Relocated!

So here I am in Bath!

I managed to bring lots of my stash although I did have to reduce it by quite a lot, the Craft Cube 5000 has remained up north (sad face) but that shall soon be rectified when I find permanent accommodation. 

As I've only been here a couple of days, I'm still settling in and finding my way around the city. I have however already managed to find a craft shop and potentially a couple of places where I can sell my cards so it's all good on the crafty front!

I'm making this a short one as it's now stopped raining and I have a flat to view this afternoon (yay!) so I'm off into the city again.

Relocation!

I started this blog (and business) in my first year at university and now I am finishing my degree. As you can probably tell, things got pretty hectic over the last 6 months or so and I all but shut down (much to my shame) but every cloud has a silver lining and this one is particularly shiny. I am fortunate enough to have already landed a job in Bath for the next year before I go back to my studies. A job. With regular hours. And weekends. And for a while I wasn't entirely sure what I would be doing with my free time (seriously!) but then I thought about it: having a regular hours job means that I can put regular time aside to build up my business. I've already had a little look at potential craft fairs in the area and there are a fair handful (no pun intended).

In addition to this, Bath is Jane Austen central so something tells me that so regency themed cards and frame will be required!

The more I think about it, the more I'm looking forward to it: a fresh start after this unplanned break should be good.

Victoria Baths 3

Sunday saw me at the third bi-annual Victoria Baths Art and Craft Fair. I can't believe it's been a whole year since my first fair!

Unfortunately, I can't say that it was as successful as the first one - it wasn't through lack of people, just lack of buyers. (Although I would be tempted to see if the correlation is related to my brother manning my stall with me the first time, as none of them have been as successful . . .)

Despite the cold, I still had a good day, albeit long and tiring (although that was mainly due to still recovering from my Newcastle trip in the week).

One thing that I did begin to think about was when I was on my Hiking Club's table at the Freshers' Fair back in September (so long ago . . . .). As I had experience running a stall, I was more than happy to lead and I loved every second of it. I had lost my voice by the end of the first day and then again by the end of the second from shouting over the crowds and talking practically none stop for the two days. 

But how is it that I was able to talk for Britain and get people to come over to our table and essentially 'sell' the club to them but I can barely say hello to people when I'm behind my table at a fair?

Surely it should be the same? I mean, hiking and card making are both things that I am passionate about, running a table is about engaging with the people browsing and at the end of the day I am trying to sell them something. I guess this is something that I need to work on . . . .

I've also been scolded by my friends for selling my cards too cheap. But that's for another time . . . 

Victoria Baths II

Sunday was my second time at Victoria Baths for their craft fair. Based on last November's fair, I was hoping for a good day, although my previous fair failures made me a little nervous. Then there was also the fact that the Manchester Day Parade was happening that same day. It could have gone either way.

After having a couple of extremely late nights previous to the fair, a coffee was in order Sunday morning. The sun was shining, I guess the birds were singing but Oxford Road is a bit noisy, and I was super organised and had packed the night before to be ready for the morning. I grabbed my coffee from the Cafe Nero around the corner from me and headed off to the baths.

I was on my own at the table this time and after battling with my (freshly ironed!) table cloth, I was ready to get my cards up on display. I found some make-your-own-bunting in The Works when I was stocking up and decided to give it a go. I've always liked the look of bunting and even considered getting some made but when I found this, it seemed only right that
1) I should make it myself and
2) With me being in the paper craft industry, it should be made of paper
The difficulty was deciding what paper to use!

It amazed me that 6 months ago, I half a table to display my good and this time around, I managed to fill the entire table! I though I would have some space to spare so that I could work on some crafts but it was not to be. I remembered to bring my portfolio of cards with me as well this time and had my shiny new business cards on display (full colour ones this time!)

Mid day came and the doors opened. For a while it seemed quiet and it was quite slow and I managed to make my friend's birthday card and another paper pieced picture but things started to pick up later on in the day.

A couple of friends came to see the fair and I think I sold more to them than anyone else but a sale is a sale!

Overall, it was a really good day and although not as successful as my first fair, definitely better than the other since then. I also picked up exactly where I need to improve - each fair is a learning experience and I am looking forward to the next on to work on my social skills. Speaking of learning, it was really interesting to look back at my first fair and see how far I have come. From not having a clue and my brother doing most (all!) of the talking to standing on my own and doing it by myself (although I could really benefit from his charisma!) 

Then

Now

I'm still here!

I promise I haven't fallen off the planet!

