Craft Britannia Rules

Introducing the Craft Britannia team

The Craft Britannia team is a virtual team of Etsian's. We honestly support each other in all the trials and tribulations of crafting and selling our wares.

We use social media tools such as the forums within Etsy , Facebook, Twitter and Blogs to help promote each others crafts but more importantly to chat , have fun , eat lots of cake and generally enjoy ourselves. When that gets too boring then we critique each others shops , give advice on photo editing techniques , encourage treasury building , cheer when team treasuries get on the Front Page of Etsy and loads more.

 The shops on the right of this page are a sample of the shops in the Craft Britannia team.

Craft Britannia Blog  - If you want to read more or even join in the fun , then  take a read here.

Turning voting into a competition

For the past year or so I have been developing my designs of purses / bags and cushion covers , incorporating more of my woollen finds. I scour charity shops and pester friends. You even see me sat in a pub eyeing up a nice thick gorgeous cabled aran jumper as it walks in the door, thinking to myself if only they didn’t want that anymore, thinking what I could do with it.

Some of my creations I have sold on Etsy   TheFeminineTouch  

- the world wide hand made / vintage / supply selling site. Others are still there waiting to be snapped up

Now is the time , to move my creations onwards and upwards  as well as still using recycled materials in my work.

I recently came across the silouette cameo cameo which is a nifty little device that you plug into your PC like a printer. But here comes the clever bit, instead of printing it cuts , yes it slices into whatever material / paper you have in it’s way.   I’d always wanted to try my hand at appliqué some really intricate felt work on to my bags but I know that it impossible to cut the felt out with just a pair of scissors and get that really professional finish. So this piece of kit was brilliant. I could now start incorporating some arts and craft type designs into my work.

And then I heard of Enterprise Nation  http://www.enterprisenation.com/ who were offering small business the chance of some funding. Anything from £50 to £500 they would give to businesses to fund their “good ideas” as long as the business was prepared to share information with Enterprise Nation after the event. Late one night I compiled my “good idea” and 2 weeks later I got the news that my “good idea” had been accepted and that all I needed to do was to get current customers and potential customers to vote on my “good idea”. This is brilliant I thought , I’m being forced into promoting my shop and me in way that I would never have done otherwise.

Well done Enterprise Nation ! And so the promotion began ..……........................

But really , why would you do this for me? What’s in it for you?  Well here’s a secret......

If I get to the 290 votes , I plan to hold a little competition , something that will make me use my design skills , take ideas off a potential customer and create something unique using my new cutting tool. I plan to hold a draw taking all the names of people that have voted , popping them in to a hat and drawing out a winner. The winner will get one of my 1^st creations using the silouette cameo.

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Well how about that , interested ?  then here’s the voting link -  http://www.enterprisenation.com/funding-applications/thefemininetouch/ All you have to do is sign up with your email address and name & hit the vote button.

Please remember to leave comments (with email address) below to let me know you have voted or comments (with email address) on the web site itself.

And for those of you who have already voted (you know who you are), then just pop a comment here or email me – TheFeminineT@aol.co.uk and I’ll make sure you are in the draw too.

 

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I so want this - perfect for my creations

I have just found out tonight that my idea has been accepted for funding by Enterprise Nations as part of their Fund101 campaign. They fund up to £5,000 a month for people to start or grow a business. Each person or business can put an idea forward for anything between £50 and £500

As I said my idea (see the VOTE HERE link) has been accepted and as long as I get 290 votes they will fund the £290 I need. WoW !- VOTE HERE

So please find it in your heart to vote for me <3

My idea is...

I have been experimenting over the last year with the creation of bags and cushions out of old woolen sweaters that i have felted. I have the aptitude to create my own designs and I have a good sense of colour to bring the right materials together to create wonderful creations. Up to now I have kept to simple designs as cutting out intricate ones in felt could be complicated and prone to all sorts of errors and slips.
I would really love to bring my designs to a completely new dymanic level and as I’m a bit of a computer whiz (last 30 years of my working life in IT) I would love to be able to do the designs on the computer.
The silouette cameo is an eletronic cutting machine which will link to my PC , allowing me to take electronic designs (design my own too) and cut them out to a professional finish, I imagine pretty japanese style & arts and crafts style (my 2 favourites) felt apliques on the front of my bags and cushions.
http://craftsulove.co.uk/silhouette.htm – I can buy it here for £289.99

OGNI SCENA HA IL SUO MOMENTO ESTETICO. OGNI ETA' HA LE SUA RAGIONI.

I wish my knowledge of Italian could cope with a proper translation of the above. Google translates it to - EACH SCENE HAS ITS TIME BEAUTY. ANY AGE 'HAS ITS REASONS.

I think I "get" what the owner of this blog is trying to get across. The blog is called "TheFeminineTouch"  and shows some beautiful before and after photographs of delicious women. 

 http://thefemininetouch.blogspot.com/


Its a blog I would love to have brought to you , given it's name. Here's a collage of some of the lovely photographs

 

Where have I been?

Ok , it's been a long time since my last blog posting , must be a few months. So what have I been doing , where have I been?

I have been totally devoting my time (whilst I'm not doing the day job) to crafting , knitting , bit of crochet and sewing and generally trying to get my lovely goodies out there for all to see.

As well as selling through Etsy I have been trying other selling venues. These have included a new craft shop in a little market town in Yorkshire, where I have had most of my accessories on display over the Christmas period. Here I sold 2 of my unique bags and loads of my flower brooches plus had tons of admirers of my hand knitted / felted cushions.

I also tried my hand at the Christmas craft fair at my local garden centre , which was a bit of a flop. Even though I cleverly displayed all my items this time , still no customers came my way :(

All is not lost  though and I now have some of my accessories on display in the garden centre full time.

I've also been extending my range of items , trying to find the ideal creation that will get those sales.

Flower brooches seem to be one of my top sellers.

So are my hot water bottle covers that I created specially for the Christmas market.







And then there are the little felted Christmas trees , just perfect.

All in all I'm happy with my little Etsy shop at the moment. I have over 120 accessories displayed. I'm making sure there is plenty of diversity in what I'm making and selling until I can determine where the market is.  I've managed to experiment in selling my goodies off line and I now have more of an idea of shelf rental prices and what I can expect out of such a venture to ensure a reasonable profit.

Sales so far this year have been really good. 7 Sales in one month is brilliant for me. Just think back to this time last year where I was achieving only 1 sale a month :(

Hope this blog posting will inspire other new crafters :) and the more experienced ones will have a little smile on their faces thinking back to a time when they were just beginning their journey.