A small clue ...

OK, I'm still waiting for a product to arrive so I can finish off the "new thing". I'm quite excited about this product, and think it will make the finished thing look really swish. Oh, OK. I'm waiting for some spray on acrylic varnish.

Here are some more clues:

Acrylic paints:



My hair in a bun:




Chinese food:


Picture courtesy of chinesefood.org

Can you guess what it is yet?

Thanks for voting

Thanks for voting on my rings. The majority of people were in favour of them and, seeing as I've sold quite a few, I guess they're OK.

I'm going to replace the poll with some tunes - just as soon as I've figured out how to do it!

In the meantime, there are some new rings in the Etsy shop, in celebration of it being nearly Spring. Yay!

Marmadaisy on the radio

OK, I haven't edited this or anything, I wanted to get it on the blog.

I'd love to hear your comments (on the interview, not my editing skills).

His Marmadaisy's Voice

Barraud ‘his master's voice'

Ok, so the Very Exciting Thing I can now tell you about. It's probably not all that exciting to most people, and I'm sorry if you've got your hopes up.

Last week, I got an email from a Journalist at BBC Radio Wales who wanted to do a story on people who sell their crafts online, and would I mind being interviewed?

So, on Monday, a really nice lady by the name of Nan Pickering came to the house and put up with the dogs rifling through her stuff to record a little interview with me. ME!!

You can get the details here. It will be on this Sunday (10th Feb) at 4.30 and will be available to listen online the following week. I haven't heard it, so I hope I don't come across all Northern and stupid. Ha!

That's it!

I wish I'd thought of this in time for Valentine's day!

How cute would this have been on notecards for V day?




Or am I just ridiculously biased?

** update! Thanks to Anthony, you can now buy this as a postcard in the Etsy shop.

I must be stopped!

After saying I wasn't going to make any more rings for a while, I just couldn't resist and at the weekend went through all my old bits and bobs to see what else might make a nice ring.

This is what I came up with. It's an original 1941 thrupenny bit (ie 3 old pence).

I'm not sure. I've spoken to a few people who all said yep, quirky and fun. But I don't know if it has a whiff of those crappy, cheapy "sovereign" rings you get in Argos (apologies to anyone who wears one).

I've also made these with foreign coins - there's an Italian one, a Japanese one, and a couple I don't know the origin of. I think what makes these special is the fact the they are GENUINE and actually used by people. I also picked ones that had interesting designs on, so they are decorative too.

So, comments please! Quirky or crap? If you look to the left you will see a poll which I will keep open for a few weeks. Please click the applicable answers. :)

** Adendum, I have now identified all the coins (good old Google). Have a look at Etsy, and tell me what you think.

Vintage!

I'm definitely having a vintage day again today. Listening to the Life On Mars soundtrack, and making more rings! Check out my Etsy shop for my bits and bobs. I have loads listed now and don't think I'll make anymore for a while (I do have other things to do, you know!)

New Etsy Items

New selection of rings in the shop, using Vintage Greek ceramics.

Woo! I love the 60's!!

Pins, Rings and Things

I've listed some stuff in my Etsy. Lots more on the way.

Have a great weekend!

That hat!

Is finished! It actually wasn't all that difficult to make, except that working with very bulky yarn was a pain. And it's very warm.



It's ever so slightly too tall, although I usually have my hair tied back in a bun so it actually fits well over that, which most hats don't. So, all in all, a success.

I don't know why I look weird in this picture. Perhaps I'm just weird looking.



The pattern is from the One Skein Wonders book. I'm now working on some booties from the same for Baby Kirk, who is due in about 4 months (so I will hopefully be finished by then).

This is the other thing I was working on (more gluey fingers for me) yesterday. These rings are going in my Etsy when I get around to redoing it and taking decent pictures. The findings are silver plated, and those vintage buttons are from all over the place. The Art Deco fan ones are Czech glass, and genuine.



I like the red, white and blue flower one best.

