lost amongst the millions of other sellers and products on there. Folksy is less well known and smaller but there is less competition. I do know I need to do the same things for each site so I can measure my success (if there is any) of one against the other. There is a general action plan for this, which basically consists of:

• Regular updates - I need to list at least one thing a day on both sites, preferably 2 or 3 but this does cost money so I need to be sensible


• Join In - get on the forums on both sites, do 'treasuries' on Etsy. All these things will hopefully make my name known to other site users and I think a lot of them are buyers as well as sellers.


• Favourites - Add sellers to my favourites and also items. I do my Favourites list on here for Etsy and always let people know they've been added. Each person is another one that has been exposed to my name. It may not result in sales but it has definitely resulted in reciprocal favouriting. I have decided to do a Favourites list on here for Folksy once a week as I do for Etsy.


• The Blog and Twitter - need to be updated regularly, but not just with updates to the shop. I need to try and make twitter updates a bit interesting and add some informative articles to the blog. More people will follow me if I write something worth reading!!


• Amend my listings - I need to amend my listsings that I posted at the beginning with better photographs and update the descriptions and tags after reading the articles i've been reading.

So, that's the general idea of where i'm going and what i'm up to. I also need to do some off-line marketing and sort out my own website, but that's a blog post for another day!

I will update the blog with any interesting news on any of the above points and let you know what (if anything) proves succesful.

Productive Day

Wow, if only every day was like today! I finished a Pet Portrait commission, just waiting for final approval from the customer and then it'll go in the post.

I also turned my Golden Retriever Puppy drawing into a card:

And made a pair of Byzantine Weave Chain Maille Pink & Black earrings which will be a perfect match with my necklace I created yesterday:

The Earrings will be listed on Etsy later along with the necklace and a card will be listed on both Etsy and Folksy.

I also had a very exciting phone call about a project that may be happening later in the year. I don't to say too much about it now but to say it's exciting is an understatement!

Pink & Black Tartan Bead & Chain Necklace

I didn't get an awful lot of anything productive today but I did design and make this necklace. It was designed as I went along so the whole process took about 2 hours but I am very pleased with it and think it looks very funky.

It uses Pink & Plack Tartain/Plaid fabric beads, pale pink anodized aluminium chain and Pink & Black 10mm anodized aluminium jump rings attached to form a chain. These components are all combined to make a 2 strand necklace with a cascade with an on-trend chunky, modern look. I love the mix of textures and the colour combination is brilliant. I haven't worked out the costing yet, but it will go on Etsy at some point so I will notify you when it does. I also need to get a decent picture of it being worn so buyers can fully appreciate it's look.

Earrings - Purple Byzantine weave chain maille

I managed to complete 3 of the 4 things on my To Do List and by far the most fun thing was making two pairs of Earrings:

Chain Maille Purple & Silver Dangly Earrings, Byzantine Weave:

These Earrings are created using a Chain Maille technique called a Byzantine Weave. It is actually fairly easy once you get used to it but it creates a fantastic effect. The Earrings are merely jump rings attached together in a specific order. The jump rings are purple Anodized Aluminium and the Fish Hook ear wires are silver plated. They are approximately 2cm long from the bottom of the Earring wire. These will be added to my Folksy Shop.

FOR SALE: £5.50

Purple Dangly Earrings, Chain Maille Byzantine weave.

These Earrings are made using the same technique as the Silver & Purple pair, but using only Purple jump rings. They are 3cm long. These will also be added to the Folksy Shop.

FOR SALE: £6.00

Monday's To Do List

Our visitors are going tomorrow and whilst i'll be sad to see them go and have had a lovely time while they've been here it will nice to get back to work on Northern Dawn bits, especially seeing as I am on holiday from my 'day job' until Thursday.

So I have already written my To Do List for tomorrow so thought I would share:

• Order some packaging boxes
• Make the Golden Retriever Puppy ACEO card and put one up on my Folksy Shop and one in my Etsy Shop
• Make something with my new goodies (don't know what yet but think it may feature pink chain and plaid beads)
• Order some wooden beads and some suede thong

I ordered some very nice natural wooden pendants but didn't order anything to go with them, hence the need for wooden beads. Beads Unlimited also do some cool coloured wooden beads which I think will go well with my fabric tartan ones. The Suede Thong is to go with some of the new pendants I've ordered. I want something rustic looking and think Suede will be a good look.

As always, I may not get all these items done but at least I will start tomorrow with an aim. Tomorrow I should have something new and funky to show you.

In the Pink

Just a little teaser from my new stash of beads and bits that arrived yesterday. These cool Pink Plain / tartan fabric covered beads are from Jilly Beads, which is also where the anodised aluminium chain is from. Not sure yet what exactly to do with them but they're going to be turned into some pretty cool punky Jewellery. Watch this space.....!!

Etsy Favourites - Tartan/Plaid

I stayed on a bit of a Scottish theme this week for my Favourites, but mainly I was inspired by the tartan textile beads purchased from Jilly Beads on Tuesday.

