Workshop spooky fingerpuppets

This afternoon, I'll be showing how to make these spooky fingerpuppets in Standaard Boekhandel in Hasselt (Belgium). Woohooo!
And if you want, you can make one for yourself too of course.

This sweet lady will be there too and she'll be showing how to make stamps. You can also stamp your heart out if you like and make your own giftlabel or postcard.

We'll be there from 14pm till 17pm.
If you don't have any plans for today it would be lovely to see you there! :)

Happy Halloween everyone!

Work in progress

I think everyone should own a 'Think aloud cloud' - brooch. To make a statement or just because they are cute as hell. There are only 5 in the last picture but there is a number six too. First one who can guess which word is stamped on the sixth cloud will be send a cloud of his/her choice.
Don't forget to leave your e-mailaddress please. Thank you.

They will make their first appearance at Stiel & Stijl.

**** the missing brooch was not guessed but I randomly picked winner to send a cloud brooch to! Congrats, Saskia! Congrats ****

Merry go round

Every last friday of the month, I jump on the 'Merry go round'. What is the Merry go round exactly? Each month, a group of craftswomen from around the world join together and give their reponses to the same question/challenge.It's that time of the month again and this month's question is 'Do you do fairs/shows? If so, share some hints and your experience. If not - why not.'

Yes, I do fairs but not on a frequent basis though. When I first started out with fairs, I really loved it and couldn't get enough of it but after a few, I kind of changed my mind. It takes quite a lot of preparation and the clearing away afterwards is just dreadful. Just wrapping up all my feelings takes a long time, let alone unwrapping and clearing 'em away which usually takes longer. So I'm very picky on the fairs that I do and sometimes I even visit a fair beforehand to get a general impression and see if it would attract the right audience for my work.
It's a great promotional tool though and the best part about fairs is meeting people from my creative community. Be it customers, blogreaders or other makers/artists, I just love to interact with them. And it's also a great opportunity to get feedback on your work.

I did prepare quite well for my first fair and made a little 'how to' for those interested.

I have a fair in 2 weeks time and my studio is a big mess right now. Besides that, I'm working a lot too & it's not good for my stress levels. Obviously I have not been preparing enough during summer which results in frantically running around like a headless chicken right now.
The kiln will be doing overtime & that also means that I'll be doing overtime. I plan to make up for that afterwards though. :)

Want to know if the other Merriers have tips for you on fairs/craft shows? Hop over to their blogs. Please bear in mind that the members will be posting at different times of the day, depending on which world time-zone they are in :)

Laura at Blue Terracotta
Monika at Red2White
Ruth at Birdland Creations
Kim at Vilt a la Kim
Sara at Crafts of Texture
Samantha at Vintage is for lovers
Mariana at Florcita
Agathe at Le Bar du Vent
Jen at Painted Fish Studio
Bethany at Dirksen Dabbles

Handmade Europe

There are a few pics of my studio on the Handmade Europe blog if you like to take a peek...

Flickr Favorites

1. Day76-may14, 2. day 362 : 365 • yes you are,
3. Packed With Love, 4. Handy Helper

It's exactly one month before the holiday deadline for packages in my shop. I can't garantuee delivery before X-mas for purchases made after that date. The holiday season is super crazy world wide and especially after last year's shipping nightmare I'm totally convinced that I should make sure my customers know this. I would hate for them being dissapointed in a late arrival.
And besides that, all orders that come in before November 25th get this extra special Happy girl included.

Next week is the first Tuesday of the month so we play by theme. I'd love to see a food inspired mosaic. Nomnom! :) If you have a nice theme for next month, don't hesitate to let me know.

Plural

Sometimes when I send a package with things to Anna, I am over the weight to send it at a certain rate for example over 350 grams but I can ship up to 1 kilo for the same amount. So it seems silly not to fill up the package with things to get closer to 1 kilo otherwise it seems such a waste. And since I can't always send chocolates, I sometimes send some bowls for Anna to put our stuff in. And look what she did with them in her supply shop...I also made a bear one day and thought she would like it as company in her studio. He got a great job as a prop in Anna's pictures. :)
These pictures certainly brought a smile to my face! :)

Work in progess

I have a weak spot for cookie cutters.
Really W.E.A.K. and sometimes the temptation is just too big and I give in.
I ordered some new ones last weekend and they came in the post today.
I love to see my collection grow and had to try some right away of course...
Do you have a weakness for something?

Happy weekend, everyone! :)

Time wasting

I think I have blogged about Provox time wasting experiment before but when I saw the work live in Etsy's office in Berlin, I just couldn't resist taking a few snapshots.
Brilliant work which brings a smile to my face every time I see it. Check out Alyson's shop and waste 13 minutes going through the time wasting experiment. :)

Flickr Favorites

1. low, yellow, Green, yellow, yellow, yellow, yel..., 2. Escalera,

3. green tile, 4. the colour is yellow

Just because the days are getting darker and the weather is turning colder, it doesn't mean we can't splash some freshness upon us, right?
I love the combination of the lime with the yellow - it bursts of energy.
What is your favorite colorcombination?

