what katie did next...

Would you like me to send you one of these?

Last week an envelope plopped onto our doormat, and Oscar, our very keen One year old duly brought it through to me, as always.

I opened it, not knowing what was inside, and was really pleased to see a number of Postcards had been sent to me, to advertise The Festival of Crafts, where I am going to be exhibiting What Katie did next... on Saturday 16th and Sunday 17th of October, at Farnham Maltings.

If you follow this blog, you'll know how excited I am about this Craft show as it's one I had to apply to get into and I will be in great company with many excellent Artists and Craftspeople who have been exhibiting for years!

Imagine then, my excitement, when I turned the cards over and saw...

Can you spot what I saw???

Would you like a closer look?

Did you spot it? A little thumbnail photo of my Four leaf clover badges, on the back of the postcard! Wow, that's something I wasn't expecting!

So, I have a pile of them here, and I'd be very happy to mail you a postcard if you'd like one, just email me your address to:

[email protected] and I'll post one to you! 

Have a great day!
 
 

A batch of Flourishing Badges - a lovely big order for a fabulous company!

You may remember, I tweeted about this a while back, a large order of badges for the lovely Fiona Humberstone, Managing Director of Flourish, a fabulous Design and Marketing company in Guildford. 

I was asked to design and make a range of applique button badges for Flourish to send out to clients; I made the badges in the Flourish colours, using contrasting stitching and taking ideas for the designs from the Flourish branding. Chloe, one of the Graphic Designers at Flourish designed the fantastic backing cards, and I printed them out and made them up.

 

I really enjoyed this job, I enjoyed the fact I had a brief, and needed to think about the requirements of the client. I love what Flourish do, an example of this was designing my logo, I love their colours and style.

And, I loved making this order up; I ordered the gross-grain ribbon especially to go with the Flourish branding, and was especially pleased when I noticed it was called Liberty as I know Fiona and I share a love of Liberty printed fabric.

And, of course I love to parcel them up, we all know how important packaging is, and what impression it can make.

 
Well, today I delivered them to Fiona... and a few minutes later she posted the following on Twitter:

"wow wow wow. just had a box of amazing goodies delivered by @katielevett. such a lovely person to work with. thank you!"

I'm pretty sure that's another satisfied customer!

Have a great day!

A Wedding Gift commission - So they are no longer two but one...

Have I already said how much I love making personalised gifts? I love the fact that when someone commissions me it's because they want to give a gift that is so personal to the recipient/s, something they can treasure forever.

A recent commission was for a Wedding gift, based on part of the reading from the Wedding ceremony, an extract from the bible, Mark 10:8.

 "So they are no longer two but one"

I was given two pieces of fabric to incorporate, a warm, cream silk taffeta that was used to make the Groom's accessories, and a beautiful fluid turquoise fabric with a golden sheen, used to make the bridesmaid dresses.  I was asked to include the names of the Bride and Groom, and the date of their Wedding.

So this is what I came up with...

 

There was a gorgeous sheen in the blue fabric that had a golden tint, so I included some gold thread in the writing and to sew on the buttons to tie it all together...

and I made sure the buttons were a delicate Ivory to match the gorgeous silk fabric. 

 
 
Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue... well it's hit three out of four!

And, I managed to make a couple of little extra's for the Bride and each of the mothers with the extra fabric, so they have a little something to remind them of the special day...

Have a great day! 

 

 

Applique badges order - a sneaky peak!

I've been working on a lovely order from Flourish, the wonderful company who have worked with me on my Marketing strategy and designed my gorgeous Logo!

Fiona Humbersone, Managing Director, placed an order of Applique Badges to send out to their clients with a completed order. She and I came up with four designs, two of which I have taken inspiration from the Flourish branding, the other two are designs I already sell that Fiona liked.

So, I thought I'd show you a sneaky peak of how I make the badges, as you can see, I have a bit of a system going. I make them in groups, then do all the trimming and finishing at the end.

