Handmade Monday 134

Hello! Welcome to Handmade Monday!

I have a dilemma this week and I'm not sure where I'm going with it - except to say I'm going public with it and asking for your opinions!  Here we go:

 Handmade Monday is popular and I feel I've made some really good blog friends through it (I think some of you feel the same way too).  We don't get hundreds of people linking, but we always get a good number, and there's always a good feeling of community, I think.  It has developed a bit of a life of its own, I feel.

Card by Laura

So, I started the midweek papercraft party, thinking it might run along the same lines... and of course, hoping that it might help to promote my digital stamps, which is a new start up (many of you know how difficult new websites are to promote and get off the ground).  I expected that there would be less interest in the new linky party than in Handmade Monday, but I must admit I was disappointed that nobody has linked up this week.
It feels like it's doomed!  Am I doing something dreadfully wrong?

A few stats:  I have promoted the papercraft party in a few places.  There are 30,000 page views each month on this blog.  There are over 300 followers via Google and more via other blog readers.  Many of those won't be papercrafters though, because I blog about other stuff too.  Is it a numbers game, or is something else wrong?

card by Mary

I think that perhaps two linky parties a week on one blog may be too much.  So, do I combine the linky parties?  Do I kick one in touch?  Do I carry on regardless?

Some of my thinking is along the lines that I may be trying to do too much on one blog.  Am I?  Or am I trying to run before I can walk?

card by Deanne

I have to think about the Handmade Monday crowd, I know that.  I also have to think about my design team: these are a group of lovely ladies who make the most wonderful cards and other papercraft projects with my designs and blog about them - for no other reward than some free digi stamps each month.  I think they deserve a blog post each week linking to their sites - a blog post which I had thought should really introduce a challenge to readers.  But does it need to?  Or perhaps: does it need to for now?

I do think some hard thinking is in order for me this week - and I would very much appreciate feedback from anyone who has any insight, ideas, opinions or advice to offer!

card by Anita

I think a few big thank yous are in order right now too!

- Firstly, thank you to everyone who links up to Handmade Monday because you remind me how fabulous the crafting community is.
- Secondly, thank you to the Handmade Harbour design team - you are all just amazing and I'm so grateful for your wonderful designs and enthusiasm.
- And thirdly, thank you to anyone who can help me sort my muddled thinking out a little!

card by Zoe

Thanks also for reading my ramblings!  The images are all courtesy of the design team this week!

It's over to you now for this week's Handmade Monday...

Midweek Papercraft Party 1

Welcome to the first ever Midweek Papercraft Party here on Handmade Harbour!

This is a challenge-type party you can join in, if you enjoy papercrafting. There's more info at the end of the post if you'd like to take part.  Most weeks we'll have a theme, but this week it's Anything Goes - so you have no restrictions at all - you just need to make something using paper!

First up, let's have a look at what some of the design team have been creating!

Mary's made a really pretty card from the birdcage in branches digistamp.  I love the pink and blue colour scheme she's used here - just gorgeous.

Visit Mary at Cr8ive ME

Speaking of colour, this card (below) by kel is another one using a colour mix I love.  The orange and blue with touches of green and red looks so fresh and it's just a brilliant card - simple but very effective!  It's been made using the boy with presents digistamp.

Find out more from kel on her blog: Scraps & photoGRAFFS

I love what Laura's done with colour too (has the design team been reading up on my favourite colours?) The red dotty accent used with blue and white on the cute birdy card (below) is just so me - and the floral background adds a pretty and vintage-style touch. Laura's used the bird with shopping bag digi stamp for her card and a super job she's made of it too! 

the bag reads for someone special

Speaking of super, Laura also made this super card (super in so many ways!) using the super hero boy digital stamp

Laura's blog is Crafty Lawyer Creates

OK, so perhaps the superboy card needs a girly project to balance things out?

How pretty is Connie Hall's ballerina scrapbook page?  This is so gorgeously girly and feminine - a very special page for some very special memories!  Connie's used my little ballet dancers digistamp on her page. A fabulous use of the image, I think.

