This week, to celebrate the fact that we’ve had 52 Handmade Mondays (officially a year’s worth of them!) let’s try a little celebration/shameless self-promotion – group-style!  OK, so . . .

twitter bird sketch

if you’re on Twitter, please tweet that you’ve blogged for #HandmadeMonday and link to your own blog (if you use the hashtag #HandmadeMonday – with no spaces – I can locate your tweets easily and retweet them).  You can see how this would work to promote all of you, right?  If you want to get in on the retweeting too, please feel free!  Try to keep your tweet short (under 120 characters) so retweeting is easier. Bit.ly is good for shortening your links, if you need it and it lets you track your clicks too.

Feel free to spread the word beyond Twitter too.  A bit of shouting from the rooftops can’t harm any of us, surely?

This week, I’ve been working on a clock for a customer – this is it in the early stages:

rugby clock, still needing some work

It will be a gift for a rugby league fan, and I’m going to use two very specific team colours, as requested.

As you can probably see in the above image, I am working from a selection of images of rugby players.  These were direct from Google, I’m afraid – my research just doesn’t run to rugby matches in this weather (is it even rugby season?).  I must admit, I needed to add some specific terms to my searches – if you just type rugby players into Google images. . . well, let’s just say I won’t be using those kind of images for my clocks!!

Go on, admit it, you’re all on Google images right now, aren’t you?

Oh, you’re back?  OK -  it’s over to you now.  Let’s see what’s going on in your world!  And if you’re here after following a Twitter link, welcome.  Do have a browse around at least some of the fabulous blogs below.

your cat magazine

Your Cat magazine had featured one of my cat plaques!

They’ve written a lovely little piece, part of their home and gifts shopping pages . . .

cat plaque in your cat magazine

This was another feature that was a direct result of my images being available for journalists on Press Loft.  Thank you, Press Loft!

The cat plaques are available here just in case you want more information – or even buy one

Two weeks ago, I mentioned I was making some door plaques for a French farmhouse holiday let.  Well, the door plaques are complete and delivered (alas, not directly to France and not by my own fair hands) and the customer was happy with them (always a plus ) so now I can show you.

I loved how the bedrooms have names.  Flowers were chosen to fit in with the colour scheme of each room – overall a very feminine feel

door plaques - all flowers

and I thought they fitted in well with the gorgeous farmhouse.  You can have a nosey around the place if you click this link (I love that about the internet – the way you can be instantly transported somewhere lovely!).  Looking at the images, you definitely get a feel for the place – it certainly looks a superb place to go for a holiday.

OK, so back to the door plaques.  The bathroom . . .

bathroom door plaque

and private linen cupboard got their own plaques too

door plaque towels

The full set of seven:

door plaques set

I really enjoyed making these.  I think the stack of towels and the bathroom need to become part of my standard range so I’ll be adding them to the website soon.

What have you been making?  Show us by linking up your blog below

best friend, lover and spider catcher

What would you have on yours?  If I can make it fit, I’ll be happy to write it for you

If you order yours now (more information and more gift ideas on that page too) you’ll get it in plenty of time for Valentine’s Day.  It could make the ideal quirky gift for the man (or woman) who has everything.

Each heart is styled in a subtle shabby-chic finish, with white faux stitched edges and a jute string hanger – and each is (of course) hand made to order here in Cheshire.

best friend, lover and tea maker

I’ve decided to get rid of them though.  Why?  Well, when people contact me using email, I’m able to reply.  Easy and simple.

Mostly, when people contact me using the contact form, the same applies – but not always.  Sometimes, my emails get caught up in spam filters and end up in people’s junk mail – Hotmail accounts seem to be the worst for doing this.  It does seem to be ok when they’ve emailed me first and I’m just hitting reply.

So, if you’ve tried to contact me using a form recently and you’ve not had a reply, please have a trawl through your junk mail – or feel free to email me: wendy@1stuniquegifts.co.uk

let's stay in touch!

An apology?  Yes, I have to apologise for the lateness in bringing this to you – my only excuse is I’ve had a migraine all weekend and suddenly realised today was Sunday and I had nothing prepared for Handmade Monday!  Sorry to anyone whose been checking this out and waiting for the link

So, rather than try to cobble something together at short notice, I’m handing this Handmade Monday over to you guys!  Please leave your links below . . .

Today, I was making up some of these family plaques for customer orders when…

sorry about the mess but the Johnson family lives here

… PING! an idea for a clock – followed very quickly by several others – popped into my head.  Of course, I had to stop and scribble the ideas down quickly on the first thing to hand (a customer order!)…

ideas scribbled down

…before the ideas disappeared from my head (my brain seems to work pretty well – and almost independently, it would appear – when it comes to generating ideas, but also seems just as good at forgetting them!)

Now all I need to do is to find time to make up the ones I think are actually good ideas as opposed to the ones which just came along for the ride.

Do you get ideas popping in your head when you’re not expecting them?  Or are you much more organised than that?

As well as unseasonal sunshine, there’s been a high level of unseasonal sales here too – I can’t quite believe how steadily busy I’ve been since Christmas.  I had expected (and almost even hoped for!) a slow period in January, and the to-do list that I’ve been adding to since September is still just waiting patiently for me – I’ve made no dents in it yet; I’m still just working on getting orders out!

It’s a nice position to be in, admittedly, and I think  good percentage of the sales have come via the press that has been generated by Press Loft – one way or another.  I’ll be doing a blog post specifically about Press Loft soon because I think it’s something which might be of interest to some of you.

some people have sandwiches on trays - I have plaques on trays

Meanwhile, there’s not much that’s new here – but lots of new things to work on.  Among them quite a few door plaques have been prepped and are ready to finish – a farmhouse in France is awaiting some bespoke door plaques (maybe I’ll show you them next week!) and there’s a few fairies to paint on the pink ones.  And a couple of campervans, too – of course!

I’m looking forward to browsing your blogs and seeing what’s new in your handmade world . . .

personalised Beetle canvas

This canvas is the first of its kind: a just married sign hangs from the wing mirror, the date of the wedding is on the number plate – and the happy couple’s names are above the car.

It’s now on the website, available to order in three sizes and at a very affordable price!

This is the campervan canvas that started it (they make ideal gifts for births and special birthdays as well as weddings!):

personalised campervan canvases

Well, what do you think?  I think the Beetle wedding canvas painting could be great gift idea for a couple planning a vintage-themed wedding, especially when the wedding car is a classic Volkswagen.  And because they are all hand painted to order, colours can be changed as well as wording.  You could match up with the wedding colours or even the wedding car!

This week, I’m just going to show you one of the last things I completed before Christmas.

It was ordered in plenty of time.  However, with the frenzy of clock orders that turned the studio into a pre-Christmas production line, I put it to one side for fear of splashing it (if you’ve ever seen me and paint in the same room, you’d understand).  I also knew I had someone to deliver this one personally for me so it didn’t need to meet the last posting dates.

painting the camper canvas

It was a large canvas (60cm x 45cm, which is quite a bit larger than I usually work), and one designed especially for a child who’d had a holiday in a camper called Coral, which I thought was a lovely idea!

camper photo

The red background was to match his room, and the beige camper matched Coral!  I worked from a photo on this campervan hire website.

the finished painting with CORAL on the number plate

I did enjoy doing it and hope it reminds the whole family of happy times.  Now, though, it’s over to you . . . I’m looking forward to seeing what you’ve been creating recently