Change of mind, change of policy...

 

(picture of work in progress just to pretty up this post, more on the Foxes next time)

Since my previous post, I have given the whole selling from patterns a lot of thought, in addition to reading Abby's post and the comments made for her 'softie's for sale' series.  It made me think back to my time working within the craft kit industry, marketing, added value and various other technicalities of running a business.

All of this has led me to a conclusion, and that is to have a change in policy.

I've amended the tutorial page on the blog, and also the sidebar, but in short, it means craft items made using any of my free tutorials and PDF patterns (which are coming soon!) can be made to sell. 

There are a few stipulations noted within the new policy page, nothing too major though.  Unfortunately, the new policy does not cover the patterns from the books, Countryside Softies, Little Birds and Countdown Calendars.  Published books come under a different banner as the copyright restrictions are set by the publisher, not me. 

My hope is that this is an enlightening decision, and also make future PDF patterns have a greater appeal to purchase.  What do you reckon, good idea??

Kittens in the making...

Today's wip,

...after last night's rumblings, I feel compelled to have a peaceful day crafting. Lucy is at school, Luke is at nursery, Mr LK is out, and I'm sewing whilst listening to this.

Thank you so much for all your lovely, encouraging comments on the craft kits and eye patch tutorial, it has been a real boost reading them and visiting all of your blogs. A couple of announcements may be in order, firstly, a few of you have asked about my Etsy shop. The plan is to open that at the beginning of April, seems to make sense for it to be at the start of the new financial year. The first update will be a small selection of 3D fabric & felt animals, and some cushion covers, I have a long term plan for this whole venture..., I will keep you posted on that!.

Also, look out for another blog giveaway, my one year 'blogaversary' is on the 9th of March, so come back then for the chance of another freebie!

In the meantime, have a happy Mother's day!

Sewing from the heart...,

This week, I have some pressing projects to be tackled.  I haven't started my mobile yet for Elsie Marley's mobile swap (although I do know what I'm going to make, the design is done), but before that, there are cushion covers to make.

The design for the original flower garden cushion comes from the one I made for my Mum last christmas.  There is a story behind this design, a very personal story, which I didn't share at the time...,

...the three hearts within the appliqued band represent her three children, the seeds she has planted.  The buttons and flowers growing above are for her nine grandchildren, all at different stages in their lives.  The heart button towards the top, is for Lilly.

Lilly was my youngest brother and his partners second daughter.  Sadly, she died 31 weeks into the pregnancy, and was born an angel two days later.  

It is experiences like this, that shape who we are and help us know where place any future unsettling events.  On a scale of one to ten as to what is really important in life, flickr, and other things that have cropped up this week, are a zero.

(Just to lighten the mood, I don't do serious very well, I'm typing this while my son is shooting foam discs at me, I think I'm meant to be Power Ranger 'Pink'!)

Eye patch tutorial (for occlusion therapy),

My daughter is the unfortunate owner of very poor eyesight (her prescription is a +5 on the right and a +6 on the left) and also a squint, both are corrected by wearing glasses, which she has done, with very little complaining, since the age of 18 months old (proud Mummy moment!). In addition to all this, we are exercising her weaker eye (the left one), with 2 hours of patching a day. The sticky patches the hospital gave us were, to be honest, useless, and kept peeling off, but why use something like that, when Mum can make one of these... a cute, pink eye patch, out of felt.

I decided to post this as a full tutorial, so many craft bloggers have children, I figured there will be others out there who may find this useful.

You will need - light pink felt, dark pink felt, yellow felt, black felt, a button, embroidery thread, pins, a needle, and a pair of scissors, and of course, ...some glasses!

Print out the templates so that the basic eye patch shape is roughly 7 x 10 cm, and the flower is 5 cm wide.

Cut the patch template, making the 3 slits as indicated. Fold the end over, as below, and sew down both seems (I have done this on the machine, but you could stitch it by hand), trim off the excess felt.

