In the news!

 

I'm happy to be able to share the news that on January 31st I was featured in the Bridgnorth Journal, our local paper.  I think the photo came out really nicely, my only complaint is the slight typo in the web address. For anyone is doubt it's luckyladybirdcraft.co.uk, not luckyladybirdcrafts. Never mind, it's already created lots of local interest and it's something great to be able to share with potential customers and suppliers.

It's only three days until Valentine's Day now, and I hope everyone who ordered the love-heart cupcakes has received them by now. To avoid the risk of selling a Valentine's Day present that couldn't be delivered in time I'm afraid I've had to remove them from the online shop today. 

Have a great romantic day everyone, and I hope the gifts are well received! 

LLxx

The Personal Touch

This Valentine's Day I've put together a new cupcake for the Lucky Ladybird online shop, and it's something a little special, the first ever customisable Lucky Ladybird product. Just fill in the initials of you and your partner (for example K and T) when ordering and I will top the cupcake with an individually 'iced' love-heart creating a memorable gift.

Lucky Ladybird Valentine's cupcake purse £10

 

 To help make the new cupcake the perfect Valentine's gift I've also put together a 'sweet nothings' gift set. As well as the personalised cupcake purse I have also included a matching personalised keyring/bag charm, a selection of white chocolate champagne truffles and a presentation gift box all for only £20.

'Sweet Nothings' gift set

The special edition cupcakes will be handmade to order, so please place your order by Saturday February 8th to avoid disapointment.

And if you'd like to make something personal to decorate your Valentine's Day dinner table then why not take a look at my tutorial for a portrait candle holder (via IndiElf.com). Using a clear glass jar and some leftover Christmas tissue paper you can make a pretty centre-piece for a romantic meal.

There will be more spring craft ideas to come soon, but in the mean time have a lovely Valentine's Day everyone,

The (Lovey) Lucky Ladybird xx

New Moves For The New Year

Now Christmas is over I've been ringing the changes at Lucky Ladybird Craft. After a recommendation from a fellow crafter I decided to try supplying a new local stockist, the Tania Holland Gallery in Bridgnorth. The Tania Holland Gallery is run by the artist herself and everything inside is beautiful and well made. It's well situated on the most picturesque street in Bridgnorth on the route to the cliff railway, always a popular path for tourists to trace, and the focus on design and originality in the shop means my products look right at home there. Some of my more colourful items have been placed in the window this month and I know they've already created quite a stir locally, quite surprising given that January is meant to be a very quiet month on the high street!

The Tania Holland Gallery in Bridgnorth, just look out for the dog on wheels!

The presentation of some of the products in the THG was is so lovely that they gave me real food for thought. I decided to follow the good example of other local artists and crafters and package my smaller items on handmade backing cards. The new cards are designed so that a badge can be pinned to the section of fabric or a bag charm can be fastened through a narrow horizontal slot. Everyone who has seen these so far has said how professional they look, and I'm hopeful that they will also brighten up the table at my next crafting event.

A selection of bag charms on my new display cards

The cards turned out to be exactly the right size for display of a new range of badges I've just designed. Flat but with a 3D effect I've called them 'slice of cake' brooches. They're not available on the website yet as I've only made a few, but I think they should be perfect for the vintage fairs I will be attending later in 2014 as each of the 'plates' is decorated with appliqued vintage fabric

New 'slice of cake' brooches

'Slice of cake' brooches on display cards

 In the spirit of making my products look more professional I've also organised something this month that I've been meaning to do for a while and had some Lucky Ladybird fabric product labels made. These fabric labels are now sewn into all Lucky Ladybird products too large to fit on display cards, and they should mean that in the future anyone who buys or receives one of my bags or purses will be able to trace it back to 'The Lucky Ladybird'.

My new fabric labels

A fabric label sewn into the lining of a strawberry and cream swiss roll handbag

There's lots more to do this year and I'll be back very soon with news of a new Valentines Day product. Onwards and upwards!

LLxx

Dear Dad (or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love Twitter)

Dear Dad,

I noticed you set up a Twitter account not long ago, and as a self-employed businessman I think it's a great move. Twitter can bring you lots of new fans, and it can also help you find customers and makes sales, it's amazing marketing tool but it's far from self-explanatory, so I've decided to share with you everything I know about how to use Twitter to your advantage.

