New things and old things back in stock!

Sorry for the long and unplanned absence!  I've finally moved house, up to South Yorkshire, and started a new day job.  I'm a full-time primary school teacher now, in year 5 and have a house full of boxes.  As such I've had very little time (or energy) to dedicate to other things!

I have been doing some crafting though, and ordered replacement bits and pieces, and made a few new designs.  Firstly, I'm very pleased to say that I now have my Hunger Games themed charm bracelets back in stock.  These bracelets have been really popular, so if you missed out before, now's the time!  :D

You can now find these bracelets here in my shop at £10.00 plus p&p.

My key necklaces from the last post are now back in stock too, with the full range of birthstones, and I also have wire spiral earrings to match my wire spiral necklace:

And finally, I've designed a Halloween charm bracelet!  Featuring some cute tibetan silver charms with orange and purple Swarovski crystals, it's perfect as a bit of spooky sparkle this Halloween.  I have lots of these charms in stock, so if you wanted matching earrings, that can be done too :)

So there are new things happening at Willowbrook Artistry all the time, even if it seems a bit quiet - do keep checking back! :)

What I've been making - Custom Orders :)

I've had a crafty weekend!  I've had a couple of custom orders to do, so I thought I'd share them with you!

First one was a personalisation on my birthstone key necklace.  Lovely for an 18th/21st birthday present, this one has a peridot Swarovski crystal - peridot is the birthstone for August.  

Each charm is on a separate ring so you can wear all three or any combination, and the crystal and pearl are hung on headpins that have a little twist under the loop.  The crystal is 6mm and the pearl is 4mm, so it's still dainty.

The next order I had was for 9 custom wine glass charms for a bridal party.  The theme is orange and pewter, so after a chat with the bride, I went for pretty silver tone charms with Swarovski crystals and pearls.

I'm really pleased with them!  I love custom orders because I get to try out colour schemes I wouldn't necessarily have tried otherwise.  The crystal satin Swarovski crystals really sparkle in the light (excuse the photo - I'm away at the moment without my photo cube!).  They're off to a lady in the US - I hope she's happy with them!

And here they are all packaged up to go!  As they're for a bridal party I put each one in a separate organza bag, ready to give to each person as a keepsake - a pretty reminder of the day!

Lastly, I tried my hand at something totally different.  I love baking so I decided to make a birthday cake for my OH.  My cakes never turn out like the pictures (whose do?!) but they usually taste good.  Anyway, with this much chocolate in it, it was bound to be tasty... :D

I found the recipe on the BBC website here, highly recommended if you want a quick and easy recipe for soft, chocolatey goodness!  

A few updates - prints now available

So again I feel I should apologise for the long absence!  Summer months are busy for gigging musicians and I haven't had much time off.  That and things are picking up in the shop so I've been keeping on top of orders.  I have finally started adding prints to my shop though!  :)  I'll put more on that in a sec but first, there's no space to write this on Etsy so I'll put it here - I've been selling more of these bracelets recently than I ever expected! (thank you if you've bought one!)  At the moment they're sold out, but that's temporary.

I've run out of the little bird charms.  I've got some more on order, so hopefully I can get these back in stock soon, so if you are wanting one, I will be making some more.  :)  I've also been making plans for a Harry Potter inspired bracelet, and in the meantime I made this blue one, centred more around Annie and Finnick.  Again though, until I get my little birds I only have one in stock!

Anyway, that's my little service update :)

Back to the prints - I'm really pleased about this because I've been dabbling in photography for a while now - I had a DSLR for Christmas a few years ago and have been experimenting with it ever since.  I finally decided to take the leap and list some of my photographs in my shop.  At the moment I'm just selling them as prints, but I have been looking into greetings cards, calendars, and more.  Here are a couple I've just listed.  I'd be really interested to know what you all think!

This one was taken in a little patch of woodlands in Dorset in 2010.  It's such a pretty place I have a number of images from that spring.  Every year it fills with pretty bluebells, and the light was just perfect on this particular day.  








This photograph was taken in July 2012 on my recent trip to the Loire Valley, Brittany and the surrounding area (see previous post!).  This is the Passage du Gois, a natural road between Beauvoir-sur-Mer and the Isle of Noirmoutier. The road is flooded twice a day by high tide.  Luckily for me, the beautiful weather and the timings lined up and we crossed just at sunset.  It really was an incredible sight!  