Lisa's origami boxes

**** SPOILER : IF YOU ARE EXPECTING A CHRISTMAS PRESENT FROM ME YOU MIGHT SEE IT HERE ****

Thanks to Lisa and this tutorial, I am now addicted to making these little origami boxes. I used 8x8 and 12x12 scrapbook papers which have worked wonderfully.



I have also made them with matching mini-books which Marie kindly blogged a while back. I figured they would make nice keepsake boxes for little trinkets and such.

Fancy pins tutorial **spoiler present alert**

**** SPOILER : IF YOU ARE EXPECTING A CHRISTMAS PRESENT FROM ME YOU MIGHT SEE IT HERE ****



These are great for little gifts for your crafty friends. They are quick, cheap and easy to make and look ace stuck in a pin cushion.

You will need some stamps and some ink (or a suitable pen if you're a good drawer like I'm not) and a heat gun as well as some shrink plastic. All these items are available in craft stores and those of us who have gone through the card making/ scrapbooking phase will have these bits lying about. Probably.

Right, first of all choose a design with good clean lines and a solid outline (so that you can cut around it). You also need to bear in mind that the plastic shrinks (hence the name, shrink plastic, hey) by about 3 times so don't use a teeny weeny stamp or a massive one. I've used Hero Arts 18th Century fans, which are about 1 inch-ish. Stamp your image onto your shrink plastic. The ink stays wet so be very careful not to touch the design.



Carefully cut out leaving a small tab in place so that you can hold the stamped plastic.



Stick a plain pin through a suitable part of the plastic, again being very careful not to smudge the design (or stab yourself, Marie).



Then cut off the tab bit. (You can see in this pic how the ink is sitting on the surface, don't worry about this at this stage).



Next, use a heat gun to shrink the plastic. Hold the design by the pin and be VERY CAREFUL as the gun will be HOT! As the plastic melts it will shrivel and twist, but don't worry it will be flat when it finishes shrinking. You can shape it by carefully presing the sides in place while it is plyable (again, it's hot so be careful).




To make the pin cushion I followed this tutorial. I just cut a strip of fabric about 8cm by "enough to go around my wrist plus about half as much again". I folded it half right sides together and sewed and then turned the right way around and inserted a length of thick elastic (long enough to go around my hand when fully stretched) and tacked in place at each end. I folded one raw edge in on itself and put the other one inside it and double stitched together, twice. Then I used glue to stick my pin cushion on.

The boring bit: I designed this tutorial myself so please don't copy it unless you give me credit and link back to this blog. Thanks :)

Marmadaisy in the press

This picture is in our local paper - I even got a bigger picture than the local AM.

Door stop my way

I loved this tutorial, especially as my own doorstop attempt turned out, well, if not bad, not as good as I would have liked.



Although I do like a bit of the old patchwork, I couldn't be faffed doing it. And I've made about 25 yo-yos so I adapted the pattern to make it simpler and yo-yoier. So, I just cut 2 10" squares and interfaced them and for the strap I cut a 4 1/2" by 9" strip and folded it in like a bag handle (both sides in to the middle then in half). I also made the basic "box" shape a bit fatter. Tip: in the instructions it says use a 7" zip, but I think she means that the zippy bit should be 7" (ie use an 8" zip). I didn't, because I wanted to make mine a bit fatter. I cut an 8" zip down by 1" and then sewed a couple of fixing stitches across the teeth to secure it about 1/2" along from the end. Then I made my corners 1" not 5/8". And next time I'll be using metric! In all, it took about an hour (in fact, I finished it before my cup of tea).

I've used nice woollen mix fabric that I've had in my stash for ages and I think it works well with the coloured yo-yos. I'm really pleased with how it's turned out and I think I'll make a few to sell at my next stall. I also know a few people who will be getting one (or some variation of) for the dreaded C word (no, not that one, the other one!) This one is filled with cat litter but I know often people use dried beans. So, over to you ... any suggestions what else could be used?

Yo-yo a go-go!

