Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day cards.

Love is in the air...well almost! So I thought I'd share my Valentine's card designs with you. I have gone with the phrase 'I am nuts about you' this year. They are all available in my Etsy shop Pocket Wren for £2.50 each +p&p. There's not long left to make sure you're in the good books with the one you love!

New papercut inspired greeting cards designs.

I haven't posted anything on here for a while so I thought I would rectify that and share some new ideas I am working on with you.

These are two designs from a range of greetings cards that I am currently in the process of developing. I am hoping to eventually create a whole range of these papercut inspired designs to suit any occasion. So far I have cards for birthdays, weddings/engagement and moving house. I plan to add cards for a new baby, new job/sorry you're leaving and good luck which should keep me busy. Let me know if you would like to see any other designs!

Preston Craft Fair.

This is where you'll find me this Sunday! Do stop by if you are in the area.

New Products at Pocket Wren!

I haven't posted in a while as I've been so busy recently. So I thought I'd take a little break and share some new products that I've been working on with you. 

Above is just a small selection of the new additions to my Pocket Wren range. I have created some bird themed pocket mirrors and badges, to see the full range visit my online shop. 

For anyone thinking about getting organised for Christmas they would make the perfect small gift or stocking filler!

Life is better with friends.

I've been doing a lot of paper cutting recently in preparation for my next craft fair. It's a new technique to me but I am really enjoying getting to grips with it! This is my friendship themed design containing the phrase 'life is better with friends'. I have also created a reusable canvas shopping bag inspired by the hand cut papercut which is now on sale at Pocket Wren. You can even choose what colour you would like!

I've definitely been bitten by the paper cutting bug so keep your eyes peeled for more designs arriving at Pocket Wren soon!

Pocket Wren Feature on Pink Flamingo Handcrafting.

This week I was very flattered to be approached by Laura Barker who asked if she could feature my work on her blog Pink Flamingo Handcrafting. I of course jumped at the chance and here is the link to the lovely feature she wrote about me... 

Pocket Wren feature.

Laura writes a weekly blog post entitled 'My Favourite UK Crafter of the Week' and this week she chose my work. Although a relatively new feature she has already unearthed some very talented people so I feel privileged to be among such company. Nikki McWilliams who produces biscuit inspired lovelies is one of the previous featured artists/creators whose work I find particularly appealing.

  

 This is just a small selection of her charming pieces.

I look forward to seeing what treasures Laura discovers next week!

New owl bag design.

Another new addition to my range of bags at Pocket Wren.

This is my second design to feature the phrase 'owl you need is love'. I must be an old romantic at heart, or is it just that I have a love for all things birdy? 

The design was created by me digitally and heat transferred onto the tote. It is available in three soft and subtle colour options, grey (as shown above), green and pink.

New 'Take a Hike' Bag Designs.

I thought I would share my newest bag design. It's an illustration I've been working on for a while inspired by my love of hiking and the great outdoors. 

The bags are now on sale at Pocket Wren and are available in four different colour options. Why not stop by and have a look!

Garden bird bags order.

Here's the latest order, I've been working on this afternoon for Pocket Wren.

Four of my garden bird series of bags, a Great Tit, a Robin, a Blue Tit and a Bullfinch one. They are all packaged up and ready to go all the way to Japan via the USA first. 

It is so exciting knowing that my little creations are heading out there all over the world! I can't wait to see where I'll be sending packages to next!

Personalised wedding order.

Five lovely personalised 'Owl you need is love' bags I made last night for a customer in Canada. She wants them to give as gifts to her bridesmaids, which I think is a really nice idea. Each one has been personalised with each of the bridesmaids names. 

I packaged them up and posted them this morning I just hope they make it all the way there in time for the rapidly approaching big day!

Hand painted mugs.

I don't seem to have much time for posting at the moment so I thought I'd share some of the newer products that I have created recently for Pocket Wren.

These hand illustrated mugs were a new project for me and were created using porcelain pens (my first time using them). I think they have come out quite well and I enjoyed making them so there will definitely be more to follow. They are even dishwasher safe, I've tested them in my own dishwasher just to be sure and they passed with flying colours!

They will be taking pride of place on my stall at my next craft fair.

Home sweet home decorative stone.

