OH MY! They're only bloomin' ace Finger Puppets..... joy!

 Seriously... do these need text?

look at those felt Finger Puppets...

I have never seen such great puppets for boys!

But then, i gave birth to a girl, so maybe i never really looked....?

 Anyway - they are awesome Finger Puppet Patterns, for sale, in http://fuzzyfish.etsy.com/

There are 3 different patterns and 3 different stories. The pictures might be self-explanatory?

Three Little Pigs

Princess & the Pea

Cool stuff for Boys - with like, a spy, a robot, a ninja, n stuff like that.

 See that little pea at the bottom of the feather matresses....? that is a finger puppet too.

I know. I did not think life to get any cuter. And these appeared!

I am dying to just shove aside one afternoon and have a play.

All patterns and instructions included - along with materials etc...

 But don't get too bogged down with the colours they suggest - RAID your stash and go crazy!

Make an Army of Robots and a Mash-up of Monsters, ready to take over the world, mwahahahaaa.

 But i do now stock *new* Felt CHARM PACKS too.

These are pre-packed. No choice of colours like other great sellers.

Just different Charm Packs with approx 15 or 16 colours per pile.

5x5 = 12.5cm squared approx. A great little stash to play with if you need a bit of inspiration.

 Playing with and sewing Felt is a joy.

It is up there on a close par with Running in the Woods for me.

(Running might just win though, sorry x)

 Charm Packs - also in FuzzyFish

(soon to be added to http://www.lovepaperfish.com/)

They are the high WOOL% blend - lovely and thick.

Woodland / Fairytale / Circus / Thanksgiving  (a fifth set is on it's way)

All retailing at £8.00 each currently

A full set of all 5 charm packs will be retailing at £35.00 which will give you around 70 colours with over 75 sheets... approx. i don't do exacts at all. I am too scatty. So there it is.

After i make those Finger Puppets, i am going to use these for: garlands, cards and few fun brooches i have designed in my head.

Then after that, i am going to make some wool felt patchwork.... ooohhhh, no, before that, i am going to make some Easter decorations to hang on my twig tree.....

*free entry to win Pip Lincolnes Craft Journal for every customer from now till next Friday NOON*

Lists...

 LISTen, i know you are equally obsessed with List making as I am.

I have lists for EVERYTHING

Some are just dotted down to help me organise my thoughts

Some are actual longer-term lists i am working through...

 I have a notebook in my shopping bag that has lists of every measurement of every room in my house,

all the walls and the windows... just incase i see some bargain homeware and i need to know if something will 'fit'. You can suggest the term OCD if you want, but i won't listen.

Organisation is the key to any efficient lifestyle.

(HA!...)

I am currently on the lookout for a huge picture frame that i can spray paint and turn into a noticeboard

(to display my lists, obviously)

Lists:

House measurements and needs List

List of things to Sew for my home

List of things to buy next time i am in town

List of accomplishments i want for my business

List of phonecalls i must make and bills to pay

List of food from the supermarket today

List of improvements i need to make to all my webshops

List of new training exercises i want to try at the Gym

List of plants that might work in my garden

THAT Amazon List - you know you all have one...

Happy 2012 - go make a list!



Tomte / Tomten... warning: could be addictive!

 Some of you will be thinking "what the foolhardiness is Tomte all about?"

Some of you will be saying "oooohhh i love the Tomten!"

Think: Gnomes, Scandinavia, Nordic, small Elven folk

If you like the Moomins and the such - you'll love this colourway / this theme.

 I have just ordered this: The Tomten - Astrid Lindgren; Hardcover

She wrote Pippi Langstrumpf

and so begins yet another brief obsession.

I am going to try and dress in these colours over the Winter and fully embrace my inner Scandinavian.

**wish i had the long blonde hair and even longer legs**

Think of me in my mock Pine Cabin, as the snow gently falls, wearing my knitted Reindeer jumper

"yurder hooden janksisit faaa"

And my home thus decorated in Red, Grey & White

 NOT content with yet another Button Wreath in, yet another amazing colourway...

i decide to make myself a matching Button Bouquet for the Sitting Room.

 EEeeeeek - i was terribly happy with myself about this :)

*rosy glow*

Displaying my bouquet took a few minutes of titivating.

I had no vase small enough so i used a vintage Milk Bottle and pushed it full of matching Felt balls...

 And finished it with some snowy pom-pom trim and a big red bell.

It really is the simple things that colour a lady happy

see: http://afteralltheworldisabeautifulplace.blogspot.com/

and you'll see what  mean...

