Fickle Findings Stickers!

While getting ready to send my first order off in the post (it arrived safely to a happy happy customer, Woohoo!) I felt like I really needed something to put the Fickle Findings logo on it before I sent it. After doing a bit of research I started to design my own stickers that I could put on the backing or envelopes for my goods. My thinking was that if I got a few more orders I could justify getting them for myself. However my lovely boyfriend bought them for me. They are a pretty cost effective way (especially if someone else buys them) to put my stamp, or sticker, on my products and I also designed a few with little words or messages for the envelopes as well.

Here's the sticker book from MOO. So cute! I am desperate to use them on my next order if I can resist sticking them all over my room and myself.

This is my favourite, twisting the other meaning of findings. Inspired about how when you are shopping on etsy or anywhere online you can stumble upon something and fall in love with it.

I love Steampunk!

I am pretty sure I say this about every single pair of earrings I make but I think I have a new favourite. I got a little bag of watch parts and made this new range of earrings which is already up on Etsy. I first got into and inspired by steampunk about a year ago through some friends and my love of sci-fi. I started to explore the style and these earrings, along with many other clothes and jewellery purchases of my own are what resulted.

The first pair that I created for myself as a bit of an experiment, using the first bag of parts I got. With one earring as bunch of cogs and the other the main frame of the watch that I have since found is a treat to get within a bag of parts.

The the cogs and other parts are incredibly tiny and delicate, perfect to turn into light weight earrings. I love creating so much that I created a whole section within my Etsy shop from them, which you can find here! 

To begin with I made simple single cog studs and then went onto a long chain going from the biggest to the tiniest of watch parts. I used a mixture of finding colours to match the different watch part colours which also allows them to be diverse enough to go with both silver and gold jewellery. I can see myself making many many more of these earrings, with other parts like clock hands to play with.

My first order

Very exciting stuff! I had my first Fickle Findings order on etsy! So I started off thinking about packaging it up.

 

I chose to use these cute scalloped gift tags that I found. The cream colour sets off my rose earrings and are they so simple and pretty. 

I then packed them with tissue to protect the delecate paper roses before popping them in the envelope to send off to there new owner. I even found some purple patterned tape to add a special touch to the wrapping.

My big blue skirt

One of my many crafty hobbies is sewing. Last summer I made this electric blue satin skirt! I used my amazing dressmakers dummy so I could fit it to myself and kind of made up the pattern as I went along I guess. Starting off creating two circles of fabric for the main skirt and then a reinforced waistband. Creating darts to fit the skirt to my waist before sewing them together. After fitting the zip, I realised I hadn't fitted it to the waistband and only the skirt itself so I had the chance to make some matching fabric covered buttons.

It has become one of my favourite skirts, although it isn't very practical if its windy. And I often comments that I look slightly like a disney character, but I don't think thats a bad thing! Especially when I wear it with bright red shoes in a snow white inspired outfit.

Old stamps

So I'm a self confessed nerd and when I was younger I had one of the more nerdy hobbies ... Stamp Collecting! The story being that my aunt moved to New Zealand and thought signing me up to a stamp collecting club would be a good way to keep in touch with me and then when I was at Brownies and wanted my collectors badge this then became the perfect excuse. Of course like many of my collections it was sorted in an unusual way, by country, but instead by animal! (I think I wanted to be a vet at the time, as most 7 year olds do). Another example of very good sorting skills is my books; by how much fun they are, and my DVDs which essentially has two categories; disney and not disney. Perfect ways to sort them in my opinion but the boyfriend disagrees, his DVD's are in immaculate alphabetical order (at least he hasn't sorted them by genre).


So after looking through the secondary stamp book, that includes boring non-animal stamps, I am currently experimenting with turning a few of the stamps in my old collection into some earrings!! So far they look pretty good, I just need to make sure they are strong enough and don't break after only wearing them once.

Clipping the clippings

A simple new earring creation that will be up on etsy soon! The same as my original clipping earrings these lovely little things came from me experimenting with all my lovely paper craft punches.

Just like my other clipping earrings the book pages are laminated to make them stronger before I then clip them up into pretty little earrings. This time they have heart cut outs in the centre of the circles making a negative heart shape. Of corse the laminated paper takes strong punch and a strong hand. I used some of the page discs with most words means you get the look of book pages without having an earring thats too big.

Using my flower arranging skills for Earrings!

Yesterday I put my latest creation up on etsy! These pretty little rose filled flower pots. When I came up with the idea I started experimenting arranging the tiny ribbon roses. The yellow roses where slightly bigger than the lilac and this allowed me to create a more interesting arrangement balancing the bigger rose with three smaller ones.

They are so pretty! I want them all for myself! I may have to go and buy some more little flower pots so I can make my own!