It seems everything in the craft-o-sphere is all hearts and flowers (especially hearts) this week, but I’m not into Valentine’s Day with that much enthusiasm. I’m not actually your typical Valentines scrooge moaning about commercialism and the like. You won’t hear me complaining that we only receive displays of Courtly Love once a year – It went out of fashion for a reason, it’s daft. Fellas wielding roses and chocolates, I ask you. But why not be a bit daft sometimes – if you like that type of thing. So, on that note, today’s tenuous MUSEROUND theme is about some more types of things I like. Girls’ best friends: diamonds, lip balm, shoes, handbags. In that order.

DIAMONDS

1. Kalicat, based in London, has trained in jewellery at Central St Martins and Hatton Gardens, in London. I LOVE the Night and Day ring so much. And so I should, it’s my wedding ring. In fact, I think my actual ring might be in that picture. It’s truly the best piece of jewellery I’ve ever owned.

2. A warm champagne diamond in a glowing 18k bezel and oxidized sterling silver by Sara Westermark.

3. Diamond earrings by Oblik Atelier, see the DaWanda shop for more ultra-stylish pieces.

4. Sterling silver diamond necklace from Cherry Loco aka Lauren Ridley, a Glasgow-based lass from Northern Ireland

LIP GLOSS

1. Hoggwash Coconut Cake Lip Gloss Pot. Miss Hogg says “What happens when your last name is ‘Hogg’ and you discover you love making sorts of bath and beauty products? You find that you were predestined to be in the soap business and, naturally, to call it ‘Hoggwash’!”

2. Redwood Glossy Lip Tint in gorgeous gift-ready packaging by Flourish Bath + Body.

3. Cherry Blossom Epically Epic Lip Balm.

4. Movin’ to the country I’m gonna eat a lot of peaches… thanks to Clover Hollow.

Ever tried to make you’re own lip balm? I use so much of it I should definitely give it a go in the near future.  Here’s a tutorial from the Not Martha blog.

Here’s another very quick make – a blush lip and cheek tint from the wonderful World Sweet World blog.

SHOES

1. Handpainted Joker shoes by Art & Koi of What?Shop.

2. Ooh I feel a purchase coming on…Happy Cloud mary janes by Em & Sprout. Hey, it’s my 30th birthday next week…anyone?

3. Crochet pumps by Le pied léger, a place where we like to walk, dance, jump, live with a light foot! Sounds fantastic!

4. The Hetty Rose label makes shoes. The collection is based on a theory of re-using and re-working vintage materials in a creative and sustainable way, hand making gorgeous, feminine shoes to fit.These materials are primarily vintage Japanese kimono fabrics: relics of a disappearing world, saturated in significance and hidden meanings.

A little shoe painting tutorial by Toasts on Deviant Art – give your old pair a second wind.  Something for the little ones? A free downloadable cloth baby bootee pattern and tutorial from Stardust Shoes.

HANDBAGS

1. Red clutch by Girl of the Sixties on Folksy.

2. Don’t forget to check out the reverse of this beautifully designed zip clutch, made of hand printed fabric by Orea Duffy. So…did I mention it’s my birthday next week?

3. This clutch is bright, modern, elegant … and so pretty! By Jennifer Ladd.

4. Upstyle Design offers unique, finely handcrafted items using high-end designer fabric.

So, now we’ve covered in brief our girls’ best friends. How about a little selection of man’s best friends.

1. Ceramic Dog brooch from Yorkshire textile artist Louise Taylor.

2. Sarah Waterhouse is a textile printer and designer (and a Craft Candy head honcho) making purses, glasses cases, knitting bags and other home textiles.

3. The Dachshund, a.k.a.the Wiener Dog, is the official dog of Vienna you know. T-shirt by Motmot on dawanda.

4. hehehehe he’s so cute. Mister Wiener is a friendly dachshund made of soft fleece fabric. Care of Flufftail.

And, well, if you must have a more Valentinesy fix…see this round up from the Mad Scientists of Etsy blog.

See you later Joe!

I bought a new satchel today – it’s been a good month for being paid for fulfilling large orders. I already have my ever popular pillar box red 14″ satchel (my school bag) and I am always being asked where I got it. And I’m happy to tell people. Cambridge Satchels is a British company, making tremendously high-quality, heirloom products and I’m delighted to recommend them.

(BTW I got the 11″ navy hand-bag type today)

So, satchels it is today:

1. Cambridge Satchels.

2. Clutterbux on Folksy. I carried one of these army surplus bags all through senior school. Mine was not this beautifully decorated though. Mainly I tipp-ex’d ‘Greenday’ all over mine.

3. Another Folksy beauty in gorgeous soft brown leather from Hold on to your Handbag.

4. The howies Hand Me Down satchel. As howies says “These products have been made to last. So that one day you can hand them down to someone else. And they can carry on their little journeys.”

Want to see some more? Go on then:

1. Sarah North on DaWanda.

2. Small and pretty eco satchel from giant dwarf.

3. I heart Wooly Bison. Their designs really appeal to me.

4. Ready Set Go. Nostalgic name, nostalgic wares. With something extra.

And finally:

1. One of a kind satchels in vintage and recycled fabrics from The Ladyship.

2. Satchelman on Etsy – hand stitched in England.

3. Edinburgh based Soda + Kitsch.

4. rennes le chateau: “Physically attached to her Juki sewing machine, Julia spends most of her time cutting out leather and drinking tea.” Good girl!

Fancy making one then? Nould I leave you without tutorials? Never!

Heart of Mary’s tutorial – messenger bag with zip-top closure.

