A Sale

Buy handmade and save yourself some money too! I've created a sale section in my Etsy shop, full of items perfect for Christmas gifts and decorations. So now the festive season doesn't have to cost you an arm and a leg. Go there now to get 20% off many items:



Happy shopping! x

Happy September!

So it's September, and autumn is on its way. It's starting to get cooler outside, and I'm looking forward to keeping warm in cosy, luxurious clothes.







Images from Elle and arashmazinani.com

Thanks to a typical washout of a British summer, I have in fact been looking forward to autumn since mid-July - wanting the temperatures to match the grey sky. This seems to happen every year. With autumn comes Halloween, so I tend to start looking forward to Halloween in the middle of the summer. Which is rather premature. It's September now though, and, with less than two months to go, I can stop feeling guilty!

Autumn has already arrived in my little Etsy shop - I've had a Spooky Sale on since mid-July (I told you I get Halloweeny around then!), giving you 20% off selected items. Clicky the piccy to go there:



I've opened a Halloween section too, making the rest of my spooks easier to find. Click the Woolly Bat to go there:



Talking of Woolly Bats, I do believe I've mentioned them before in a previous post. As I mentioned there, their design was inspired by Honduran white bats, little flying balls of fluff. They're made of felted balls and wire, and would look gorgeous hanging in your home.



^..^

I got things!

I've done a couple of little swaps lately, and got me some groovy things. The first of the swaps was with Marie of Deviant Candy. I made her a Black Widow pendant:



And she made me a zombie bat pendant, yay:



The next swap, which I got in the post just today, was with Kyra of TheKraftyKreep. I sent her a bat dangle:



And got an awesome TV pendant from her:



Another thing I got today was a Brown Owl Lavender Sachet from the lovely Mel of Inkmeup:



It smells gorgeous, and I got free prints too!



The owl is for my Mum (it's her birthday today), but I think I might have to buy my own Inky sachet. The Smelly Cat ones are particularly cute:

Snowbats

The other day, I was searching online for bats, as I often do, and came across these gorgeous little guys:



They're Honduran white bats, and live in the rainforest. Having seen these cute little snowballs, I of course wanted to make one, and set about designing how that might look:



The basic idea was to have some sort of big pom-pom, and to add wire wings and features to that. My attempts at pom-pom making haven't been too successful though! For example, this one, made from some very fluffy yarn, is just too fluffy, and moults everywhere:



Instead, I've decided that felted balls are the way to go, so I've ordered a few of those. Until those turn up, here's a little Photoshop mock-up of what will be known as a Snowbat:



The Snowbats will be a lot like my Fuzzy Bats, only snowball-sized, and will have a loop with which to hang them from your Christmas tree.

A Spooky Sale

Other people may be doing Christmas in July, but I'd rather have Halloween in July! Check out my Spooky Sale section to stock up with some pre-Halloween bargains:

Made myself a little something ...

Having seen a very sweet Tiny Bat Necklace (by Giles and Brother for Kabiri) in this month's Elle,



I of course wanted one for myself. So, combining a couple of old necklaces and a bat charm,





I made my own version:

Cute Inspiration

Inspired by icons of cute such as Hello Kitty:



and Miffy:



plus the handmade cuteness of Etsy friends, and other cute things in my collection;



I am starting to move my work in a slightly new direction. Sort of a creepy-cute direction. Various cuteness seems to have been invading my studio lately, and the cute could not fail to invade my work too. And, being me, it comes with a creepy edge.

The creepy-cute invasion of my work begins with Evil Bunny. I'd say that his bark's worse than his bite, but rabbits don't bark.

Click the image below to see the listing:



Look out for more creatures coming soon! Here's a few designs I've been playing around with:



In the meantime, click below to check out the new Creatures section of my Etsy shop for bats, cats and more:

Firing my imagination

My latest piece, Fiery Heart, is so called because of the bright, tropical-coloured beads I've used in its creation.



Inspiration for the colours used in its design came from a magazine advert for paint. I thought that the combination of brights in the room set just looked so gorgeous together that I needed to use them in my work.





Its so colourful that I almost want to keep it for myself. I won't though - you can buy it now on Folksy - just click the image below:

Pretties

I love my Etsy friends. They like to send me things just because they think I'd like them. The latest sweetiepie to send me pretties was maker of hand-embroidered goodness, Laura of LAMdesigns.

There are little cobweb baggies (which some lucky customers will get things in no doubt), one of which contained a cobweb eyepatch and little wire spider. Plus there were Moo cards, and a very sweet little note on equally sweet notepaper.





Laura says that she was going through her stash and realised that, as much as she liked these bits, that she was unlikely to use them. She knew I'd like them though, and sent them on to me. Thanks sweetie! x

Much cuteness

Today has been a day of squee, bringing with it much cuteness. This came in the form of:

Bunny Blobs by Cute Designs:



A Bat Brooch called Bertie from KoolKookyKreatures:



And an Emo Tweet from feltmeupdesigns:



These little guys (and Pinky Bunny) are all living in my studio:



Way too cute by far!

My handmade year

Normal, organised people would post such a post on the 31st of December, or indeed on the 1st of January. However, having never been normal, or indeed organised, I am posting this on the 13th. 13 is my lucky number however, so there is method in my madness!

Last year's resolution was to buy something handmade at least once a month. Lack of money has meant that hasn't been possible every month, but I've still bought some fabulous things this year.

The first of those fabulous things was this gorgeous print by the ridiculously talented Deb of Champignons:



It came with some lovely free prints:



Two of which now reside on my ever-changing staircase wall of art.



Also in January, I bought this cute little print from Quite Contrary,



and, in February, I was able to afford to buy this gorgeous print from Linda Boucher:



The three prints hang in my bedroom, creating a little red shoe-themed triptych:



Take a look at this post for more about those :)

In March, I bought my Mum an adorable owl from Kool Kooky Kreatures for Mothers' Day.

June and July were somewhat batty, bringing with them as they did a Batcat ACEO from the truly fabulous Blacklilypie (I would buy her whole shop if I could afford it!):



It came with a gorgeous free postcard and stickers, yay!



Batcat now lives on the shelves in my studio.



Plus, a very cute apple cinnamon scented bat sachet from batgirl93.etsy.com,



A postcard (plus one free!) from She's Batty (check out her card designs!):



And lots of Halloween supplies:



I'd won a gift card for Aquariann's Artfire shop (another one whose whole inventory I'd buy if I could), so in August I felt the need to get me a little Tree Fairy print:



In November, I spotted that Claire Payne was having a little sale, so I snapped up a skully brooch for a bargainous price. I couldn't resist a cat brooch either, and, when the sticker-adorned package came, there was a free monster brooch too!



Also in November, I took advantage of a BOGOF offer in the lovely Illusio's Etsy shop. Not only did I buy one ACEO and get one free, I got two free, plus a postcard. Hurrah!



Those now live on the wall of art too.



So, with 2009 over, it's time to start concentrating on my resolutions for 2010. I need to generally look after myself better really - eat better, get out more and so on. Also to be more creative - I've really neglected my crafts lately (two pendants in three months is not good enough!) - and try to make something every day. So I've started the year with good intentions, but whether or not those are followed up remains to be seen ...