what katie did next...

Paperwork and tying up the loose ends...

I've just spent much of the morning (well during Oscar's nap) setting up a business bank account and making sure all of my paperwork is in order! Yuk, I would much rather make lovely pretty things.  The good news is "We'll be very happy to accept you" and we're off!!  Now to set up a website to trade from... 

I need to make a 'Business Mood Board' with images depicting how I see "What Katie did next..." with regard to customer profile and market place.  I think I'll spend time this afternoon finding images for that to make up for the nasty paperwork!!

Button obsession - is there a name for it???

When I said I love buttons, I mean I really LOVE buttons! I don't care whether they are old (in fact the older the better in this case), they can be battered and a little bit weathered and I'll still love them. The more unique they are the better, especially if they look like they can tell a story or two of where they've been.

 
I bought a HUGE bag of buttons the other day, all secondhand and muddled up with pieces of junk that George calls 'Treasure'.  George and I have been slowly sorting through them and putting them into coloured jars.  Child labour? I think not, he positively asked if we could do it!  So here's the result so far...

We started off with more variation in colours, but soon realised that we didn't have enough jars.  We've had such a good time talking about the buttons, and it's helped me sort them out so it's easier to work.

Mark doesn't quite understand my obsessiveness over buttons, but I'm sure there are others who do... aren't there???

I'm not sure whether to start on the other boxes yet or not...

My Mothers day gift for my lovely mum...

I have been thinking about expanding into brooches / corsages for some time, so I thought the ideal opportunity would be to make a gift for my lovely mum on mothers day.  I used the same techniques as I have been with the pictures, but of course the brooch was smaller and a lot more fiddly.  I used my mum's favourite colours, praying that she would be wearing them today (she was!)

It started off larger than this, but I trimmed it down, as I didn't want it to look like a rosette.

And I finished it all off with a little label - well there's nothing wrong with self-promotion is there?

Totally handcrafted, and made with lots of love!  Happy mothers day mum! x  

The Ladybug is finished!

I have really enjoyed making this ladybug, I think due to the fact I have used some of my favourite colours to help bring her to life. Here's how it looks on the wall...

I've grown quite fond of her, with her big smiling face and now I've embellished her with beads and sequins to 'glam' her up a bit.

 

I've purposely left some space at the top to enable me to personalise it if someone wants a name or a message there.  I felt there needed to be something else in the picture, so I grew a flower out of buttons, well, you know I have an obsession with buttons by now!! 

 The Ladybug is now looking for a new home...

Home sweet home

I have a friend who is about to buy a new home, and as she has everything she needs, and nearly everything she wants, I decided to make her one of my pictures as a moving in gift.

 I've used colours I know she's going to love, I always think of them as her colours.  I've purposely made the house look a bit rickety, but hope it still comes across as welcoming. I'm really pleased with the tree (George said it has a face), and the flower beds beside the house, I wish my flower beds looked like that!

A way to personalise this for someone / other people would be to place their names and the moving in day at the bottom.

I've really enjoyed making this, and I wish I could keep it as it would go really well in my hallway!