My university work has to take priority at the moment and I haven't had any craft fairs or birthday so I haven't got too much to talk about at the moment anyway.

However, you can look forward to reading about my (hopefully) busy summer:

• Manchester United as cards
• Victoria Baths II
• Manchester Maker's Market II
• I have a couple of birthdays coming up so look out for my new cards
• General craftiness after I hand in my work and therefore finish for the year!

In the meantime, here's a picture of a card I did for a friend a few weeks back.

Yet Another Flop

I was going to post this on Sunday but technical difficulties got in the way and I was laptop-less until yesterday. So here it is, a little late but here non the less.

Saturday's craft fair, if you hadn't guessed from the blog title, was a bit of a fail. I was there in plenty of time and I had a nice stall set up - like many of the other stalls - there was just no one about. I even bought my pretty heart shaped fairy lights because it'll be Valentine's Day soon.

The fair did give me a couple of things to think about with my stall (the learning curve is forever . . . er . . .curving?) and luckily - and as per usual - I had my trusty sketchbook on hand to make notes.

The first thing was that I should probably invest in a rack or small shelving unit to display my cards. This way, I can play around a bit more with my stall and try different layouts. 

To go along with this was the idea that I shouldn't wrap all of my cards up and leave some of them as display cards so people can see what they look like as cards - it's all very well showing them in the plastic wrapper but having them stood up on the table also gives me more options to play around with my display.

The other idea I had is a bit bitter. It came from watching the cake stall across from manage to get about 95% of the people to go over to her stall. How? She offered free samples. Rather than waiting for people to wander over and have a look, she invited them over with the promise of free samples. Yes I am slightly bitter about this but it's a technique that obviously works so I might try by putting chocolates or sweets in a dish on my stall. Even if it fails, it gives me something to munch on during the day!

I was able to keep myself occupied at the deathly quiet fair by doing a bit of crafting - treated myself to an extra magazine this month (those damn owls got the better of my once again, this time in the form of some really cute stamps) so I got to play around with the free gift. 

I was also productive in an architecture student sense by reading some Ruskin.

I was extra good and did a bit of networking as well by taking a wander and talking to the other crafters, picking up a couple of business cards while I was at it, although I still need to take a look on Facebook.

Despite the flop of last weekend, when I was able to get back on my laptop yesterday, I was greeted by a lovely e-mail about a new maker's market happening just down the road from me at the end of the month. Obviously, I replied immediately and I already have the form to book my place. One thing that this one definitely has going for it is that it is in student central so hopefully there will be plenty of people. Handmade is SO in right now!

Progress

Hello, stranger!

I have barely had time to breathe since coming back to the big city. It feels like I've been back far longer than the eight days it's been. Unfortunately, lack of breathing - apart from not being good for you - means lack of card making. My total count this year is a pathetic 3, although that will be going up to 4 this evening (a friend's birthday). 'Tis not good! I have however been on the prowl for craft fairs and written myself a lil' old business plan. 

But first the craft fairs. All but paid and filled in the form for one 3rd February so if you are in the area, come and have a gander. I also found a few farmers markets which happen on a regular basis so I might try and get onto one of those. Whilst looking though, many of the craft fairs/markets want stall holders to have Public and Product Liability insurance. I have heard of this before but it's not been something that I have properly looked into. Business-wise, Made by Emma is still in it's early days, but I think I will have to start thinking about it soon, if only so that I can get stalls at fairs and markets.

I finally had a bit of a chilled evening earlier in the week, which allowed me to go back over the notes from the self-employment workshop I went too and start on my business plan. It's basically a Word Document which says what I do and, what I think is the interesting bit, my future plans. Sure, it's really just a posh, long term version of my New Year's resolutions but it was good to see it all written down on paper and now I have something that I can refer back too. 

I have three deadlines, so to speak: Within my first year, so goals to achieve by March; A year from now, goals to have achieved by this time next year; and within 3 years, this time in 2016. My - very - short term targets are to get at least two more craft fairs (getting sorted) and to get some proper business cards printed - not just the black and white paper ones I have at the moment.

Anyhow, must dash, I have a birthday card to make before I head out to celebrate said friend's birthday.

Toodle Pip!

2013: Bring It On

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I had the week off from card making and I haven't actually made a card this year (Fear not, this will soon be amended!). I haven't been totally lazy so far this year; I've been trying to think about my resolutions and what I want to achieve this year. Having already celebrated my first Christmas, so to speak, 2013 should be pretty exciting. I will have been going 1 year in March - and to think this time last year Made by Emma only existed as a label on the back of my cards!

