2009 Events

At the moment, we haven’t got all that many craft fairs booked for the remainder of 2009, but here is where we have confirmed that we will be going:

Saturday 11th July 2009
Birches Head Carnival
The Bridge Centre
Birches Head Road
Stoke-on-Trent
Staffordshire
ST2 8DD

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Sunday 6th September 2009
Cottage Creations Craft Fair
Van Dyke Hotel
Worksop Road
Clowne
Chesterfield
Derbyshire
S43 4TD

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Saturday 19th September 2009
Ludlow Craft Fair
Ludlow College
Castle Square
Ludlow
Shropshire
SY8 1GD

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Sunday 1st November 2009
‘Arts & Crafts In The Peak’ Craft Fair
Chelmorton War Memorial Institute
Chelmorton Village Hall
Main Street
Chelmorton
Derbyshire
SK17 9SH

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We are hoping to add more dates to this events listing soon, so please watch our for any craft fairs or events in your area where we will be attending and come along to say hello!!

Grab A Bargain!!

As has been previously mentioned, we are attending the Birches Head Carnival on Saturday 11th July 2009 and for this event we have a couple of special offers which will be available.

Not wanting to favour our craft fair customers, we feel that it is only fair to share these offers with our online customers and those who are unable to come along to the Bridge Centre, Birches Head, Stoke-on-Trent.

The following special offers are valid for one week only, from now until midnight on Friday 17th July 2009… enjoy!!
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Bookatrix Keepsake Cards
£4.50 each
Two for £7.50
Three for £10.00

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Greetings Cards
£1.75 each
Three for £4.50
Five for £6.50

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Praying Hands Candle
£6.50 each
Two for £10.00

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Hexagonal Pillar Candle
£3.95 each
Two for £7.00
Three for £10.00

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All orders over £15.00 (excluding P&P) are subject to a 10% discount.

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All prices stated in these special offers are excluding postage and packaging, prices for which will be advised when your order is placed and is dependent on order size.

All orders, including personalised and ‘made to order’ items are included in these special offers so why not take advantage of these prices and place your order today!!

Please contact us at laurascardsforalloccasions@yahoo.com to discuss your requirements and ideas.

Laura & Gordon

Weekly Round-up

As anyone who knows us will know, this week hasn’t really gone to plan and we have had a few personal problems to deal with but we have recently made a conscious decision to separate our crafty news and our personal news and goings on, so everything to do with our health and personal lives can be seen at “Laura & Gordon’s Blog” for those of you who are interested.

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We have had a couple of commission orders this week, one of which was for a new baby boy and the other for a 40th birthday, so here are our designs:

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This weekend will see us at the Birches Head Carnival at the Bridge Centre, Birches Head, Stoke on Trent which is on Saturday 11th July 2009 and is open from 12noon until 4:00pm. Admission is free and the days events include:

* Community/Charity stalls
* Kingsley Bird of Prey Centre
* Donkey Rides
* Fire Engine
* Face Painting
* Craft Fair – many stalls selling gift & craft items
* Mobile Police Station
* Helium Ballons
* Penalty shoot-out
* Bouncy Castle
* Kiddies Corner
* Burger Bar
* Ice Cream
* Coffee Shop
* Cross Rhythms Radio Roadshow

So if you’re in the area why not come along and say hello!! Hopefully this will be a great day for the Bridge Centre, the public and stall holders alike… we look forward to seeing you there!!

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This week marked the birthday of Nicola Callow of Murano Silver… now most birthday’s involve the birthday girl (or boy) receiving gifts from friends and loved ones, but many crafters see these occasions as a fabulous opportunity to hold a blog giveaway or competition to showcase their work and offer it to someone who appreciates handcrafted gifts, shows support and custom through our websites and blogs. Nicola has kindly set up a “Murano Silver’s Birthday Bonanza Giveaway” which you can see details of by clicking on her link. This is a very generous giveaway and we all wish Nicola the best of luck with her continued success and a very happy birthday!!!

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We are also in the middle of updating our website “Cards & Candles For All Occasions” to showcase examples of our work including artwork, greetings cards, keepsake cards, candles and wax scented teddies and Gordon’s new range of natural candle holders. Our website will be used solely for the purpose of displaying our work with any of our ‘buy it now’ items being available via our “MISI” webstore. Our contact details will be clearly displayed on our website together with details of our bespoke service and all card and candle information for potential customers.

