Hand Made At Number 27

One of the things I really wanted to do when I finished work back in 2014 was to be more creative. I really wanted to devote time to crafting and see what I could do. 

Well, if you know me, or you've been following my blog for a while, then you will know that I have done a bit of dabbling. 

I started out with beaded bracelets, which were the mainstay of my Christmas gifting last year. 

I now have a cupboard full of beads and have really exhausted my present giving opportunities for family and friends. 

I really wanted to carry on making bracelets but needed an outlet for the finished product so, after much deliberation, and lots of research, I decided to open an Etsy shop. 

I found this really great article at Six Figures Under that talked through all of the details and also offered a link that would give 40 free listings, so I decided to go for it. 

My shop is called Hand Made At Number 27 and I've gone through the process of setting everything up, including all my shop policies. I've even had some business cards made and have created some stickers too. 

I've added a link to Hand Made At Number 27 on Etsy to the left hand margin of my blog, so feel free to have a browse. There isn't much there at the moment, but I hope to build up my range over time. 

I've started off with some wooden beaded bracelets that I've made.

You'll also know that I've recently completed a crocheted throw as a wedding gift. This was quite an ambitious project for the first crocheting I'd done since my teens, but I'm really pleased with how it turned out. 

I really enjoyed getting back into crochet and I've also had a go at some cushions.  The first incorporated a crocodile stitch pattern, which I found on Ravelry.com.  This ended up being a birthday gift for my sister.

The second is made up of small flower granny squares and I love it so much that I just can't bear to part with it!  I am calling it my 'Berry Burst' cushion and have started to make another in different colours as a gift for a friend.

I am really pleased with how both have turned out, but I am finding that this kind of crochet is very slow to progress so whether or not it will be viable or cost effective for these to end up in my shop, time will only tell. 

Last week I had a bit of a crazy crafting week and tried a few new things out. 

I started off with these decorative clay hearts, which are made from bake in the oven modelling clay. 

I moved on to a cushion cover made from some owl design fat quarters that I have had in my stash for a while now. It's been a while since the sewing machine has been out and it took a while to get going but I love how this has turned out.  As well as the patchwork, I've added embellishments and even done a bit of top stitching.

I've already ordered a stack more fat quarters so I can make some more. I'm sure these will appear in my shop some time soon. 

As if that wasn't enough I went on to have a bit of a button art frenzy, as you can see below. 

Button art is great. It's quite cheap to do and, once you know what you are doing, you can turn out a finished article quite quickly. I do have one button art piece in the Etsy shop and hope to add more soon.

When it comes to my Etsy shop, I've not sold anything yet, but people are looking and I guess it will take time for someone to actually take a leap of faith and be my first customer. But hey, it's not costing me anything to give it a go for now, so I will stick with it and see what happens.