Craft Addict

Taking a break

2007-04-25T05:14:00.000-07:00

I know, I know, it's ages since I last posted. I've been pretty busy with Ebay orders but am now taking a break from it for awhile. We've got lots going on here. Websites to build, both mine and others too. Plus the bathroom is going to be totally revamped over the next few weeks. So the water may be off at times. Not ideal when I am trying to make stuff.

I've been thinking about new products though and have been working on some scent blends. Taking my inspiration from retro perfumes and the world of burlesque. I've also been working on some new packaging ideas too.

I have got a couple of orders to get sorted out though. Hopefully I'll get those done at the weekend.

Christmas is Coming :0)

2006-12-13T09:53:00.000-08:00

Still as busy as I ever was, I've more or less shut up shop on Ebay now until January but email and phone orders are coming in thick and fast still. Aaaargh...will I ever find time to do my own stuff for Chrimbo?!!!

So if I don't get the chance before the 25th, just wanted to wish you all A Very Merry Christmas and A Peaceful and Prosperous New Year.

Also, here's something not very Christmassy but interesting to watch on youtube Real Men Knit!

I think the Christmas Rush has started.

2006-10-26T03:10:00.000-07:00

So I'm still busy making and posting stuff out. Had one disaster. A large parcel came apart in the post and ended up being delivered in a plastic bag with some of the contents missing. Bugger! Now I know that the parcel was packed well, I think it happened coz it weighed 1.6 kilos and said FRAGILE on it. I reckon someone couldn't help having a nosey! I'm just waiting to hear back from the customer so that I can put a claim in with Royal Mail.

So on Soap and Stuff I've also started selling soapmaking stuff. Fragrance oils, moulds, colours etc. I've got a more comprehensive pricelist if anyone is interested. Plus I've got a Trade Pricelist for all my soaps and bath bombs too. Just email me on 'info(at)soapandstuff.com' I use Paypal for secure online payments.

Right now I've done whoring my site ;0) What other crafty things have I been up to? Well not a lot really, I need to get back on the sewing machine, I've got a few things to finish, plus I'm going to do a lil revamp project with a man's shirt.

I gotta go down the Post Office again in a bit, so I best get some work done.

Busy Busy

2006-10-01T09:47:00.000-07:00

Had another wholesale order the other week, it's finally arrived in Ireland. Hurrah, and the customer was really pleased with the products...double Hurrah! :0)

Things have been going quite well on Ebay too, I just need to find the time to make some products in bulk...for someone who doesn't have a full time job my days just seem to whizz by.

Unfortunately not had time to experiment much :0( But have made some new fragrance bath bombs, Tropical Hawaiian, ( Exotic Lily, Frangipani, Gardenia and a touch of coconut, with rose petals.) They smell gorgeous, even if I do say so myself! and they went down a storm at last night's Pamper Party. I need to make some more so I can get them up on Ebay.

Ah well I best go and start on the Ebay orders so I can send them off tomorrow...no rest for the wicked eh? ;0)

Apologies

2006-09-19T10:36:00.000-07:00

Sorry I've not posted for awhile. Been really busy, trying to keep up with Ebay orders plus the usual work stuff. I really need to get round to taking more photos as I've got some more bits and pieces to put up on Ebay.

I've just had a large wholesale order, plus I've got to make stuff for a Pamper Party that's coming up, so I guess I'll be even busy over the next week or so.

My plans to do some experimenting seem to be on the back burner at the moment. Although I would like to push on with those ideas, I'm thinking bath and body goodies that smell and look like cakes and sweets. in keeping with the bath bon bons. Mmmm sweeeeet.... :0)

Busy again.

2006-08-29T10:17:00.000-07:00

I've had small wholesale order, so today I'm busy making bath bon bons. Mmmmm the brown sugar ones make me feel so hungry...and I'm on a diet too. Good job they're not edible, otherwise I'd have eaten half of them! LOL

I'm a bit annoyed coz someone on Ebay has nicked one of my pics and my text description, (inlcuding fonts and colours), to sell one of their own bath bombs. The font and colours are all connected with my website and shop identity. I use the same font and colours on all my labels, invoices, business card etc. It's very lazy of the seller to copy my post. I mean, how difficult is it to describe a bath bomb?! Anyway, I've reported them to Ebay, so hopefully they will take the listings down and put their own stuff up.

I spend a lot of time doing my pics and creating templates for my listings, I don't want anybody just copying my stuff. Even though it's in the public domain I own it and they could have at least asked permission. From now on any new pics will be watermarked and I guess I'll just have to keep checking listings to see if anyone is copying my decriptions.

Anyway, back to making the bath bon bons.....