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This week has also saw the beginning of our Christmas crafting with the first of our Christmas cards being started and I’ve also made a start on a crochet blanket which is going to be a gift for a family member. Although we haven’t made too many cards yet, we have been working hard on making up card toppers and decoupage for the festive season so hopefully you will be able to see our Christmas card ranges being added soon.

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Well, I think that’s all of our news for today so I’m off to get ready for tomorrow’s carnival and sort out all of our goodies to take with us, then I’ll be back to crafting. What a life!!!

Welcome to July

Well, here we are on the 2nd of July and I haven’t posted for a little while so thought I would update you all with what’s been going on.

This last week or so has saw some gorgeous weather here in Staffordshire, so much so that it’s really been too hot to do much and my motivation has been lacking, but we are slowly getting used to the heat and I have quite a few crafty ideas going on at the moment so we’ll see how we get on with those.

We have had a commission orders for a keepsake card, which was a Birthday card with a “Ratpack” theme:

And the second special keepsake card I made this week was a Get Well Soon card for a special friend of ours, Karen, who has been very poorly in hospital and although now at home, has a long recovery road ahead of her, so our thoughts and prayers are with Karen and her family.

Sunday 28th June 2009 marked the tenth anniversary of my son, Jordan Alexander’s still birth so Gord and I had made the decision to have a quiet day on our own to reflect on things, so with being another lovely day we packed ourselves a picnic, sorted out the dogs and headed off to Barlaston Downs for a walk in the sunshine.

We had a lovely afternoon out walking, relaxing and just spending time taking in our surroundings and we got some lovely photographs:

These are just a couple of our photos and hopefully I’ll be able to get some inspiration and ideas from these to do some watercolour painting… time will tell.

We have had a relatively quiet week so far, though today I decided that my craft room wasn’t very ‘workable’ so set about moving everything. Started off with moving the furniture around and then re-arranging all the shelves and drawers and organising things into sensible places… it looks quite tidy at the moment but I doubt that will last long!!

Now both of my Xyron’s, my BigShot and my guillotine are out and on my desk and workbench so they should now get more use as before they were in their boxes so I had to unpack them everytime I wanted to do anything… hopefully now they are out and ready to go then I’ll start to use them more!!

At the moment I am starting to think about crafty ideas for Christmas 2009… I need to make a start on our Christmas card range and I am beginning to look into handcrafted gifts for friends and family, it might seem a bit early but I need to try to be organised this year, after all it is only 175 days until Christmas!

This weekend will see hubby heading off to Silverstone for the Renault World Series so I’ll have Saturday to myself to start working on some new ideas, I may even do a little bit of painting or crocheting or drawing or cardmaking, or perhaps I’ll have a relaxing day or maybe try a bit of each? Time will tell

Well, I’m off to relax by my fan for a little while then it’ll be off to bed so I’m awake bright eyed and bushy tailed in the morning ready to see what crafty creations I can come up with!!

A Sad Sad Day

Thursday 25th June 2009 has seen a sad sad day in the celebrity world.

Firstly, we were to read the news that American actress Farrah Fawcett, has passed away after a three year battle with cancer aged 62 years. A multiple Golden Globe and Emmy Award nominee, Fawcett rose to international fame when she first appeared as private investigator Jill Munroe in the TV series Charlie’s Angels in 1976. Fawcett later appeared off-Broadway to the approval of critics and in highly rated television movies in roles often challenging (The Burning Bed, Nazi Hunter: The Beate Klarsfeld Story, Poor Little Rich Girl: The Barbara Hutton Story, Margaret Bourke-White) and sometimes unsympathetic (Small Sacrifices).

Fawcett was also a pop culture figure whose hairstyle was emulated by millions of young women and whose poster sales broke records, making her an international sex symbol in the 1970s and 1980s. She died of anal cancer on June 25, 2009, at the age of 62.

R.I.P. Farrah Fawcett (February 2, 1947 – June 25, 2009)

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Then this evening, we heard that Michael Jackson has passed away after suffering from a cardiac arrest, aged 50 years. An American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. The seventh child of the Jackson family, he debuted on the professional music scene at the age of 11 as a member of The Jackson 5 and began a solo career in 1971 while still a member of the group. Referred to as the “King of Pop” in subsequent years, five of his solo studio albums have become some of the world’s best-selling records: Off the Wall (1979), Thriller (1982), Bad (1987), Dangerous (1991) and HIStory (1995).