Firstly, I must apologise for the cruddy pictures. It's North Wales and it's raining, so you can imagine what the natural light is like today.
Jo asked me for a tute on these because I sold about a gazillion of them at the Craft Fair. Honestly, I'm almost embarrassed to call it a tutorial because it's so easy, it's actually only a tu...



A couple of my yo-yo hair clips using cotton and vintage buttons.


These cute flower thingies are called yo-yos (or sometimes Yo-yo's, but as it's a plural and not a possessive noun I see no reason for the apostrophe). Anyway, they are really easy, really cute and you can put them on anything. This is a tute for hairclips but you could attach them to scrunchies, brooch pins, keyrings ... you get the idea. I've also been putting them on my bags.


A striped fabric "saucer" yo-yo on one of my bags. And some nice colour matching, if I may say so!

Anyhoo .... I won't make a show of myself by trying to recreate Heather's beautiful tutorial so first of all go there and get the destructions.
For A large yo-yo I use a saucer and for the small I use a coaster to draw around. Hi tech stuff, this! Are you keeping up?
If you use a felt fabric, you don't need to turn the edge because it doesn't fray (and I think these look really cute and chunky, they would make nice corsages to dress a little girl's Christmas dress, no?)


A "coaster" yo-yo from felt and vintage button on one of my bags.


So, make your yo-yos (or yo-yo's if you have been through the crappy British education system and don't know your grammar) and sew a little vintage button, or glue a card embellishment, in the middle to hide all your edges.
Now, glue to the hair barrette using either a hot glue gun or strong fabric glue. I use Gutterman's HT2 glue. Squidge a line along the clip and a small amount on the wrong side of your yo-yo(s) and leave for a few minutes, then press your yo-yo in place.
Done! How easy was that?

To attach to bags I use small stitches in matching thread and stitch all around the underside of the yo-yo (but only through the bag shell). I've also used glue successfully. Or you could attach to a brooch pin and then you have a detachable yo-yo.

I'm wondering, now that I have written it out several times, if it shouldn't be yo-yoes - like potatoes and tomatoes? Hmmm .. comments?

Stocking Stocking Fillers (groan!)

I know lots of you crafty people probably make your own Christmas stockings, but here's mine that I am making for the Howland Christmas this year.



Each one is made from polar fleece (not cheap velvety lookey likey horrible stuff) and fun fur. I have done a couple of images, Wizzle has holly, Charlie has a tree and Paddy has paws but I can do pretty much any image and some text.



If you don't have your own embroidery machine and your hand stitching isn't great, why not get one of mine. And I can guarantee you I'll take more care over it than you'd get in some sweat shop somewhere or the Studio catalogue.

Selling on-line

Lots of people at the fair asked me about on-line shops. Now, at some point I might get a web designer to do it all properly for me. But at the moment it's just little ol' me!
So, I use this company for my checkout and carts. It works with paypal, google checkout and lots of others. You can use it on your ebay, Mysoace, blog or website. It's so easy even Anna can do it! This is their blurb:

E-junkie provides shopping cart and buy now buttons to let you sell downloads and tangible goods on your website, eBay, MySpace, Google Base, CraigsList and other websites using PayPal, Google Checkout, Authorize.Net, TrialPay, 2CheckOut and ClickBank.
For merchants selling downloads, we automate and secure the digital delivery of files and codes. If you are selling tangible goods, we automate the shipping calculation and inventory management. Our shopping cart has a built in sales tax, VAT, packaging and shipping cost calculator.
You can sell ebooks, sell mp3 tracks and albums, sell software, icons, fonts, artwork, phone cards, event tickets, cds, posters, books, t-shirts and almost everything else you want to sell.
E-junkie has no transaction limit, no bandwidth limit, no setup fee and no transaction fee.


Click the icon to find out more.

Craft Fair tips

Righto, I now have my next gig booked, which will be at the Dingles in Dinas Dinlle on 9th December.