Organic Soap

2006-08-23T14:56:00.000-07:00

I have been playing around with *organic soap base and essential oils. Some people on a soaping mail list I am on have said that they had some problems with it, mainly it's odour and the fact that it is soft and can feel slimy. I presume this is because, it contains only vegetable oils, salts and water softeners. There are no detergents/surfactants per se. I suppose it may also be more likely to be attracting moisture to it's surface, if it contains a high proportion of glycerine, which is a humectant, a substance that retains moisture.

Anyway, I have used it today, and done some experimentation adding shea butter, mango butter and aloe vera to the organic base. It seems to be holding up well and the butters and gel dispersed nicely in the melted base. I can't say that I found the smell of it offensive. It smelled like soap to me!

Before I cut up the soap base to use, I noticed some opaque spots running throughout it. The soap baseitself is a transparent light honey colour. People have mentioned about these white spots on the soap mailing list. They don't appear to be in the finished soaps but I will keep an eye on them over the next day or two.

It has been good to make something a little different. I usually make soaps, with bold and bright designs but with the organic base I have gone for a more subtle effect. No point using an organic base if you are going to add bright colours and manmade fragrances to it. Instead I have used natural butters and gels, botanicals and organic essential oils. I even made a special soap just for me. It contains shea butter and Rose Maroc Absolute, at over £6 per ml, I won't be making this to sell, unless anyone fancies paying about £15 for one 100g bar of soap? .....Nah I thought not! LOL

*100% of the oils used are certified organic by the Soil Association. It contains natural glycerine from the organic oils.

Competition Time!

2006-07-20T15:59:00.000-07:00

So, I'm gonna enter a competition on Craftermath
Basically you've got to buy something for under a fiver from a charity shop and revamp it or turn it into something else. I've got a couple of ideas, and they may well involve me using a sewing machine, so goodness knows how they will turn out! Really I'd like to make something I can use, more details to follow.

Keeping busy.

2006-07-15T07:00:00.000-07:00

So sales are going quite well on Ebay, at least enough to keep me motivated anyway. Plus I was inspired enough to make some bubble bombs and some mini bath bombs but with a twist. They look like sweeties :0) Here are a couple of them. Exotic Lime & Ginger and Passionfruit Bon Bons.

Here's a couple of the bubble bricks, as I call 'em :0) Mexican Lime with Sea Salt, and Smells Like Angel with glitter!

Plus I've been using the sewing machine to make some more peg bags, scented door hangers and put trim on face cloths.

I've quite enjoyed myself, and as I say it's kept me busy.

Busy bee!

2006-07-03T16:46:00.000-07:00

Sorry it's been ages since I've written. But I really have been a busy bee. What with Ebay orders, Pamper Parties, cheers Tilly, and various other stuff going on I've not had time to post.

I've been working on some new recipes which I hope to reveal soon. I will get the bubbling bath bars right, positive thinking will get the right result :0)

I've got the woman from Consumer Protection coming tomorrow. I'm due for a check up on my paperwork and stuff, she's never been to visit me before. She seemed nice when we chatted on the phone. Have only ever received letters from her before, asking if I'm still in business. I'm feeling a bit nervous, but hopefully she'll find everything in order.

Anyway, I'm off to bed...night night

Oooo, I sold some soaps!

2006-06-02T05:55:00.000-07:00

Yay, I've sold some of my soaps on my Ebay Store
Really chuffed about that. :0) Will have to hold a Pamper Party soon too and get some folks round. Want to have a go at making some bath bombs again soon. Not made any for ages. Want to experiment with making some bubble bars too. They are bubbling bath bombs, like Lush make. I love 'em.

Other new is we've bought a new car, you can read about that in my other Blog. It does mean though that I've have more room in the car to pack my stuff in when I do craft fairs. To be honest it always amazed me how much I could fit into my little Fiesta!

Soap and Stuff on Ebay

2006-05-20T12:26:00.000-07:00

So I've finally got around to putting some of my soaps and other handmade stuff on Ebay. Not sold anything yet, but it's early days. Anyway, go and have a look, there's a link just there -------->

Or you can go here http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Soap-and-Stuff

Soz it's a short and sweet post tonight but I'm knackered!

More pics

2006-05-15T08:50:00.000-07:00

So this is me and my stall at the Craft Fair yesterday. The weather was ok, we sold quite a bit but didn't do as well as previous years. Don't know why. We were absolutely shattered when we got home though.

And here's another piccie of my cupcake soaps and flan soaps.

Photos at last!

2006-05-08T12:55:00.000-07:00

Strawberry

Mango Tart

Dewberry Tart

Kenzo Flowers

Tequila Lime

Surf's Up

Lavender and Chanel No.5 cupcake soaps on my new cake stand

More soapmaking.