Pin together the 2 edges of the center slit, trapping the folded over arm holder loop in between, and sew.

Trim off any excess felt from this inner seam and turn the patch the right way round. Try it on the glasses for size, and also trim the outside edges if needed (probably a good idea at this stage to get the person who will be wearing the patch to try it on to check the fit)

Pin the lense sleeve into position,

and sew on with random straight stitches along both the top and the bottom edges, leaving both side open for the glasses frame to slip through.

Repeat the basic patch shape in black felt, remember to sew it the reverse way round this time, as the 2 need to fit together with all seams on the inside. Place the black inner patch, and the outer patch together and trim any excess off the black so they both match and blanket stitch both pieces together, all the way round the edge.

Attach the flower decoration using the button by sewing onto the lense sleeve, be careful not to sew it on through the whole patch, and just to the sleeve, other wise it will block the gap the glasses frame is to slip through . Place the patch on the glasses, and using some sharp scissors, poke a small hole through the whole patch, for the nose pad to slot through.

The patch can be used on either the left or the right side of the glasses simply by turning it upside down, Lucy's goes on the right, covering up her good eye, so she is forced to use her left one. This is the girly version, you could easily make a boy's version by using red and blue felt, and decorate it with a star sheriff's badge, or a bug shape.

No doubt, in the future, I will be making more of these as Luke also has a slight squint, and it's best to catch these things early, that's when patching has the most effect.

If you make something from one of my tutorials please do join the Flickr group, Lucykate Crafts... pattern pieces, to show off your creations.

Flying visit...,

Can't believe a week has gone by already since my last post, time..., slow down please!

It has been a busy week, a bit of sewing, a trip to the Lake District, and a trip to Birmingham.

Now, I'm home again, it's back to the sewing,

 

and to finish adding spines to this little guy!

Newly commissioned piece!

Finally, after what seemed like ten thousand strawberries, blueberries and raspberries... I have finally completed yet another commissioned piece! The picture above was taken last evening, RIGHT after I finished it. As you can tell, I didn't even bother cutting off the edges yet! I was too excited! Haha. I think apart from the british packaging piece I did last year, this has got to be my other favourite! Hours and hours of drawing and painting while watching re-runs of My Kitchen Rules, along with missed episodes of Greys Anatomy and Gossip Girl. Ah. Nice times! I really, truly do enjoy just sitting alone at my desk, drawing and painting the whole afternoon away.

School starts again for me next week. I'm going back to Uni again to do a graduate diploma in secondary teaching. I'm a little anxious and I really hope I'll be able to get this whole art making + schooling + placements thingy well-balanced. So I can enjoy teaching, essay writing (oh bless me!) and art making all at the same time! Let's see if it'll work! I'm keeping my fingers and toes crossed!

And yes, don't forget! There's a 20% off all art prints Sale going on right now in my shop! Do check it out while prints last! I'm headed to my trusty printer's in just a bit. Going to check out the latest test prints... MMMMM!

The good, the bad, and the...,

just plain ugly!

First the good, thank you so much for all the sympathetic comments regarding my skirt mishap, am glad to hear I am in good company with making the odd mistake.  I've been making some more shoes, brogues this time, and all of my squidgy shoes are shortly off to the USA, to be making an appearance in the next issue of 'Stuffed' magazine!

Now, for the bad.  Again, a big thank you for all the Flickr sympathy.  I am still none the wiser as to why, despite my emailing Flickr asking for an explanation, the response has been zero.  I've dug around in their forum and found some thought, that if a photostream consists of entirely work related images, and gives the impression of an online catalogue, that can cause an account to be deleted.  I have to admit, mine was all work, as I'm not comfortable sharing family and home life online.  Anyhow, I have today, tentatively rejoined!, I am a bit nervous having done so, and given I still don't know what I did wrong last time, am very worried about making the same mistake again.  It's going to take a while to get up to speed there again, if I haven't yet made you a contact again, please feel free to give me a nudge!

