Makers Month: Why Blogging is Important for your Handmade Business with The New Craft House

Today we are having a lovely chat with a pair of gorgeous babes who, like us, run an awesome craft blog. They have also launched a craft kit business, run lots of workshops and have a passion for all things Liberty. Say hi to the lovely Hannah and Rosie from The New Craft House to tell us why blogging is important for your handmade business.

What's on my desk

We thought we would introduce some new things in 2016 and so this series is all about a little behind the scenes of what we do, so lets dive in to what's on our desks this month.  Now, as bloggers and day job person we have a few desks and so I am sure we will share our different spaces each time - to keep things interesting!

 

First up is Sammy.  My space has changed quite a lot lately as it has gone from just being my home desk in my craft room to being my second desk when I work from home.  I am challenging myself to keep it clear of clutter, which is really hard for my 'messy bedroom' teenage self.  I have been working on some things for a couple of magazines which I can't show you, but in-between I have been practising with the We Make Collective Calligraphy kit.  I am loving getting back to working on my hand lettering skills, it's a nice break from working on the computer all the time.  I have another desk at our Sew Crafty office, but it is covered in paper work at the moment, but maybe next month we will take a look at what's on my desk there.

Now over to H.  I thought I would show the day job side of my desk, my actual work desk is just scattered with paperwork and so I thought my studio space desk would be way more fun to share.  I work at The Lightbox, as you may already know and a part of my job entails designing and planning workshops for children and adults.  At the moment we are planning our next what's on brochure - so I am already thinking about what we are going to make in the summer holidays - so you get a sneak peek here, shhh, no telling!  So this chaos you see in the picture is me making samples to photograph for the brochure and deciding what we can actually make in the time we have for workshops.  Also it means delving into our store and finding all the materials I can use for the workshops.  It's all very colourful and usually means using Pinterest alot to adapt things I find to make sure it is easy for 4 year olds or interesting enough for 12 year olds which can be a challenge. 

We hope you enjoyed that little peek into what we are up to right now, What is on your desk? We would love to see, tag us on Instagram @liveit.loveit.makeit so we can take a look.  You can also check out our Office Pinterest board for a bit more inspiration to make your own office look cool - although I feel no ones office ever looks as good as those!

 

H & Sammy, xxx

Bloglovin / Twitter / Facebook / Pinterest / Google+ / Instagram

How Blogging Can Help your Handmade Business - Feature in Craftseller

If you head down to your newsagent this weekend, don't forget to pick up the October issue of Craftseller magazine, not just because it's a great crafty mag, but you may see an article with some familiar faces.

We were asked a few months ago to weigh in on the subject of how having a blog can help your handmade business.  Something we love to talk about!

The piece by Karen Dunn includes some other amazing Girl boss bloggers, the lovely Kat and Kat founders of Blogtacular, Camilla Westgaard from the Folksy Blog and Alice Tams from Birds in hats.  I know we are biased, but it is well worth a read if you are in any doubt as to whether blogging is for you and your brand.  Spoiler alert.  It totally is!

As if you needed another reason to head out and grab a copy there is also a great interview with Amanda Overs of I Can Make Shoes, who's workshops have been on our wishlist for ages.  Definitely on our Christmas list now!

We would love to know if you have a handmade business or brand and how your blog has impacted it, or if you find social media and blogging just a bit overwhelming?  What have you learnt about yourself or your customers via your blog?

Sammy and H xxx



Bloglovin / Twitter / Facebook / Pinterest / Google+ / Instagram

Myth Busting: Blogging

Despite being bloggers for nearly 5 years now we haven't ever really written anything about blogging. We thought it was about time that we did a little post about the things that people think we do and about blogging and bloggers in general. Those blogging myths, if you like. It is always interesting to see what people think about what you do and everyone has a different take on it I am sure, but these are just some of the myths we thought should be busted!