2006-04-09T12:42:00.000-07:00

Soz not got any more pics sorted yet, but I've been busy making rose bath melts, similar to the lavender ones. Also I've made some Chanel No.5 cupcake soaps. They look really cute even if I do say so myself. Also made some lavender bar soaps and lemongrass, honey & oatmeal bar soaps. I'm going to wrap these in mulberry paper and decorate them with girly bits and pieces like marabou feathers, ribbon roses and gold swirls.

I'm going to make some more stuff tomorrow, Lily Of The Valley cupcake soaps, Mango bath melts and I want to make a start on a strawberry and cream large soap flan.

I'm waiting for some toy stuffing to arrive so that I can finish off the door hangers and drawer scenters. Plus I've got a new roll of cellophane coming too. I've been going a bit Ebay mad lately, I've also ordered a gorgeous pink wire 3 tier cake stand, the cupcake soaps will look great displayed on them.

I promise I'll take some pics tomorrow, still can't find the digi camera. Hunted everywhere, guess it will turn up in it's own good time :0(

As requested ;0)

2006-04-05T07:56:00.000-07:00

Hurrah, I have pictures. There are not very clear as I had to use the digi camcorder, can't find the bloomin' digi camera anywhere.

So here are my attempts at sewing. These are Shabby Chic lavender door hangers and pillows. 2 are missing as my sister in law commandeered them the other night! As you can see they are displayed on the gorgeous hat box I bought in TK Maxx the other week.

Here are some that need to be stuffed and finished off. I sewed them up this morning.

At last I've made some more soapy stuff. Yesterday I rebatched the Angel Wings soap as the colour had faded. So now it is a deep greeny blue and of course smells of the v. expensive perfume Angel. At £2.25 a 100g slice, what a bargain! LOL
The little cake things are actually bath melts made with cocoa butter, they fizz and disperse the butter in your bath. You only need one per bath. The front 3 are unfragranced and the ones behind are fragranced with Lavender.

Soap Avoidance!

2006-03-15T06:16:00.000-08:00

No, I am not being a dirty git by not washing with soap! What I mean by soap avoidance is that I've been doing anything to do with craft but not soap. I've got a fairly good stock at the moment but would like to add a few more bits and pieces, unfortunately I can't be bothered getting all my soapmaking stuff out. What a lazy so and so eh?

I've got a big craft fair coming up in May and will need to buckle down soon and get some soapy bits and pieces done, maybe when I get back off holiday in a couple of weeks.

Anyway, instead of making soap I've been sewing, with a machine. I bought the machine a few weeks ago, a bargain from good old Argos
I've always had a dread of sewing machines. It stems back from high school, the only sewing project I finished was the apron I made in the first year. The blouse, unfinished with no sleeves, button holes or buttons. The skirt with no zip and uneven hem. Ugh, dreadful. The worst bit though was threading up the bloody machine. There were two types of machine in the sewing room and each threaded up a different way. I always got it wrong and my tension would be too tight or it would get all tangled up, disaster!

So I managed to bite the bullet and thread up the new machine, I've now sewn quite a few 'shabby chic' style lavender door hangers and mini scented pillows. I'll try and get pics up soon. I have to say, they've turned out not too badly at all, although with the heart shaped ones I've only just about got the hang of controlling the stitching speed so that I can get the curves right. But the end result isn't oo bad at all.

The material I am using is really nice, a bit girly but would look great in the romantic boudoir stylee, shabby chic Cath Kidston style that seems quite popular at the moment. I'm hoping they will complement my cupcake soaps and bath bombs, which I haven't made yet! The other day in TK Maxx I bought a lovely big hat box in a similar style which I thought would be great for displaying my sewing acheivements on. Thought they would look good on the stall alongside the 1950s and 60s cake stands I'm borrowing off Mum for my soap cake.

I normally have mostly brightly coloured soaps on my stall, but this year I thought I'd go along the shabby chic route and introduce a range in pastels. I've also bought some more mulberry paper, which should arrive soon, and some feathers and bits and bobs. I want to wrap my plain pastel coloured lavender, rose and lemongrass and ginger soaps up in the paper and then decorate them with the marabou feathers. Tres girly!

Ooo it's all shiny and new

2006-03-15T06:11:00.000-08:00

So being as I seem to have quite a preoccupation with making things I decided to start another Blog. I'll still post on my other one, but I thought it would be a good idea to have somewhere I can waffle on about stuff I'm making, stuff I want to make and stuff other people are making that I luurrve!

The layout is a bit boring but I can't do much with it at the mo as I've not got Photoshop on my 'puter, waiting for Andy to put it back on. Anyway, in the meantime I'll tell you all about what I have been up to lately.