Happy Friday

via presentandcorrect

Stiel en Stijl

image by Elza D.

It's only a month away and it's going to be magnificent.
Still have lots of work to do.
Lots.
But I'll take it as it comes as I know I can't execute all the things that are in my head so I'll be there with what's done. And I'll bring Anna from AnnaRubyKing/LilaRubyKing along to share a table with, so that's a double reason to mark your calenders right now.
We'd love you to come say 'hello' to us, so see you there? :)

PS: Can you spot my puppy in the tree?

Flickr Favorites

1. 3huizen, 2. Bake Sale For A2A: Cookie Assortment, 3. HomeMade-free-printable_finishedjarsgroup, 4. Trader Joe's Bags Continued

With the holiday season in sight, I thought I'd browse Flickr for some packaging inspiration. There is so much fun stuff there that it's hard to include only 4 images. I can easily get lost for an hour or more browsing the packaging groups. :)

Meesterlijk

I wanted to share the few pictures I took at the living fair last week. After the workshop I didn't take much time to look around & I really should have as the 'Meesterlijk'-hall seemed a great place to get creative impulses and inspiration. Bummer! Will have to go back next year I suppose. But the few stands I did visit are really worth mentioning so check out their sites if you are attracted by what you see. :) All the links are below the images.

Feetbag

This company is comitted to the preservation of the leather trade in the Netherlands and stimulates the development of this field. Quirky and fun leather objects!

Anne Vandenheuvel

Beautiful versatile textile art: smashing colorcombo's, felt mosaics, wall decoration and care wear.

Bouwjaar 63
Fun felt items in fun happy colors.

Instincts

This stand really attracted by the minimalistic touch and interior. I loved how all was set up & showed. And apparently she has an Etsy-shop too!

Penduka
Image by Penduka

Penduka provides work to women in Namibia. This way the women and their families have an income and the downwards spiral of poverty can be broken. Their embroidery tells a story using typical imagery of the ethnic groups these women originate from. The women embroider their own life stories, centuries-old, orally transmitted stories, or any story that you would like to be told.

Femke van Gemert

I was literally drawn to this stand. I simply couldn't resist taking a closer look at the textures of this woven wall art. Femke surely knows how to impress with all the different kind of fabrics woven into a new piece. Beautiful!

From Africa with love

With passion from Africa and design, this new gallery in Amsterdam sells work of Africa's most talented designers. They have work of Skinny laMinx too! I love the wobbly ceramics dinnerware!

Don't you love the tiny branches used to hang the jewellery?
It looks so clean and brilliant!Corina Rietveld
How clever are these embroidered silver rings? Love 'em!

There were approximately 100 stands in this hall and I only saw a fraction of them. If you are interested in seeing more, there are links to all the designers on the webpage of Meesterlijk.
And today, 101 woonideeën also published a post on Meesterlijk. :)

Pendants North Story

The pendants of North Story arrived in our shops (ArtMind/AnnaRubyKing) .
Go stalk 'em if you like. :)

Hello Etsy - part 6

This is the last post in the series about the 'Hello Etsy' conference in Berlin. And I must say 'last but not least'! I think this might have been my very favorite session of the entire weekend.

Stealthisprocess

Project management is something I'm not very good at and I get disctracted just too much by ideas, impulsive actions and in general being very chaotic when it comes to making deccissions on what to do first. So there are days that I feel I have nothing accomplished at the end of the day and then my head starts spinning and coming up with all sorts of 'tasks' that just don't find a place. Also defined as 'unfocussed'. This session gave me an insight on how I could change that and up until now, it has helped me to get more organised.

Project Managment for indie businesses / Eleanor Mayrhofer

from Hello Etsy on Vimeo.

The above video is quite long but it's definately worth watching & get inspired by.
One specific sentence from this session pops up in my little notebook: 'there is only right now, live for today' Which seems a bit contradictionary with all the setting goals and planning in there but in the end, that's what it's all about: planning to find and give your life more balance.

Thanks Eleanor for sharing your process and letting us steal it! :)

Early bird angel

I'm preparing a bit for the holiday season and I have not forgotten the hectic times last year. It became a bit of a nightmare in the end as postal wise, things weren't quite going as planned. Apparently, normal delivery times did not apply and I was ready to pull out my hair every time a customer inquired why their order hadn't arrived yet.
As soon as a package leaves my hands, it's out of my control and after a few e-mails, I ran out of things to say and ended up feeling sad because the postal services didn't co-operate the way they usually do.
So this year I thought of a way that might encourage people to place their order early and that hopefully can avoid me being bold at the end of the holiday season. :)
Here's the plan...
If you place your order before the 25th of November, which is the last day that I can garantuee arrival before X-mas, you'll be getting a lovely extra surprise...

So I've been cutting a bit of felt...... and some paper.And I made some bodies too.And after assembling them, you get...
Happy angels! :) They are slightly bigger then the happy girls & quite ready to join you for some holiday fun!

Every on line order will get a happy angel added to their package. The only thing you have to do to get this extra surprise is to order before the 25th of November.
That's not really hard is it? You'll have an excuse to go shopping early! :)