seagull on a beach sign

One of the things I’ve been doing a lot of recently is drawing with my black pen – specifically to create these digital stamps (like the seagull, above, who is sitting on a sign which says life is better at the beach)

Since starting my digital stamps website, I’ve come across people who are passionate about digi stamps and use them a lot as well as people who have never heard of them.  If you’ve never heard of them, the term digital stamp might be a bit confusing, because they’re not really stamps – but they are used in the same way as a rubber stamp might be.  I’ve explained a bit more on this post: What is a digital stamp?

With this lovely sun we’ve been having in the UK, life is definitely better at the beach!

sandcastle

I’ve been missing from this blog for far too long – but there’s a reason…

thank you sewing machine image

I’ve been busy building a new website at Handmade Harbour which is where I’m going to be selling:

* digital stamps for card makers

* sewing patterns

* handmade one-offs (usually things I have designed for magazines)

Do pop over and have a look.  I’ll be adding new things every week!  For more news about it, the Handmade Harbour blog will be kept updated.

Meanwhile, you’d be forgiven for thinking I’ve neglected 1st Unique Gifts.  It might look that way from blogland, but my fingers are still covered in paint on a daily basis.

paintbrushes

Actually, I’ve just looked down.  It’s not just painty fingers.  My clothes are covered in paint too.

If you’ve tried to access my website (or blog) today, I can only apologise and say all is well again now. Phew!

Those people who know me well will know I’m creating a brand new website where I’ll be selling printable images and sewing patterns, which I’ve been wittering on about over here.  The people who are looking after the technical side of my new website-in-the-making went and did something technical for me (I’ll spare you the details) but they clicked the wrong button.

And that button closed my website down!

this is more my kind of button...

While it’s not nice when things go wrong, it’s nice to know even the techie people get it wrong occasionally!

I finally got round to adding this Statue of Liberty moneybox to my website:

new york money box

I’m not the world’s best at adding new items to my website – it’s usually customers asking questions or wanting to buy something  that prompts me into action!  It was no different this time around.

But now you can find this New York moneybox, and other hand-painted-to-order moneyboxes over on the 1st Unique Gifts money box page .

At the moment, orders are taking around 3-5 days, although I do ask that you allow up to 10 days to be on the safe side.  As usual, I can often do a bit of jiggling around and queue-jumping for anyone whose order is urgently required for a special day – just ask.  You’ll find all the details for getting hold of me on my contact page.

We all love a blog giveaway, don’t we?

In case you missed it over on Handmade Harbour, I’ll let you into a secret (shhh, don’t tell): there are giveaways going on all week over there to celebrate a 100 weeks of Handmade Mondays.

You’re not too late to join in! On Monday’s post, you can win copies of Commercial Creatives by Mike Carthew and Anna Ward – this is available to win in Kindle or PDF format and is well worth a read for anyone who sells or wants to sell their creative endeavours.

Commercial Creatives on Kindle

On Tuesday’s post, you can win vouchers for Abakhan Fabrics, to spend on fabric, yarn, felting equipment, beads, buttons…well, you get the idea!

On Wednesday’s post, you can win photo-editing software – this is from Magix, and (I’ve tried the product!) really well worth winning (or buying – it is cheaper than comparable products, and the learning support looks excellent and varied).

There’s more to win tomorrow and Friday.  Check it all out at Handmade Harbour.

If you’re in the UK, it’s a safe bet that you’ve got snow, had snow or expecting snow.

The snow here today was unexpected – it hadn’t been forecast for this area.  It’s beautiful, but I am grateful that my commute to work is just across a snowy garden and not across gridlocked road networks.

the evidence of my commute today

Having said that, my studio is bitterly cold until the woodburner kicks in.  But when it does it’s toasty!

woodburner battling the cold!

Today I have taken great pleasure in turning a cloudy day

cloudy day

into a sunny one.

sunny day

It’s a shame it’s not that easy in real life!  This will be one of my you are my sunshine plaques (they’re available to buy over here).

you are my sunshine personalised plaque

In case you haven’t seen, there are giveaways going on all week at Handmade Harbour – there’s a different giveaway every day this week.  All you need to do is leave a comment, so it’s easy to enter (no strings whatsoever!).

Hope you get to enjoy the snow a little, if only from an armchair.  Stay safe and warm – although, if you’re reading this from the other side of the world, it could be you are sweltering and perhaps would be glad of a little snow!

It’s a time of making plans, isn’t it?  New year, new start and all that.

My plans for 2013 have started with trying to make life a little easier and more organised…

paint jars

One of the problems I have is that when I make something to order, it can take quite a while. Here’s an example of what I do for just one plaque:

- I paint the front and edges of the plaque with a background colour and leave it to dry.

- I paint the back of the plaque and let it dry.

- I sand the front and edges and give it another coat of paint – again I let it dry.

- I sand the plaque again (very lightly this time, just for smoothness)

- I draw then paint the image on the plaque.  You guessed – I let it dry.

- most images get a second coat and a second lot of drying time.  Some need extra details on top of this, too.

