Market Day Tales

Yesterday's market was a grand success, from the cards sold off to new owners, to those who've now tried quilling for the very first time, to the lovely people and the picturesque setting. We had a lovely day and it was really good to be back at a market.

 My goodies all set up on the stall, with the quilling lessons table up the back.

card I worked on while waiting for the doors to open and the eager learners to appear. It's a lot more finished now, but you'll have to wait to see the finished product.

Our whole market table, complete with the creations by Rosey So pretty. Thank you for all that you did Rosey! We make a good team.

The amazing church spire. What an inspiring spire it is. Though it was all fenced off, apparently the church is so old that bits of stone are falling off! An incredible sight nonetheless.

The door to the hall in which our market was held. This stained glass window cast a beautiful green-blue glow over our market stalls towards the end of the day. Very magical.

This was the card design that I taught for the day. I learned a lot from this market, including not assuming that you'll have the space to teach six people at a time, and therefore should have a quicker, simpler project to teach so that more students can have the opportunity. Some were naturals and created lovely pots of tulips, and to some it was best to describe their work as impressionist art... I had written instructions for it, so some stopped when they were about three quarters of the way and took their kits and instructions home to finish.

Now to dream up an easier card design...

Some of these goodies are gone now, and I hope that their new owners just love them. Mr Bunny is still with me, he looks a bit out of place here as the only 3D quilling. I have plans for some friends for him though! He won't be alone at the next market, whenever that is.

I'll be back in the next couple of days with this week's project.

xnata

 

Week Twenty: Baby Cards

I'm two days late, I know. Do you want to hear my excuses?

I'll tell you anyway. I'm busy is the obvious one, let's just move on, the other is I've been preparing for a potential teaching opportunity, that's right, I'm going to teach quilling at a market at the end of the month! I'm still trying to decide just what the design of the card will be, but I've got the general design planned and colour scheme, and I'm going to be nice to my learners and have all the bits cut to size and everything.

The second reason is something that I'm sure will inspire all my paper crafting readers to wince - I spilled a glass of water on my quilling project. I know, I know. I'm clumsy and a twit. It wasn't good. I've made hundreds of quilled projects and this is the first time I've done it, hopefully the last.

Anyway, on with the show, I've got two posts to do this week.

This is an oldie but a goodie, I've done these many times and it's always a big seller, the baby shoes card!

I've done one for a girl and one for a boy as you see. It's a bit of a 'vintage' image really, because you don't see many babies wearing the old knitted booties anymore do you. I don't anyway. Someone gave me a yellow pair for my son and I think he wore them once and proved he could kick them off in about a minute, so we went to socks and left the knitted ones for the keepsake cupboard.

They are sweet as a card though, don't you think?

I must make a few more of these before I do this market, baby cards are always so popular.

Next week (meaning this week, if you can keep up with my late story) we're on to a musical subject that I really quite like.

xnata 

A Quilling Reprise

I've been quilling again!

When my lovely mother in law suggested I crack out the old quilling stuff and join her in a table at a Christmas craft market, I happily accepted.

 

my top seller: snowflake ornaments

But, I am a slow quiller. I don't know how long it takes other quillers, but to make a really nice card it can take me about three hours in total, and I imagine that would be slow. Maybe I just need more practice.

Which brings me to the point of this post: after weeks of scrambling to make as much as I could for the market, I ended up with 23 cards, 24 snowflakes, and a bowl full of gift tags, and that's it. Some of the cards were lovely, but several were definitely not up to my standard as I had rushed through making them. While the amount was plenty to fill my little space, if I was ever to take part in one where I had more space, I would be horrified to have had that little stock of such varying degrees of quality. As I thought about this a marvellous idea came to me: what if I had made just one card a week for a whole year before I do a market again?

I'd end up with at least 52 cards to sell, of a good quality, and I wouldn't have to panic or rush myself. Snowflakes are easy, quick, and fun, so I could handle making lots of them in the weeks leading up to a market, and not needing to spend nearly as much of that time on card making would mean I would end up with more of the snowflakes made too!

So that's what I'm going to do, starting this week: one good quality card a week, and I'll share them here on my blog.

I'm compiling a list of themes/subjects for these cards as a sort of 'inspiration bank', so that during the semesters next year I don't end up in a busy school week with no idea of what to quill, I can just make a withdrawal from my inspiration bank and get going. Is there anything you'd like to see me create?

 

I've already decided that one week I'll do a framed piece instead of a card, as one of my ideas is just a bit too complicated for a card, but framed items can go up for sale in a market too.

I hope you're all looking forward to watching this challenge unfold!

One customer suggested that she'd like to see an orchid, so I've popped that at the top of my list. Need to do a bit of research on that one. Please let me know, either here in the comments or on my facebook page, what you'd like to see in quilled form. When I've got all 52 card ideas I'll share it.

Stay tuned also to my Facebook page for a Christmas give away!

xnata