I worked really hard to find fabrics that are the 'Flourish colours' as I know Fiona has very strong feelings about colour in business, and she has totally converted me too! I found these lovely pieces of Designers Guild fabrics in my fabric stash (I kid you not, there is a big stash of fabric in my eldest's bedroom!)

 The badges look really 'on brand' due to the colours, and each badge has contrasting thread for the stitching, again using the Flourish colours.

They all look very unfinished here, but I promise, they look good once I've spent time finishing them off! I'm really pleased with them, I hope Fiona and her team are too!  One of the Graphic Designers at Flourish is going to be designing a backing card for them to go on, so watch this space to see the finished items very soon.

Have a great day!

Craft Stall Success!!

Well, after much planning and even more preparation, Lauren and I drove with a car FULL of goodies to set up the craft show on Saturday. A beautiful day, the sun was very hot, so we stocked up on water to keep us hydrated. We drove through some beautiful countryside, and dreamed of owning some of the beautiful houses we passed.

We pulled up in Newdigate Cricket ground, a lovely setting, and found the craft marquee. It was somewhat smaller than the organiser had planned, and was already full with stalls, so she found us a gazebo all of our own. This worked out very well for us, and luckily we were next to a fantastic stall called 'Ruby and Betty's Attic' (they can be found on Not on the High Street).

Meet the lovely Lauren, my wonderful assistant, whom helped me tremedously throughout the day:

So that was how we started, and less than an hour later, this was how it all looked...

 It's a shame we didn't have a back panel to the gazebo, but that's something to think about if I decide to buy one for future craft stalls.

People were very lovely in their compliments about all of my work, and we had lots of interest in the pictures too;

The little ones seemed to really enjoy making their badges, in fact this was extremely popular and I'm really glad I thought to do this! The great thing is it attracted the children, and their parents were able to browse whilst they were drawing!

I'm really pleased with how the vase with the willow turned out, it was well worth having the willow soaking in our bath for two days, then bending them into shape! (Although I'm sure my husband and son's thought I was barking mad!) They displayed my business cards really well, and added a bit of height to the stand.

 

I took my pictures along to show what I can do, but due to it being a village fete I knew not to expect to sell any. They did however attract a great deal of interest, so I am extremely glad I did, and I was able to give out many of the postcards I had made with photographs of a range of them. I put them on the bargain shelves I bought for £1 off ebay, (however, was very stung with the £20 postage!) I then fastidiously sanded, primed and painted them. They're great because they're folding shelves, so fit in the back of my car no problem!

And to the table; well, I had lots of fun planning and making things for this, however, I have thought of a few things I could do to improve for next time.

 
 

I really enjoyed the day, I thought I wouldn't like being face to face with'the public' and talking about my work, but in fact, I can't wait to do another!

Have a great day!

 

It's coming home... well, fingers crossed! Support England with these St George World Cup Badges

 So, it's that time again, when St George's flags are emblazoned on EVERYTHING! When random men start singing to themselves and each other in the street and the whole country gets excited at the prospect of winning! There seems to be a World Cup special offer everywhere I go at the moment! So, if you can't beat them...

 

Join 'em!

I'll be wearing mine with pride - will you?

Have a great day!

 

Stuck on you...magnet packaging

So, I've made the magnets, and I love them, but how will I package them? They look ok on their own, even better in a group on the fridge, but if I were to receive one in the post I think it would look a little bit lost.

So, here's my answer...

I think this makes it much more of a 'gift' item, and I would be happy to receive one!

In fact, I'm so pleased with it that I've done the same for the badges, except I've substituted 'Stuck on you' for 'Pin me down'.

Have a great day!
 

Stamp and deliver! Old stamps recycled into pin badges

Happy Monday to everyone!

A few weeks ago I happened to be at a Jumble sale, helping out. At the end there were literally hundreds of books, all going 'somewhere'm, no one was sure where.  I came across a couple of books full of old stamps. Anyone who follows this blog may have cottoned on to the fact I collect 'things', MANY 'things'.