(oh, and there are a small smidgen of rather boring, personal photo's on flickr, in my new "not commercial in any way" photostream) 

And the ugly?, well, that's me!.  I feel really run down, ulcers in my mouth, coldsores on my lip, spots on my chin.  I'm nearly 40, and I haven't looked this bad since being a teenager!

Am giving up chocolate for a few days (gulp!), to see if that helps!

Not going to link, not going to name names...

...that would just be crass.  Now, I know people are making items from my book and selling them.  If you go to Etsy and search the term 'fox softie', a fair few of the front cover design pop up.  Officially, you are not supposed to.  It says so within the copyright section at the front of the book.  But do you know what?, I actually don't really mind.  Lets be honest here, I'm not made of money and I don't know anyone in the legal profession, so chasing down small independent sellers is not something I can afford to get into.  That, however does not mean it is open season.

A few sellers have emailed to ask first.  A few have gone ahead anyway, but have credited the book in the product description, and I appreciate the honesty in doing so.  

A small few have claimed my designs to be their own.

Just bear in mind that I too, am a small independent seller.  I still make things from my own patterns to sell.  Any confusion over copyright can potentially impact on my business too, which, given how much I do already give away in the form of free tutorials, is frustrating.

I didn't make a huge amount from writing the book.  Enough to buy a new washing machine after destroying my old one felting wool.  The book was a labour of love so, please play nice.

20% OFF ALL ART PRINTS!

From now till perhaps Mid-March, I'll be having a mini sale! 20% off all Art prints from my shop! And yup, it does include my latest fruit and veggie prints too. Both of which are really limited. Only 20 each for the A3 sizes. And 10 each for the much larger 50x70cm pieces. So click away and buy yourself a print if you wish! Or you can help spread the word too if you feel like it.

Use discount code 'HOOOORAY' upon checkout! Thank you : )

Bounty,

I might have a hurty elbow, but I am not one to be deterred.  At least where shopping is concerned anyway.  Last week I nipped out to do my monthly rounds of the local charity shops and actually managed to score pretty well this time,

woollens to felt and some shirts to chop up.

Although I do often peruse fabrics online, I still prefer to pillage my fabrics from old clothes.  Many reasons why, cost is one as recycling is much cheaper.  This horror story has also worried me from the perspective of using designer fabrics for commercial purposes like I (and indeed everyone on Etsy) do when making items to sell and patterns for publishing.  That particular situation has now been resolved and agreements reached, but it does raise the question that when using fabrics, whose design actually is the finished piece?  This is why I'm very aware how much the use of well known fabric ranges impacts on a design and can take over from the piece you are making.  

My aim is for the focal point to be the item I've made, not the materials it's made from.  Anyone else feel like that?

I think I'm having a bad week!

Guess the mistake...!

Answer is below,

(sorry, bad photo alert, this was in the evening, artificial light!)

I've sewn it to my skirt.

Live Updates

It's official! I am hooked onto Instagram! It's so bad how I no longer really use my proper camera anymore. Oops. Blame all the bad backaches and neckaches from carrying it around all the time. I still love shooting with it though and am pretty sure I'll be bringing it around more often. Soon! But well, for now, I'm kind of having a little 'honeymoon period' with instagram. I find it handy for uploading pictures of my work in progress and always do so. In fact I often find myself doing mini live updates so others can see the progress  and perhaps learn a trick or two of how to paint?  Feel free to follow me if you want to.
My username is handmadelove.

For those of you who don't have an iPhone or instagram, you can always view my pictures here. I know a few of you have tried adding me as a friend on Facebook. Thank you for wanting to be friends with me! I truly think it's really thoughtful. But for now, my facebook's pretty much for family and good friends only. So if you'd like to like my Facebook page instead, that'll be awesome. Thank you!