Myth #1: Everyone has a journalism background.
Not everyone starts their blog as part of a journalism degree or as a way to get free clothing when they are cash strapped.  Many blogs are now started earlier and earlier and in the UK, the fashion and beauty bloggers and vloggers are kings and queens.  Not everyone who starts a blog thinks that they are great at writing. We started with a idea and have learnt about our writing styles along the way - probably still learning there - which is no bad thing. Sammy is still terrible at spelling!  Getting your ideas down and relating to your audience is key, but you really don't need to have taken a degree in it or worked in publishing to do that.

Myth #2: Your going to earn loads of money from your blog.
Lots of people think that we get free stuff and get paid lots for what we do.  Not true.  Obviously that would be lovely, a great way to add to our day job income.  However making a blog work, takes time and hard work.  We have been to many talks and discussions about this and it really depends on each person, but just making money from writing a blog is unusual.  The money comes from advertising, writing for other people and other opportunities that come from having a blog a lot of the time.  Sometimes brands send you items to review, that in itself has a responsibility attached.  You don't want to give a good review if you don't actually like it and also, would you really use it if you were paying for it?  Just because it is free, doesn't mean its a good brand match for you and as lovely as freebies are, they do not pay the rent!

Myth #3: We go to amazing events all the time.
We can only speak of personal experience here, we both have quite full on day jobs, which means we can't go to the opening of every envelope in town, we also don't live in a big City and so we have to pick and choose the events we go to carefully.  Also, we don't always get invited!  We just are not in uber blogger status yet, I know, hard to believe hey!  We would love to be invited and attend more events and meet more bloggers. This is definitely on the networking wishlist.  We also want to go to events that we really want to go to and sometimes we just can't do it which is a shame, but luckily social media always gives us an eye into what went on which helps.

Myth #4:  Blogging is just fun, doesn't take anytime at all.
Blogging is really fun, however to make your blog successful you need to put the time and effort in.  If you just want to write something down every now and again, by all means start a blog, just don't expect to become a blogging superstar overnight.  Anyone can start a blog, its so simple, you just have to have something to say and commit to doing it.  However, if you want to make it something you are proud of, it takes good photography skills, ideas and all of that spare time that you have.  There are two of us and it can be a balancing act with jobs, personal lives and our blog, but we want it to be something that will continue to grow, which means many Sundays spent doing tutorials, many weekends checking out new fun things to do and then stopping every 2 minutes to take photographs and also blog meetings in the pub.  I am not going to lie, they all sound ace, but it can eat into your time with other people and so be prepared.

Myth #5:  We all have amazing homes.
You really do need to see behind the camera.  We move, polish and pile up our daily lives, just to get that perfect shot of a white background for the tutorial.  We have a habit of choosing a little spot halfway between the bedroom and the bathroom or nearest to a window, to get the best light and a nice even surface.  We really do not live our lives like you see it on camera, so don't panic.  Most of us have quite normal homes that mean the clutter and chaos that is around, just gets shoved to the side, but it wouldn't be quite the same for you to think that we are like mere mortals would it?

Any bloggers out there agree, what would be your top myth you would like busted?  Let us know in the comments below.
H


Bloglovin / Twitter / Facebook / Pinterest / Google+ / Instagram

How are we doing? Reader's Survey

Hello all and how are we holding up in January?  Its back to work for H today, although Sammy has been in the shop over the Festive period making sure we are all kept stocked with sewing projects! But I definitely detect a bit of the January Blues for us all.  But no need, January is all about new beginnings for us all and as our #morehappyme post last week told you, we have some pretty good goals to keep us going through the cold weather and post Christmas slump - with a blanket and cup of tea of course too!

We also thought it would be a good time to see what you all thought about what we are doing here at Live it. Love it. Make it and so we have a little survey for you here.  We would love it if you would fill it in and let us know what you like, not so keen on and want more of.  Plus anything else you would like to tell us of course.
We love it when you guys interact with us and let us know when you have made something we have shown you.  But we also want to know what else you enjoy and whether you think there is anything missing from our blog.  We love a bit of brainstorming between ourselves, but sometimes our two brains just isn't enough, so let us know your thoughts and we can make sure you are getting what you want from us.

You can find the survey here and please do pass it on.  I am now off to go through all the emails - with a cuppa of course!

