Free Craft Blog

Well firstly we’ve done our first good show of the year and it wasn’t even a craft show… it was a festival!!!! Two whole days of customers and fine weather….. I’m in shock Maybe thing are looking up… have a few festivals over the new few months so maybe they are the answer for us.

I must admit when I started writting this little blog it was just to get a few more links for some of my, and my friends web sites… I didn’t really think anyone woulod read it, least of all people I know in real life

Anyway

Hello Maddie

Hope you’re well, have tried to be a little more careful with the spelling this time just for you….

I’ve managed to do a few Spanish backing papers for those interested

SPANISH BACKING PAPERS

Well we’ve done 4 shows so far this year and they have all been terrible… not just for us… but for all the exhibitors Feally not sure whats going on… maybe the year started too early with Easter being in March, maybe its because the weather still thinks its February. What ever it is is seems to be affecting all the bigger shows…. hearing lots of stories about people put in Marquees and stands in snow and sleet just so they can loose money Well hopefully things can only get better but not too sure how long the bank manager will be willing to wait.
For those who like paper crafts http://backingpapers.forfree.org.uk now has a sister site which uses the same designs for tags http://tagsandlabels.forfree.org.uk. Again they are all free so just download what you need

Well only 3 weeks to go till this years first craft fair and how much have I done to get ready…nothing…… a 3 moth break and I haven’t even got round to washing the table cloths yet Never mind sorting the stock and buying what I’ll need t camp on that first weekend. At least the first show is:

1. Close, Thorsby, one of the clostest shows tome and

2. With Living Herritage Craft Fairs, which means its an organiser who I know well and who I can rely on to do their part of the job.

Am REALLY looking forward to seeing the other crafters… have really missed seeing them over the last few months !!

In the meantime have been making some designs for backing papers for Card Makers and Scrapbookers and have put them online at Backing Papers for Free . Only meant to do a few but have nearly reached 200!!!! Must stop this messing around and get myself sorted for that first fair

Backing Papers for Free 

Well in the next 2 weeks I’m going to have to get round to sorting out my Craft Fair Stock but in the meantime I’m carrying on with the Web stuff. This time I’ve put together http://www.craftbargains.co.uk . The idea is for crafters to post the best prices they’ve found for craft materials…. gradually we should build up a list of good prices and special offers so we can all benefit. Obviously I’m most interested in good prices for glass paints, and a little for Card Making stuff but I hope the site will cover a wide range of crafts in the UK, Wood Work, Metal Crafts, Decoupage, Quilling, the whole lot.

If you’ve found some good special offers please do pop along, join the forum, and post them for other visitors to see. Obviously the site will only work if  people join in,  I can post the ones I find myself but the more who help the better it will be

http://www.craftbargains.co.uk 

Well the winter continues and I’m spending a lot of time on computer stuff, no shows booked until March so I might as well do something

Now to go along with www.glasspainting.co.uk and www.craftdemos.tv we have www.freecraftstuff.co.uk… a links directory of sites offering free designs, clipart, instructions etc to crafters….. some will let you sell the stuff you make with them, some wont…. the main problem has been sorting out the rubbish fromthe site with real free content!!!!

Well I’ve got my shows booked for this year (well the ones for the first half anyway… I’m doing a lot more festials this year as well as craft shows, we seem to do rather well at festivals although I do miss the CRaft Crowd… next I’ll hae to get the Van MOTed and sort out the stock.
Look forward to seeing all the Crafters again in March, seems like ages since we were last at a show, lets just hope the weather is a bit better this year

Well glasspainting.co.uk now has a sister site CraftDemos.TV .

Craft Demos TV has over 500 videos on it covering all sorts of craft: Wood Work, Glass Painting, Card Making, Quilling, Glass Blowing, even Chainsaw carving!!!
The are demonstrations and projects ranging from under 5 mins to nearly an hour. So pop over and take a look, hopefully you will like what you see

CRAFTDEMOS.TV 

We its the last show for us of the year this weekend….  Sandringham with Living Heritage. Hasn’t been a great year all in all, I think the Craft Circuit has definitely suffered because of the floods and Foot and Mouth.

There is still the question “have craft shows had their day?”, are they now seen as old fashioned?
This weekend made me look at things from an organisers point of view. It was a mixed weekend, Saturday was good but Sunday it poured with rain all day.. so much so that some of the exhibitors and some of the public had to be towed off the site.

The organisers was obviously upset, all that work setting the show up. Not only that but she had to put up with members of the public complaining about the mud….. despite the fact that all the marquees had flooring down and the only mud was outside. I know I would NEVER want to organise a craft show on that scale, just could take the pressure……

Speaking of which it will be interesting to see which of the large organisers are still going next year…. every year some seem to disappear (with or without deposits) others seem to change their name with a strange regularity…. we’ll have to wait and see what the new year brings.

Well I’ve finished my first two glass painting videos.

The first one shows you how to make and pipe using a piping bag.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Ps0SZJH-F4c 

The second is a greeting card project using craft peel offs rather than outlining.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=SwVRiCgcJrM 

I hope you enjoy them both.

For your information the first video uses Plaid Gallery Glass Outliner. The second one uses Pearl and transparent Solvent Glass Paints by Rainbow Glass and a large peel off. Full details can be found on my glass painting site:

www.glasspainting.co.uk 

Well just got back from another successful craft fair, this time at Blake Hall in Essex, not only was it financially successful but it was also enjoyable, nice visitors, nice crafters even nice weather, what more could you ask for. That just about marks then end of the British Craft Summer, I have a couple of odd events in September and then we will be starting the Christmas shows!!! Hard to believe that its time to find the Christmas decorations for the stand.
Have spent a lot of the last days revamping my glass painting site ( http://www.glasspainting.co.uk) . I’m quite please with it, I’ve used a content management system called Joomla which is FREE and I think will make updating the site a lot easier, I can also add videos etc so I shall have to get working on some demos, about time I let people pick apart my work rather than just me doing it it others

If you are interested in glass painting stop by and take a look, new articles and submissions always welcome

Just back from the Sandringham Craft Fair… not a bad show at all, lots of people there… a tad too hot on the Sunday (believe it or not)…

so why the doom and gloom?
well after more than a month of rubbish shows and shows cancelled due to the weather now we have another outbreak of foot and mouth……
Like last time there are likely to be shows cancelled up and down the country, especially those which rely heavily on live stock as one of their attraction and those based in places where the owners just don’t want lots of people visiting their land  during this time……
and again like last time there will be lots of news about farmers having a hard time getting their compensation but little about the rest of us who stand to loose thousands !!! Not only the exhibitors at these shows but the organisers.. lets face it we can’t  aford to loose too many of those!!!! I’m sure there are lots of other groups who have been hit both by the weather and now by the foot and mouth….

And while we’re on the subject there seems to be a problem for some exhibitors getting refunds for stands at shows which have been cancelled…. whilst the organisers of these shows obviously have their own problems I think they ought to at least be making offers to the exhibitors who have lost out… A free stand at next years show…. a credit note or such if they really can’ afford to pay the stand fees back. Come on organisers… play fair