In no particular order, this is my list of tips for other craftsters:

• Smile! Say "hello" to everyone (or "helo", or "bore da") and smile in a friendly and welcoming manner. It sounds obvious, but I saw a few exhibitors sitting reading the paper and not looking at all welcoming and "come-and-buy-something"-like.
• Try to get some kind of unification on your stall. Group like things together. I make bags, and they are all different. In fact, I deliberately make them all different. The problem is that when displayed together they look a bit of a jumble (as you can see in my pic). So, now I'm going to go through my stock and keep the very striking ones for the web, Etsy or presents, and the ones that can be adapted to fit my style for the stall. Which leads me to
• You need a USP (unique selling point). One of the problems I had was that at the entrance to my tent was a lady selling glorious bags, that all had her unique flower and button designs on (and she also has her work in all the local craft shops). Fair play, they were nice, and in any other instance I probably would have bought one. So then customers walked round a bit more and got to my jumble of stuff. NOT good! So, going off what sold well for me (lots of things with fabric yo-yo designs on) I can work out that what works is having something that stands out as identifiably the work of, for example, Marmadaisy.
• Dress to suit you stall. The button/flower bag lady had buttons and flowers stitched on her top, and wore one of her own aprons. If you make jewellery, wear your own. I wore some hair clips of mine and a bag (and, at one point, a sock monkey). Be your own model. People struggle to imagine themselves using a product, so help them to see what it looks like "in situ".
• Be flexible. I adjusted my prices slightly on the Sunday and did much better. Not that I was expensive to start with, but it just helped to make the decision to buy a little easier for some people.
• Know your stuff. If you make it yourself this one is easy. You need to tell people about making it, where you get your materials, how many stitches in the embroidery, how many beads on the necklace, what the handles are made out of etc. Be really enthusiastic about what you've made. If you don't seem to love it, they won't either.
• Take plenty of business cards. People might not want to buy something that day, but might think of you later if you give them a card. They are also handy to pass on to other exhibitors and event organisers.
• Have a good price range. I sold absolutely LOADS of hair clips and carrier bag holders, and lots of smaller items that I didn't think would go. It's also nice to have something in everybody's budget, or something for kids with a bit of pocket money to buy.
• Don't try to get all your stuff on your table at once. It's far better to have fewer items displayed clearly that squish everything in. I took things off my stall half-way through Friday, and again on Saturday and people stopped and looked longer and harder when there was less clutter. But don't make it too sparse or you'll look like you don't have much to sell.

That's all for now. I have some re-stitching to do. Have a great Monday!

All the fun of the fair!

Hello to anyone who has found this blog via the Glynllifon Craft Fair. I met some great people and had a wonderful time. The other exhibitors were all really helpful - I suppose we all have to have a "first time fair".
I was a little worried what to expect but, luckily for me, I was pitched next to the lovely Laura, who makes gorgeous jewellery. These things really make you appreciate how many clever, crafty people there are out there. Anyway, thank you again to Laura for the encouragement and support over the weekend, you made the experience much easier for me.



So.... how did I do? Well, I didn't make a fortune. In fact, I was a little disappointed with sales considering the amount of people who stopped by to look (and if I had £1 for everyone who picked up and examined my basket bags I'd be a rich woman). But, I did manage to make enough to cover costs and a small profit for more materials so, for a first go, I mustn't grumble. More importantly, I learned a lot about selling at fairs. I haven't worked "on the front line" for years so it was nice to get back into the habit of chatting to people and engaging, talking about the product, and generally just being sociable.
On Friday I managed to get my picture taken for the local paper so, with a bit of luck, I'll be featured next week. Lots of people took cards as well, which is all good!
I'll be posting again a bit later with my tips and tricks that I picked up this time (and that I'll be having a go at next time). I just need to catch up on some housework and call a couple of places about other fairs (see, I haven't been completely put off).

Planet of the Sock Monkeys

This is the last one I'm making now, there will be some on my stall and if they do well I might list a couple on my Etsy as well. All hand-stitched, each one is different and I think they'll make great gifts.

***Update***

You can now buy one directly from me for £10 (including delivery) - colours vary.