Michael Jackson was a very controversial public figure but he was an incredibly talented musician… his music was/is fantastic and there are many tracks that I grew up listening to. His private life (which was often broadcast in newspapers) had many questionable events, the ‘balcony incident’ and other accusations we are all familiar with, but nobody can take his talent away from him. Nobody will ever know just how much truth there was in the newspaper rumours and accusations over the years and I didn’t like him as a person in his later years but the man was a musical legend.

As everyone knows, there weer many sides to Michael Jackson, both his fantastic musical talent and his controversial lifestyle but I just hope that people can leave the Jackson family to grieve in peace and those who dislike him can have the decency and respect to keep quiet.

R.I.P. Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009)

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I am just so shocked that two celebrities that I have grown up with have passed away on the same day.

It’s a sad, sad day.

Craft Fair Essentials

As the craft fair season gets into full swing there are many crafter preparing for their first event, while many more of us are looking for better ways to display our items, different methods of attracting customers and general ways to improve our stalls at these craft fairs.

With this in mind, I have compiled a list of *must have* items to take to craft fairs… these will not apply to every craft but they may give you an idea of the sort of things you need, as well as other items which will be beneficial to make your day that little bit easier.

* Stock *
Greetings Cards
Keepsake Cards
Notecards
Gift Tags
Bookmarks
Multi-pack of cards
Scented Candles
Unscented Candles
Decorated Candles
Wax Melts – for oil burners
Wax Scented Teddies

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* Display *
Table covering (either table cloth or bed sheet)
Floor standing card display carousel
Table top wire card stands
Table top cardboard card stands
3-tier acrylic candle stands
Baskets for wax melts, bookmarks, seasonal cards

* Promotional *
Business cards and holder
Leaflets and holder
Banner/signs (and cable ties/string)
List of candle fragrances

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* Everything Else *
Table (if not supplied by venue)
Chairs (if not supplied by venue)
Notebook
Pens
Order Forms
Scissors
Sellotape
Blu-tak
Safety Pins
String
Calculator
Money Tin
Change (5p, 10p, 20p, 50p, £1, £5)
Bags and packaging
Lighting
Seasonal table decoration (eg. Christmas Tree)

* Refreshments *
Flask of tea or coffee
Canned/bottled cold drinks
Snack food

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Also think it helps to take along some examples of ‘works in progress’ to work on at the event as potential customers like to see that you do genuinely make the items yourself, and also if you are working on a piece then people are more inclined to come over to your stall to see what you are doing and in turn, have a look at what you have displayed

Personally, I always take along some headache tablets, rescue remedy, tissues and baby wipes as these are things that always come in handy and you never know when or where you are likely to need them!! Oh and of course some elastoplasts!!

Clothing-wise I’d recommend dressing in layers, especially at outdoor events as you can be toasty warm while you are moving around setting up your stall but soon cool down when you are standing/sitting around waiting for customers but you don’t want to end up cooking all day either. I prefer to wear layers so that I can find a happy-medium between cooking and freezing lol, and I always take my fingerless gloves with me cos although I don’t like cold hands, I find normal gloves a nuisance to wear if I’m doing anything.

Hopefully this post will help us all to be a bit more organised at craft fairs and if I think of anything else to add to the list then I’ll certainly let you all know!!

Thanks for reading, Laura xxx

Churchgate Midsummer Festival, Bolton

Saturday 20th June saw us getting out of bed bright and early to head up the M6 motorway and into Bolton for their Midsummer Festival which was being held on Churchgate in the town centre.

The weather wasn’t really on our side, as the heaven’s opened while we were on our way there and the rain and wind continued throughout the day. Our stall was set up by 9:30am which gave us half an hour to re-arrange things, have a look around and get things just how we wanted them before the event opened at 10:00am.

Although this was an outdoor event, we stayed dry and relatively warm in gazebos which were ‘on loan’ from Bolton Markets. The weather didn’t really put people off, and we had a great day, we met lots of lovely people and had quite a few sales, more than covering our weekends costs on day one. Lovely.

Throughout the day there was plenty for people to do and see, including ferret racing, shoeing of a shire horse and shire horse rides for children. There were lots of stalls for people to enjoy and the church yard had lots of charity stalls including Guide Dogs For The Blind, RNLI and Save The Children. There were also battle re-enactments in the church grounds which proved to be very popular entertainment.

