My Folksy Favourites!

It's Tuesday again (the weeks are going too fast!) and I've been roaming Folksy finding more gems for you to feast your eyes on.

My first item this week comes from Niche, a gorgeous name for a fantastic shop. Stocking a variety of items, from amigurumi dolls to pendants to notebooks, this is the place to go if you're looking for something a little bit different... Being a sucker for stationary, one of my favourite items has to be this funky notebook.
My next item comes from Blue Fish Handmade, a little haven of crochet craft. With bright and funky colours that would brighten up anyone's day, if you're looking for something stylish to keep warm or decorate your home (like the little mice!) then this is certainly the place to go; take a look at these wrist warmers...
My final choice for this week is somewhat appropriate with Valentine's day fast approaching... Molly Moo Designs is a gorgeous gorgeous card shop, fantastic quality, great value and novel designs: what more could you want? My favourite card this week is this Valentine's offering.

I hope you like these, and there's plenty more!

Wedding Invitations :)

I'm currently in the middle of planning my wedding - and boy I never realised quite how much work it was! And it's so easy to get caught up in the little details that you forget what the important things are.

My fiance and I have gone on and off the idea of making our own invitations over the last few months; I love making cards (I love any craft in fact!) so liked the idea of doing it, but thought the work involved might be a bit too much. Though seeing how much we were likely to spend getting all our wedding stationary done professionally did make it seem a more attractive prospect!

Today we decided to have a go at producing some prototypes. We went out to a craft shop and bought a selection of card, a heart shaped cutter and some ribbon and set to work. After playing around with a few ideas, lots of double sided sticky tape and giggles and a lot of fun, we produced four lovely designs we couldn't separate...


Having seen the fun involved we're now going to round up our friends and have a weekend invitation making :) A lot more fun than going to a shop to order invites and a chance to get all our friends involved in our wedding, something we would love to do.

And as for the four designs, we couldn't decide between them so we're not going to, we're going to use them all :)

Interview with Evie George

The time has come for another Folksy interview! This time I'm talking to Anna who is the creative genius behind the shop Evie George, a little haven of papercraft. In addition to running her Folksy shop, Anna is also the brains behind Folksy Weddings, a complete guide to where to find handmade items for your wedding!

We would like to get to know a bit more about the person behind Evie George.

If you were a flower, what would you be?

I’d probably be one of the little purple flowers on Lavender.

What is your favourite meal?

Beer Butt Chicken!! It’s so good- you put a delicious rub over the chicken then you put an open can of beer (or coke) up the chickens *ahem* butt and cook it standing up and it all the flavour steams the meat. I love comfort food and big English meals.

Cadbury’s or Galaxy?

Cadburys every time- I really hope Kraft don’t change the recipe!

What’s your favourite colour?

Blue

And now about your work.

How did you get started?

I have always made all the cards I send and presents for friends and family, they kept telling me I should sell the things I make so I thought I’d give it a go!

What’s your favourite material to work with and why?

I love paper. All types of paper- I love old books and the smell of brand new paper in it’s box. My favourite month always used to be September when you would get to buy new stationery ready for school- I still treat myself to a lovely new journal or notepad in September!

When you need some inspiration, where do you go?

I like to go to my local knitting shop- I can’t knit but they have a whole wall of ribbons and buttons and the ladies in there are so lovely!

I also find lots of inspiration on lots of blogs- there are so many creative people out there in blog-land.

What’s the first thing you remember making?

I vividly remember making daffodils out of egg cups at primary school and being covered in yellow poster paint. I am still a very messy maker!!!

What’s your favourite item in your shop?

My favourite items are my prayer frames. I sell lots of these in church shops and local cafes but they don’t sell so well on Folksy. I really enjoy making these.

Thanks Anna!

Swimathon!

In April, I'm doing a swimathon to raise money for Marie Curie Cancer Research.

The swimathon is a national event taking place in April, with around 500 pools up and down the country taking part. Individuals and teams will be swimming a variety of distances in an effort to beat the 2009 fundraising total of £1.5 million for cancer research!

This year, three friends and I have decided to do our bit to help, and together we're going to swim 5k (about 200 lengths) to raise as much as we can.

Almost everyone's lives have been touched by cancer in some way, whether it's them personally, a relative or a friend, and many families have been left with an unfillable hole. But diagnosis and treatment is improving all the time, and with more funding the prognosis will get better and better.

If you can, please help us in our fundraising efforts and donate £1 on my fundraising page, and I will love you forever!

Thank you!

Katherine

Folksy Favourites!

Once again it's time for me to pick some of my favourite items on folksy; always a hard choice, but the more I look around the harder it gets!

In the folksy forums this week my attention was drawn to a shop I'd never seen before, but once found I just kept going back to have another look. Fleurs De Perles is an amazing shop, full of flowers made from beads! And these really do look fantastic, just take a look at this 'Romantic Rose Bud', perfect for upcoming Valentine's day.

Moving on from romance and valentines now, another shop which I've only recently stumbled across is boxio. As the name suggests this shop specialises in boxes. What's so special about that you may ask? Well just take a look at the picture below, these aren't just any old boxes, they are made from wood in lovely flowing shapes, perfect for keeping your trinkets in or just for decoration.For my final choice today I'm heading to Sian Bostwick Jewellery. Here I found some absolutely stunning handmade jewellery; the worksmanship really speaks for itself and there's not a lot more I can say except take a look for yourself.


That's this weeks picks, and there's plenty more where they came from!