1. Target market and contemporaries

First of all you need to decide two things:

  Who is your target market?
  Who are your contemporaries?

For me my first answer would be something like 'cake enthusiasts', 'bag enthusiasts' etc. and my second answer would be 'craft sellers' and 'small business owners'. For you I would guess your first answer might be 'historical fiction enthusiasts' and your second answer 'self-publishers' and 'small business owners'. We have a little bit of an overlap, but not much!
Now you need to start tracking these two groups down. Use the search function on Twitter and search for one of your key terms.

Try 'search all people' to bring up a long list.

Read through the profile information on the list and you'll find a mixture of your target market and contemporaries, and follow anyone who looks like they might be interested in your work. Imagine it like an opportunity to give out a lot of business cards all at once, follow follow follow! You'll be amazed how many people will follow you back automatically, just out of curiosity or interest.
Search regularly for any and all key terms and keep following. Aim to follow around 200 people to start with (yes, really!)

2. Monkey see, monkey do
Once you have a long list of people you're following it's time to watch what they're doing. This is most important for the 'contemporaries' group. When I started following other craft sellers on Twitter I found out about all sorts of pre-existing organisations who help to publicise small businesses (check out Purple Dog for example) as well as twitter events that anyone can join in with. There's a 'Handmade Hour' (Wednesday 19:30-20:30) where lots of people watch the hash tag #handmadehour. By tweeting something like 'Look at this item I made #handmadehour' and including a picture suddenly I had a captive audience. Find out if there's anything similar among your contemporaries, either in writing or publishing and join in. #newwriting looks promising as does #IndiePub
If you see a contemporary doing well on Twitter then take a look at who they follow and who they interact with. Follow who they follow and take a leaf out of their book. 

3. Interact
Once you start to join in twitter events you'll notice that the most popular Twitter feeds are maintained by the chattiest people. Some people have the gift of the gab, but twitter isn't just about self-promotion, it's also about lending a hand and interacting with others. If you see another start-up with a product or service that you think deserves promoting then retweet, tell them you like their product. You might make a useful contact, and that person is much more likely to share your products in the future.
Lots of people will send you a welcome message when you follow, consider whether it's worth doing the same (e.g. Thanks for following, have you seen my website?). It's not mandatory, but it seems to work for lots of businesses.

4. Repetition, hesitation, deviation
Finally imagine what a billboard would look like advertising your books. What would it say? Twitter is a lot like a billboard, with lots of potential customers driving past at high-speed. If something's worth saying it's worth saying a dozen times. Every time you repeat an important message you increase your chances of people noticing your tweet, and take note of twitter rush-hours on evenings and weekends to increase your visibility. Just reword your tweet and no one will mind if you repeat yourself (and they won't mind if you hesitate or deviate from the subject either).

There are lots more things to learn about Twitter I'm certain (for example did you know you could pay to promote a tweet saying 'buy my book' to everyone who likes Sharpe or James Bond?) but I'm still learning about all that myself. With a little luck you'll be teaching me how it's done before I work that out.

Keep tweeting and keep writing, lots of love

@Lucky_Ladybird

Note: For my regular readers my Dad is the author of a series of historical spy novels 'Most Secret'. He also runs a self-publishing website helping budding authors get into print and break into the world of e-publishing. Please drop by and say hello. www.chelonist.com

My first crafting Christmas

It's an exciting time of year, and it's a time when I usually hand make gifts for family and friends, but this festive season is even more exciting for me than usual. This is my first Christmas as a professional crafter, and I've been planning for it since August when I first drew up plans for some special Christmas items for the Lucky Ladybird shop.

Plans for a mince pie purse

Plans for a Christmas pudding clutch

Having drawn up the plans I didn't actually start to make either of these until after Hallowe'en when I was first able to dedicate some time to Christmas. I made some prototypes, did my best to improve on the designs and then was able to put together the finished items in early November. It gave my husband a shock to see I'd unpacked the Christmas decorations a month early so I could take some suitably festive photos!