So, on with the resolutions:

1 - I aim to attend at least one craft fair a month. The difficulty with this is trying to find local fairs but I shall endeavour. Finding the time should be, well, I'll cope.
2 - NETWORK! After the workshop I went to back in November, I set up a LinkedIn account and I have to be honest, I still haven't really got a clue on how it works. Not that I have been on it any time recently (oops). So that is another of my targets, to meet more people and to network more.
3 - This one is more of a goal more than a target and kind of linked with the last one: to reach 300 likes on my Facebook page which technically should be do-able, considering that I have 151 in less that a year (https://www.facebook.com/madebyemmacards - in case you have forgotten! Hint hint wink wink nudge nudge). And while we're on the topic of followers/likes/etc, I'm aiming for 100+ on Twitter and 50+ on Tumblr.
4 - Attend the Manchester Entrepreneurs meetings. I found the society purely by accident and decided it would be a good idea to go along. It will make my Tuesdays unbearably long but bear it I must!
5 - Generally be (even) more productive, whilst keeping the work/study/life ratio in balance. This will, of course, include regular blog posts - I feel like there has been some neglection recently which is never good.

With those now written down (and mainly for me to refer to!), no doubt, I will think up some more to add to the list. 12 months (ish) from now, I plan on looking back at these and seeing how far I have come and whether I achieved them or not.

Is it ok to be excited about all of this?

Craft Fairs . . . . A Learning Curve

Yesterday was my third craft fair but unfortunately, it wasn't as good as I had hoped it would be. Like the one in Prestwich, it was fairly quiet and the venue wasn't as conspicuous as Victoria Baths which is a shame but The Jellyfish Rooms is an up-and-coming project so hopefully, the next one will be even more successful.

This one was a bit different as well. At the other two fairs I attended, the tables were provided - which made my life easier. They weren't today but disaster was averted when dad bought up an old camping table and a Christmassy table cloth for me to use. 

So with my table over my shoulder and carrying my wheelie suitcase behind me, I set off on a surprisingly not frosty December morning. I got to the venue and found my spot.
The great (and annoying) thing about doing craft fairs for the first time is that it is a learning curve. It doesn't matter how many blogs etc, that you read about craft fairs, there is always more to be learnt at the next one that comes along.
Yesterday I learnt that having your table right by the door, despite me thinking that was a good thing, isn't that great. People who stopped to look were then blocking the entrance (the fair was in a couple of small rooms). I also noticed that the first thing most people did when they entered the room was look behind the door. I guess this could be to do with the fact my stall could be seen from down the corridor whereas you couldn't see the other stall until you actually came into the room. I think the phrase my primary school would use is 'letting the cat out of the bag'. 
Sitting by the door also made me the information point about there being more tables upstairs and normally by people who had just walked straight past my table without so much as a glance. I'm not bitter. Much. Seriously though, it would have been nice to sell more but I guess I'll do better next time. I would love to hear about other people's craft fair learning experiences!

 

I do have a few commissions to be keeping me busy though. I won't go into too much detail but I have had my first paper pieced commission recently. I will also be working on a couple of new ideas in the next couple of weeks. Now that I don't have any more craft fairs coming up, I can concentrate on crafting MY Christmas cards and, like every year, its December and I still haven't started. Some things never change!

There's Good Days and Bad Days . . .

Reflecting on the last couple of weeks bought to mind this Kaiser Chiefs song. I have had not one but two craft fairs in the last fortnight and as you can probably guess, one good and one not so good.


 Victoria Baths was my first fair and it was amazing. No, more than amazing. Words cannot describe how  awesome it was. 
I arrived at about 10:45am which gave me more than enough time to set up and meant I didn't have to hang around longer than I needed to in the cold cold baths (6 feet of cold air underneath you + glass roof + old victorian building - heating = absolutely freezing my tights off!) The fair officially started at 12pm and it got busy very quickly. My parents came all the way from home to visit the fair and they had to queue to get in. At 12:30!!!!
They found me as I was making a sale and I never really stopped making sales. My brother, who had been on a Young Enterprise team at school helped me to re-arrange my stall and to help draw customers in. He seemed to be taking over a bit although he denied everything but it did help so much as I had never really done this kind of thing before.
So, Jamie's top tips for running a stall:
1. Scatter business cards on the table, not just in a box - people are more likely to pick them up.
2. (For card makers) Don't leave all your cards in the box, spread a few out on the table. Apparently boxes scare people!
3. (Again for card makers) Put you best designs at the front of the box - this draws people in if they see something they like and would encourage them to delve deeper.
4. ENGAGE!!!! Jamie couldn't stress this one enough and if I didn't get in there quick and say hello to everyone that came within 5 ft of my stall, he would! Not only was I instructed to greet everyone, when every someone looked at my card-lympics, either me or him explained the story behind them.
5. Don't display all your stock at once. I had a lot of repeats so they went back in my bag for the time being. This reduced the number of cards on my stall and made it a bit less daunting to those having a browse.