Connie blogs at

Look at the colours in Anita's card (below)!  I love how the contrasts she's used make her colours really pop! Anita's been keeping a secret from me - I'll let you find it out when you pop over to her blog.  It really doesn't matter though - I've seen Anita's work in person, as we often did the same craft fairs in the past. I know everything she makes is of a really high standard as well as being full of colour and zing - just like her card (below) made from the birds and gifts digi stamp, (which actually is 10 stamps in 1 - amazing value, when you think about it!).

Anita at Itsamistry Design Studio

If you are inspired to join in this week, here's how it works:

• You blog about a papercraft project you've made: cards, scrapbooks, wall art - well, anything really.  

• You link up to this blog post using the easy-to-use linky tool below (please be nice and include a link back to Handmade Harbour's blog in your post - or add the Handmade Harbour shop button on your blog). Keep it current - please don't link to old posts.

• If you use a Handmade Harbour digital stamp, you'll be eligible to win a prize (three free digistamps of your choice from the Handmade Harbour shop).  The design team will be taking turns to choose a winner each week.  It might not always be the slickest, most professionally-executed design which wins but it will be something which appeals to that week's judge in some way... use of colour, usefulness of a tutorial, innovative or different use of materials...etc. - so everyone is in with a chance of winning, even beginners.  

• You can still join in without a Handmade Harbour image, but you won't be eligible for a prize.  

• You can use a Handmade Harbour image without making a purchase - there's a free digistamp you can use.

• There's another way you can get a free digi stamp,  by placing a Handmade Harbour blog button in your blog sidebar - click the link for more details.

We'd love to have you take part!  This week's theme is Anything Goes so you don't actually have to stick to a theme at all (but themed challenges are coming up soon!).

Have you been inspired by any of the design team makes?  Have you got a favourite? And are you joining in with the papercraft party this week?  We'd love to see what you've been crafting from paper!

Winners will be announced at next week's Midweek Papercraft Party!  In the meantime...

Zoe in the Spotlight! A Design Team Interview...

I wanted to introduce you to the Handmade Harbour design team one by one so I'm interviewing them for this blog!  First up it's Zoe, who blogs at Handmade with Lots of Love

Who are you? Whereabouts in the world are you based?  What's good and bad about your little corner of the world?

I'm Zoe, I live in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, England. I love it here, roughly in the centre of the country so everywhere is quite accessible.  Bad points - it needs more Craft shops!!

When and why did you start cardmaking?  What (or who) got you started?

I've always been interested in making things and as a little girl you would always find me in the stationery section in shops, rather than the toy section. I would knit with my mum and sew at school. I would make cards on the computer then I started making them from old cards and the rest is history!

What do you enjoy most about designing and making a card?

I like trying new things. I've had a dabble at most card-making techniques. Some I've loved, some not. I like learning new things so I'm always looking out for new ideas and generally 'messing'.

What do you love about digital stamps?

I love digi stamps as there is so much more you can do with them than regular stamps. You can change the size - that's the most important thing for me.

How many cards do you make in an average week?

I make, on average, between 5 and 10 cards a week

Where do you do your crafting?  Do you have a dedicated craft room or do you take over the kitchen table?

I have a craft room, but I craft anywhere. In the dining room, in the bedroom - anywhere really apart from my craft room!!

Do you ever sell the cards you make? If so, where?

I do sell my cards. I send them to the local old people's home. I don't charge much but they love them as they're so different to what you can buy in the shops. I also get quite a few requested cards to make

Do you do other forms of craft too?  If so, what?

I like to knit and sew but I don't do a lot of it these days. I like to make leather bags and purses when I get the chance.

Who are your favourite craft bloggers?

I have a long long list of favourite craft bloggers - way too many to mention

Finally, have you got a favourite Handmade Harbour image?

That's like asking which is your favourite child!!! BUT I love the poppies digi stamp which I used in the card above!

I adore what you did with the Poppies digi stamp, Zoe!  And I'm fast realising that I'm not the only one who spreads their mess creativity all over the house despite having a dedicated space to use!

What is a Digital Stamp?

