Printing and Stamping

This week I decided to try to make my own little stamp of my Fudge & Poppy logo using a square eraser. I picked up a bunch of five chunky black erasers from eBay a while ago with a view to giving it a go.

I had been flicking through a nice book I got from the library a while back – The Hand Printed Home by Jenny McCabe. I love the idea of making my own stamps and prints and especially doing something to print fabric with. At some point I will get some fabric paint medium to mix with acrylics to use to try some ideas with.

In the meantime I thought that my first attempt at carving my own stamp would be something I could perhaps use to stamp onto brown paper tags. So I got the image for my F&P logo and reversed it using Gimp (a free version of a programme like Photoshop) and then printed it out. I then stuck it over my eraser and dug out a craft knife. I was a bit annoyed with myself, as the last time I had used the craft knife was when we did pumpkin carving last year – and it must not have been cleaned very well (and had been stood in a Marvin the Martian mug on the windowsill by the sink since then) so the end was a bit rusty. But I thought, it’s my first go, so I wont be too hard on myself if I make a hash of it.

As it turns out – I didn’t do too badly!

I went through my old stash of ink pads to find that my black one had totally dried up and my bronze one was just about OK, so I will probably have to get a new black one if I want to use it properly.

Last week I also managed to make a nice print on myself with the iron. I was reaching over it to put a cushion cover on the end of the ironing board when I caught my wrist on the top point of the iron – which was super hot as it was on the hottest setting. Needless to say I ran straight into the bathroom and ran gallons of cold water over it. A week on and it’s still quite tender, the skin has cracked a little because I’ve been doing all my usual stuff and probably not taking quite as good care of it as I should. Hopefully smothering it with Sudocrem every hour might stop me from getting an iron shaped scar!

Burn baby burn! Iron Inferno! (Doesn’t quite have the same ring to it.)

On a slightly happier note, I did make a beanbag for the living room this week – I will do a post about it next week as I discovered it needed more beans than the tutorial said it did so I had to order some more! (Probably down to me not being able to follow simple instructions – but it still looks like a beanbag AND I did my very first ever zip so it’s all still good!)

I also discovered this week that I had reached my 100th Etsy sale, so after a bit of jumping about and smiling like a loon, I decided to put an offer on my Facebook page to say that to celebrate, the next order I got would get a free gift. And then moments later – I got order number 101! So that went off and will hopefully be received later today. I decided to keep that offer open for the rest of the weekend – so if anyone fancies a little free gift then why not pop on over!

Order 101 complete with mystery free gift!

Plus if you’ve never ordered anything on Etsy before – why not take advantage of this fab little offer to get £5 (or the equivalent in your currency) off your first ever order! (The minimum order value is £10 – but you could order a few little things or one bigger thing if you fancied.) You don’t have to use it in my shop, but it might be nice to get £5 off and a free gift too!

Why social media and feedback is vital to small businesses

Mmm, the title of this post sounds pretty heavy and serious compared to my usual posts of cushions for sale and Wonder Woman Converse trainers but I’ve been thinking recently about my Fudge & Poppy business. I love making things, yeah it doesn’t always go right, yes sometimes I come very close to throwing my sewing machine out of the window sometimes when it decides that it wants to break the thread every time I back stitch but on the whole I love making things.

Selling the things you have made yourself to other people is a nerve racking thing. You are putting yourself out there, putting something YOU made yourself, into the hands of someone else who wants to part company with their hard earned cash to buy YOUR product. It means a lot when you are a small business, especially in the arts and crafts world.

In the early days I really doubted myself, I hardly knew how to thread a sewing machine let alone make a cushion cover. I had some great encouragement from my husband and a couple of close friends to get my stuff out there. Initially I created a Facebook group and sold some items through there, in preparation to see if it was worth opening an Etsy shop. I then created a Facebook page to link to the Etsy shop and spent some money in advertising it to help get it seen by more people than just my group of friends.

After doing this a few times I felt uneasy, I was buying ‘likes’ and not earning them how I wanted to. These days my Facebook page is ticking along with 195 likes, it’s not a lot and I’d like to get more, but only if people genuinely like my stuff, otherwise it just doesn’t feel right.

I am not the sort of person to fill up peoples news feeds with banal posts, I like to concentrate on posts to do with what I do, and I don’t always post something every day. But I can’t help but feel a little jealous sometimes when I see other craft related pages with hundreds if not thousands of likes, but they are posting little titbits about their day, what the kids are up to, how bad their day is. The question is – does that really get you more likes? Maybe. As a stepmother I don’t feel comfortable with posting much stuff about my stepson on my Facebook page. I feel like a pretend Mum and it makes me feel pretty uncomfortable so I tend to only do it rarely.