- I add the wording and the outlines, all in pen.  Ha! It dries almost immediately, which makes me happy

- I finish the plaque with string, sticky pads or whatever else it might need.

- I wrap it in a cellophane bag and post it to its new owner.

It sounds a lot – but the longest part is all that drying, especially the background colour.  So, this year I’ve set myself targets based on last year’s sales:  I will paint the backgrounds on a certain number of plaques, clocks, money boxes, canvases and chalk boards every week, and the first 40 weeks of the year are when I’ll do the most (which should help me cope more easily with pre-Christmas sales).

printable action plan

I’ve made myself a table with three targets a week on and pinned it on my studio wall.  The theory is that being on the wall will make it hard to miss…

It will be interesting to see how far it helps, and whether I can stick to it.  I so hope it makes life a little bit easier and customer orders a little bit quicker from the customer’s perspective.  Up to now the speed factor has been a bit hit and miss – and although most people say they are happy, it’s always good to improve.  I know the times I’ve managed to post things next day are the times I’ve wowed the customer on the speed front!

If you want a blank version of my table, so you can do one for yourself, there’s a free download over on Handmade Harbour - it’s nothing fancy but may just help organise things a little bit.  Enjoy!

Looking back over the year, I think it’s been overall quite a good one – here are  a few of the 1st Unique Gifts highlights of 2012:

official photo with Theo Paphitis

I think possibly the number one highlight was meeting Theo Paphitis at the event he organised for #SBS winners.  #SBS is a Twitter hashtag, and stands for Small Business Sunday.  It’s something Theo set up with the aim of helping to promote small businesses.  Each week he picks six small businesses (who have tweeted him) and he retweets them.  It sounds such a small thing (and probably was when he very first started doing it!) but it has grown and grown.  It now has its own website, and the event he hosted was just amazing.  Inspiring, generous and fun.  If you want more info, you’ll find it at the official Theo Paphitis SBS website.

It was a fabulous bonus that I also got to meet people who I had previously only known online.  Charlotte was one of many who I felt privileged to chat to!  A real pleasure and delight.

me with charlotte hupfield

2012 saw me starting a new blog at Handmade Harbour.  I also transferred Handmade Monday over there, as it seemed to make more sense.

handmade harbour

I’ve also tried to branch out a little into doing different things in 2012 – writing for magazines, designing, sewing, because (although I love painting plaques) I felt I needed to do more designing and less repetition (some of my painted designs are more popular than others, and sometime I feel like a one-woman-ten-paintbrush production line!).

I think branching out has helped me to find more balance in my working day (there’s more of what I’ve been doing on the Handmade Harbour blog).

I decided to stop taking part in fairs in 2012.  That may sound a little negative, but it was for all the right reasons, I think.    It was a simple time issue, and giving up fairs freed up a lot of time for doing other things.

some of my painted plaques at a craft fair

Anyone who does fairs will know they are time-consuming, especially when you consider the relatively small financial gain you get from them.  When you consider the time spent making, packaging, travelling,  putting a stall together, standing and talking to the public (or waiting for the pubic to arrive!), packing up the stall, fastening down gazebos, fighting off flying gazebos – well, you get the picture: selling online can be a much better option (and you know the loos at home will at least be clean and queue-free, without a muddy field between them and you).

If you are at the beginning of a handmade selling journey, don’t let me put you off the idea of craft fairs: yes, when you work out your hourly rate of pay it may be low – possibly even below the minimum wage – but the interaction with customers, the building of your business and the marketing you do is more than worthwhile.  Even without the fabulous camaraderie with other stallholders and the making of new like-minded friends, I would recommend them.  It’s just that there’s probably a time to leave them behind too.  I’ll miss them, though, and at some point may even decide to go back and do the odd one or two favourites…

sunflower craft fest 2012

I think maybe 2013 will be about making room for everything I want to be part of my life.  Balance is a wonderful thing, but it takes a lot of work to make it look effortless, I think.

I hope 2012 has been kind to you and 2013 will be even kinder!  Happy New Year!

I’d like to wish a very merry Christmas to all my customers and blog readers.

Hope you enjoy the festivities!

merry Christmas!

So, the countdown is on – and I’m not talking about Christmas.  The last posting day for first class mail is the 20th, and that’s what I’m counting down to!

I won’t have finished work then, of course.  There are still local orders to finish and deliver, and some orders have come in that aren’t needed until January so I’ll still have work to do.  There’s also two magazine commissions to get done for the first week in January.

But it will certainly get easier after the 20th –  it’s very full-on at the moment: everything is very focused on getting things finished/packed/off to the post office as soon as possible.

In the middle of all this madness, I’ve made a few things that are slightly different from the usual … this one is my favourite:

personalised dressing room plaque

It was a special request, but I’ll try to get this one onto the website as soon as I can (which is likely to be in January!).

Last ordering date from my website for Christmas delivery is midnight tonight.  I need the cut-off point for my own sanity as much as anything else!

Meanwhile, if you’d like to browse some fabulous blogs all about handmade, pop over to Handmade Harbour!