 The Balls, i have been selling in a Tomte set for a long time

http://bigfish.etsy.com/

and i do intend to make a matching garland with some of these - if i don't sell out already

*sigh*

i know it looks like i spent all day messing about in tomte world today

but i did do other things too....

 x x x

Felt Ball Bracelets

 Cute!

I added nothing to mine other than the fuzzy balls themselves.

You could add buttons and decoration and big balls with small...

but i was dying to just the smallest ones.

 I have worn the grape / navy / white ones so much already

adds a bit of colour and fun to the school run clothing.

I am going to do a post later on our AMAZING Craft Cafe Hallowe'en fun but wanted to just show you these briefly.

I also have some news to talk to you about -

and i am planning on some workshops next year doing the odd fun class in balls n beads and other such loveliness.

My head is a-cracked with ideas and beginnings and ends and all sorts, but i thought i'd share these photos with you before i discussed all that....

later x



Wool Felt Swatch... and Professional Craft Chat...

 I have cobbled together these books of Wool Felt Swatches...

I wanted customers to have a wad they could handle rather than Ickle Tiny sqaures that can be frustrating to view and impossible to 'feel'

 I have no idea how attatch the colour name to each 3x3 sqaure so i have STUCK (as best i could, with my top most sticky down pushing force) the name of each colour on the felt. Not the best soultion, but the best i can come up with, without stapling each piece.

I am already dreaming of all the new colours i want to add. And i have been having a little play with some pieces and it is oddly addictive... all that softness, mmmmm....

 I am busy People - super busy and i'd like to try and write a Blog Post soon about how hard we professional crafters work. I was thinking about it so much today. I am guilty of coming across a bit "ooh, it's so easy all this Button Lark..." but it isn't easy. There are so many tricky elements to the entire BEAST that is: online selling... original Designing & Making

 That is me :)  (looking wasted with a glass of Vino) in Craftseller Magazine - "Thankyou Alice!" i appreciate you!

and the big vain monster in my Ego says "i like seeing me in a magazine" but there is often so much more work that goes in than what you see in the pulp.

I could go on and on about the commissions i have taken for books and magazines that took my time and effort that were later CUT at the last editorial moment. Or the times i quoted a price for my work and was never paid.. and so on... it has happend to many of my professional peers too.

I wonder why i keep on taking extra work?? it can't be just my ego, can it?

No, of course not, it is LOVE of the job - like any other profession.

In my last job i did sooo many extra unpaid hours. Is that what they call a Vocation? a Calling?

Well... i am exhausted. Yet there is so much more to talk about.

I have a possible impending lawsuit... other people ripping off my designs and selling them as their own. Since when was that okay? Thank goodness for Copyright Laws that state quite clearly

"Thou shalt not copy an identical design from another professional and begin manufacturing it and selling it as your own"

LISTEN UP people: don't look at my little shops and assume i won't follow you round with a big stick!

I have got big loud friends and even bigger louder Lawyers.

Tcha!

Off to have a few more glasses of the Goodly Vino.

Sneaky Stripes... and Thursday Musings

 p.s. i did sneak these new Stripe Buttons into BigFish whilst you weren't looking.

They are the Sister Buttons to the Polka Dot Party Spotty Buttons. Same everything 'cept they're stripes.

Only available in 6 colours at present... let's hope we get the full 13 as that would be fun!

 I was at the School / Church Harvest Festival this morning.

How cute are little kids, singing about fluffy cauliflowers!?

And i found this eggshell on my walk and then i put it down next to this tiny piece of slate.

There was something so heart wrenching about seeing this egg next to a tiny stone into which my LittleFish had scratched "sorry" some time in the Summer.

She had nothing to be sorry for... but you know, eggs are the start of new birth and life.

Knowing the season has shifted again. Knowing she won't be singing in the Harvest Festival forever. That dull Mother Ache of babies growing up so fast...

 Harvest is also about being thankful - feeling grateful, whatever your religion.

The Pagans were big on the Harvest. Give thanks to the land for providing n all that.

I am so thankful for it all.

Happy insides.

Wool Felt by the Yardage... yippeee!

 Wool Felt on the Bolt - this feels soooo good.

Seventeen Colours to start with and i have tried to choose natural shades that are very different from the Acrylic Felt colours. These are softer more natural with flecks in. So soft and very different from the Acrylic Felt i have been using and selling for years.

 Naturally i am happy just to own and stroke these big blocks of colour and never sell it.