I’ve done the rounds of liking and sharing other craft and local businesses pages – getting involved with networking. Generally the etiquette is that if you like another business page, promote their page on yours, that they should do the same. But I’ve been disappointed that only one or two pages have done this, the rest come to my page – say thanks and ‘a new like from me’ but sometimes I don’t actually get a new like. When you only have 195 page likes you know when you get more or lose some, they don’t get lost in the mire of the hundreds and thousands. Sometimes you start to doubt whether your stuff is good enough and whether you should carry on, it’s not a nice feeling.

Keep calm and try not to go loopy… (Me made using Bitstrips)

I’ve done give-aways, some have been good and others haven’t garnered so much as 1 more page like. I have a select group of followers who like and share things and sharing really is so important. Especially with the recent changes to Facebook’s news feed, if you don’t interact with a page very often you soon stop seeing their posts in your feed. Even though I have almost 200 likes, my posts are mainly only seen by about 30 people on average, but when someone shares something from my page – those views sky-rocket.

Below is an example of two posts from my page – one with no shares and the other with three shares – the numbers of views are pretty different.

I’ve done several craft fairs over the past couple of years and I’ve had some really great comments from people about my creations. People come over to the stall, they touch and feel and their eyes light up, some might even talk to me about how amazing they are, do I make them myself etc. And then they walk away because they’ve only brought a couple of pounds with them, expecting it to only be the sort of place they can maybe spend 10p on something. So I hand cards out so people can find my shop online and maybe make some sales that way instead.

After last Christmas I felt a bit disheartened, people would coo over my things and then turn around and spend their money on a more expensive thing like a log, covered in glitter with a candle in it and some naff fairy ornament on top. I polled some people as to my prices, wondering if I was perhaps charging too much, but in general the feedback was that it was just right or at times not enough for the quality. I’ve since decided not to do any more school based fairs, they just aren’t working for me. The table prices can be quite high and if you don’t do well you just end up out of pocket.

So what about feedback? Before I’d even heard of Etsy I was very familiar with eBay and the feedback system there. Buyers could leave feedback for sellers and vice versa. As both a buyer and a seller on eBay I knew the importance of a. being a good seller – being truthful about what I was selling (usually clothes) so that the buyer could make an informed decision and hopefully be happy with their purchase, b. leaving feedback for sellers so that other buyers had an idea of what it might be like to purchase something from that seller and c. leaving feedback for buyers – so that other sellers knew they paid quickly and had no problems.

When I joined Etsy I was pleased to see that a similar set up was in place. As things progressed and I started to make more sales I was pleased that I was getting good feedback. Then the set up changed, Etsy stopped allowing sellers to leave feedback for buyers and set a special time limit for buyers to leave feedback for sellers. This was to try and stop knee-jerk reactions when people weren’t happy – to give people a cooling off period or time to make contact with a seller if they weren’t 100% happy. That is great, but it meant that because people often couldn’t leave feedback the day they received their purchase, they forgot to come back and do it a few days later. After a certain period of time they then can’t leave feedback for their purchase at all.

So I went from getting feedback from about 8 out of every 10 transactions to more like 3 in every 10. That’s not so good.

Whenever I send a buyer a confirmation note to let them know I have dispatched their order I always ask them to let me know when it has arrived safe and sound. Perhaps 1 in every 10 does. I appreciate that people have busy lives and in the grand scheme of things I’m not so very important, I get that. But it doesn’t stop me sitting at home worrying, thinking they aren’t happy with the item I made because of their silence. It’s silly, of course if they weren’t happy they would be straight on to me to let me know. But it niggles and pokes at me – ‘they don’t like it, they’re not happy, if you can’t say something nice don’t say anything at all…’ It’s nonsense though. Every so often I send a follow up message to make sure it arrived and mostly this prompts them to leave feedback for the transaction or just reply to let me know it was all great and they love it. Phew.

I love getting sent photos of the things I have made taking up residence in their new homes. It really gives me such a great sense of satisfaction and validation that I am good at this.

Getting feedback is so important, not only to let the seller know that they are doing a good job and to keep it up, but also for other buyers to whom a sale might just hinge on how happy past customers have been. It is tough buying things online when you can’t touch and poke at things, you are buying based on a few photographs and hopefully a good description. We take feedback into account to help us to make that final decision before we press that button to purchase.