Baring all these things in mind - and repeating myself quite a lot - I had a very successful day. I even sold a couple of my paper pieced pictures - Iron Man went to one of my fellow stall holders and Alice and the Cheshire Cat was sold so quickly! A man just came up and asked how much it was and bought it just like that. Then he bought half a dozen cards as well! Probably my best customer of the day.

So that was the good, and here is the bad.

If you have been on my Facebook page recently, you may have seen that I have been supporting a project called Tube Cubed. This is my university project at the moment and it's a pavilion that we are building for Dunham Massey's winter garden. We have been working on this for the last couple of weeks (hence why I haven't had much time to post). I offered my services as a card maker to try and raise some funds. This leads us onto my next craft fair. I was told about it on Monday and was umming and ahhing over it until it was suggested that we could sell the off-cuts if we sanded them down to a good finish and decorated them with sketches, illustrations and, courtesy of one of our group members, names written in Chinese. After a very stressful week of cutting, sanding and varnishing tubes (Check out our blog if you want to find out more) it was nice to sit down and doodle. 
It was an early start on Saturday to get the the fair in Prestwich but we managed it in plenty of time and got our stall set up. I would share the photos but for some reason, my laptop isn't reading my card at the moment so they may have to wait. 
It was looking good apart from our part of the table being a little bit in the corner. And then it opened.

And nothing happened.

Nobody came.

Well that's not strictly true but there weren't very many people there at all. We sold a few cards and a few more wooden decorations. It was a bit of a flop of a day really. Later, we found out that the conservative club up the road was holding their Christmas fair that day, which probably explains the poor turn out. It was worth a try though, better luck next time I guess.

I already have my next craft fair lined up. It's in Chorlton on 1st December. So watch this space!

Craft Fair

This post is unbelievably over due and for that I apologise. Everything had been so chaotic that sleep has had to be put on hold. I hope that this isn't a pattern for the future - I'm not sure I'll be able to cope!
This week, university-wise has been chaotic! I have had to work full hours during the day and sometimes into the evening which means I have very limited time to get on with my craft fair preparation. And the fair is this Sunday! I have been able to get on with most of the thins that need doing but still have so so much to get ready.

I spent the Halloween packing my cards into bags and wrapping shoe boxes in wrapping paper while watching scary movies with my room-mates. It was only then that I realised I had ran out of A6 sized bags with still over 50 cards to pack! So tomorrow morning I am off into town to get more along with the float for my stall. 

It doesn't sound like I have much left: two paper pictures, about 20 cards to make and the rest to pack. But it's the time remaining that's the problem. I have tonight and tomorrow morning to get everything done as I am, surprise surprise, busy again Saturday evening although I can see myself getting very little sleep as I make last minute arrangements. Despite all of this, I am so really really excited about the fair. My first fair, in an architecturally stunning building to raise money to restore it back to its former glory.

But for now, I am going to share some of my goodies:

















First up are my Christmas cards. This are obviously a major item for this fair as it it less that two months until C-Day. I made a similar card to these a couple of years ago and decided to re-introduce them at the fair. I created cards following the same theme. These I have also made before, I found the template in one of my magazines but this time I added a message and some hand drawn stars to finish them.

Item(s) number 2:
My card-lympics cards. My heart is screaming NOOOOOO at this but all they are doing is sitting in my big card box looking pretty. So they are going to be sold - but I will be making it known what they are! I have the photos for them but it will be sad to see them go :(

My last items are my paper-pieced pictures. This still need to be done, well, two of them anyway - this is what I shall be spending my Friday evening doing! I have currently done Iron Man and one of my favourite designs - my silhouette guitar. The other two that I am planning on doing are Alice in Wonderland themed. Yesterday, I made sketches of the original illustrations and I am going to paper-piece the scenes of Alice and the Cheshire Cat and Alice and the Caterpillar. These are going to be slightly different to the originals and I wanted to avoid Disney. 



