Thursday 29 May 2008

My very own little shop


Myself and the shop bunnies are very pleased to announce that:


I haven't done the big everything-listed-opening I was planning on, instead I am going to be listing a few items each day.

Today was Bunny Day,
so these two bunnies made their way over there and are looking for new friends

"Goldie" and "Gracie" Bunny

And there are a couple of Flossy Bunny Mini Tote too.


"Flossy loves Chocolate" and "Flossy Wants to be Filled with Chocolate" Mini Totes

The next shop fill will be a Cake Day!
I do hope you'll pop over there and take a look sometime.

Now that my little dreamed-of shop is a reality, I am feeling quite emotional. I'm proud to have completed the first step, and very excited about the challenges that lie ahead. But mainly I am thankful to all who got me there, and that includes you. The kind words, advice and support I have received have been so amazing and have given me the confidence to do this. I thank you all dearly for coming on this adventure with me.

Jenny
(a stitcher, scribbler and shop bunny)
xo

Wednesday 28 May 2008

Today's the Day...

...I set myself for getting my etsy shop up and running.

Still not there yet :(
I arrived home today (a day later than planned) and the huge amount still to be done hit me (finding out shipping costs, sorting photos, tagging, admin bits and... ummm.. sewing!).

So I'm here for a quick hello and a sorry for so long between posts (after posting daily, these days without have felt so odd!), before getting down to some serious work. I'm really hoping to be back later this evening to say I have listed a couple of items and I have an officially opened shop!

Wish me luck!

jenny
xo

Saturday 24 May 2008

Edible Happy!!



I spent yesterday making this edible 'Happy' cakes for Gaz's belated Birthday.
When I say 'made', I do in fact mean 'decorated some shop-bought mini sponge cakes'. There is a good reason I make felt cakes, and that is because as much as I wish and try I have never managed a good cake yet. And I am a very messy cook, felt is much tidier.
We ate them before setting off last night.
And because of the cake decorating and getting ready to go, I missed my post last night. My post-a-day is over and I'm a little sad about it, as its been a great experience. As well as it being the most wonderful motivation and inspiration to work, open up my own little shop (almost) and keep blogging, I have found some fantastic people and blogs to add to my reading list too.
Take care all and have a lovely weekend!
xo

Thursday 22 May 2008

Is it a bird this time?...

Is it a plane? Is it Super Mum again?

No, it's Super Dad!!


The 15th June is Father's Day, and for it, I have made little Super Dad badges.
The badges are felt with 'Super Dad' handstitching. They are 5 cms tall and wide with a brooch back. I thought it would be a cute to mount them on a Super Dad doodle so the badge looked like his body.


Using combinations of blue, red and yellow, I made 5 different badges.
These 3 went to Archie & Mabel's today and I have 2 to put in my etsy shop next week.

***
Father's Day felties are ready now as I'll be spending some stitch-free days away.
(I may sneak a little embroidery with me to keep any crafting cravings at bay. Hello, my name's Jenny and I'm a stitch-aholic.) 
I'll be back home on the 27th, ready to open shop on the 28th, but those days away may mean an end to my Post-a-day-in-May.

Hope to see you tomorrow!
xo

Wednesday 21 May 2008

The Etsy Adventure begins...

I did it!
I have my very own little shop over on Etsy!

For the moment, it is a little empty shop of mine. It will be filled with fabric treats soon, as I still plan to open up properly next Wednesday, the 28th. 
With a week to go, I thought I would make a start on setting up the shop and I'm pleased to say it was a very easy process. Not at all scary or confusing, and surprisingly quick too!

You'll find my shop at http://stitcherscribbler.etsy.com
Please stop by sometime for a peek.

Happy Wednesdays!!
xo

Tuesday 20 May 2008

Birthday Girl

'Simone and the daisies' Tote

It is a very dear friend's birthday today and I made her this tote as part of her present.
I wanted it to be special so I made up a pattern for a new shape and tried to think of something different to decorate it along with a scribbled girl...

I must admit that I am so enchanted with the shape.
Its a lovely balloon bag with pleats, a full-belly and rounded corners.
The girl was placed in the corner and surrounded by a scattering of cream and black stitched flowers, with a tiny bloom in her hair.


I hope she likes it as much as I do. 

Happy Birthday!
xo

Monday 19 May 2008

Another Bunny Day

'Goldie' Bunny

Goldie is a sweet bunny who likes to be seen.
Unlike Gracie, she is not going to be happy in the corner. She has put her best gold dress on and wants to be right at the front of the shop.


Goldie is bunny no. 8
 She wears a gold satin dress with a prettily stitched ribbon tied to the side. 

The gold fabric is special to me as it is a piece of the fabric I used on my first project at design college. I designed a Salvador Dali melting clock dress and this fabric is from the matching bag. I wish I had photos to share, I was so proud of that dress. It was the first piece I had ever designed and sewn, and it seemed fitting to sew my last piece into a bunny dress as I start my new etsy adventure.

xo 

Sunday 18 May 2008

Shop Bunny

'Gracie' Bunny

I am very happy to say that Gracie is all dressed and ready to play.
She is patiently waiting for my little shop to open, so she can sit in her corner and say hello to passers-by.