Mince pie and Christmas pudding purses

The Lucky Ladybird collection in a festive setting. The decorations when back into the box after this photo was taken!

The mince pie and Christmas pudding purses have a red polka-dot lining (unlike most Lucky Ladybird items which have a pink polka-dot lining) and are embellished with sprigs of holly instead of the traditional felt strawberry, but they're still soft and fleecy like my other creations with plenty of felt detailing.

Once the Christmas specials were designed and made I decided that the website could do with a Christmas makeover. I added a special 'Christmas Shop' section where my products are arranged into useful categories for anyone looking to buy gifts. The exclusive Christmas items and gift sets are easier to find and visitors can also browse items by price to make it easier to shop for stocking fillers.

After the website re-launch I managed to find some time to write a quick tutorial for a website called PVB Daily. They had put out a request for 12 Christmas-themed tutorials for a 12 days of Christmas crafting feature, and I was thrilled when they decided to include my guide to making your own Christmas pudding tree ornament for day 6. As you can see from the picture the decoration is a simplified version of my Christmas pudding coin purse.

Tutorial available at PVB Daily

The rest of November I spent stocking up on my most popular items ready to attend my first ever Christmas craft fair in Donnington near Telford. The venue (Cordingley Hall) was new to craft events, but when I found out that there would be hot food and a special Santa's Grotto for the kids I could tell it would be a popular local event.

 

The morning of the fair I packed plenty of tinsel and even wore my Christmas jumper to get into the spirit. The Christmas music playing in the hall helped set the scene and when the doors were opened the venue was quickly packed with visitors. 

Me set up and ready to go at the Christmas craft fair

Santa's visit was a big local attraction as predicted and there was also a surprise visit from a dancing reindeer! There was mulled wine at the bar which helped to warm us up, but by the afternoon the hall was quiet. Fortunately it so happened that many of the stall holders were on the look out for handmade gifts, me included! In the last hour I bought some handmade chocolates and some pretty hand-carved wooden gifts from my fellow crafters. They returned the favour by buying some special Christmas items from me, which made for a nice end to the day. 

One thing I've learned in my first year of professional crafting is that many good craft fairs are booked far in advance, sometimes over a year before they take place. There are lots of local events that I would love to have taken part in but which were organised well before I was even thinking about self-employment! I've already signed up to take part in a Christmas craft fair in December 2014 in Shrewsbury and I plan to be at many more if I can. Christmas is a great time of year for family events like craft and vintage fairs, especially in Shropshire. 

Happily my stockists have also arranged Christmas events this year, and my items have also been available through them. Urban Folk took Lucky Ladybird items to a special Pop-Up Shop at Eat Up in Shrewsbury as well as to a Christmas Fayre at Concord College at the end of November. The Shropshire Hills Discovery Centre are getting in on the action too with a ‘Shopping and Santa Special’ this Sunday 8 December. There will be crafts and stories and a visit with Santa for the kids and mulled wine for the adults as a well as a relaxed atmosphere perfect for doing some Christmas shopping.

Until next time good luck with all your Christmas preparations. Lots of love

LLxx

Stockists, stalls and stocking-up

I'm so happy to say that October turned out to be a great month for Lucky Ladybird Crafts. After a slow September I was thrilled to be able to start the month my announcing the the winner of my cupcake gift box competition. The new cupcake flavour will be blueberry, photos to follow very soon!

Soon after I found out that my first ever stockist, Tea & Roses of Bridgnorth, was moving to a larger premises in Bridgnorth. I organised to pick up my stock while the move took place, and it turned out my items had been selling better than expected! Lucky Ladybird items will be back in stock in Tea & Roses in November when the move is complete.

Tea & Roses in Bridgnorth - now moving to a larger premises also on Bridgnorth high street

Shortly afterwards I was contacted by the Shropshire Hills Discovery Centre in Craven Arms who found me via my Twitter feed. They were on the look-out for stockists for their new Shropshire-made Christmas shop. I took some items along and they're now for sale until Christmas along side some beautiful woodwork, glass work and jewellery, all hand made in Shropshire. It's a great centre with a library, gallery, cafe and exhibitions so I recommend a visit if you're in the Shropshire area.