The stamps have been sitting in my house for a while, I wasn't sure what to do with them. Some of them are so beautiful, I particularly like the ones that have the franking mark across them. Then I got to thinking... wouldn't they make lovely badges! So guess what I've been doing this weekend?

 
My eldest is most upset because he wanted to 'use' them to make 'something' (no idea who he takes after!)

I got quite carried away, can you tell?...

And, I still have lots left! 

Have a great day! 

Upcycle, Recycle, Reuse... making badges from magazines

I, like many of you, like to recycle. I like to feel I'm 'doing my bit'. However, I also have an accute addiction to magazines; some magazines I will not part with (my Living etc and Elle Deco's are displayed in chronological order in our sitting room). But I will browse many magazines (I don't care what anyone says, it's not the same reading them online), and often find it hard to dispose of them... until now!

 

Above is a small collection of re-cycled magazine and envelope badges I made.

I got the idea of recycling envelopes from a blog I was reading the other day, very sorry but I can't remember the author /link! The author was explaining how she re-uses the inside of envelopes to make badges as she was so upset about the amount of envelopes she was throwing away / waste produced.

I wanted to add my bit on, rather than blatantly copy her idea, so I decided to go through an old mag, looking for anything that might look a little bit interesting on top of the print.  Some worked, some didn't, but I had a good time making them.

I like them all together in a group like this; I recently saw a picture made up of button badges in the shape of a heart.  I think they would look great in box frames, or on canvases. Mmmm, more experimenting I think!!

Election day 2010 recycled badges... join the mania - which colour will you choose?

Well, no one could pretend it's not happening could they? but, do you know which colour you will go for?

I was making some re-cycled paper badges last night (I'll post about them later) and I thought I'd make some election day badges - why not?

It was quite interesting yesterday, we had to drive to a childrens party some miles away. We decided to go cross-country to make the journey more pleasant.  As we drove through beautiful little villages that look like they haven't changed in hundreds of years (barring the odd sky dish), there were lots of boards outside of lovely picturesque cottages. At first, without thinking, I thought they were For Sale boards, but quickly realised they were election placquards. More interestingly, they were in groups; depending on the area, there were vivid blocks of colour, in varying shades.

So, if people can display large boards outside their (gorgeous) houses, then they should also be promoting their cause on their person.  I should have thought of this earlier... 

If you would like one of these, I will happily post out to you FREE! (while stocks last) Just let me know which one you would like...

Or, are you one of the many who hasn't decided which colour to sport?

St George's day Badges

I heard on the radio earlier this week that we are the LEAST patriotic country in the world! As a nation we celebrate lots of other days from other countries and cultures, but we don not make very much fuss about St George's day.

So I thought I'd do my little bit by making some St George's flag badges.

These badges are 4cm diameter, so a bit larger than the ones I've made before, but they seem right for this project.

I think for me, I am always a bit worried about wearing the St George flag because of it's possible negative connotations, with it's links to certain 'political' parties and it's overuse in football.

But I will wear one of my badges tomorrow, and I'll pass them around to my family and friends too.

Happy St Georges day for tomorrow!!

 

I'm forever making badges, pretty badges everywhere...

So, I've been adding to the designs.  It seems there is no point making just one badge at a time, you need to make a few.  So each time I select the fabrics, thread the machine up, decide what to applique, trim them and then make them into badges, I have a group of them.

I love seeing them like this, I think they look really cute.  They measure 25mm (about an inch), so they are very small in real life.

I need to thin k about how I'm going to present them for sale;

I shall have some cards printed for them to go on, once my Logo has been decided upon, which should be the end of this coming week.  The card needs to be able to be displayed clearly within a shop, perhaps they will 'hang'?

For a badge this small, the designs need to be very simple, due to the nature of applique.  I have got some larger sizes, so I can make more complicated designs on those.  I can't wait to try!

Have a great weekend, the weather looks excellent!