Salt Of The Earth:

This is a Fairy Door. It is placed in your home and is the way that the fairy folk pass to this world from theirs! Apparently, the door only opens from their side. How cute is this! I just thought it was gorgeous. There are many different themed ones in this seller's lovely shop. This one stands 7" tall and they are made from Salt Dough.

Elylow

These lovely, highly practical and very pretty backpacks are made from reused and upcycled material. All are handmade and designed by the shop owner. Pretty, practical and ethical, what more could you ask for?

Marjji

I fell in love with this cat's gorgeous expression. He is 8" tall and made from upcycled, prewashed wool. He is weighted so will sit up nicely. He is handmade from an original pattern of the sellers, inspired by cats her Grandmother used to make. I like shops that include a story about where their creations come from. He would make the perfect gift for a cat lover - I am likely to be shopping here for my own Grandnother!

Thistle Cottage Studio

Do you want a cool, handmade hat? Then visit this shop. It contains a multitide of hats in different styles and colours. This hat is part of the seller's new Scotland collection. If you have a love of hats, Scotland or both, definitely check out this seller.

Leaping Lizards

This is another shop I will probably be shopping at. This seller has porduced some gorgeous, handmade, ceramic pendants. This particular one measures 1.25" in diameter and comes strung simply on a ribbon. This shop contains pendants in a variety of shapes and designs and also some cool slogans and phrases. If you individual Jewellery, this is definitely one to check out.

I hope you have enjoyed this weeks favourites and I have inspired you to check out at least one of these shops. There will be more next Thursday. See you tomorrow.

Raising the roof!

We currently have visitors so unfortunately I don't have a lot of time for blogging, tweeting and certainly not creating, which is a shame as I am very focussed and inspired at the moment. However there will still be a daily blog post and everything will be back to normal Tuesday. I have had two dispatch notices from my shopping yesterday, so cannot wait for my goodies to arrive! Maybe I will be able to sneak in an hours making when our visitors are busy.

Today my hubby and his brother took the grass roof off of our old barn. At the base of the roof there were enormous slates led against the roofing timbers and when they came to do the second side, they discovered if they removed the slates the rest of the grass was then fairly easily dislodged by pushing a ladder through from the inside! There were some entertaining moments when, sat outside, all we could see was two ladders coming randomly through the roof, or, even funnier, a great lump of roof would move, then flop back down again, looking like the barn had come alive and had a giant grassy mouth it was opening and closing!!

The first half all removed:
Second side with the grass still on:
The highly technical push-a-ladder-through-the-roof technique!

But it works!

Roof all gone. Just got to tidy up now!

You may have noticed it's Thursday and there is no favourites. I have a theme ready but Etsy appears to be having maintenance, so i've given up for the evening. Fear not, there will be favourites for you to peruse tomorrow.

Shopping!

I have been busy this afternoon credit card bashing and purchasing a whole load of Jewellery Findings, beads and card making bits.

The original shopping list read:

• toggle clasps
• earring wires
• chunky chain
• memory wire
• split rings
• headpins
• 1mm black rattail
• shrink plastic
• ACEO toploaders
• coloured cardstock
• 5" x 7" envelopes
• packaging boxes
• ribbon

Currently there are 4 items not purchased: memory wire, toploaders, 1mm rattail and packaging boxes. The toploaders I shall get off ebay, the 1mm rattail only seems to be available from 1 supplier, who I didn't shop with today and i've not gone shopping for the boxes yet.

I went to my usual two suppliers, Jilly Beads and Handy Hippo and also discovered 3 new suppliers: Bead Sisters, Just Beads and Beads Unlimited. Hopefully, they'll be as efficient as Handy Hippo and Jilly Beads are.

I have discovered some fantastic charms, wooden beads & pendants which were purchased as well as the shopping list items. I was also introduced to coloured jump rings by Bead Sisters and the fantastic art of Chain Maille weaving, so I purchased vast quantities of pretty coloured jump rings and will have a go at the project ideas on their site when they arrive. I got really excited about it and can't wait to try out this new skill.

Google Analytics & Site Feed

I have today installed Etsy Web Analaytics on the Northern Dawn shop. It is provided by Google Analytics and allows you to track things such as site visits, popular content, referrers etc. Hopefully it will give me an idea of what is working and what isn't in terms of promotion, products etc. I won't get any results for 24 hours but I'm looking foward to having a look and learning something from them. For more details, have a look at the Etsy Google Analytics articles.

I have also updated my settings for my blog RSS feed, so I think it now works. So if you want to follow my posts you can simply click on the subscribe to posts link. Thanks to Jennifer of Fuzzy Dragons.

Cross Knot Bracelet

As promised, here are the photographs of the bracelet I told you about yesterday. The knots are Chinese Cross Knots, which mean Ten in Chinese. The beads are translucent rocailles in two different shades of blue. It is tied with black leather cord and will probably be closed with a toggle clasp.

