A problem shared ...

I recently posted on the blog about a craft fair that left me feeling very disillusioned. I had great feedback and was later asked to write a similar piece about my experience for Folksy’s online magazine, Frankly. The piece went live last Friday and I just wanted to take the time to thank all of you who have taken the time to read it and leave your comments. I have been completely overwhelmed with the response and support. When you take the time to write something that you’re passionate about there is nothing worse than people having read it but not shared their views on the piece with you, no-one likes talking to a brick wall! So it’s been absolutely fantastic to converse with all of you about your past craft fair experiences and I really have learnt lots from you.  If you’re not sure what I’m talking about then you can read the piece here:

http://frankly.folksy.com/2012/04/13/the-british-craft-market-be-proud
 
I think it’s a subject that people sometimes feel shy of talking about. Maybe it’s that fear of failure. I know that it’s very hard when you’ve spent so much time getting ready for a fair to then not make much money on the day, sometimes not even cover your table fee. It’s hard when everyone asks you how you got on, you don’t want to admit that you spent so much time to effectively get nothing back from it. It refers to the old saying, ‘a problem shared is a problem halved’; as soon as I started to speak about my bad experiences then people started sharing theirs back. Not only does it help your self-esteem to know that you’re not the only one who has had these experiences but it can help you to come to a positive conclusion about where to go next … It’s a moto that I often refer to in life and one that I think everyone should live by!

So anyway, a big THANK YOU once again to Frankly for posting the piece and a big THANK YOU to you guys for the support!



'Scrabble Thank You Card' by Sarah Martin Creative on Folksy

Maybe I will write more often J

Engagement Party Decorations - Tutorial!

My best friend recently got engaged and you wouldn't believe how happy this made me! I can't think of anything better to look forward to! Her and her fiance make the perfect couple and I am so pleased for the both of them that they found each other!

This Saturday was their engagement party and the beautiful bride-to-be asked me and a fellow bridesmaid to help her with decorations, obviously we were more than happy to lend a hand. We made bunting and jam jar tea light holders and paper flowers. I made some paper mache hearts that were a suprise and I wanted to share with you how I made them ...


I cheated and bought Play-doh but you could so easily make some. I moulded the Play-doh into heart shapes like this ...

I made mine quite big, about 10cm but you could make whatever size you liked.

I then made a water and PVA mixture and tore layers of newspaper ready to coat in the mixture.

I moulded the wet strips of newspaper around the heart shaped Play-doh. You have to get your hands dirty with this bit! To get the strips to really stick to the heart shape you need to smooth them down with your fingers.
I did sides at a time. Once I had done one layer on all of the hearts I then painted a layer of just PVA glue on them and then PVA glued another layer of newspaper to them. They then looked like this ...

I waited a day for the glue to completely dry and then used a craft knife to cut down the heart in half. I then scooped out the Play-doh from inside the hearts and glued the halves back together with another layer of newspaper and PVA glue ...

Once the glue had dried I painted the hearts in acrylic paint, some pink, some red and I left some just as newspaper. I then drew the happy couples initials on the hearts in black marker pen.

And here we have the finished hearts ...

 

 

Latest Charity Shop Finds!

It's no secret that I'm a big fan of second hand shopping. Some of my favourite items were bought in charity shops or from vintage fairs. Here are my latest finds ...

Great shabby chic style Tea and Sugar jars. You would struggle to find any nicer than these on the highstreet!

Coral and pleats. Very Spring 2012. This top was originally from H&M and still had the label on!! It was on a size 12 hanger so it was lucky I spotted it, it was actually an XS! Perfect! £2.00.

These sandals are the perfect 'go with everything' sandal I've always been after. REAL LEATHER. Handmade in Greece, hardly worn, fit me like a glove and for the absolute bargain price of £1.25!!

And finally I bought this very interesting tiled table to upcycle. Can't wait to get my hands on it! Keep your eyes peeled for the finished result :)!



What are your latest second hand finds??

Little video of my Upcycled Vintage Circus Horse

I thought I would make this to go with my Upcycled Vintage Circus Horse. I had so much fun upcycling the horse that I didn't want the fun to stop! I made this with a combination of iPhone apps and Windows Movie Maker. I hope you like it!

FINISHED. 'Candy Circus Horse'

So I’ve been working on upcycling my mum’s old rocking horse this week and I’ve finally finished the last coat of varnish!
I really wanted it to be something of a candy filled circus theme. Pastel colours, stripes, spots, to make it look like it wouldn’t be out of place in a vintage circus. 

I really enjoyed working on it and it’s definitely sparked off a want to do more upcycling. I’ve got to say that this lovely unexpected sun has definitely helped spur me on to get going with it. I loved shabbying the paint work that I spent two days on. Something really quite satisfying about sanding off all of that hard work! As soon as I upholstered the seat I could really see it all coming together. I’m really happy with the outcome. I hope you love it too.

Sometimes it’s hard to stick to your original plans on a project like this but I’m glad that I haven’t gone off track and can honestly say that I am proud of this Tatty Betty piece.
I’m going to start off by putting it up for sale on Folksy. If it doesn’t sell then I’ll be taking it to my next Fair.

Rocking Horse Renovation

My mum has kindly donated her childhood rocking horse for me to work on. It's been rotting away in the shed for sometime. I was reminded of it when I went to look for some scraps of wood, as soon as I saw it, I had big plans for it!
I won't let you in on all of my ideas as I don't want to spoil the suprise when it's finally finished and up for sale. I just hope and pray that it turns out something remotely like what it looks in my head!
This is my moodboard ...

And this is what I've got to work with ....

I can't wait to show you the finished piece!

Tatty xx

Trip down memory lane ...

Yesterday I spent some time tidying out my craft space and organising bits into boxes. Having been to two Craft Fairs in the last couple of weeks I had been using my car as extra storage space so I eventually took everything out of my car and starting putting it back in the cupboards. While I was there I found a massive pile of my old Art and Textiles sketchbooks from school and college. Some things I looked at/read made me laugh, some brought back great memories, some made me cringe and some made me remember techniques that I had forgotten about. I’m so glad they I kept them all.
Here are some pictures of things I found.

Some bits from my Photography module at college, I forgot how simple it was to make great images using a Photogram method. I really wish that I had taken advantage of facilities such as the developing room and stuff at the time; I was just too busy being a teenage girl!

I found my copy of this book called ‘Romantik’. It’s full of great graphics and illustration style imagery. All using collage methods and put together on a computer, I wish I was clever enough to produce such wonderful images. I love that style of art but my Photoshop skills are very limited!

Here is a REALLY old bit of work from my GCSE art, I think this one was done when I was in year 10 so I would have been 14! My tutor saw my love of colour and fashion and introduced me to Japanese street style magazine Fruits. I then did a project around it and these were some of my pages from it. What interested me was my use of torn book pages and newspaper, something that I thought began in my college days with inspiration from book page artist Su Blackwell. My love for using scraps of text obviously began a lot earlier!

And here are a few pages from some of my fashion modules at college. It seems strange now to think of me producing clothing designs. It wasn’t something that came particularly easy to me.  I loved drawing designs but found the ideas a bit of a struggle! Very hard to come up with completely new ideas in fashion!