H, xxx


Bloglovin / Twitter / Facebook / Pinterest / Google+ / Instagram

Our Favourite Posts 2014

2014 is almost over and what a year we have had here on Live it. Love it. Make it. We have more of you reading our blog than ever before and it makes us feel truly humbled that so many of you are enjoying what we share here. We would not get the opportunities that we have had this year if it wasn't for all your support.  Before 2015 gets into full swing we wanted to go back and remember some of our personal favourite posts from the year.

Jan - Understanding a Dress Pattern 
The Series of posts I (Sammy) wrote about how to navigate your way through a paper pattern has been one of our most viewed series this year and one of my favourite to write. Are there any other things like this that you struggle with? Let us know and we might be able to turn it into a post for you.

Feb - Make it: Ginger Biscuits
These biscuits are AMAZING and so simple to make, they had to make it into a top list somewhere. They would make a great Christmas Party something to take too, although be warned, they are rock hard after a day due to the golden syrup in them.  Bake them in the morning and they will be great for that evening.

March - Our Liberty Adventure
In March we got to visit Liberty thanks to the lovely girls of the New Craft Society to hear about Liberty fabrics and have afternoon tea. It was a lovely experience and one we will never forget.

April - Our Tea and Crafting Adventure
We loved going to see the Tea and Crafting workshop space for the first time and have been again since.  In April it was to learn machine embroidery though and it was great fun, we instantly became hooked!

May - Blogtacular
We headed to London for our first blog convention.  We had such an amazing time, got to meet some of our blogging idols and made some lovely new friends.  Despite H and I both being rather poorly all weekend.

June - Our 500th post and OMG we are in Mollie Makes
Well, we couldn't do this without mentioning one of our biggest moments this year.  We got a project featured in Mollie Makes! And an interview too, it's still exciting and we loved being part of it, fingers crossed we can do it again soon.

July - Brush Up Those Blogging Skills
For Me (Sammy) July was all about learning, I shared my favourite Blogging e-courses that I have taken in the past and learnt some new crafts on my road trip to Austria.

August - How we Wear New Look Special
We loved working with New Look and this is one of my (H) favourite How we Wear posts of the year, we look so glam!  Plus we got to work with one of our favourite brands - what's not to like!

September - Make it: Cable Cosy
By far our most popular tutorial of this year and my (Sammy) favourite has to be the cable cosy we made in Makers month. With the help of Dashwood Studio's gorgeous fabric and a need to store all my cables in one place this cosy is my favourite post of the year.

October - Make it: Spooky Spiders and Vampire Bats
Who doesn't love some spiders and bats for Halloween! Such a simple make to decorate the place or just be a fun make with the kids for the time of year.

November - Sew Crafty Online is Now Open
On a personal note (Sammy) opening my shop to a whole new customer base made my November, heck it made my year!  After working on it for so long it was such a relief to have the site go live. We have had such a lovely response and lots of lovely sales.

December - Gift Wrapped
The best part of Christmas for us is the giving of presents and what better way for us to enjoy it, than some amazing gift wrapping.  The gift is just part of it!

Wow! what a year it has been! What have been your highlights from 2014? and what are you looking forward to next year?

H and Sammy xxx


Bloglovin / Twitter / Facebook / Pinterest / Google+ / Instagram

Makers Month: Choosing a Craft

Embroidery Hoops

We have been asked a few times recently and struggled to answer a question that I'm sure a few of you would also have difficulty answering ''what is your favourite craft?''

Over the past few years of co-running this blog, I have realised more and more that I find it so hard choose! how do I choose and I know Sammy feels the same.

String Art

I always default to saying that printing is my favourite craft, but I honestly don't have the space to set-up my printing stuff in my house-share, so I don't actually end up doing it as often as I would like - I do try to shoehorn printing in at work though!

For my job I spend a lot of time making up samples for the workshops we run and so I feel that I am constantly making, but most of the time I am not making things I like would like to be making for myself. They do, of course, turn out to be pretty cool, even if I do say so myself!

