Limerick Craft & Design Shop

So last Saturday saw me spend my very first day working at the Limerick Craft and Design Shop and guess what...I loved it! I loved working with Erica from Oh Sew Pretty, the support and good luck wishes from the general public and selling beautiful, handmade items for many of the artists who have their work for sale there.You cannot but, get a warm fuzzy feeling when you sell something handmade and more importantly from a local Limerick based artist, its a 100% addictive feeling!

The standard of items for sale is very high and the committee team of six members have done an amazing job over the last ten months negotiating with all the decision makers in the city to get the very best out of the space. So many hard working people have donated many, many unpaid hours and their determination shows in the standard of the work for sale, the beautiful visual display and the overall feel of the shop in general. Such is the standard, I've already purchased what feels like a million things in my head. I want everything and I want it now!

LuckyRainbowDesigns gets it's own stand!

I'm also pleased to say that LuckyRainbowDesigns has a small corner of the shop and I'm so grateful to the team for sourcing a lovely card stand for my items and assisting in selling them too. Its a great feeling to know that someone likes your pieces of work enough to spend a few euros on them and if anything it has spurred me on over the weekend to make even more stock!

I've set myself a huge challenge of making a rather large range of Christmas stock and packs of Christmas card sets. They are of course more pricey than your average set of cards but as always with anything handmade, consider the time and effort put into each item and you'll soon see that they are worth it. I would actually suggest that you adopt this attitude when you're browsing in the shop, however as always, I have found that many artists have under priced some of their items. They are super talented and skilled and the efforts should be priced accordingly, however many can be reluctant to do so in the event it turns away a potential buyer. Handmade means your getting a quality piece of work that someone has lovingly created. Its an investment for you or someone special who appreciates original or unique pieces of work, so lets embrace it!

If you find yourself in lovely Limerick, pop on down to Sarsfield Street just off O'Connell Street and say hello. The bunch of friendly volunteers would love to see you. The shop is open Tuesday to Saturday from 10am to 6pm.

Wedding Cards

The Limerick Craft & Design Shop will be opening in a matter of weeks so I'm busy knuckling down and getting some lovely stock together. My out put is a little slow at the moment, and this is probably because its been a while since I've had to make such a large cohort of stock, but once I find a rhythm, I'm usually on a roll.

I've got the customer at the back of my mind all the time so I'm trying to make as many different types of cards as possible. Some people require very specific cards.."Can I have a card in yellow and pink, saying Happy 94th birthday great grandmother!" - No, I wont be creating stock with that much detail, but there will be a range of occasions to select from.

Today, I'm showcasing a selection of wedding cards. It honestly took me ages to find decent stamps which said something along the lines of "Happy Wedding Day" or like above "Mr & Mrs". I had to settle for an invitation set of stamps, but they do the job!

For those of you in the Limerick area, there will be a fundraiser next week to get the shop over its last hurdle and finally open. It promises to be a fun (and probably crafty!) night and I've already roped in two teams composing of some very competitive work buddies! It will be a case of quiz questions at dawn! - so come along, bring friends and get swotting!

'Tis the season!

Ohhh I hate to say it....but I will anyway! It's pretty much less than 11 weeks until Christmas and if you've popped into the shops lately you'll find more Christmas than Halloween stock available to part your hard earned buck-a-roo's with!

We have the same argument every year, its too early, its too soon, there should be a law against putting Christmas stock out this early! The reality is, some people like to get festive earlier than others and some people enjoy being organised before un-organised people like myself complete the mad dash around the hectic shops three days before Christmas carrying un-human loads of presents! This.year.will.be.different! Why you ask? Well....ahem I've finished my Masters.....and I got myself one of those First Class Honours thingy-ma-jiggys, so straight away there's less stress off my back and more time to plan the right presents and of course, even better, lush Christmas stock, most of which will be on sale in the Limerick Craft & Design Shop which is opening soon!

To kick off the festive season, I've a simple yet pretty card tutorial for you. The paper I've used is from the Bo Bunny collection. Its packed with Christmas earthy tones and there is a tonne of additional embellishments and die cuts you can also buy to accompany the paper if your heart desires them! Let the Christmas crafty-ness begin!

01

Select your card size. For this card I'm using a card measuring 13.5cm by 13.5cm. I nearly always use the blank card templates, they're convenient and save you the hassle of measuring and cutting out card from scratch. Select a red piece of card and cut to 13.5cm by 13.5cm and adhere to your card. Your background is now complete and you're on your way.

02

Select a piece of paper with a festive pattern. I've chosen a piece with mostly green colours to set off the red background. I've chosen to cover most of the card, but have left a strip of about 0.5cm around the card which I'll use later. Cut the paper to the size of 13cm by 13cm and ahere using 3D sticky tabs. Love these tabs, they always made my cards pop out!

03

Select an alternative piece of paper with a different, but complimentary pattern. Use a border tool of your choice to punch out a pattern and adhere the piece to the card using 3D sticky tabs. Already your card is starting to take shape.

04

Select some twine, available from most craft shops or online and tie twice around the card making a bow on the right hand side.

05

Select some die cuts. For this card, I've selected three pieces in total and arranged them around the left hand side of the card and adhered them with more 3D sticky tabs.

06

Last, but not least, use a high quality white gel pen to sketch out some faux stitches all around the remaining red border and hey presto, you're done! Write your Christmas message, pop in an envelope and make someone happy!

Hey presto, a simple, but oh.so.festive handmade card for family, friends or someone special! Now that I've heaps more crafty time on my hands, I'll be sharing lots more crafty tutorials for you all to enjoy! Enjoy the rest of this rainy weekend!