So yeah, you'll be seeing more of my photography sneaking into the shop - I'll mostly be listing nature and landscape photographs.  I'm also into sports & gig photography so I might put those up in an album but probably not in the shop.  As with most of my work, I'm not too focussed on any one thing, I just tend to go everywhere with my camera and see what catches my eye! 

Lastly, the final reason for my recent disappearances - I'm moving house!  I'll no longer be based in the Midlands, but I'm moving up to South Yorkshire to start a full-time day job.  I'll still be running my shop and blog, but over the next few months I might be a bit quiet.  However, one of my main excitements about the new house is I'm getting my own craft room!  No more scrabbling in bags and boxes for bits of ribbon or those crystals I know I have somewhere - I'll actually have a space to set everything out - YAY!  :)

Back from France, found some treasures :)

So I've been away in France, in the Loire Valley and Brittany, for a week, and it was beautiful.  The weather was gorgeous and I went to some beautiful places, like Quiberon...

How stunning is that?!

As well as trying the local food (including mussels in roquefort cheese - just fantastic!) and local wine, I also managed to find handmade things whilst I was out there, including this lady.

I bought a gorgeous necklace from her that she made in polymer clay, then wrote my name along with a design of my choice, music, of course!  Anyway, I don't know if you can read the pic, but this was the sign on her stall.  

 

While I was out there I also visited an amazing themed park (not theme park), Puy du Fou (google it!).  It's basically got themed areas including Vikings, Roman Colosseum, Middle Ages Village and others, with amazing shows in each, and they have traditional crafts.  I found one lady stamping metal necklaces, and another doing calligraphy.

Unfortunately I don't have a photo of the finished necklace, but it was really interesting to watch as I've dabbled with stamping and she made it look so simple!  The calligraphy was amazing too, I do have a photo of that, excuse the awful colour cast, it is a plain white background really.  The photo above is of her actually writing mine!

If you're ever in the Loire Valley, check out Puy du Fou, the shows are fantastic - it's a great day out :)

Finally, on the last day, we went to Quiberon, in Brittany (the first photo), and I had some time down on the beach.  I found this...

It might not look like much, but it's beach glass.  Pieces of glass that have been tumbled by the sea until they appear frosted, and then washed up on the beach.  I've cleaned them at home and will be using some of them to make jewellery. My favourite is the light blue, and the piece of pottery, although it's a shame the pattern is damaged!  Watch out in my shop for some of these pieces :)

So that's the condensed version of my trip to France.  I got to wander around some very pretty towns and take lots of photos.  I'm keen on photography too, in fact today I've been investigating prints, so hopefully very soon you'll see some of my pictures in my shop too!

Craft Fair this weekend, and a few new creations.

So at the moment I'm on a train, because my beloved car is poorly.  It's no surprise this happens though as I drive a MkII VW Polo.  I just love the thing.  It's an '88 F reg, making it about a month older than me, bright red (the only proper colour for a VW in my opinion!) and I've had it for about 3 years now.  I just love driving something different, something unusual, and it's so reliable.  It has very few problems considering the miles I do!


I don't mind the train too much, except for the little things, like when you book a table seat to get some work done and end up sat with 3 loud friends and can't concentrate despite headphones, or sat opposite a man who's clearly just smoked and smells of it, then pulls out some smelly onion rings and a can of beer.  Or when you pay for 3 hours wi-fi then your final connection train is an old one with no wi-fi anyway.  Grumble.  But hey, it gets me where I need to be, which this weekend is Dorset for a music thing.


Anyway, back on topic!  This week I've been running about like a mad thing.  I have a craft fair this weekend and am determined to make it a success :)  I've been trying to make more of my smaller items such as the cute little key rings with "Friend" or "Sister", and my Hunger Games items.  Things that might catch the eye.  I've also been making more charm necklaces, and my new hair pins!  First though, this "rescued" pendant.

It used to be a lonely earring.  I was looking around Loughborough market and happened to see it, along with a few other shiny things I bought.  It was on a pretty grubby ear hook, so I removed that, gave it a clean and put a jump ring on it.  It's so pretty I almost kept it for myself.  It looks like Mother of Pearl, it changes colour in different lights and has beautiful shades of pink, purple and blue/greens.  Really lovely, and unique, too!

The next thing is my hair pins.  These were inspired by one of the tutorials in the book I reviewed in my last post.  I was trying that out, and this design sort of "happened"!