Some of my makes at The Lightbox

We are both bloggers who love crafts rather than designer/makers in the sense that we do not sell the things we make, I think I would find it hard to choose what to make and sell. I am interested to find out more from any of you who are designer/makers..

Did you get in to making as a hobby that grew in to a business? or did you choose something you want to make and then stick to it or did you change your focus after a while? or even, do you make other things in your spare time any-more or is it all about making stock now that you have a business?

Wrap Bracelet

I used to love Jewellery making and card making, but now don't do it quite so often, mainly gifts for friends.  I guess, for me, it comes down to having quite a creative job in the day, sometimes I just want to hang out with friends rather than make stuff for myself. I always wondered how Designer/makers cope with falling out of love with their craft? Does doing it as a business take the joy out of it for you?

Kindle Pouch

I have a pile of sewing ideas and projects to do and if it wasn't for the blog, I wouldn't get half of them done. Having the blog gives me the permission and drive to do something about all those ideas I have running around in my head, so I suppose it would be the same if I was making things to sell.

I'm just not sure I could commit to one style or genre of craft to make all the time to the exclusion of all the others that I like. I am sure that is why both Sammy and I love blogging and running the odd workshop because it lets us do all sorts of crafts and utilise all of our skills. It is also why we always find it hard to answer that question, What is your favourite craft?

Our new answer is 'all of them'

As always we would love to know what you think about this, Are you a designer/ maker? Do you have any answers for us? Let us know in the comments below or tweet us with #livelovemake

H

 Live, Love, Make, Like, Share, Follow, Tweet, Pin, Add, Enjoy. 

Bloglovin / Twitter / Facebook / Pinterest / Google+ 

Live it: Crafty Fox talks

A couple of weeks ago we got a last minute invitation to go to the Crafty Fox Talk in London.  The very lovely Zoe from Craft Candy offered us a ticket, although it was only 'one' so it was a H solo mission - scary!  Zoe was going to be talking at the event and so it was lovely to be able to go and support her.

If you have not heard about Crafty Fox before, you can usually find them running markets in London (see more about them here), but have in the past year embarked on a talks series.  I think their website says it best and so, ahem "The Crafty Fox Talks is an event series designed to bring creative's together for an evening of inspiration, learning and sharing. Each event includes speakers discussing a particular topic with plenty of opportunity for audience questions. This is followed by relaxed drinks, tunes from the Crafty Fox DJs and a chance for guests to meet one another and make connections."   I think that just about sums it up.

The night started with chatting to a few people in the room, having a drink, looking at the inspiration table as it filled up with goodies from some of the attendees.  I got to meet the lovely Tilly from Tilly and the Buttons who was doing a talk and totally had a fan girl moment when she said she had seen our tweet just before the event!

Then, it was onto the talks which were all about using social media and blogging for your business, after a short intro from Sinead who runs Crafty Fox Markets, we met Katie from Eventbrite who was chairing the event and got us rolling. Then Tilly was up and talked about how she got into blogging and started her business.  With some great tips about social networking and finding inspiration for your blog posts, it was great to hear Tilly talk about her blog.

Up next was Jo from HAM who talked about how she started doing pop-ups and used social media to promote her brand.  Then it was Zoe's (Craft Candy) turn for a bit of Pinterest advice and how to use it to gain new followers and interest in you as a brand.  When it was over it was time for a bit of networking and catching up with Zoe properly.  I got to meet some new (to Me) bloggers and crafts people and catch up with some old friends too, from Mister Peebles to Claireabellemakes.

It was a great night and some really useful advice to take back to Live it. Love it. Make it HQ.  Did you go to the talk?  Or have you been to any of the others?

The next talk is in September and will be on the Creative Process, so do go check it out.  Its a great way to meet like minded people and learn something along the way.

H

Love it: UK Craft Blogs #3

Another instalment of 'Our Favourite UK Craft Bloggers' for you today. I am writing to you today from sunny Austria, where I have been catching up on some blog reading as well as sightseeing, photography and a lot of relaxing. Don't forget to head over to these lovelies and say Hi and let us know your favourites in the comments below.

