New Year Post!!

It’s been a while since my last post – Happy New Year everyone who sees this!I had promised myself that this year I would do more blogging and less looking at various things on the web and getting distracted (What can I say? I’m a girl – I get distracted by shiny things!!)Anyways – I thought I would share a few new quilled cards with you! Here is a Quilled Set that i made for a good friend! She wanted to have her recipient's pets made in quilling and with a festive hat! Can you tell what breed of dog each is supposed to be?    (They are Dalmation, Beagle and Poodle!) Next are some more generic cards that I am keeping stocked in my stash for markets! Have an awesome day!!

Time Flies

To all of my wonderful followers (all fabulous 4 of you!) I am so unbelievably sorry for the lack of posts over the last – what has it been? 3 months? Let me Check, Nope – ‘last published – May 2, 2011’ so it has been more like 6 months! Yikes. Where has the time gone?

I have been so busy crafting that anything else takes a bit of a second seat. I am being absolutely hammered by the ‘Spring fair’ Season which seems to be September/October so much that I tend to have a fair every weekend (and not enough stock to be worth it!) Just an FYI for my international readers – No I did not mistype that ‘Spring’ – All of the blogs I have been following have mentioned how happy they are that the weather is cooling down and getting ready for beautiful White Christmases – where It is just the opposite for me – Days are getting longer and the weather is already reaching scorching points – even though Summer is nowhere near here yet! When people talk about ‘down under’ they usually forget to mention the back to front part as well! But as much as I complain, I love my Australian Summer and am going to miss it next year when I go to Canada (if I ever get there, that is)

Any ways, I digress – what was I yapping on talking about?

Oh Yes, Markets...

Just this week I had 2 separate market events to go to. One in a beautiful nature reserve that is local to my area – another in a showcase of local handmade items in the middle of a shopping centre! I have been so busy making items for both markets (all all the others I have had over the last 6 months +) that I have made a resolution to spend the first six months of next year crafting and not worrying about attending markets and such, just so I don’t get slammed in the lead up to Christmas as I have been this year.

Turns out I didn’t need to go so crazy as I didn’t end up selling much - disappointed – but it’s all an experience!

Anyways -  here are some pics from both markets – sorry about the quality – My point and shoot crapped out on me and I have to make do with my iPhone. It’s not a bad camera – just not the best.

Some photos of my table and products on sale:

Some of my quilled magnets

Some post-it note holders (photo is up-side-down because it was taken from behind the table)

Pic of my Table from the side with some Jewellery pieces

And a pic of the lovely girls, Jenny and Alissa at Moo Maa candles who i shared a stall with. (Jenny: Left, Alissa: Right) Alissa and I started Kindergarten together when we were four years old and are still good friends now  - that is almost 20 years of friendship, right there!

And a few of my dad’s plants – He originally started coming to markets with me so he could be my assistant (read: pachyderm) and the dutiful daughter in me allows him to share a table of his wares.

It also helps that I have someone who shares my market obsession and doesn’t roll their eyes every time I talk about the next big thing coming up or the next thing I am working on to sell!  

It helps that people seem drawn to the greenery and colour of the plants and come over to our stall to buy stuff - just sayin!

anywho... until next time (which could be goodness knows when!)

- L

Mini Notes

Pegs are just about the most versatile craft base. you can stick-em together and make little amimals (reindeer at Chrissy time are my favorite) flip them upside down and make note or photo holders. string them along some craft string or wire and they will hold your Chrissy cards! the best part about them is that they are cheap! Cheap as chips! Cheaper THAN chips actually. I got this whopping pack of 100 wooden pegs from the local cheap variety store (GoLo - how i love thee!) with the intention of making something from them. Here is my first attempt. Magnetic note holders in colourful floral designs! perfect for the fridge or magnetic note board! I just stuck a piece of designer paper along one side of the peg, a flat sticky magnet on the other and quilled a little design for the front! Selling them at craft market for 2 bucks a set - Total bargain craft!

Love it!!

First Post - Introducing...

 First of all - I am a 22 year old Australian girl . I am a university student and work full time in a government office. I am single with no children and living at home with my Mum, Dad and younger sister.  I love to write and even more I love to craft. These are the things I will be sharing with you through my blog.

I plan to share with you  new works, inspiration and previous crafty things I have completed. I know that Christmas is over and here in Oz summer is in full swing, but I would like to share some things I made for the holiday season.

Some chrissy jewels! These are always a big hit at fairs and markets closing in on Christmas time and I LOVE making them!

Some beaded baubles

And some cute quilled gift tags! Quilling is something that I have been doing only recently, even though I started as a child. I was looking at some other crafty ideas and found a beautiful quilled item (I think it was a gift box) and it inspired me to dig out my old tool and start cutting my paper strips!

For those who don’t know, Quilling is the art of taking paper strips in al different colours and using a tool to ‘twirl’ them into coils. Once the coils are twirled, loosened and glued, they can be shaped with your fingers to form just about any shape desired. It is easily the cheapest craft around and can be done for two minutes or hours on end, depending on what you want to make. And it isn’t just limited to cards and scrap books, oh no. 3D quilling is the art of making free standing ‘miniatures’ that are free standing and can be used as many different things. Centre pieces, Shelf sitters, trinket boxes, cake toppers, finger puppets... the list goes on an on!

Ok. Thats enough on that for today. You all now have had a quilling rant that could have been summed up in the single sentence:

I LOVE QUILLING!

;-)

Keep on Smilin’

xx Laura