For a small business every bit of feedback counts as another little push up the ladder. For a small business every single ‘Like’ on a Facebook page means that one more person is interested. For a small business every ‘share’ and having someone spread their experience via word of mouth is priceless.

So if you’ve ever bought something from an artist or crafter who sits and works at home, amongst the ins and outs of a daily routine, between the household chores, the wiping of children’s faces, the cooking of family meals, take the time to let them know you got your order OK, leave them some feedback, share a photograph or a link from their Facebook page – it only takes a moment.

And for all those people who have already liked and shared my page, or favourited my items or shop on Etsy, left me feedback – thank you, thank you, thank you!

A very happy me (made using Bitstrips)

 

 

Cushions Galore!

OK not quite galore, but I finally got around to making more cushion covers and have put them up in the shop!

Dinosaur print – in the shop here. Fabbo dinosaur design on the front with a plain green envelope back. I did make two of these but sold one before I got round to listing them on Etsy!

Owl & Tree print – in the shop here. Awesome tree, owl and snail design on the front with a fine green stripe back.

Cool little road print – in the shop here. Great little design with a road and cars and little ponds with boats etc. Plain grey back.

I also put my coffee pot print cushion in the shop today too. Same fabric all the way around.

I plan to make some more this coming week!

Boxing Day – Packaging Central!

We’ve had a lovely few days. Christmas Eve was my husband’s last day at his current job (not been there long but was utterly rubbish with nothing much to do – but will be starting his new job in the New Year!) so he was home by 12:30pm and we went to get our final bits and bobs from the supermarket before having a lovely evening over at Dom’s to have some mac & cheese and some lovely baked ham, followed by a humorous night of chatting and reminiscing about TV programmes from our childhood and music from the 90s!

My husband and I had a lovely Christmas Day – the day to ourselves and taking it easy. My stepson was with his Mum for Christmas Day and we have him again today and for a couple of days before he is back with his Mum for New Year.

We got up when we felt like it, and did our stockings. For some weird reason, every year we manage to get each other the exact same amount of things in each other’s stockings. Occasionally we do it with presents under the tree too. I got some lovely little bits in my stocking (sweeties, some Batman socks, Cola lipbalm, the book Another Night Before Christmas by Carol Ann Duffy, Lego minifigures, a lovely teal blue top, some blue corn face scrub and some tubs of my lovely vitamin E body butter and a tangerine!) and I think my husband liked his stocking gifts, (socks, slipper socks, tie, gloves, chocolate, deodourant, shower gel, the obligatory toothbrush and a tangerine!)

We then had our breakfast and a couple of cups of tea and a nice snuggle on the sofa before opening our presents from under the tree while listening to Christmas music on Classic FM. I had so many really nice things. Some lush storage boxes for all my crafty things, a really cute squirrel pattern bag, a book of New Selected Poems by Carol Ann Duffy and The Christmas Truce also by Carol Ann Duffy (can you tell she is my favourite poet?) the DVD of Monster’s University (I love Disney films), Karlology by Karl Pilkington, more sweeties and two lovely tops.) My husband also liked his gifts (World War Z on DVD, Terry Pratchett’s latest – Raising Steam, The Shining book by Stephen King, air hockey table top game (along with some spare batteries!) and some chocolate covered raisins and a really nice hanging heart decoration made by his son out of recycled christmas cards!)

We then enjoyed some rather lovely English Champagne and enjoyed just snuggling up and not doing too much, speaking to relatives etc. Then embarked on making our Christmas lunch – roast Poussin with chestnut stuffing, pigs in blankets, roast potatoes & parsnips with garlicky leeks and yellow carrots with gravy. Super yummy (and a bit of a meat fest but there you go.)

I was really blessed to be shown a video of my friend Chloe’s little boy getting his moustache on a stick I made – just utterly adorable and cute!

Then it was mini mince pies and general relaxing and my husband popped over to see his son before yet more relaxing and eventually having a bath and tumbling into bed.

Today it was Christmas Day Mark II – with my stepson opening his presents here. A whole host of things including some Nerf guns, Bop-It, some flashy new Connect4 game, Face Paints (he was made up to look like a Penguin as he always asks to be one whenever there is face painting anywhere and always ends up looking nothing like one – one place he looked like a leopard…) and some pirate related toys. So we have oodles of packaging everywhere, boxes, moulded plastic, cable ties – the lot.

So today has been mainly full of presents, chocolate, TV, chocolate, presents, shooting things, presents, chocolate and TV.