Gracie is bunny no.7.
All bunnies are made from super soft, fluffy angora. The features are hand stitched by me and each has its number stitched on its back. They is a little bunny gallery here if you'd like to see them all so far.

***
Gracie and I have been talking shop. 
We are hoping to set it all up this week and are trying to pick a name from the little shop. 
Ideas so far are:
 
or
JennyS(.etsy.com)

So. what do you think? One of these names, or thinking caps back on?
Or maybe you have an idea?
We'd love to hear your thoughts.

Hope your weekends have been lovely
xo

****Edit***
I have decided to open the shop under the name
StitcherScribbler.etsy.com

Saturday 17 May 2008

Hey Blondie!

'Kristel'

Kristel is a very special bag lady.
She was made on the request of a friend, who wanted a girl with long blonde hair to give to her sister (who the bag is named after).


The great thing about being asked for something particular is I get to try new things!
It the first time I have used so much colour on a bag girl, but I'm so glad I did... it really 'pops'! Unfortunately, the photos don't show that to the full effect :(

Hopefully I'll get better photos of the next blondie :)

xo

Friday 16 May 2008

Dear Gaz,

For your birthday, I scribbled a special cake just for you.


But that's no excuse to not have a real cake too.
If you haven't already, go get cake! 
Thats a Birthday order!!

xo

Thursday 15 May 2008

Just to say...

The laundry girl bags are now for sale at Archie and Mabel's.

***

And I've been making plans for my own little shop too.
It will definitely be on Etsy and I'm setting a goal of the 28th (2 weeks from now) to open the virtual doors!

I'm getting very excited (but a little scared too!)
jenny
xo

Wednesday 14 May 2008

My Bunny Boy

Billy Boy Bunny

Billy is bunny no. 6 and my very first bunny boy!
I think he turned out lovely, the perfect sweetheart for the flossy bunnies.


He is wearing felt dungarees with little stitch details and a cotton neckerchief. You can see a picture of the back here.

He is the same height as the other bunnies, a grand old 32cm high, made of the same lovely fluffy angora knit, and has his number '6' stitched on his foot. He is off to the brick-and-mortar shop, Archie and Mabel's, as he was a special request.

The other bunnies are waiting to be dressed and I'm pretty sure they will be girls.
Of course, that does mean more boy bunny sweethearts will be needed too.

xo

Tuesday 13 May 2008

'Elf and Safety'

15 bells, 10 rosy cheeks and a lot of stitches later, the elves are ready!

Why "Elf + Safety"?

It started with a christmas ornament I made last year for my dad. (You can see it here at the bottom of the post) He works in Health and Safety, and I do like to play with words, so the 'Elf and Safety' Elf was born.
He is leaving for a new job soon, and asked if I could make some more elves for gifts.
And here there are, a merry bunch to spread cheer and safety!


They wish you a happy healthy Tuesday!!
and so do I!

xo

Monday 12 May 2008

Elvish workings


oh, how I wish I had a little workshop with real elves to help me with my stitchings.

Of course, I'm thinking Santa-style elves. I doubt the Lord of the Rings type would be any good at making cute little felties.

xo

Sunday 11 May 2008

Oriental Scribblings


Last month's ATC swap theme was "Oriental".
Unfortunately, I was too busy with my stitchings and missed the deadline to join in so no pretty post for me, and I really do love it when little pieces of art come through the letter box.

I had forgotten that I had sketched some ideas for the swap, until yesterday's pagoda picnic reminded me. The one of the left is meant to be blossom, which would have been a background for the geisha-style lady on the right.



Also oriental in theme is this fabric my friend gave me a couple of weeks ago.
It is beautiful with tiny scenes all over it. Its too pretty not to share, and it may be a long time until I'm feeling brave enough to cut in to it.
Argh, the curse of pretty fabrics!!

Hope you all had the most wonderful of weekends
xo

Saturday 10 May 2008

Picnics, Pagodas and Promises

A post-a-day is harder than it sounds. 
Especially if you take a day off from the stitching and scribbling you usually post about, which is exactly what I did today.


Its been a wonderfully sunny week, so we decided to have a spur of the moment picnic by the peace pagoda we had drove by so many time, but never stopped to visit.


As we sat in the sun, eating floaty-light cupcakes, I promised myself the dreamed of etsy shop shall open this May. I have made a list of all that needs to be done and am confident that all can be ready. So that means tomorrow I will be stitching cakes, not eating them.
And I'm very excited about that :)

Hope you all had a lovely summery day
xo

Speaking of the Post-a-day, I'm having a fantastic time looking through the blogs on the fantastic list Jenny of Allsorts has put up, not to mention her own posts. 

Friday 9 May 2008

Laundry Girl's Little Sister

Lizzie

Lizzie likes things neat and tidy, and wants to be just like her big sister, Laundry Girl, when she grows up.


Lizzie is the second of the doodle doll patterns I was trying out.
The design was based on the simple design of the girl used when making the laundry bags.

She is completely hand-stitched giving the edges a shabby-chic feel and making for a narrower ladylike shape.