Bracelet prototype

I was inspired by an idea after looking at my Chinese knot book to create a criss-cross knotted bracelet with rocailles (large seed beads) between the knots. I sat down this afternoon with a length of leather cord and a pile of blue translucent seed beads and made one. However, it turned out the cord wasn't long enough, so I only made half of one! It also turned out quite wide, so i'm not sure if it classes as a cuff or not. It was, however, very pretty so I will definitely be making a couple more to go in the Northern Dawn shop.

Tomorrow, I am working from 11am to 8pm, so will not have a lot of time for Northern Dawn work. I will add some photographs of my bracelet prototype though. I also have written myself a shopping list, which I may get on and purchase tomorrow and I will also get started on reading the Etsy Seller Handbook, which I discovered after reading about it on the Laura Baillie Designs blog. If I have time I may also start on my blogroll on the blog too.

Original Art - Golden Retriever

I did a little coloured pencil painting today of a Golden Retriever Puppy. All puppies are irresistable and who could not melt at a Golden Retriever Puppy:

Isn't he just gorgeous. It's in coloured pencil and is ACEO sized at 3.5" x 2.5". I am not going to sell it as an ACEO though, I am going to add to the collection and do a selection of popular dog breeds and use the images on cards to sell in the shop.

This one took me about 3 hours to do, so if I get off my bum and knuckle down I should be able to do at least a couple a week, so should have built up a decent selection in a few weeks time.

Twitter

Well I have given in and just joined Twitter. I have read so many posts on the Etsy forums about how useful it can be for promotion and they keep on about it on the radio, so I have joined the masses!

I have just added a widget thing in my sidebar so you can click on it and follow me on Twitter. I am at Northern Dawn Twitter. Someone had already taken Northern Dawn, so my username is RaggraCrafts, which is name of where I live and as it is pretty different, I figured no-one else would have it, and they didn't! So I now need to work out how to work it efficiently and not just spam it or put exactly the same on it as the blog!

You may also have noticed my other Widget from Etsy. It displays the latest additions to my shop with a link to it.

The McEtsy Team

Another of the many features of Etsy is the ability to join Etsy teams. When making my favourites post yesterday I came across a link to Team McEtsy. Team McEtsy was specially created to promote the work of Scottish crafters. So, of course, I applied to join. I received an email today and will be added to the list shortly. It is a really great opportunity to connect with other Scottish crafters, even if it is only virtually. Maybe in the future, 'real life' meetings may also be organised that I can get to and participate in. There is also a McEtsy blog, which features work from fellow scottish crafters.

Etsy Favourites - Scotland

Today I followed the Shop Local link on Etsy's Buy page and searched for Scotland. The Shop Local feature lists the latest 100 shops to update at that particular location. So here are my 5 favourite Scottish shops:

Ali Bali Jewellery

Handmade and designed Silver Jewellery, made in Edinburgh. Most items are made from eco friendly recycled silver. This shops contains all types of Jewellery including Wedding Jewellery and this seller takes customer orders. One of my favourite items is her silver crocheted cuffs. You can visit her blog at Ali Bali Jewellery Blog.

Starry Blue Sky

Fantastic Photographic Prints, again from an Edinburgh seller. The shop features gorgeous images with a dreamy quality that makes them look more like a painting than photographs. She has some fantastic collage prints. I just love the dreamy affects and fantastic colours. They create a lovely, modern look that would complement any home. You can also visit the Starry Blue Sky Blog.

The Dog House

This shop features hand printed bags, t-shirts and bandanas with the seller's own greyhounds as the subject. I love dogs and the products in this shop are just perfect for any dog lover, particularly the Greyhound owner. I am seriously tempted by a canvas bag. As an extra bonus 5% from the sales goes to a Greyhound rescue charity, Gracehounds. The Dog House also has a blog: Max & Molly Designs.

Numpty

This shop features modern, funky cufflinks, earrings and hair barettes. The subjects are things such as aliens, lego and minis. Very cool and different. Perfect for anybody that loves something modern and different.

Fuzzy Dragons

Fantastic fantasy and animal art prints and ACEOs. Her preferred medium is coloured pencil which is a medium I also use so am always interested in coloured pencil artists work. The art is lovely and bright and features some lovely subjects such as dragons, horse and flowers. You can also visit the Fuzzy Dragons Blog.

I hope you will take time to visit at least a couple of these shops as they really do feature some superb stuff.

Sooner or later I will work out how to add photos to go with these favourites as photographs are so much more descriptive than my lame descriptions! - ETA: I did it, just saved them off Etsy and added them here, I will of course, notify the sellers and if anyone isn't happy, i'll remove them.

Thank you Card

Well, I haven't done particularly well with the to do list! I blame my husband, who only had a half day and I never get much done when he's about, calling me to do this and that or look at this etc.

I did make two prototypes for my Thank you Cards as I wasn't sure what design I wanted.

I went for this one in the end, mainly because I don't have enough ribbon to do all of them with the ribbon wrapped around the card!

They're made with Ivory Linen card, Frosted Gold Pearlescent Card and embossed in Gold. The ribbon is Ivory Organza. They have Ivory paper inserts. They are 5" x 7" cards.