Miss Jojangles
Possibly the sweetest blogger we know. We fell in love with her whimsical life on her blog and even more so when we met her at Blogtacular earlier this year. We love her illustrations more than anything and we can't wait to see what's next for Jojo.

New Craft Society
We owe our trip to Liberty to these gorgeous girls (we are forever in their debt) and just adore their style, we can only dream of being this cool. Their attitude to crafts old and new is refreshing and their addiction to Liberty prints makes for some yummy crafty eye candy.

The Things She Makes
Jam packed with awesome tutorials, no faffy lifestyle stuff here, just pure unadulterated crafts... and we love it. Great for beginners and masters alike, great photos and easy to follow instructions make TTSM a brilliant place to visit on a rainy afternoon for a quick crafting fix.

I'm off to enjoy the last day here before we drive all the way home tomorrow (and the next day...)

Sammy xxx

Love it: UK Craft Blogs #2

Welcome to the second instalment of our favourite UK craft blogs, thank you for all your suggestions on our last post, we have made some great new discoveries and rediscovered some old favourites so thanks for all your suggestions, keep them coming. We have three more awesome blogs for you today, all based right here in the UK.

Fall for DIY

Fran is one of the bloggers we have known for the longest, one of our first ever reviews on our blog was for one of her previous businesses (she has a been a part of a few) Check My Box. We Love her gorgeous blog Fall For DIY. She has amazing style and great vision for using unusual materials for making stunning jewellery.

Knit me a Cake

Leanne is one of the sweetest bloggers we know and her blog is a place we love to visit. Her recipes are the reason we spend so much time over there, I made her Banana, toffee and pecan fudge loaf a few weeks ago, it was sooooo yummy! But we love her sewing and knitting tutorials too, head over and check out her amazing Sky Blanket project.

Lotts and Lots

Lotts hits it out of the park every time with her jewellery tutorials, you may have seen her embellished lace collar tutorial in  issue 40 of Mollie Makes magazine. Her Instagram feeds is one of my all time faves.

Who are your favourites, this is the second in a series of posts about UK based craft blogs, our favourite fellow Brits doing wonders for bringing crafts out of the dark ages. Tell us in the comments about your faves so we can include them in later posts and crush on their mad DIY skills of course.

Sammy xxx

Love it: UK Craft Blogs #1

We write a crafty blog, so it is only natural that we gravitate towards other creative folk, we have a looonnnggg blog roll on Bloglovin of blogs we love and we have shared some of our faves here before. We love bloggers and blogs from all over the world, a lot of our favourites are from across the pond in the USA, A Beautiful Mess, Sugar and Cloth, Lovely Indeed, Paper and Stitch and the list goes on, but in this series we want to give a shout out to our favourites from right here, our home, the United Kingdom!

Burkatron

Caroline is a beautiful fashion/craft blogger and self confessed nail art junkie, I always love the photography styling in her posts. Her DIY's are always pretty and super chic. Our fave recent post is this one about building your own terrarium.

Buttons and Paint

These two lovelies live just down the road from us in Reading, You may remember them from their guest post for us back in March or you may have popped over from our guest post on their blog. We love this recent DIY to make yourself a trimmings folder, a must have for any haberdashery hoarder.

Claireabelle Makes

We don't know how the lovely Claire manages to run her own (super cute) etsy shop, her blog and have a job, but she does it, and beautifully too! We are crushing hard on her Bicycle Bracelets at LiLiMi HQ.

Who are your favourites?  This is the first in a series of posts about UK based craft blogs, our favourite fellow Brits doing wonders for bringing crafts out of the dark ages. Tell us in the comments about your faves so we can include them in later posts and crush on their mad DIY skills of course.

Sammy xxx

Live it: Domestic Sluttery Q&A at Made.com

Last week we hot-footed it up to London to go along to a Q&A with the lovely ladies of Domestic Sluttery.  The Ladies put on the event in order answer those questions, that they are always asked by us bloggers in training, all in one go.

Domestic Sluttery was set up about 5 years ago when home style blogs here in the UK were rare and blazed a trail. The site brings together lots of different writers who have a passion for all things domestic; cooking, homewares, travel, and just plain fun stuff - 'Cute or Creepy' anyone?