I thought that I would share with you my second decorated 'Home sweet home' stone. I created it with the intention of selling it on my Pocket Wren stall at a craft fair. 

If it didn't sell I was planning on giving it to my sister. Unfortunately for her though it is now sitting in a country cottage somewhere, as it was my first sale of the day at my very first craft fair! 

She'll have to wait a little longer for hers now, I need a trip out to the beach to collect some more stones. Seems like a good excuse for a day trip to me!

Second craft fair.

I've just completed my second Pocket Wren craft fair. Sales were up on the last one but I won't be ready to retire just yet! 

I feel like I'm currently on quite a steep learning curve and I'm picking up tips and skills and changing/adapting my approach all the time. I've also been trying out a few new products such as hand painted mugs and coasters to see how things go.

My goal for my next fair is to try and overcome my shyness a bit and get out there and talk to more of the other stall holders. The advice I have had from the few stall holders/crafters I've actually managed to talk to has been very helpful, they are a friendly bunch.

Here's a photo of my stall from this weekend's fair at the Last Drop Village, Bolton.

Now I've just got to decide what my next move will be...decisions, decisions!

Running my first craft stall.

So that's it my first craft fair as Pocket Wren is done! After a couple of manic weeks of preparation I think I just about pulled it off on a sunny Saturday afternoon in Bolton. 

Overall I think it went quite well for my first one. It was a relatively small fair so it felt like a good place to dip my toe in the water. It was really good to get some lovely feedback from strangers rather than the usual family and friends. I even managed to make a few sales, so that to me counts as a success!

I'm already signed up for my next one!

So what have I learned from my first fair? I thought I'd share a couple of things with you that worked well for me in preparing for the big day. 

• Research. I spent lots of time on the internet looking at other peoples tips and photos of stalls. There are some really helpful articles and blogs out there!
• Practise setting up your stall. I set mine up on the dining room table the night before. It took a couple of goes to get it how I wanted it. I then took a photo for reference to use the next day. It definitely saved me a lot of time on the day, here's a picture of how it turned out.

• Try to create different levels on your stall. I found this really helpful for propping up my art so it wasn't all displayed laid flat.

• If you think you might need it pack it, if you think you don't need it pack it anyway! Scissors, tape, pins, pegs, bags, string...I thought I'd packed more than enough bits and bobs but there were still things I left out that I could have used on the day.
• I saved a bit of money on fabric by using an old sheet to cover my table and I just used a scrap of material I had around the house to add a colour accent.
• Keep your pricing simple. I kept my prices to whole pounds so I didn't have to worry about keeping too much change in my float.

These are just a few things I found helpful. I still have a lot more to learn but I feel like getting the first one under my belt is definitely a big step in the right direction. I better start preparing for the next one now! 

New Peacock Themed Illustrations.

I have just added some new Peacock themed illustrations to my range at Pocket Wren.

They are both based on a hand drawn illustration I created a while ago. I have now finally had some spare time to do something with it. 

The original line drawing was created using Micron fineliner pens. I then scanned it in and used a combination of Photoshop and Illustrator to create the images you see here.

To see more of these images and others visit Pocket Wren.

Owl you need is love illustration.

I've been working away on some more illustrations for Pocket Wren. This whimsical owl pair are my latest offerings. They are available in several colours have a look here. The heart at the bottom can also be personalised with the initials of your choice.

I wanted to try and create a woodblock printed feel to this illustration which I hope I have achieved, at least to some extent. 

I am now working on producing an accompanying bag using this image which will hopefully be available at Pocket Wren soon.

Spring rabbit illustration for Easter.

I am still working along an Easter/spring time theme at the moment. This jumping rabbit illustration is my latest creation and is available to purchase at Pocket Wren.

New bags available:British Garden Birds Collection.

My new range of bags is now available in my Etsy shop!

Follow the links below to pick up your very own cotton tote from my British Garden Birds themed collection at Pocket Wren.

Robin bag

Great Tit Bag

Bullfinch Bag

Blue Tit Bag

New bird themed bag designs.

I've been working on some new bird themed bag designs for my cotton tote range at Pocket Wren. The designs are ready, now all I need to do is turn them into bags and get them into my shop.

They should be available to buy soon. Keep an eye out for them making an appearance at Pocket Wren!