Although we got some WHSmith’s own version of Top Trumps – Ace Trumps for my stepson in his stocking, and I wasn’t overly impressed. The Dinosaur set had the word ‘Length’ spelled wrong on every card as ‘Lenght’ and also had a made-up word on some when talking about having a ‘pertruberance’ when they really meant ‘protuberance’. Their Poisonous Animals set was also rating them on ‘Agressiveness’ rather than ‘Aggressiveness’. *sigh*

So one tired boy will be getting in the bath soon and then heading to bed and being read some of his new Richard Scarry books (I love them!)

Tomorrow may be us visiting my in-laws and then hopefully at some point during New Year we will be visiting my parents.

I’ve also spent a portion of today sorting out my shop – reducing prices for the post-Christmas sale – plenty of items are now in the sale – all my Christmas decorations too. So pop on over and take a look! Not to mention the code XMASFUDGE40 is also still valid for a further 40% off!

Hope you all had a lovely Christmas and all the best for the New Year!

Roll up roll up….

As I haven’t made anything new for a week (a whole week!) I thought I might write some posts about some of the items I have made over the past few months.

One of my favourites is this fabulous set of Circus themed finger puppets. The Travelling Popolino Troupe!

Initially I sat and made the Lion and I thought to myself – what would go with this lion? I was thinking other animals but then the idea of a Lion Tamer / Ringmaster came into my head and I set to creating him – The Great Popolino! (His real name is Alberto Popozinski…) And his co-performer Samson the Lion (who is a strict vegetarian.)

His top hat is a bit ludicrously tall but I think it adds to the drama. His whip is made with a bit of black wool with a felt handle – but not to worry the whip doesn’t come too close to Samson!

Then came Alberto’s wife Arrabella Linguini – the trapeze artist and her pet snake Edith and the rather morose Herbie Onions – the Clown (he is secretly in love with Arrabella…)

 

I used a sparkly sock remnant for Arrabella’s outfit sort of stretching it around as I stitched it into place (she even has a slightly padded out chest area…)

I also rather enjoyed working on Herbie, his top is glittery although it doesn’t show up too well in the photo, and his trousers are made of this fabbo denim fabric. I even made him a little squirty flower.

Then my favourite of the bunch – The Strongman – Gustav Von Trump. With his hairy chest and bushy moustache and manly tattoos he easily lifts his 200lb weights!

After I finished making them I lay awake most of the night thinking they needed a bag to keep them all together in and I knew just the fabric to use – so the next morning before I headed off to work I whipped up this little drawstring bag out of this great striped fabric – looks a bit like the Big Top itself!

The set is of course in my shop and ready for some awesome performances!

Challenge – Day 4

So I have already made my items for today’s challenge. (Get me!)

I was a little inspired by my dino magnets yesterday with the whole felt and fabric thing and as I have this great die cutter my husband bought me for my birthday in July, it is just perfect for doing repeatable items for precision especially when you want to make a set of something and consistency is key.

I have this great fabric with a bird motif and I thought perhaps they might help accent some star shaped hanging decorations.

And I am not sure why I haven’t done something like this sooner, as they are my favourite animal ever – Behold the Platypus brooch!

I also made this little bookmark – with a cow parsley embroidered detail.

As usual you can find them for sale in my shop – Stars, Bookmark and Duck Billed Love.

Oh and one of my challenge items has just sold on Etsy – my awesome little bat from Saturday! Whoop whoop!

Challenge – Day 3

Monday I felt a bit manic and rushed. I spent a couple of hours sorting out photos from the weekend’s work and listing things on Etsy and finishing off painting the front door…

At one point The Beast (aka the sewing machine) decided it hated my sock material and all it wanted to do was chew it up in its feed dogs and I started to get a bit hot and bothered.

Then my Dad sent me a text asking if I was around that afternoon as he wanted to call me for a chat so I was feeling under pressure to get things done. In the end we spoke at around 8pm so the whiff of desperation had faded by then!

So Monday’s efforts went like this… Bertram the Bunny…made of (clean) socks and buttons and a scrap of felt.

The coolest little dino magnets – cunningly displayed here on the magnetic wall in my kitchen which is plastered with magnetic poetry, family photos, the alphabet, numbers and a handy reminder that 7am is morning time for my stepson – rather than 6am or any other unholy hour.

You can also find these little beauties on my shop – Bertram and The Dinos!

The Fudge & Poppy Blog

I have decided to create a blog to link with my Etsy shop! I thought it would be a good way to connect with other people, fellow sewers and other creative minds! It will be a mixture of posts of items I have made or am making, things that I am up to, perhaps things that are on my mind.

I hope you enjoy what is to come!