Purple Bell Christmas Fair

Morning bloggers :)

I received a text from the lovely Gileng of Purple Bell Designs this morning telling me about this years Christmas fair and asking if I would like a stall. I'm excited! And since I have some free time today I am thinking about crafting. I usually wait until after Halloween to turn myself into the Christmas Fairy, but I should be smart about it and use any free time I manage to get.

Here's a look at my stall from the last time I sold at the Purple Bell fair

I've been to so many fairs since and come such a long way from then. I was just starting out and I was so excited to sell so many cards :)

xx

Easter cards =)

I have to say, I was amazed when I looked in my box of cards and saw that they were mostly left over Christmas cards from my panicked over-production for the Christmas fair and my first attempt at Easter cards from last year! I think they were originally destined for Etsy but I wimped out and they've been in the box ever since! Quite lucky really as it meant I had a really good head start on cards for the Cluny Craft Fair.

Anyway, continuing the mentality that too much is better than just enough, I cracked on (pardon the pun!) and made even more Easter cards this year! Here is the product of my 3-day lock down in preparation for the fair!

Mother's Day 2011

This year I had 4 orders for Mothers Day and they were all for family lol! My Dad and brother Philip asked for cards for my Mam, and my Mam asked for cards for my Grandma from her and from my brother and I. As I knew I was doing the fair on Mothers Day I made some extras to take with me incase there were any last minute purchasers. However, it seemed that everyone was organised this year, so they have been returned to my 'stash box' ready for next year.

Do you want to have a peek? Here you go ...

Orders / personal;

(I have a confession - I forgot to take photos of my brothers and Grandmas cards!)

For the Fair;

Who's ready for an update?

Helloooooooo lovely readers! It is I, Katie, back from the depths of work and crafting and sparing time to blog at long last! I'm not really sure how to catch up, it's been such a long time. (Sorry little blog!) I think I will start from now and work backwards ...

So, the craft fair was a little quiet but I had a GREAT time!! My Mammy came with me (even though it was her special day!) and I was so grateful to have her there helping and supporting me. My Dad even came and gave us a suprise visit! I made a few sales and got loads of contacts and information for other fairs. It was fun being on the sellers side of the stall for a change and I am looking forward to all the upcoming markets =) I had a fab time with my Mam and she and my Dad have been so, SO encouraging, I'm such a lucky girl =)

I had cards, laminated bookmarks, little hand made notebooks and bags of Bunny Poop!!! (Chocolate raisins) They went down a storm actually I was chuffed!

The idea came from my bags of "Penguin Poop" I made for the Purple Bell Designs & Friends Christmas Fair. I made only 4 bags for that and they sold out pretty quick, so I decided to make 8 for the Cluny and panicked because I thought I'd maybe made too many, but I sold 6 and my Dad bought the last two, bless him!

I'd taken thursday and friday off work and locked myself away in the conservatory and crafted like a demon. I had my table up so I could work on that instead of on the floor like i usually do, and I brought my wicker baskets and card stand down so I could see how much I had and what I had to work on. It worked out really well. My Mam has said I can leave my stuff in the conservatory which is great, it will make it so much easier to get stuff done. I even have a little helper ....

So yeah, I think this is the beginning of great things for Purrfect Papercraft. I'm excited! =)

EXCITING NEWS!!!

I've been given my first official stall at a proper craft fair!!!!!!!!!!!!! =D I am SO excited and also a bit nervous, panicked, stressed! My mind is constantly ticking over with ideas and a "to do" list and I'm using all my spare time at home making cards. I'm a lean mean card-making machine!!! My main focus at the moment is Mother's day and Easter but I'm working on cards for every other occasion in between too. Hopefully this will be the first of many!

So I went out the other day and bought a folding table, and now it is standing in our conservatory all set up so I can see how my stall will look and can see what needs adding to it. It's also doubling as my new crafting space until the fair, then I have to lug it all back up to my bedroom out of the way. I promise I will share some of my cards soon =)

xxx

Sorry it's been a week!

I really don't know where the time goes! I mean, I haven't exactly been rushed off my feet - I've been off them mostly because I sprained my back falling off a horse and have been an almost-cripple for a week! I'm still not quite right but I am definitely much better.

I've still been sending my brain into a tizz though, coming up with ideas for things to sell at the Christmas fair. (I've also just heard of one happening in September and am debating whether or not to give it a try.) I've been on hundreds of websites and looked at hundreds of tutorials, and made a visit to Hobbycraft at the weekend to buy some supplies. £68 worth of supplies to be exact, and that was with some money off! There's still a couple of things I need that weren't in stock so I will have to go back, but the girl on the till sneaked another voucher into my bag so I'll use that. Thank you lovely girl! =)

I've just been talking to Gileng and she says she has overbooked sellers, so I agreed to share a table with someone. This means I can't get too carried away and that's probably a good thing ... I've been feeling waaaaay too inspired lately!

I found this blog during one of my inspiration hunts and I want to be this woman haha! Kerry makes some amazing and really beautiful things and sells them at lots of craft fairs. I've picked up so many useful tips of her, I'm so grateful!

I feel another trip to Hobbycraft is on the cards (pardon the pun!) pretty soon, and since I have no plans this week (apart from Toy Story 3 on Thursday!), I will be going home every night and crafting my socks off!

xx