Tuesday 28 February 2012

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 1st 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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Friday 24 February 2012

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




Quick View of Woolly Goodies available on my web site

Quick View of Woolly Goodies available on my web site
Click on photo above to see detail / to purchase