I've also recently lost all my contacts from my old mailing list. So if you'd like to be updated (once in a blue moon I promise!) with shop updates, giveaways, exciting bits, class schedules do sign up here. I must admit though, I almost never send anything out. I try and post everything up here on the blog. So yup, fret not. No weekly or fortnightly spam mails, I promise!

Well, before I head off to do more painting, I'd like to let you all know that come early March, there'll be a big giveaway on my blog/twitter and Facebook! Prize pack will include this new print in A3, several A4 prints and some past prints and things of mine from over 2 years ago..things like my zines! Hahaha. Stay tuned for the giveaway!

My newest piece of sewing equipment...

Turns out, after years of intermittent pain which has slowly developed into near constant pain, I have tennis embroiderers elbow.

Hopefully the epicondylar clasp and a week of high dose ibuprofen will help!

Feeling a bit blue..,

I don't like blogging about negative things, but as I'm only human, sometimes this stuff does seep to the surface.  As you may have spotted in my previous post, my Flickr account has been deleted.  The good news is the groups as linked to in the sidebar are still there, but all my own images, comments, contacts, and favorites are all gone.  Why?, in all honesty, I'm not sure.  Flickr did this with no warning, the only contact I've had with them is a very short message in response to my email telling me I had broken their 'terms of service', I can only guess as to how.

There were links back to this blog within the description of some images, and a handful photographs which referenced Etsy.  I'm feeling very frustrated at not being given the chance by Flickr to put right what was wrong, and trying to remain as professional as I can, but it is hard not to point out there are far worse crimes against the terms of service being committed on Flickr.  Best I can do for now is to say to all of you, please, please check your own photostream if you are a Flickr user, I'm not the only person this happened to, hopefully in posting this, it may help save others from the same fate.

I'm not sure if I will rejoin Flickr, am going to leave it for a while.  

In the meantime, some things to cheer me up, the copious amounts of Green & Blacks chocolate in my tummy were joined by a rather lovely meal from a girls night out yesterday evening, and I have this sat next to me on my desk...,

I managed to grab one of these in Stephanie's valentine shop update, of course because Mr LK got the love letter I made for him, I get to keep this, yay!

There is also some sewing to be done.  A new shoe waiting for a bit of decoration.  And next on the softie shoe list are some brown, brogue style ones, and my favorite, red t-bar shoes!

Button necklace,

A couple of weeks ago, I was in the mood one evening to do something crafty.  Whatever it was going to be, it had to be easy (as I was tired), and quick (as it was late).  I'd always fancied a long button necklace, White Stuff have a nice one, but I don't live near a branch or have that much spare spends right now.  But seriously, how hard can it be to make one?  Not very so it turns out, here's mine...,

  

It's quite long, and with a big red square button I bought a while ago, but wasn't sure what to do with it, as a central feature.  To make one, all you need is a length of cord and a selection of buttons.

  

The cord is a fair bit longer than I wanted the finished necklace to be.  Fold it in half to mark the center point and anchor the first button there.  Then, working up each side, thread on buttons at roughly 1 1/2" (4cm) intervals.

 

 

Each button is  secured in place at the back with a knot before moving on to the next.

  

Once the whole necklace is threaded with buttons, simply tie the ends in a knot and trim off any excess cord.  The first one came together so easily, I made a shorter one for Lucy using pastel coloured buttons alternating with a white flower.

 

Don't tell her I'm wearing it, I'll be in big trouble! 

ps, just noticed I am 2 posts away from 200, and about 3 weeks away from a 3rd blogiversary!

Kits...

Yesterday morning I made a quick trip to the NEC for Craft, Hobby & Stitch International, only had a couple of people to see, and to check out this...

My patchwork toys were launched as kits!  I'll add a link in the sidebar once they have made their way into the shops.

It's half term this week, my head hurts from all the squabbling already and there is butter all over the sitting room floor from Luke's toast, good start hey?!

Watercolour fun in Sydney!

