1m2

I apologize for my absence but I've been really busy with the event, 1 square meter, that Annemiek (TwoTreesWorld) and I are organising this weekend. If you're in the area, don't hesitate to pop by. Hope it will be a blast! :)

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

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?

Change of display

Remember this one?I made a few changes to it...
It became this now:
I just applied a piece of fabric to the existing back and nailed it to the frame again. The back is a kind of foamboard so I can stick little pins onto it and with the fabric, you hardly see any holes so hopefully it can be used for a while! :)
It's part of my fair display but I think it's also a lovely decoration idea to do at home.

Happy weekend, everyone! :)

Flower box

I used to package my flower magnets in little sachets. This involves a lot of work and really all the packaging is a bit of a waste too. Besides that, selling 'em seperately has the advantage the people can choose the color of their choice on fairs. The downpart is, that they look happiest all together in their rainbowcolors so you might be tempted to buy 'em all. :)

I decided to go to the second hand shop and buy a tin box for 0,25 euro (0,35$). I sanded it. Then I put a few coats of white acrylic paint. After all was dry, I applied a transparant glaze. The magnets contrast really well with the white background.
And of course, all the magnets go in the tin. Such little effort! Don't you love recycling?

Weekend impressions

Yesterday, Kim and I went to the 34st ' Europamarkt der Kunsthandwerker' in Aachen, Germany. A huge outdoor event with no less then 379 stalls filled with handmade goodies. Bliss!
Here are some impressions:Some more images of the Europamarkt on Flickr.

Sunday Market

I've had a few people asking me what I usually put in the goodie bags that I give away on fairs. It mainly depends on what I have ready or if I can come up with a fun idea. This time, it contained 2 plastic bags to make something.
One bag had all the ingredients to make a happy girl, the other had all the ingredients to pimp a feeling postcard. I also asked people to send me a pimped card and I will give a happy package to the most fun, unique and original pimped feeling postcard. I'll leave about a month for people to pimp it and will show 'em on my blog so you can help me pick a winner. :)
I have 3 goodie bags left so if you want one, leave a comment in this post and I'll pick 3 peeps to send it to on Friday.

Later on, I'll post a tutorial on how to make a happy girl so stay tuned for that! :)

Can you believe I didn't even take a picture of my own stand at the Sunday Market?
And there were so many Etsy stands that I didn't even get around photographing them all.

Here's the few that I did right before the market started...

Paperfection, Momfetti, Mamutopia, Tizzalicious, FleurFatale and L'AccentNou

L'indecise, ViltalaKim, BabongoHome and BroochfromMaris

A glimpse of the meeting in the evening. On the left you see Swiedebie, Martice and Ballee. On the right in the back with camera, Huismus, FleurFatale, Vadjutka and P8accesoiries

Martice and Ballee.
A BIG and WARM thank you to Marta for making this experience so unforgetable.
She was the perfect boothbuddy and organised lots
of stuff to get so many Etsy-peeps together.
Marta, you're a GEM!

Matt from Etsy in motion.
He just could not stand still as he's full of energy and enthusiasm!
Thanks so much for coming to visit and making us even more Etsy-crazy! :)

And a big thank you to everyone who visited my stand and supported my work.
I loved meeting you all & had a fab time in Amsterdam! Till next time! :)

Work in progress

Busy making happy girls for the Sunday Market...

They are excited, can you tell? :)

Herb tags

In the beginning of June, I'll be attending a fair in Eindhoven called 'Crafty Gardens'. It is in a garden center and every year they have a theme. This year it will be 'herbs'. The people who organise it, asked if we could create something according to this theme.
So I thought about making herb tags and already took 'em to the last fair I went to. I realised that I didn't show 'em yet so here they are. They won't be for sale in my Etsy shop as they are in Dutch. I fired them really high so that they can stand all the weather influences.

Evanement

First of all, this is the only picture that came out right, the few that were taken at the fair were too dark and blurry.
Just because I'm such a good photographer... *sigh*
So nothing much to show you of the fair itself I'm afraid. It was a small fair only with about 20 stands and lots of them gave information about their organisation so there were only a few stands that sold stuff.
It was inside and there were lots of activities happening in the whole building so people came to the fair on and off. This combination is great if people come for both events: the workshops and the fair. I had the feeling that lots of people came for the workshops and strolled around at the fair to pass the time for the next workshop. So it was definately not a craft fair that focussed only on handmade goods but it was great to show what I am made off and with 99 feelings to show, that was quite a lot. I loved seeing the expression of people's faces when I start to name the feelings while I explain what the project is about.
I was so happy to meet some customers, fellow Etsians and blogreaders and only that made it already worthwile for me being there.Annemiek from TwoTreesBelgium sells lovely ceramics and jewellery and it was lovely chatting to another ceramist and share some knowledge.Also Julia from TheSpottedSparrow showed up at the fair. She's such a sunshine and sells eco friendly, vintage inspired paper goods.
Make sure to check out their shops as they both do great work!

One of my blogreaders, Nynke of TheLifeOfAPurpleRabbit, surprised me with a visit and she made me this beautiful scarf. She made it in my favorite color: green. That gave me goosebumps and I think that unexpected gifts like these are the best! I'll wear it with pride, Nynke! Thank you so much!And Cecilie, originally from Denmark but now living in Bonn was my first customer on the fair. She's a fan of my work obviously and I suspect that she knows all the mini-art-feelings by name too. How cute is that? After the contact I've had with her (and her husband who purchased some of my work as gifts) via Etsy, it was supernice to meet both of them in real life. Thank you too for stopping by.

I did take my ripple blanket along and I did hope to chat a bit more with Mariana from Florcita and with Kim from Viltalakim, but it was too busy for that, which is a good thing I suppose... :)

Jewellery display and price tags

While I haven 't had a chance to crochet for a while, I am really missing it and I can't wait to get back to it next week. But I've done some other cool things besides preparing for the fair.
I love a new project to tackle and making a jewellery display for our collaboration pieces was kind of a challenge. I wanted it to look clean and contemporary but also with a little twist.
I painted the frame, took the picture out and replaced it wit foam board.
Do you think I succeeded?I love the bended semi-transparant paper - it's so easy to hang earrings from too.
I also made new price tags from the left over transparant paper and foambord (used for making model houses). I'm so happy with the new look: clean, clear and modern. And sooo easy to make too.
Print your text on semi-transparant paper (I used 110g). Cut it out with a knife.
Measure how long the price tag is and cut the foamboard a bit longer.
To make the little cut line in the foamboard, I keep the part where I cut it out to put my ruler on. Makes cutting much easier.
Slide your knife, while holding it a bit to the side, through the foambord.
Then squeeze the paper into the foamboard.
So easy to make and good to look at. :)