6 Whole Months!

6 months! 6 whole  months.... I'm so sorry!
Actually those 6 months since my last post have flown by, lots of news and things to show you all but I don't think I should write an essay for my first post in such a long while!

So what's new I hear you ask..... (that is if you are shouting really loud!)
Well I had some very big decisions to make and I closed down Crafty What Nots before Christmas.  Life had got so stressful and the boxes were adding to the pressure and it started to become a chore rather than pleasure.  I think that's always the point where you should stop, but it is often very hard to know when that time is. You don't want to give up too early but you also can't run at a loss and be miserable. So choices were made and I closed down my page and website.  Oh my! what a difference that made.  I found the pressure instantly lift and I started to find my crafting mojo again!  I will still design boxes on request and I do produce kit boxes but now they are all under the name of Jennysis (so much easier to deal with one page rather than 2)
Here is a box I recently made up for someone.

So what have I been up so since??

Well my portraits and illustrating really started to take off and I became really busy designing logos too.  I never thought I could really make a living from my creative endeavours but the last few months have shown how possible it can be! (It does take a lot of hard work tho.)

I have also been involved with some lovely collaborations and been asked to design custom illustrations for some lovely businesses!  I will share more about this next time.

I will leave you today to get on with another really exciting project but in the meantime I would love to share this collaboration with you. A little while back a friend shared a video about Kung-fu Tea.  this fantastic yet odd practise inspired me to draw some tea ninjas.  These developed into the Afternoon Tea Ninjas, ready to serve you a cream tea before you even know you want it!

Well the Ninjas escalated and I have now drawn various different types on Ninjas.  So far there are Clown Ninjas, cocktail Ninjas and Saturday night out Ninjas. I have loads more ideas though so there will be more very soon!  

Now what to do with these designs!  I hit a bit of a wall until a very good friend of mine asked if she could sew one of my illustration!  Jenny from Gecko Fabric Art created the most wonderful mug rug, perfect to rest your cuppa and a cake.

  I really thought a mug would be great too so I contacted the fab Edens Garden of Gifts and she printed up some mugs for me!

Look at these!  My Ninjas are everywhere!

You can now order a mug and mug rug of your very own!

This has been such a fun collaboration and it's been really sparking my creativity.  Ninjas to come will be 'Introvert Ninjas', 'Builder Ninjas', 'Accountant Ninjas' and  'craft Ninjas'.  What sort of Ninjas would you like to see?  Would you buy other items with Ninjas on? like notebooks, t shirts, placemats etc?

Well I ended up writing more than I intended so I really must go!

Have a lovely sunny day.

I will be linking up with some other lovely crafty pages over at Handmade Monday! Do pop by to check out some fantastic pages.

Jen xx

Quarterly Craft Box

This quarter I have decided to try something a little different.  Rather than the next quarterly box being a mystery I will be releasing images daily of items that will be found within it! Eeeek!

I have been having lots of ponderings about my boxes and was thinking seriously about  stopping them altogether.  But before I hand in the crafty box ticket I thought I would try something a little different.

I was thinking about what people want to buy, do you guys really want to spend £40 on a box of stuff that you have no idea what's inside other than it will contain 4 craft kits and a few gifts? Well of course not! Let's face it, nowadays you want to know what your getting and although there are some very successful mystery boxes out there on the market, crafters, it seems aren't as interested in Crafty What Nots boxes as I had hoped.

So the Winter box (or the Snuggle box as I like to call it) is an exciting box where you will know exactly what your going to get.

Another exciting element of the box is that it is a collaboration among 10 small businesses!  So there is such a big variety (in fact I found it very hard to stop buying lovely things to put in!)

Here is an image of all the businesses taking part.

Everyday on my page I am doing a countdown.  So far we are at day 17.  Here you can see some of the things included in the box.  So far we have...

Pom pom pen

fudge

heart charm keyring

oil burner and wax melts

wooden heart embellishments

pretty ribbons

bunny ring

felt making kit

Other items will follow so if you would like to be kept up to date and find out what is in the next box then do visit either my Facebook page here or Instagram here

The countdown will finish a week before the order books close.  There are only a small limited number of boxes available so do let me know if you are interested to avoid disappointment.

I am also more than happy to set up a payment plan.

I do hope you have a great week and fingers crossed I will be back again next week.

I will be sharing my blog over at Handmade Monday, My fav place to be after the weekend.

Jen xx