Shropshire Hills Discovery Centre cafe/gallery space

Lucky Ladybird bags and purses alongside boards and platters by wood artisan Spencer Edwards

 

I spent the rest of October preparing for a Halloween stall in the Parade shopping centre in Shrewsbury. I made plenty of Day of The Dead items and a few bat badges as well as some simple sushi clutch purses to fill out the stall.

Special Day of The Dead badges

Halloween stall in Shrewsbury with new egg nigiri and shrimp nigiri clutch purses (centre left)

It was such a busy day with cosplayers and shoppers, competitions and kids in costumes, but I made time to drop by my Shrewsbury stockist Urban Folk while I was close by. It seems the people of Shrewsbury just love my cake charms, I'll just have to start making some more!

Urban Folk on Grope Lane in Shrewsbury

Lucky Ladybird purses for sale in Urban Folk

I've got lots of plans for November already, and you won't be surprised to learn that Christmas features heavily! I'll be preparing for Christmas craft stalls in Donnington and Shrewsbury by making some special edition Christmas items and I'll be adding a new Christmas area to my website with lots of gift ideas and boxes for the festive season. In the mean time you can keep up to date with my new projects at www.facebook.com/LuckyLadybirdCraft or by following my Twitter feed @Lucky_Ladybird

Wishing you a happy November,

LL xx

Where do you get your ideas from?

I'm sure everyone in a creative profession gets this question a lot, but because my bags are so unusual quite often my customers have never seen anything like them before. Can I really be so out on a limb? A mad genius concocting one-off wonders? No, of course not. In the wonderful world of the internet my bags are not so strange, and all great ideas have a starting point.

I first started sewing bags because I wanted a handbag to express my love of sushi. I thought that someone, somewhere, would already be making a bag shaped like a sushi roll, but when I couldn't find what I wanted I made it myself. I didn't realise at the time that I'd started something momentous, something that would lead me to start my own business. I'd been inspired by the cute and kawaii world of Japanese food, and in Japan there are already dozens of designers turning food into accessories, playthings and furniture.

Pastry cushions and sleeping bags from Felissimo

Modular sushi furniture by Sophia Yung

Miniature food earrings by Meow Box

The concept for my cake collection came from a desire to make this wonderful world more accessible to the majority of the British population, so I chose iconic British cakes that I thought would make a bold style statement. In drawing up my designs I had a lot of help along the way, firstly from other designers. It's always a good start to find out what other crafters are making and try to work out how they did it. I often browse etsy to get an idea of new trends. When looking for ideas for Swiss Roll bags (which was something I knew I wanted to do) I came across this ring. I was totally inspired by the simple shape and loved the idea of chunks of chocolate mixed in with the cream.

Chocolate Swiss Roll Ring from PinkFrog4U on etsy

Next I started looking up recipes. I love to browse recipes in books and online for inspiration. I came across this image through a good image search, and although it's only a stock image I was wowed by the amazing use of colour. Again the design features cream with added delicious chunks, but this time they're chunks of fresh strawberry. Looking at images like this inspired me to include a strawberry with each cake design. 

Shutterstock chocolate and strawberry Swiss Roll

Here's the result, my Chocolate Swiss Roll Handbag inspired by this recipe, topped off with the strawberry zip-pull. 

Chocolate Swiss Roll Handbag, available from the Lucky Ladybird shop

Of course if looking for beautiful pictures of food there's one place you can spend hours drooling over - Pinterest! Although my method of constructing my cupcake coin purses is a closely guarded secret, I will reveal that many of my cupcake 'recipes' are inspired by beautiful Pinterest images, such as this mouthwatering photograph of a batch of lemon cupcakes.

Lemon cupcakes from MontanaRosePainter on Pinterest

Lemon cupcake coin purse by the Lucky Ladybird

If you'd like to see more delicious images that helped to inspire my crafty creations, and even get a few clues as to some more recipes I'm considering adding to the Lucky Ladybird range check out my Pinterest board 'Cake Craft' which I've just make public.

The world of crafting is weird and wonderful, and the only limit is your imagination. As it turns out my imagination reaches about as far as my stomach! Keep looking for inspiration, and good luck in all your creative endeavours, 

LL xx