Etsy

I've been doing the old umming and ahhing the last couple of months when the eBay invoice arrived and wondering whether it is worth it. I pondered over going back to a website host but then the problem is finding customers whereas eBay has a customer base and for a lot of people it is the go to place when they want a bargain.

We all love a bargain but when you have handcrafted an item over many hours and people want it for 99p then it really makes you think.

So I've taken the decision to move over to Etsy. It will be a very gradual move because the vast majority of my items are unique and will have to be individually listed. Our computer is playing up so I'm going to try and transfer the relevant photos onto another device and take it from there.

I did a craft fair at the weekend which I made some new items for. Instead of putting them in my eBay shop I've opened an Etsy shop if you fancy a looksie.

I have these little cutie pies to add later today aswell



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New Facebook Group

I've started a new Facebook page which will replace the old profile I have for the shop. I set up the profile before they started all the page thingies so I've taken the decision to start the new page which can be found at http://facebook.com/thecraftgarden
Hope to see you there. I'm going to do a giveaway over there soon

The Craft Garden June Challenge

Welcome to June - the month of the Diamond Jubilee here in the UK.

I thought long and hard about the challenge this month as I really wanted to incorporate the jubilee but I wanted to do something a little bit different. I'm guessing lots of challenges are going to be red, white and blue this week/month.  Then I thought about stamps and how every one has the queen's head on.  Now a stamp on its own isn't particularly inspirational so I've chosen this picture as your inspiration this month.  It is from a cachet cover available from Royal Mail from February 2012. Please also note that there is a second part to this challenge after the photo

There is a second part to the challenge this month and that is that you can't use red, white and blue all together.  You can only use one or none.

As always entries are limited to a maximum of 3 projects in any month and I would request that you only enter a maximum of 4 other challenges with your project entered here.

Your prize this month is some red white and blue crocheted and felt flowers (picture to follow shortly as my computer is being a nuisance at the moment). The prize will be drawn randomly from the entries received at the end of the month.

Helen

When I first read the brief for this challenge I thought this was going to be easy, however, not being able to use red, white and blue quickly made the task one that needed alot more thought and thinking about than normal. I made two items using different techniques hope you like them.

Now everyone who knows me is aware of my passion for handbags (especially my hubby who for some reason rolls his eyes everytime I buy a new one) So with this is mind and knowing that Liz also has a great range of bags herself I decided to make a handbag charm. I had some lovely red beads and decided to use this as the one colour out of the three I would use, however, when laying out the beads I chose turquoise beads and it didn't occur to me at first that turquoise was blue (derrrr) so I then had to rethink and found these smashing green and clear beads instead. I then looked for some charms to signify the royal connection and this also proved fairly difficult to source too but I eventually found these delightful crowns and added a heart too.

My second item is a card made using paint, a black tag and two different stamp sets. It was extremely difficult not to use the red, white and blue but I think I managed just about!

This is the inside of the card which I have decorated using the same paper as on the front and I tied it all together with ribbon. I always decorate the inside of my cards as I feel it finishes off the card and makes it that little bit extra special.

Kelly

Eleni 

I was inspired to use the cachet cover as a sketch, totally avoiding the red and blue!

Tiffany

I chose to use red, incorporated the browns from the stamps, and stamped a flourish to mimic the "W" on the cache cover.

Cathy

I confess to not reading the remit properly - I thought I could use 2 colours :(((

I made a regal tag using blue and very dark pink LOL!!

Melly

I was stumped with this months picture inspiration but eventually decided to go with the colour tones in it! Using it to create a wee layout with a picture of our Bunting for Lanimers last year!