Last Chance: Felt Bundles!

When I began selling craft supplies again last year (PIVOTING my business like so many others in 2020!) I bought a whole range of different things to try and sell... and have been gradually restocking stuff that sells well, and quietly letting less popular items (or ones which turned out to be a headache to source or store or ship) sell out then vanish from my shops. 

My journey back into craft supply selling began with the decision to start selling felt squares, which I felt sure (no pun intended!) would be a nice steady seller like they had been last time I'd sold them. 

Unfortunately though it seems that wholesale costs for the felt I sell have gone up a lot in recent years while retail prices have remained pretty static so profit margins are much tighter. And you've gotta hold a LOT of stock in order to be able to have the full range of colours available, even before you start thinking about letting people choose their own colours. And then even ready-picked colour bundles take a long time to assemble!

Basically, compared to other areas of my business the effort/hassle to income ratio is not great for me selling felt squares right now so I'm going to stop doing that and focus on other things instead.

Several of my felt bundles sold out before Christmas, but I've got a few still in stock. Grab them now before they vanish!

Lots of Fabulous Felt Bundles!

One of my big projects this week has been turning a pile of wool blend felt squares into some lovely colour-themed felt packs.

The felt delivery arrived on Monday, I sorted them into colour order on Tuesday, wrapped them all up neatly with ribbon on Thursday, then got them photographed and in my shop yesterday - hurrah!

The Soft Pastels pack includes 12 pretty pale and pastel shades:

Then there's Pinks & Purples...

... Blues & Greens...

... and Fire Tones (thus named because Reds, Oranges, Yellows, & Peach/Coral Pinks was just too much of a mouthful!).

If you want a wider mix of colours, you can choose from the Bright Rainbow...

... and the Bold Rainbow, which has much deeper, richer tones though I'm not sure I've fully captured the difference between these packs in these photos! I think I may need to take a photo of the two rainbow packs together for really clear comparison. *Adds that to the To Do list*

I've also put together a pack of squares inspired by the British coast, which I'm calling Coastal Walk:

Then the last pack is Useful Neutrals, which is currently only 10 squares (unlike the other packs which all have 12) because my stockist is out of stock of white and ivory felt and I'm planning on adding those to this bundle as soon as I can get hold of some.

As well as the felt bundles, I've also added a few new crafty supplies to the shop this week. It's been a fun challenge working out the best ways to photograph everything!

There are lots of different buttons...

 

 

... some lovely metallic pencils...

... and vanishing fabric marker pens. I use one of these pens regularly in my projects, especially when I'm working with felt and want a guide line for something like a cute smiley face. If I mention an "air-erasable pen" in a tutorial, this is the kind of pen I mean! Some pens in this style only write well on fabric but this felt-tip-style pen is great for fabric and felt, I highly recommend it.

I've also added some gorgeous 15mm wide rainbow ribbon to the shop - the 6mm ribbon was proving so popular I thought I'd get some of this in, too. I'm now selling both ribbons by the metre or in 10 metre reels.

Finally, one of the other tasks I ticked off this week was buying some packaging to use when posting my shop orders. I bought envelopes, etc, of course, but I also stocked up on pretty stripey paper bags. They're so lovely I've popped some in the shop. They're available in blue or sunny yellow, and I'm selling them in bundles ranging from 10 to 100 bags.

As I've mentioned before, my shop is currently set up just to accept orders within the UK because of the effect COVID-19 is having on the post. However, if you're based elsewhere and are happy to wait for your order to arrive, please do get in touch and I can give you a quote for postage and sort the payment out via Paypal.

A New (Old) Direction: Wool Blend Felt Squares + Craft Supplies

Hey, guess what?

I've decided to start selling felt squares again! Yay!

I'm selling the same brand of lovely 30% wool felt I used to sell many years ago - it's gorgeous and soft and comes in so many great colours. I use it A LOT in my own crafting, I love it and I hope you guys will too.