Sunday morning was another early start, another drive up the M6 (in the rain) and setting up for day two of the Midsummer Festival… somehow we managed to set up quicker than on Saturday and were all ready for the day ahead by just after 9:00am even after a move around!!

Sunday’s weather was slightly better… a little drizzly throughout the day but nowhere near as wet as Saturday. A highlight of the event on Sunday afternoon was the street play which saw the landlord of Ye Olde Man and Scythe, John Jewitt, “executed”. He played the 7th Earl of Derby, James Stanley, who was beheaded for his role in the Bolton Massacre of 1643 during the English Civil War. The earl spent his last night at the pub and the annual re-enactment commemorates his death.

Although Sunday was the quieter of the two days, we still met some lovely people, made a few sales and came home with a couple of commission orders as well as making some very good contacts with regards to future events and possible custom so definitely a worthwhile day.

Over both days, hubby’s new range of wax scented teddies and candle holders proved to be very popular, so he will definitely be making more of these for the next event in our calender.

Throughout the weekend we met Lorraine of Baby Cake Gifts, Katherine of MWL Designs, Andrea of Westwells Florist and many more wonderful people.

We would like to thank Becky from Ye Olde Wench & Trinkets and her team for the excellent organisation of the event and for making us feel so welcome, the staff at Ye Olde Man & Scythe for the excellent free tea and coffee supplied for traders (which kept hubby very happy ) and for the wonderful public who helped to make this weekend the great success that it was.

This is one of the best events that we have been to and we would definitely attend future events organised by Churchgate Traders. Thank you all for an excellent weekend… here’s to the next one!!

New Ranges – June 2009

In time for our biggest fair of 2009 so far… Churchgate Traders Midsummer Fair in Bolton, Gordon has just finished three new ranges to add to his candles and candle accessories.

We have a new range of tealight candle holders, each one has been hand finished from branches which have fallen naturally. All wood used by us is gathered from the forest floor where it has falled through natural causes. All of our wood products are untreated.

This range of tealight holders made their debut appearance at our last craft fair in Dronfield and proved to be very popular amongst visitors and certainly proved to be a talking point.

Here we have this adorable little frog for those of us who like gimicky candles and gifts:

Next up we have a range of wax scented teddies, these soft plush bears are hand dipped in Eco Soy Wax and fragranced with high quality scentwhich it slowly releases over several months, the scent can be revitalised by using your hairdryer on a cool setting for 10-15 seconds. A great alternative to a shop bought airfreshener!!

These products are not candles and should not be lit. Also please make sure that the bear is not placed directly onto wood or polished surfaces as it may mark them, instead please use a coaster or mat underneath. Please also note that these bears are not toys and as such, should be kept out of reach of children and pets.

Organised? Me!!

Well, for once, it looks like we are pretty organised!!!

It’s 10:45pm on Thursday evening and we are preparing for a big event in Bolton this Saturday and Sunday… normally we’re still rushing around at midnight the night before the craft fair but I decided this week to try to be a bit more organised!!

All of our greetings cards and keepsake cards are in boxes, the table coverings are packed, the display stands are packed and the majority of Gord’s candles are boxed too… just the last few that he’s working on at the moment which will be wrapped and packed tomorrow. I’ve even got a small selection of card making items sorted to take with me, just in case we have any quiet time, which hopefully we won’t

Where are we going?

Well, Saturday 20th and Sunday 21st June 2009 will see us at the Churchgate Traders Midsummer Festival in Bolton… it is looking like it will be a fab weekend, with a line up including:

Craft Market
Beer Festival
Battle Re-enactments
Live Music
Ferret Racing
Shire Horse Riding
String Ensemble

And much much more…

Why not have a look on their website to see what they got up to last year? Churchgate Traders

Here is an example of how Churchgates 2008 Midsummer Fair looked:

We are now crossing our fingers for some great weather over the weekend so that we have a good turnout at this event and everyone has a great weekend

Needless to say we’re keeping a close eye on the weather forecast on the UK Weather website!!

Of course, Fathers Day here in the UK is on Sunday 21st June and as we’re not going to be here to wish all of you wonderful Dad’s a great day, here is a little message especially for you…

Keepsake Cards

As well as working on our range of candles, we have also been busy working on some new keepsake cards to add to our ranges, please let us know what you think.

Wedding Cards…

Golden Wedding Anniversary…

Birthday…

Anniversary…

Baby Girl’s Christening…