Her design is simpler, but I love her just as much as the Dreaming Doodle Doll.
I was planning to only make more of the dreaming dolls, but now I'm thinking I'll wait to see how the third doll comes out before making any decisions.

xo

Thursday 8 May 2008

Bunny Love

I've had another day working on those bunnies from yesterday's post. 
Three are all stitched up, ready to be dressed (hurrah!).


Bunny Love

Instead of more WiP pictures, I thought I'd share a sketch of bunnies, and how I'm thinking of dressing my boy bunny. Hopefully he'll turn out just a cute :)

Another Happy Bunny Day from me
xo

Wednesday 7 May 2008

Bunny Day


Today I've been making bunnies.
One is going to be a boy bunny, I'm very excited to see how he will turn out. 

And while the boy bunny is spoken for, the others will be part of my little stash I'm slowly gathering to be sold in that much-dreamed-of shop of my own.

Happy bunny day
xo

Tuesday 6 May 2008

Felt + Boredom =

Top Hats for Timmie!!


Doesn't he look so sophisticated?

Instead of the usual stitches, I decide to do a bit of toy accessorising. Timmie has been begging me for a hat of his own, ever since he saw the hats the new Timmies were sporting.
And the moustache was my idea. (I just couldn't resist hee hee)

Marilyn has just announced a shop update with more Timmies and some hats over on her fantastic blog, so there may be an official hat purchase soon.

xo

OH MY!! As I popped over to fore-mentioned fantastic blog to get the link address, what should I see but a Timmie in super cute dungarees! *swoon*

Monday 5 May 2008

I'm Sticking with Scribbles!



Today has been spent making that little banner up there.
Photoshop is not as simple as I remembered, it took an awfully long time for me to put together. Practice is definitely needed!

Happy Bank Holiday!
xo

Sunday 4 May 2008

Useful stitches

Remember my embroidered laundry girls waiting to made into something useful?
Here they are now as...

Laundry Girl Laundry bags
Could a laundry girl become anything else?

I'm on a bit of an embroidery kick at the moment, so I used the Laundry girl as a pattern and found myself stitching away for hours. 
 


As I photographed the new bags, I took some better pictures of the girls on my laundry bags.
They were painted using acrylics, as the need to wash slipped my mind as I made them and it breaks my heart that they won't wash too well.

 The new laundry bags will be for sale, so it is very important to me that the design lasts. As well as enjoying it, embroidery seemed like a good way to be sure the design could stand being washed. My drawn test-pieces have been making their way between the washer and the dryer,  and back again, all week and are coming up well, but for now, I have plans for more stitched girl laundry bags. 

Probably add some colour to them, I love the effect of black and white, but I kept asking myself "Are these too plain?"
What do you think? 

xo

Saturday 3 May 2008

Dreaming in Doodles

I finished up one of the three dolls I was trying out this week.

Dreaming Doodle Doll
She sits and sleeps, dreaming of pencil crayons and colouring books.

I can be quite the sleepyhead myself, so this little girl is inspired by me and my love of cosy pyjamas. 

She is completely handscribbled (the back as well!).

I love how she has turned out! As I made up the new patterns last weekend, this is the one I wasn't to keen on, but now its my favourite and I have plans to stitch up some more
I'm still working on the other two, and they will appear here before I start on more dreaming dolls.

***
This month I am going to keeping myself very busy indeed. I have lots of stitching and scribbling planned, the dream of a little shop to work towards and yesterday I signed up over on the allsorts blog to do A Post A Day in May
Its a wonderful blog that has some cute craft projects and inspirational pictures, and a big list of all the post-a-day blogs. Pop over if you haven't already :)

Happy weekends!
xo

Friday 2 May 2008

Everyday Cake

You probably guessed already that I think cake is the best way to celebrate the big things, but I also believe it to be the perfect treat to mark the little things too. 
(Any excuse for cake is good for me!)

I have found a great way to have a cakey treat around all the time...

A Cheery Cherry Cardholding Cake!
Felty stitches just the right size for keeping my business cards looking cute.

This is not the first outing of a cheery cherry cake. 
Back in January, there was a couple of badges with their happy faces on and when my other cardholder vanished a couple of weeks ago, she sprang to mind as the perfect cardholding companion. She is my everyday-cakey-friend :)

 ***

In other Cakey news, I took 3 of these little 'Happy' Badges up to the shop this week


And the other 3?
Well, I'm keeping them myself to pop in a shop of my own.
I'll keep you posted on that little development, I don't know as yet when it will happen but I'm so excited at the thought of my own little shop!!

And a huge thank you for all the sweet comments I have received about the birthday cake stitches. 
Y  They really made my day Y 

Hope you all have a cake-filled weekend!
xo

Thursday 1 May 2008

Shops Have Birthdays Too!

Archie and Mabel's is 1 year old today!!


This is the little embroidered 'Happy' cake I made as a present for the shop's birthday.
It felt so lovely to sit and take the time to stitch this for Louise, who is the lady behind Archie and Mabel's and has been so wonderful to support me and my stitches. I'm sure she'll have many more years of shop birthdays to celebrate.

Congratulations on your first!
xo