I've re-opened my Big Cartel shop to have my own little corner of the internet to sell stuff - click here to visit and see what's for sale!

As well as felt, I'm also going to be selling other colourful and useful crafty supplies: lots of stuff for sewing, of course, but also some paper crafting supplies, stationery, and other crafty goodness. I've added a few bits and bobs already and there's more coming soon. You can also buy my PDF patterns (these will be emailed to you within 24 hours as I sadly can't do automatic downloads via my shop).

Oh, and I've added my recent vintage and second-hand finds to the shop, as well. There's crafty stuff like second hand books and vintage fabric, as well as lovely stuff like vintage book pages and gorgeous plates. 

I'll be adding some of my felt and craft supplies over in my Etsy shop as soon as I have time, but my full range will be stocked in my main shop. This is partly to save time (duplicating all those listings and managing stock levels in multiple places is a lot of work!) but mostly to save money, as some items just won't make financial sense to sell via Etsy due to their listing and sales fees.

Please note: at the moment my shop is just set up to ship to addresses in the UK. I know there are a lot of delays with the international mail at the moment and don't want customers buying from me then getting upset when their order doesn't arrive quickly! If you live outside of the UK and want to place an order and are happy to wait several weeks for your parcel please do get in touch.

I'm a bit nervous about dipping my toes into this new (old) venture, but excited about it too! Wish me luck, and go have a browse of all that crafty goodness...

More Buttons, More Destash Bits & Bobs

I've been busy making more felt buttons - they are so addictive! I'm planning on putting some packs of these together & adding them to my shop in the next week or so.

I've also been busy listing some more "destash" craft supplies, including colourful buttons...

... felt beads...

... felt ric rac...

... and lots of useful bits and bobs like grip seal bags:

You can find all the destash supplies HERE.

I've also listed some sets of "not quite perfect" buttons...

... and this afternoon / evening I'll also be adding some more bargain bundles of "not quite perfect" felt squares HERE. UPDATE - the felt bundles have now been listed, hurrah!

Unfortunately, with all this photo-taking and listing, I totally forgot about the embroidery thread giveaway! Oops! I'll pick a winner & announce it tomorrow :)

Bargain Felt Bundles

I've added some bundles of "not quite perfect" felt squares over in my shop.

Each pack is made up of squares that have a small mark on them / are smaller than the usual size / have some other imperfection which means they don't meet my usual quality standards... so I've listed them at a bargain price. Each bundle of 40 squares is just £12 instead of the usual £21.

You can find the bargain bundles HERE. UPDATE: these bundles have now all been sold.

I've also added some more "destash" listings to the Craft Supplies section of my shop, including lots of cute buttons.

New Colour Trends & Lots of Bargains

One of the bundles of felt squares I sell in my shops is called "Colour Trends" as it includes shades I've selected to reflect current colour trends in fashion. The pack previously contained colours based on 2012's fashionable colours but - obviously - 2012 will be over soon!

So, I've updated the pack to include colours for spring/summer 2013...

.... mmm... lots of lovely bright colours...

Each bundle includes 20 wool blend felt squares, and comes neatly tied with ribbon. They're available from my main shop, or from my Etsy or Folksy shops.

I've also added some bargain "not quite perfect" items over in my Etsy shop...

... some packs of giant buttons, which are still awesome big buttons but which don't meet my normal quality standards when selecting stock for sale...

... and a few copies of my book, Super-Cute Felt which have small flaws (e.g. a bit of damage to the cover) so I'm selling them at £8 instead of the usual £12.99.

And I've added a whole bunch of older designs from my range (felt brooches, animal masks, flower headbands, etc) to the clearance SALE sections in all my shops...

I've got a whole bunch of new projects planned for 2013 and I need to make some space!

You can find lots of sale bargains in my Big Cartel shop, my Folksy shop and my Etsy shop - available stock varies slightly between the shops but Etsy currently has the widest selection, including lots of items under £5 (hurrah!). 

