My Creative Space

This week (and last one too) I have been busy sewing away.  The sewing table is covered with little cupcakes, chocolate slices and the cutest felt flowers for decorations. Once sewn they look good enough to eat.  The one above has already been added to my Made It shop.  The rest need a few finishing touches and then they will be up in the store too.

The felt flowers were a find at the Craft and Quilt Show at Sydney last week.  They are actually made for scrapbooking but I thought they would make perfect sugar flowers for my cupcakes.  I had a great time at the craft fair and was surprising restrained with what I brought.  There was so much to look at and the quilts on display were amazing! 

In My Creative Space I have also been busy sewing away and packaging a lot of felt play food for I Heart Gallery.

 And finally this week I have been working on another tutorial to share.  This one is a tutorial on making sushi and needs a few more pictures.  It has been overcast here and the pictures I took for the tutorial weren't clear so I am waiting for the sun to shine so I can take some more.

What has been happening in your Creative Space this week?  I would love to know.  If you feel like sharing pop on over to here and share.



Tea Bag Tutorial

Felt Tea Bags are super dooper easy to make and lots of fun for the kids to play with too.

1.  Gather supplies.
White felt, tea bag for template, coloured felt for top of the tea bag (jiggler), string, needle and thread.

2. Using a real tea bag as a template cut out one tea bag on the fold from the white felt.  Attach an 18cm peice of string to the inside of the top of the teabag.  I like to loop the string and sew through it so it is really secure.

3. Sew up sides of teabag.

4. Using coloured piece of felt (2x 2 cm) sew to the top of string.

These are so easy and quick and even little kids can make them (with a little help from parents).
Get sewing and have fun!

Original ideas do exist

I have heard it said that there are no original ideas left in the handmade/craft world.  But I don't believe it, not for a moment.  People are continually coming up with wonderfully unique and original ideas and that is so fantastic to see. 

But unfortunately there are those peole who copy other peoples ideas, whether intentionally or not.  I am sure we have all seen those softies for sale on Made It and Etsy which are exact copies of ones in the well known softies books.

Then there are others who don't copy exactly but use the same concept, same descriptions, same ideas and claim them as their own.  This has happened to me just recently and at first I was mad, then I felt a little flattered that some one thought my handcrafts were good enough to copy. Now I think it is good competition but I really wished they had changed their title and items so they weren't so blatantly like mine!   

Why do peple think it is ok to do this?

I am all for finding inspiration in others craft items.  But please use this as inspiration to make your handcrafts unique and different!  It can be done and buyers will really appreciate it.

People buy handmade for a range of reasons but one of the main ones is because they want something unique and that isn't mass produced.  They buy handmade because it has been made with care and creativity and is different.

Now I am off to enjoy a nice cup of tea.

More Food

I am officially addicted to sewing felt food. It is quick, fun and the end results are so very cute.
My munchin wants me to sew him a lemon merangue pie next!

If life throws you a lemon, make lemonade.