Digital stamps have been new to everyone at some point and I know some of my readers haven't been completely sure what I've been wittering on about when I've mentioned my new digi stamp designs on here!  I remember discovering digi stamps only a few years back and I got very excited by the possibilities of creating them!

Keryn made my caravan digi into a gorgeous new home card!

But, for those of you who aren't sure - what exactly is a digital stamp?

OK, so maybe digital stamp is a slightly misleading term.  It came about simply because they are a digital version of a rubber stamp (the illustrative stamps used by card makers).  Digital stamps aren't really stamps at all, but are used in pretty much the same way (with a few differences and benefits!) as those rubber stamps.

Basically, digi stamps are just a downloadable, printable image - designed with card makers and paper crafters in mind and saved at a high resolution so you get a good image.  They mostly come as black and white line drawings (although you can get them in colour, too) and one of the main benefits is that they can be resized really easily on your computer before printing - there's an excellent You-Tube video that explains the easiest way of doing this for anyone new to using digi stamps.

this candy floss cart is one of my new digi stamps

As well as being able to resize, rotate and flip, you get a few other benefits with digis:

• They're downloaded in a high-resolution format, so the image stays good even if you make it bigger.

• They can be printed off as many times as you like, without any wear and tear or inky mess, both of which can happen with rubber stamps.

• You don't need anywhere except a computer hard drive (or flash drive) to store all your digi images - perfect for those of us a little short on space! 

• Because they are digital, they usually work out much cheaper than rubber stamps

• You get your download instantly with most suppliers (you will with Handmade Harbour, as soon as the website's up and running!)

one of my sewing machine images 

(I think there'll end up being quite a few of these!)

I'm going to be sharing some of my images as digital stamps on the brand new Handmade Harbour website, which launches on the 3rd June 2013.  Watch out for it!  I'm very excited, but also a little apprehensive as it's a brand new venture for me!  There's a lot of work going into this, but I am enjoying every minute, so I do hope there are some people out there who like them!

And with my brain feeling frazzled with all this website-building (not a natural strength of mine, I don't mind admitting!) I am hoping I don't make any major mistakes along the way.  Feel free to point them out if I do!

Handmade Monday 115

Hello! It's Handmade Monday time again!

The countdown is on for me.  I am planning to launch my new website on 3rd June 2013! I'm still frantically trying to get a good collection of printables together, but I'm getting there, and I'm steadily building the site day by day too.  I have to remind myself that it will continue to grow after launching.  It's just a beginning!

I've had some really amazing help from people testing my stamps - and I'm so, so grateful to everyone who's helped me.  It's been great to see similar opinions and suggestions coming up from more than one person, but pretty much everything the testers have said has been really useful.

I'll put together a post (or posts!) soon with some of the cards (and tags) the testers have made.  It's so lovely to see them transformed!  The images, not the testers...

Meanwhile, I did a little testing myself - I figured it was only right that I should!  It's been a good few years since I made cards, but I always enjoyed it.  It was my dad's 85th birthday yesterday - I thought that would be as good a place to start as any.

So, I designed a digi stamp with a racing cyclist on (my dad's lifelong passion - he was still cycling long distances well into his seventies) and went from there...

I have already started designing some of my own craft papers, too, which come ready to print in colour (although I think I may also do some in black and white!) and I decided to use these two

but I also used the red polka dot from this month's Craftseller magazine (have you seen the new look magazine yet? It's in the shops on Tuesday).  I also threw into the mix some sky blue paper from an old copy of Simply Homemade magazine.

In fact, it was these Emma Ball papers that made me realise people just might buy hand-drawn/painted craft papers and digi stamps and that my Photoshop skills (or lack thereof, to be much more accurate) didn't have to hold me back!  Pop over to Emma's website, if you have a minute - it's very inspiring and she does lots of seasidey stuff, which I love!  I've admired her artwork for a long while, so it's actually really lovely that seeing her craft papers was a kind of catalyst for me.

My dad loved his card and said it was his favourite.  Sometimes, it's the little things that make a big difference, isn't it?

OK, over to you...