Beautiful messenger bag tutorial from Fishsticks & Fries.

Tutorial for making a messenger bag from a pair of cargo pants! Go Recycling! Thank you Noodlehead.

Go on, get on with it then!

Here is the link to Etsy’s Seller Handbook, an online tool indexing all the tips and how-to’s for sellers that  the Etsy blog has produced. If you haven’t seen it before it it well worth a read through. Possibly go at it in short instalments, there’s really a lot of information for you to digest and implement there. Happy hunting!

Christmas cometh. As usual it has sneaked up on me and I’M NOT READY! I’m not going to bang on about gifts for him and her and whatever too much, there’s enough of that about. I just have a few silly things for you to look at and hopefully feel a bit jolly about. ‘Tis the season after all. Christmas essentials to me are comfort and joy, and peace and goodwill to all men. Rest and relaxation are my most limiting factors and it will be sweet-as to kick back at home over the holidays. Below are some small ways to increase the comfort and joy factor.

Deer = essential Christmas cute. There is nothing like a deer, nothing in the world…

1. Deer of plenty from The Thin Veil.

2. A Violet Pie plushie.

3. Retro adhesive gift tags from The Craft Pantry – See also their Merci Beacoup thank you cards. It’s so important to say thank you.

4.Vinyl wall Christmas decs from Household Words.

In addition – free downloadable deer printable anyone?

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Here’s a Christmas punch recipe I found through Design*Sponge that’ll put colour in your cheeks. And a lovely recipe for mini mince pies.

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Some sweet Christmas luxury lather for you, handmade, kind to all the little baby animals, and totally affordable!

1. Hot Cocoa lip salve from Long Winter Farm.

2. Peppermint lip balm in it’s sweet festive candy cane wrapper, from Aroma Fields on DaWanda.

3. Bathbomb, by Maia on Folksy so still time to order in for Christmas!

4. Liliwhites Handmade’s gingerbread soap. Just remember not to eat it!

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I just love to sit with my somewhat home made gift pile and wrap them all pretty. I usually make an evening of it with Christmas tunes and mulled wine. For previous Christmases I have wrapped in paper saved form the previous year, but somehow this year I have no paper left (I must have used it all for birthdays). I refuse to buy paper for wrapping, its a freaking massive waste guys because you can’t commonly persuade the gift recipient to re-use! {NAUGHTY LIST!} And anything glittery or even a little bit metallic can’t be re-cycled, and if it can it’s still a waste of water and energy. So, after coming across a Japanese book on furoshiki , and LOVING IT, I decided to wrap in fabric. New, old, vintage, scraps, upcycled, whatever. It’s more likely not to be tossed out.

Top. Check out My Furoshiki on folksy. I love this seller! great products, beautiful presentation and always a little extra in the package!

Bottom. Oh so GOOD ON YOU Lush! Lush have joined me in my fabric wrapping frenzy and changed their gift wrap service from paper to vintage scarves. ROCK!

Fancy a go? Here’s another tutorial.

Can’t live without paper? Go on you’re forgiven for falling in love with these recycled wrapping paper prints from Fish Lips paper designs.

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And while we’re on the Good Will train. Try Oxfam Unwrapped for a more fulfilling stocking filler. Or for something more personal, did you know our Folksy has a shop with all proceeds dedicated to the support of the Cancer Research UK charity?

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I hope you all have a great holiday season, a nice rest and a lot of festive cheer.

See you in January folks! Peace out.

I love graffiti. From the latin ‘to scratch’, the word graffiti applies to any marking put into a public space. We think of graffiti traditionally as freehand spray painted art situated along railway sidings or on subway trains. But readers, it need not be. Banksy’s Maid in London (below) is a fine example of stencil graffiti. And we’re going to get more creative than that. Still if you fancy a crack at drawing old skool graffiti, (in a safe and legal way of course) check out this WikiHow.  Or for an even safer option, try this graffiti colouring book or, download some free graffiti fonts at dafont and construct your own!

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See also Sticker Art (sticker bombing/slap tagging) where an image or message is pre-prepared and then publicly displayed using stickers. Inexpensively-purchased and free stickers such as “hello my name is” name tags are combined with hand-drawn art or inkjet labels can be home-printed in batch. Reminder kids – don’t vandalise things that you don’t own. But if you want to jolly up your personal property, here’s some flickr inspiration.

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One for the home? Vinyl decals!

1. Available on Etsy from Charming925 (amongst many others).

2. Something for the laptop from Vinylville.

3. Craftzine shows you how to design and make you own laptop decal.

4. I am very excited to try out this starched decal tutorial I saw at Design*Sponge. Perfect for renters, it peels right back off!

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But, this is MUSEROUND so why not get a little bit MORE crafty, thank you. Check out the phenomeon known as Yarn Bombing.

1. Knitta Please is based in Austin, Texas. When the collective’s first began tagging the streets in 2005, ‘yarnbombing’ was their response to the mass-produced, inserting handmade knitted and crochet art in a landscape of concrete and steel, and cheekily adding warmth to urban fixtures. See their blog here.

2. When the folks of Outdoor Knit called, the residents of Wellington NZ answered and  gathered one Sunday aft to weave colorful hearts into the spaces on the chain link fence.

3. Knitted Landscape.

4. Deeply Superficial People add some paper in to the mix.

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Even greener graffiti? MOSS?!

Top. Seen over at Treehugger.

Middle. Moss graffiti tutorial on Craft.

Bottom. Well it looks green but we’re back to spray paint again. Here.

Have fun not doing anything illegal!

{exeunt}