Papertrey April Blog Hop Challenge

The inspiration for the challenge was from the following photo.

Well HELLO there !

Having had a VERY VERY  busy few weeks leading up to Christmas with last minute crafting for the craft fairs I am only getting back now to blogging. Thankfully all the hectic preparations and extra work for the fairs paid off and I raised 2002.30 euro for SVP Ireland (Dublin branch). A big sincere thank you to all my crafting buddies in Ireland for your support, motivation and encouragement.

I am back with this notebook cum desk note pad. I was shown this  idea of using an easel card on the top of the notebook by a crafting buddy. She had  learnt it at a card making class http://jackiesworkshops.blogspot.com/ here in Dublin. I adapted it to work on the long skinny notebooks as these are my favourite. For this sample I used my Tesco notebooks ( I just could n't open my little treasured set of  Papertrey Ink ones !)

I have prepared this project to partake in the Papertrey Ink April 2012 Blog Hop. I promised myself no matter what happened this week I was going to join in. I got inspiration for the top of the notebook from http://lilybeanpaperie.typepad.com/lilybeans_paperie/.  I hope you enjoy.

Papertrey Ink items used :   sentiment from Daydreamer Set and green felt.
Patterned papers from Flowergarden paper pad by Tilda, ribbons and lace from stash. Trinket pin made from fancy beads and long sewing pins.

Christmas Fair Best Sellers

The following was my experience of my first fair of the season. Both Christmas craft fairs were very successful. The first one I attended was held on a Saturday and Sunday from 10 to 4 each day. It was extremely well organised, in a lovely centre with lots of facilities. It was open to the public with no admission charge. There were many varied crafts with no two being the same. There were plenty of volunteers available for unpacking and packing the car, a well run cafe and we had  lovely weather. I had a very small area in a small room but I made the most of it. My fellow crafters in the room were lovely and we had great fun chatting during the few quiet intervals. I had a prominent sign advertising I was fund raising for a well known charity and I am sure this helped with sales. However I was very proactive selling and for the most part I stood out around at the front of the stall explaining what I was selling and would go around to the back to bag sales and take payment. I was attending another fair in a couple of weeks so I was under no pressure to sell. I didn't reduce prices at any stage. As luck would have it I did sell out on a number of items and I think it slowed down sales in the afternoon  on the Sunday. The low prices items encouraged people to buy and while they were at it, they were inclined to throw in another item or two.

In total I raised 851 euro.

I SOLD OUT  of
Christmas Table Teasers       25  at 6   euro
Magic Reindeer food          100  at 1   euro
Chocolate snowmen             50  at 2   euro 
Website and Blog books      11  at 5   euro
Desk calendar and notepad  12 at  6   euro
Earring holders                      18 at 6   euro
Christmas Wreaths                  3 at 15 euro
I also sold
Notebooks                            28 at 4  euro
Tooth Fairy Tins                    12 at 3  euro
Peg sets                                   7 at 3  euro
Gift cards                               16 at 2  euro
Bookmarks                              6 at 1  euro
Starlight mint tin                        7 at 2  euro

I hope this helps my blog visitors who are preparing for their own craft fairs. Though from my experience no two fairs are the same.

Christmas Craft Fair Items

Hope you all enjoy the above video I made today using the photos of the items I made for the past two craft fairs. I was really very fortunate. Nearly everything sold out and I raised an enormous amount of money for a very worthy cause.
I'll post tomorrow with a full list of details.

CHRISTMAS CRAFT FAIR DISPLAY

I decided this year I needed to add some height to my craft fair table display. I always look and see if I can adapt or alter something handy from around the house before I look in the shops. I get a great kick out of using something a little bit wacky but fun.  These two little stands are treasured by me for growing vegetables or sweet peas in the summer. I have had them for years and I get a great kick out of training little plants up them. They were a bit dishevelled and worn but loved all the same.  That was until I decided to give them a winter makeover.

I first removed the old and worn wicker, then washed and repainted, then added two fabric baskets. The photo below just shows one of the finished frames in a mock up preparation for the fair at home.

They were a great hit with the fair visitors. They loved them.  Displaying items at eye level was a great success. Every item I displayed on them sold out. What more could I ask for ? The above picture shows the three stages. Don't worry they will be out in the garden again come the Spring.

Bet your toes will tap and dance to this one !

"Dance with me tonight by Olly Murs"


This song has been going round and round in my head all day. I love it. It is so just right for this time of year.

I'm cutting, printing, sticking and filling as I get ready for yet another round of craft fairs. I attended one over two days a couple of weeks ago.  I kept prices up hoping I would have enough bits and bobs for my next fair next week. I think I must be the only person in the world selling at a fair who doesn't want her items to sell !  As my luck would have it nearly everything did sell so I was left with the dilemma of pulling out of the next fair or just get to it and get on with it and make more items. As all monies raised are for a very good cause I just had to find some nice movies to watch and good music to listen to as I beavered away. Nearly all ready now and planning on getting some nice photos during daylight hours this week.

By the way I raised 851 euro over the two days for a very worthy cause. Thank you to all my craft buddies for your support.

Hope you enjoyed the song.  Off to watch Strictly Come Dancing and maybe have a little dance in the kitchen later. LOL.

Christmas Table Fun

This is a very simple and inexpensive item to make for Christmas. This idea started when my son presented me with a four pieces of wood  he had  cut and challenged me to make a perfect T. To be honest I gave in and asked him to show me how.  I thought it would make an ideal Christmas cracker filler for the craft fairs if I could come up with a simple, cheap and easy material to replicate it in a large number.

I finally settled on using cork tiles. I started by printing off a template from this link  puzzle.com 
I used page 3 of the pdf. file.  I cut out the four pieces and used them as templates to mark out the cork tile. I then cut out the shapes using a cutting mat and sharp knife.

To form the tube of the Christmas cracker I printed out a Christmas quiz on thick white card stock 5.5 x  8 inches.  The printed quiz was used  to roll around the four pieces of puzzle together with a folded up piece of paper with  solution to puzzle  and answers to quiz. To hold it secure I used an elastic band.

I then rolled all items in a 9 x 13 inches  piece of hessian fabric securing both ends with more elastic bands. Two pieces of red gingham ribbon were used to decorate the ends. I frayed the ends of the cracker for more effect. The topper was made by using a die from Papertrey Ink  scroll down to Photo Finish StripsDie Collection
and then stamped using Holiday Photo Finishers
To complete I just had to add a little red sparkler.

If you are making for personal use here is a link for the Free printable Christmas quiz

Fabric Wreaths

My goodness where on earth does the time go. I was away on  holidays for a few weeks and now I am up to my tonsils cutting, sticking and filling as I get ready for the Christmas fairs. I love it even though it is a  little bit of a rush. No stress though  it will all get done in the end. While away I spotted a lovely fabric wreath in a cute little shop in Mykonos. While chatting to the lovely owner of the shop I asked her if I could take a photo or two of some of the items on sale. I had made a little purchase so I was n't being too cheeky. She said photo away.

This is the one of the photos. The fabric is cut in strips,  tied in a knot and then glued to the frame.

The following is a photo of supplies I used to make my one in the top photos. It is really simple and takes about an hour to make. I used a different method to attach the fabric. I cut in squares of about 2.5 inch and then just poked them into wreath using the little embossing tool. Any fabric can be used, different textures would be good. I wanted to create a softer look so I filled it out using lots of plain cream squares.

Busily making a dozen at the moment !