The event was held at the Made.com HQ and so we got to have a little nosey around there before the Q&A got started.

It was tough not buying up everything they had, but we resisted and H opted for a free pencil instead!

After the pre-event drinks we all sat down for the Q&A.  After a few short words from Sian - the founder and editor-in-chief, we were into questions.

It was great to be able to ask all those things that other people usually gloss over, especially in larger conferences.  There was about 60 of us there on the night and so we all had a chance to ask questions - after the initial 'no hands going up' of course!

They spoke honestly about advertising and inspiration in the first half of the night, with questions about optimising posts and links in your posts.  Also about how social media is a must for all us bloggers with questions about how to find which platforms work for you and how to use them to your advantage.

There was then an interval filled with cocktails and cake!  Amazing.

In the second half, it was talk about freelancing and how to do it - or in some cases how not to do it.  All the writers who work on Domestic Sluttery have freelance careers or full-time jobs and so for us, this was really interesting.

It was a great chance to find out more about what the ladies do and how they go about their normal lives around the blog - something which as full time workers and bloggers ourselves found really refreshing.

Seeing the individual personalities of all the girls was great too and they obviously get on just as much as you would imagine a bunch of girls to do, they just happen to write about beautiful and fun things too.

We had a lovely evening, that felt like hanging out with Domestic Sluttery.  We found some new and inspiring people to follow on Twitter and some good information to check out - so watch this space for how it might inspire us and our work here on our blog!

We also bumped into our friend Zoe from Craft Candy who let us into a few exciting developments with the site, can't wait to tell you all about that soon.

If you are a blogger or interested in freelance writing we would totally recommend keeping a look out for future events from these ladies. Head over to Domestic Sluttery and sign up for their newsletter, go on you know you want to.

H & Sammy

Envy, Such a Waste of Time

When Steve Jobs was quoted as saying this he was intending it to be taken as a caution to others to not be tempted to just follow the crowd, to be your own person and believe in your true self. This is the rest of the quote...

'Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary' - Steve Jobs

Sound advice there from Mr Jobs. This quote helps to remind me that my life is pretty special. 

Envy or jealously is hard to fight sometimes, especially in this age of Facebook, Blogs, Instagram and Twitter, where we share so much of our lives online for the world to see (that makes me sound old).  It used to be the case that we would occasionally get a glimpse into the celebs high-life in a magazine or on TV, these days just search through the twitter feeds of your favourite movie stars and get a real time photo of the premiere's they are attending.  It is not only movie heros and pop princesses that we envy these days either, our friends and people we admire within our own industries are sharing their achievements online all the time too. Us bloggers are particularly prone to sharing all the fabulous things we get up to (It is what we do), even being a blogger myself it is hard not to fall into the trap of envying those opportunities 'other' people get to experience. 

I often read other peoples blogs, or scroll through Instagram thinking 'How cool would that be, I wish I could do/ have/ go to/ create/ be a part of that' I think that is only natural, What is not natural however is feeling that because I am not doing/ having/ going to/ creating/ being a part of whatever it is, that my life isn't good enough. There is a difference between striving to achieve better for yourself and trying to be something that your not, sometimes it is hard to know the difference. We all have to remind ourselves that what people choose to share online, is just that, what they choose to share. Everyone has bad hair days, bad outfit days, messy home days (weeks/months) times when their kids are screaming the house down and when we just go and buy a cake and eat the whole thing....just me, OK... moving on - we just rarely want to share them with the world.  So what you see online is the best bits, the cinema edit, as opposed to the directors cut if you like. Those unflattering moments left to languish on the cutting room floor.  

It is hard to remember that everyone is as real as you are, being jealous of others achievements and opportunities is a waste of our time and as Mr Jobs put it our 'time is limited'. We need to learn to treasure our own lives. We can all still strive to be the best version of ourselves, but that needs to be the very best of who we are, not anyone else. 

Sammy xxx

Read Pt. 1 of my quotes series here : Jack of all Trades, Master of None

and Pt.2 here : Never Making Mistakes is a Mistake