Some of you might have known from following my twitter and instagram that I was in Sydney for a day yesterday! Indeed I was for about 14 hours! Thanks to the amazing team at Arc Factory, I was given the awesome opportunity to conduct a fun painting session at the launch of Ella Baché's newest Fruit d'Eclat series. Held at Orto trading co. Surry Hills ( Which by the way has TERRIFIC food! ), media guests, beauty consultants and the team from Ella Baché, including the friendly CEO Pippa Hallas herself, were all invited to join in an afternoon of fun, painting organic fresh fruits and vegetables that made up the new Fruit d'Eclat series. I thought it was such an interesting PR event. Painting session instead of the usual mingling and speeches, super cool I think! Thanks for asking me Arc Factory!
There were tomatoes, grapes, carrots, oranges...it made me hungry! Everyone was given an apron each, along with painting materials and a quick demo before they all had a go at unleashing their hidden artistic talents. Champagne and laughter aplenty, I was glad everyone enjoyed themselves. You could see some of them getting really hands-on artisty! Hah! Paint, brushes and pencils everywhere! I do hope no one dipped their paintbrushes into their sparkling water. That would be totally decadent!
We were also really lucky to be able enjoy a beautiful menu after all the hard work learning to paint. The clever chef from Orto trading designed a beautiful menu specially for the event. He included as much organic fruits and vegetables from the d'Eclat series and presented us with dishes that not only looked so good but tasted heavenly. I didn't end up taking pictures of every dish, though every inch of me wanted to. You know, it was a formal event after all. I didn't want to end up looking uncool in front of the CEO and big shots of Ella Bache, snapping photos of every dish that came out. Oh the gnocchi, potato salad and so on. They not only stole my breath but also my heart! I'm already hungry just thinking of it! I certainly know where I'm dragging Darren to, the next time I'm back in Sydney and on the hunt for good food!

Anyway, it was truly a refreshing experience for me as well, to be able to go on my first ever 'business-trip'! Haha. I swore I secretly gushed when the taxi driver said "Ah, so you're here on business I see!" Apart from that, just hanging out with the ladies behind Ella Baché, beauty editors from various publications and skin gurus was kind of fun and insightful too. I learnt a lot myself, about the importance of taking care of my skin. I think I shocked a few of them when I admitted my facial wash of choice would be good ole' bar soap! I just simply love the squeaky clean feel! Of course, I no longer use bar soap anymore. I now use a basic Biotherm facial wash and moisturiser, along with my latest indulgence - my Clarisonic exfoliating face brush! The three work like magic together. My face is visibly brighter and pores slightly smaller. I've only used it for about a week and a half so far and it's been really good for my skin. I do have a few zits surfacing but I know it's because my skin's being detoxed. All in all, I highly recommend it!

I am so excited to be given some Ella Baché Fruit d'elclat products to try. It's good to finally have my first eye serum. I only recently found out women need to include eye creams into their daily regime. Along with a good toner and the occasional mask. And of course sun block is a must too! Ah. All products of which I don't enjoy using and almost never use. Oops! Why do we women have to go through so much trouble?! They should invent a special cleansing-tonning-moisturizing-sunblocking-eye serum-mask 6 in 1 BAR SOAP! I wish! Haha.. But yes, I'm really excited to try out the new fruity range myself and see how well it'll go with my Biotherm products and Clarisonic. Perhaps, a few months down the road, if I start pampering my skin now, I'll have nice, glossy, dewy skin? Just like snow white! Hehe! Wish me luck!

Thanks once again to Ella Baché, Rose, Lucy and the rest of the team at Arc Factory and of course Sydney too, for having me! It was super fun! And I loved every bit of it!

PS: These photos were all from my little digital camera. Professional photos from the event itself coming soon! Stay tuned!


PPS: Just curious, what facial products do you guys use? I'm clueless as to what's good out there! Would love to hear from you ladies! And if you're a male, feel free to share too! I'm pretty sure Darren's interested to know what's good too! Hahaha