I must go now but I hope this has convinced you that I haven't fallen of the face of the Earth! I shall write after my craft fair to let you know how it goes! Wish me luck

Craft Fairs and Other Excursions

Well, it is about time I wrote, seeing as it has been over a week since my last post! And speaking of my last post, I mentioned that I had a craft fair lined up. My FIRST craft fair. 

After searching all summer for one near me, I came across one not only near me, but literally down the road. I couldn't justify not doing it so I sent an e-mail . . . 

To cut a long story shorter, I am now sharing a table with another crafter, one of blankets and jewellery. This means that we only have to pay half the price for the table and I can't see myself filling a whole table anyway.

Once we have booked our place, I just have to make sure that I have plenty of cards (I already have a sizeable stock of Christmas cards - be very impressed!).

And then of course there is that small matter of designing my stall. You would think, being an architecture student I would have no problems with that! Quite the opposite. I have no ideas what-so-ever as to what to do. I really want to make it stand out but I also have that annoying niggle at the back of my mind called a budget. Damn. 

And so the quest continues but with many distractions, more commonly known as university and social life (kinda). 


On a slightly different note, I came up with a plan the other day. A fund raising plan (unfortunately , I have realised that my back pocket is not a charity) which will give me a great excuse to spend time making cards. I am going to do a sponsored card make. I am going to ask people to sponsor me to spend 24 hours making cards. Straight. Not only the sponsor money, but the money raised by selling the cards will go to a charity of my choice. I am still working out the logistics as to when and possibly where (may not do it in my room but somewhere in my halls so I can get some company!) but I have already decided the who. Kanzi Kibera is the charity for whom I sold cards for at my last fair. They are a charity supporting schools in Nairobi and I have family friends who do a lot to support them as well as getting involved myself. Hopefully it will be a success and I will be able to raise a fair bit of money for them. And, if all goes well, I would love to do it again (although I might not be saying that after 24 straight hours of crafting!).

I will get the details of my first 'craft-a-thon' up here as soon as I know them myself!

Paper-pieced Pictures

What a day! Finally stopped working long enough to write this entry. Currently waiting for tomorrow's presentation sheets to publish to PDF. They certainly throw you right back into it in second year!

Anyway. Last night, I finally got to try something I had been meaning to try for a while now. Back in the summer, I made a paper pieced card following the theme of The Joker from Batman. This was - at the time - probably the most complex paper-pieced/decoupages I had ever done and I felt it was wasted on a greetings card. Plus there was that danger of being to fat to fit in the envelope!

So I thought, what if I created decoupaged images to frame. Never actually got around to it until this weekend when I actually went out and bought a wooden picture frame from Wilkinson. That was Saturday. Apart from group project work to be done, I was out Saturday night. Slept in Sunday morning. Was rowing Sunday afternoon. Went to church Sunday evening. Watched Downton Abbey Sunday evening. FINALLY, I got the chance to make my prototype. . . .

I am a big fan of Doctor Who, especially David Tennant's Doctor. I decided to make this the theme of my picture. I had already jotted down a design so I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I just had to sketch it out properly. It was easiest to start with the smallest piece, the shirt and tie and from there I worked up to the suit jacket, bottom part of the suit, trousers, bottom part of the coat, coat sleeves (and lapels) and finishing with his Converse - kinda like dressing an actually person . . . . . concentrate Emma! I added pen details such as pockets, buttons and shadows as I went along. After I had finished, it was not-so-simply a case of choosing the right backing paper and then assembling it all in the frame. I am so happy with the results but have decided that it is not good enough to be sold, it being my first one and so, I have been resigned to having to put up with it sat on my bookshelf. Such a hardship and I suffer greatly because of it!

The finished and framed picture

I hope to make more of these and already have plenty of other designs lined up to try. I may even have a go at making some to sell at my soon-to-be first craft fair (that's a story for next time!).

Would love to hear what you all think about it/them!

Too much stash, too many cards

Time for this weeks entry. I feel that I need to do some proper posts as well as every week's CAS-ual Friday challenge. This of course means more cards, which can never be a bad thing!  However, I think I have reached that level of stash that any cards I make barely scratch the surface and my stock of cards is over 100 now (due to the not-as-successful-as-I-hoped charity gig). So until I can get rid of some of my stock . . . .
I am, however, taking part in my first craft fair. An on-line craft fair. If anyone is interested, the link is on my Facebook page.


I have made a card today though, a thank you card for my sister to send to her work experience employers.

She did experience with a housing/construction company and so wanted a card following that theme. I used mainly scrap paper (again) for the letters, hard hat and tape measure. I finished off the hard hat with black ink detail and the tape measure with some patterned tape.