Back in Stock: Embroidery Supplies + Christmas Felt

Thanks to a delivery of supplies yesterday, a few lovely things are now back in stock in my main shop, as well as my Etsy and Folksy shops.

The rainbow embroidery thread (floss) bundles are back after being unavailable for a couple of months. 

I also sell embroidery thread boxes and bobbins so you can organise your threads like this...

... since winding all my threads on bobbins like that, I've found it much easier to find the colours I want & there's no more wasting time untangling knotted thread (hurrah!).

The 3 inch (7.5cm) embroidery hoops are also back in stock (I got some of these in a couple of weeks ago but they sold out pretty quickly). These are great for framing all your smallest stitcheries, and they're small enough for making Christmas ornaments too.

Plus the Christmas felt packs are back, ready for lots of festive crafting!

Each pack contains a selection of wool blend felt squares in greens (for Christmas trees, holly & ivy) browns (for Christmas puddings & reindeer), white (for icing, snowmen & snow), reds (for santa hats, candy canes & berries) and ginger (for gingerbread men & gingerbread houses).

If you're looking for some festive inspiration, check out my Christmas Tutorials page for lots of free felt ornament tutorials and other crafty projects.

There are also four cute Christmas projects in my book, Super-Cute Felt...

... a gingerbread cookie garland, embroidery hoop ornaments, a snowglobe doorhanger, and embroidered mitten ornaments. I made a set of the cookies as ornaments for my mum last year and I'm now under orders to sew a set for both my sisters!

Signed copes of Super-Cute Felt are available from my shop, and it's also available (unsigned) from Amazon UK and Amazon USA (and many other bookshops, of course!).

A Change to my Felt Prices

Unfortunately, a few months ago my supplier put up the price of the wool blend felt squares I sell in my shops. I'd been hoping to be able to "eat" the cost of the increase and keep my shop prices the same but having looked at my accounts I'm afraid that's not really going to be possible long term, so the prices of all my felt packs will be going up slightly.

But, I thought the least I could do was give you guys some advanced warning in case there's some felt you've been meaning to buy!

Prices will be going up in all my shops (in my main shop, and over on Etsy and Folksy) the week beginning 20th August, as follows:

10 Felt Squares will be £5.75 (currently £5.50)
20 Felt Squares will be £10.50 (currently £10)
30 Felt Squares will be £15.75 (currently £15)
40 Felt Squares will be £21.00 (currently £20)

Giant Rainbows of 65 squares will be £32.50 (currently £31)
And Mini Rainbows of 65 mini squares will be £10.50 (currently £10)

Postage rates will all stay the same. (Oh & prices in my DaWanda shop will be going up slightly too, I've just not had a chance yet to work out the exact prices in Euros)

P.S. my embroidery hoops will also be going up in price the same week due to rising wholesale prices, the 3inch hoops are currently sold out but I've still got some packs of the 4inch hoops available at the current prices.

Bargains + Parrots

I've added a few things to my Etsy shop this week...

There's a few bargain felt bundles:

A selection of "not quite perfect" felt squares that are have a small mark on them or are slightly mis-shapen - update: these have now been sold.

A pack of bright felt pieces that aren't quite square: 

And some grey felt squares in colours I don't normally sell (I ordered these by mistake, oops!).

 There's also a bargain bundle of elasticated sequin trim - 20 metres for just £4! Update: these have now been sold.

And there's also an extra large embroidery thread box (+ 72 embroidery threads and bobbins to wind them onto). This box is 1cm deeper than the other boxes I sell, has movable dividers and is sturdier than the other boxes but I've listed it at the same price. Update: this has now been sold.

I've also listed the two parrots I stitched for Heart-Felt Holidays. There's a parrot brooch...

... and a large pirate parrot to wear as part of a pirate costume. Arrr!

 

They can all be found over in my Etsy shop.