Recent handmade cards

Just thought I would share a few of my recent cards, some for fathers day and some for my parents anniversary.

The card above and below have been stamped and coloured using watercolour pencils.



This card has been stamped and coloured using promarkers.



Teabag backing paper.

The background on the above card has been made by scrunching up a piece of paper, opening as flat as possible then giving it a wash of teabag leaves diluted with water and allowing to dry.

Craft fairs=decision time

First I want to apologise for not blogging for so long but I have had a couple of craft fairs and have been so busy trying to get ready for them. Now I am wondering why I bothered.
The 1st event I attended was a pamper evening at a school. This was arranged through the PTA and they said they had such a successful event last year they had to extend it by an hour. They were also offering pamper treatments alongside the stalls. When I arrived it all looked really goo, plenty of variation on the type of stalls selling items. However when people started to arrive all they seemed interested in was the free drink and the treatments. Hardly anyone even looked at the stalls let alone buy anything. I just thought oh well onto the next one.
The 2nd event I had booked was at a helicopter museum. I attended an event just before Xmas at the same venue but due to the weather (event was held in between snow storms) hardly anyone attended. I thought I would give it another shot with better weather. But this time the turnout was even worse, I think there was only about 3 women all day and I need women to buy my items. It was a 2 day event but I couldn't face the 2nd day so didn't bother going back. I know that's not really the attitude to have when running a business but I weighed up the time I would lose sitting there against what I could accomplish at home working.
I have got another event booked for August at a steam event where they have a craft marque. Hopefully that event will be better.
I have however decided after all these let downs that if I don't sell anything (or even just a few things) at the next event then I am going to give up craft fairs and card making to concentrate on the sewing side of my business. I have already started to scale down the card making side anyway but this will be the final test.
I am going to try to get into a few trade wedding shows to see if that helps my business as this is the route that I want to go down anyway.