Printed on Ribbon - Folksy Shop

I ordered ribbon from this fab Folksy seller - http://www.folksy.com/shops/PrintedOnRibbon




I love it - I plan to use it to wrap around packages that I send out when I sell a piece of jewellery from my Folksy shop.  It's printed in my corporate colour - my favourite purple!  Other colours and fonts also available.

Printed on Ribbon kindly offered free printed ribbon banners to a few Folksy shopkeepers as a test run for  craft stalls -

I was lucky to receive one and I think it is very eyecatching and helps to promote my shop.  I'll definitely use it again.

What do you think of the ribbons?

Folksy Friday

Tonight I'm invited to my neighbour's wedding party so I thought that could be my theme. 


I've chosen a wedding invitation, gifts for a bridesmaid and bestman, wedding favour cupcakes made of soap, a cake topper and a thank you card.










Good Luck to my neighbours for their married life together.

Gorgeous Giveaway by Reverie-Art - Folksy Shop

Another Folksy shopkeeper is organising a giveaway - visit

http://reverie-art.blogspot.com/2011/06/black-white-candy.html   to enter or click on picture.




Beautiful black and white creations.

Hillsborough Food and Craft Fair

I visited the Hillsborough Food and Craft Fair, Co Down, N Ireland today.  It's held on the 3rd Saturday of each month in the Hillsborough Courthouse.  10.00 am to 4.00pm.




A lovely selection of stalls today - including jewellery, brooches, paintings and photography prints, curry sauces, bakery goods, cupcakes, woodturning, jams/chutneys.

I bought a gorgeous button ring - I always like to buy something to support local crafters.

Well worth a visit and I believe the organisers try to vary the stalls each month.

The Courthouse itself is historic and there are various displays for visitors to enjoy and a tourist shop with various crafts and information leaflets.

Folksy Friday

This is my first Folksy Friday feature, Folksy is an online market place to buy and sell handcrafted goods and supplies - so many fab shops there (including my own of course !)

A Folksy Friday blog post is used to feature a variety of shops and their items usually following a particular theme.  My theme is 'My Auntie's birthday' as it is my Auntie Zoe's birthday today.

I've chosen items that I think she would like or are appropriate for June - rose is the flower for June, I love the painted sign, my Aunt loves dragonfly items, pearl is the jewel for June and my Aunt has always loved reading and I thought the print of the bookcase would be appropriate.















Just click on any of the images to go to the Folksy shops. 

Please do visit Folksy http://www.folksy.com/ you'll be surprised at the beautiful items all handcrafted by UK crafters.

What do you think of my choices ?

Flower bud bracelet

My lovely sister-in-law put in a request for this design - it is really pretty and summery, and quite quick to make.

So many colours, so it will match many different outfits.

She tells me she will wear it to see Take That this weekend - am thrilled!

No charge for the jewellery as she is family but she bought me a beautiful display stand as a thank you - I'll photograph it soon and put a pic on here.

A very busy weekend

On Saturday I attended the AGM of the Northern Ireland Beaders' Guild - I've been a member since it began, the Guild meets the second Saturday of each month (not July and August) usually at the lovely Ulster Folk and Transport Museum - (but check the Beaders' Guild website as occasionally the venue does change.)

http://www.nibeadersguild.com/

After the formalities of the AGM everyone was busy beading lots of different patterns and designs - I took along my flower that I started at Derrynoid but spent more time talking than beading so not much progress made !

New beaders usually begin with the spiral rope stitch


as seen in the above picture.  It's a lovely stitch, very versatile and quite quick to make.

Saturday evening I had tea at 'Made in Belfast' - delish - and went to the Grand Opera House to see a performance of 5 Grey Haired Ladies and a Green Park Bench.


Today - I have spent the majority of the day in the kitchen !  I made lentil and carrot soup, potato and leek soup and stew.  I like to batch cook so I can stock up my freezer and have lots of lovely homemade meals ready to have for lunch or tea with minimum effort.  Next I'll be making curry for tonight's tea.

Featured item from My Folksy shop

I'm still learning but IT skills are improving every day it seems!

I plan to feature a beaded design from my Folksy Shop and if successful - I hope to also feature many beautiful items from the other wonderful crafty folk on Folksy.



This is a daisy flower shaped bead bracelet, beaded using 4mm firepolish crystals in a stunning garnet colour.  The toggle fastener is gold plated and the tiny seed beads in the centre of the flower are also gold coloured.

Just click on the image to go straight to my shop.

Fab giveaway on Mozzypop's blog

A fellow folkster Mozzypop is featuring a fab giveway - visit her blog for a chance to enter


http://www.mozzypop.com/2011/06/june-giveaway.html

Fab prizes - including a gorgeous satchel bag

and nail varnishes, lip balm and jewellery.

Pop over and have a look!

Derrynoid Rural College - Creative Weekend Break

I've just returned from a wonderful beadweaving weekend at Derrynoid Rural College, Draperstown, Northern Ireland. 

A lovely group of 'creative' ladies, some new to beadweaving, some more experienced and a very talented and patient teacher.

Derrynoid Centre plans to run other creative courses so keep an eye on their website or contact them direct.  

Tel:  028 79629 100  http://www.derrynoid.co.uk/template.asp?ID=1

My nearly finished flower is pictured in the centre, the samples made by the teacher are either side.

Just a few other photos of the lovely beaded items created this weekend.

Lovely accommodation, great food, good company and thousands of beads made a perfect weekend!