It is so satusfying. I don't see why i can't just replace the internal walls of my home with it?

 Soft and thick like blankets wrapped round a piece of card, ripe and ready for chopping up and sewing cushions / toys / purses... I haven't even begun to play through all my own ides yet!

 So,,,, i am stocking 17 colours to begin with but might add to the range...

Each colour has a % of wool and a % of rayon. Not 100% wool as that would cost a bit of mint to buy.

It is very wide at 90cm / 35inch on the bolt and can be purchased in half metre cuts upwards. You get lots of felt for your hard earned monies.

Currently in FuzzyFish on etsy but i'll have it in LovePaperFish as soon as i can.

Don't ask me for swatch sheets yet... i haven't got around to samples and swatch colours.

Give me time!

Fun :)

oooh, *squeal* clever me....

 Ok, so not massively 'clever' but just 'bigger'

I have been making smaller button wreaths for some time, and they have gradually been getting bigger and bigger! This Whopper is 10inches across / 25cm

Any bigger and the weight of it would just drag the shape of the circle downwards.

He is sold *proud*

but i have been making another in these traditional colours - then a big wreath in Aqua and Red Buttons - and also just started a Gingerbread Wreath with multi-colured buttons.

I get addicted to making things like this.

There is no great 'design' to them but the time and labour of love is obviously in the buttons and their colourways and how they sit next to one another.

 I shall be sick of sewing these in 2 weeks time! but for now, it is fun.

They are a real statement piece for a Christmas Home and you know, we love our Christmas Decos.

 And, just so you know, there are a few sheets of white glitter felt in the Fuzzyfish shop.

I have bought a few stacks to make Hallowe'en ghosties with "mwahahahaaaaa"

they are going to look ace when the kiddies start on them!

And these are mini flowers / snowflakes. I ordered the wrong size so there will be a few metres listed in the Etsy BigFish shop and some i will save for my Kids Craft Workshops.

Feeling the Autumn air this week - glorious!

Welcome to the DropZone...

 These Buttons are now available in their smallest size!!

(They all look the same size in these photos....)

But these are the DROP size = 1.5cm / 0.55"

Listed in Stripes at the moment but the same is available in spots.

 Brights & Academics

i think the Academics are welcome relief to the onslaughter of BRIGHTS

 I am so happy with this new size and i have been using them on some of my new Christmas Decorations for the SnowFish range. Perfect.

The stripes are my favourite

So smart and little

Listed, once again, in their sets of 80 at present but you can get any combinations in sets of 10.

And that is today's shop *News*

Over and out.

Button *news* Part.2.....

 Such slow progress!!

I am regretting this stock of buttons....

The above shows all 16 colours of the buttons

they come in 4 different sizes and in spots / stripes

 I am sure it will all get easier and less complicated when i have organised the stock and colours.

I love having all these colours and choices as i know, when i really *want* something perfect for my projects, i hate having to spend such time tracking down the perfect item

 I am just about to list a few bags of these mini-stars too.

a bag of 60 teeny tiny stars, maybe for a Christmas idea you have?

 I am also still working on some new felt ideas...

There must be more hours in the day somewhere??

BUT i also bought a huge new stash of Christmassy fabrics and i have some new craft ideas that i am so desperate to try out / see if they work and look any good.

Obsessed...?

Probably.

Care...?

Definately not.

New Buttons *** PART.1.... Lollipop Stripes

 Who KNEW there could be soooo many buttons that we crafters could fall in-love with?

In some ways, i wish a button, was just... a button. You know?

This task is becoming bigger than i ever EVER imagined.

How can i list every option of every button available???

 I have been stocking *some* of this range of buttons for a long time

but crafty people kept asking for colours i wasn't stocking...

you know how i like to respond to your needs (okay, MY own needs)

 So, this really is PART.1.

These are the LOLLIPOP size 2.3cm

 - they are the second largest of 4 sizes.

They come in 16 different colours and you can have spots and stripes

 See below?

There are actually 4 different sizes and 16 different colours.

It is taking me so much time, but...

eventually i'll get there.

LovePaperFish will be stocking the full range and BigFish, some mixed packs i think.

I wanted to get them all photographed and listed before the School Summer Break.

Delivery was a bit unreliable though and so it will come in stages.

If you have been waiting for these - THANKU for your patience.

The BIGS are my favourites by far. Awesome awe-some buttons.

But also, a whole new size will be available!!!

The 'Drops' are 1.5cm each and those babies in stripes.... well, they are to weep over!