I can see making these becoming addictive.  I might do a tutorial on them because they're really quite simple and it's actually pretty therapeutic!  :)  Just involves a lot of wire twisting!

I'm going to be making them in pink, purple and blue once my latest order of crystals arrives so watch out for those in my shop's "Special Occasions" section, here.

Last but hopefully not least, is my new beach theme Tibetan Silver charm necklace.  I like this one because it is "multi-purpose".  I think it would be gorgeous for a beach theme wedding, as bridesmaids necklaces or even for the bride!  The crystal colour could be changed to the wedding theme or birthstones, or left as is for a real beach feel.  The starfish charm is pretty and eye catching, but not too big.

I think it also serves as a lovely Hunger Games charm, for those of you (like me!!) who love the series but feel a bit old to be wearing a "Finnick" bracelet or necklace with "District 4" on it, this is a cute subtle way of showing your support for that most dashing of victors.  I also have a similar one for Katniss coming soon.  You can find those in the Tibetan Silver section, or if you want to go all out, I have name bracelets here!

If you can't decide who your favourite is, here's my subtle series fan bracelets.

Last note, for any of you who live near Lutterworth, I'll be holding a stall at the craft fair in Lutterworth Town Hall.  Entrance is from 10am, and there'll be loads of lovely handmade stuff there, so come and support local crafters - and say hi!

Oh, and I'm always looking for blogging inspiration, whether it's suggestions of books to review, or things I make you'd like a tutorial on!  Just leave me a comment and I'll see what I can do!  :)

Craft book review - Making Hair Jewels and Accessories by Gabrielle Byrne

I've been mega busy, but I did get chance to try out my latest craft book!


I bought Making Hair Jewels & Accessories by Gabrielle Byrne.  I bought it from Amazon, and it cost (at the time) £10.71.

This book features a number of products with step by step instructions on how to make them, including tiaras, hair combs, crystal hair pins, butterfly hair pins, crystal decorated hair barrettes, japanese sticks and hair jewels.

The pictures are lovely.  Really clear, and the instructions are easy to follow.

Personally I think this book is a great starting point for making hair slides and accessories.  It inspired me to try other designs, and the Tools, materials and basic techniques section at the start of the book ensures that you've got all the bits, pieces and know how to get started.  I also like the fact it features different styles, not just crystal.

This hair comb is so cute, and you can easily adapt the design.  I'm intending to make this comb using some gorgeous mother of pearl vintage buttons I found at a vintage shop in Hebden Bridge.

On the whole, I'd say this book is a good starting point for anyone wanting to get into making hair accessories, but if you have been making them for a while there may not be much in it for you.  If you're creative though, (you probably are if you're looking at this book!) it will give you lots of ideas for designs, and the basic techniques to make them happen!  Its a really lovely book, the layout and photos are really attractive, and it's enjoyable to read.  :)

I'd give it 4/5.  Great book, beautiful photos and a lovely clear layout and great instructions, but perhaps more suited to beginners.

The bits I've been making from this book will be appearing in the Special Occasions section of my Etsy shop soon!

Sorry for the absence! Here's what I've been making...

Wow, so I haven't posted in almost a month!  It's not because I haven't had stuff to say...


I'm a musician, as my day job (though I'll be starting a "proper job" in September as well as doing music :D), and as the summer rolls around my calendar fills up!  


I've been putting time into my shop recently, and have been making things in my "spare" time, so I have some new stuff to share with you.  In the next few weeks I also have features from Embellishing You, InStyleHeadbands, and I also bought a top secret Fathers Day present from Organica Botanica UK that may make it on here.


For a change though, I'm going to share some of my stuff!  Starting with these, a revelation of my latest guilty pleasure...I also have other character bracelets, and key rings too with more to come...

So I read the Hunger Games.  I heard about it, and saw the film trailers, but knowing that film adaptations are rarely as good as the books I wanted to read it first.  I was apprehensive, having been coerced into reading Twilight and resenting the wasting of hours of my life (sorry Twilight fans), but I loved The Hunger Games!  I think Suzanne Collins did an excellent job of not pandering to the "format" of a lot of Young Adult fiction (I'm trying not to give anything away!).  Normally I'm not one for writing in the first person but actually I really got into the books.  Love the story and I think it's very well written, and the ending is what it needs to be.  All too often (Twilight included) Authors seem to "give up" and provide a happily ever after ending, even if it's unrealistic.  The Hunger Games is pretty tragic, as you'd expect from a trilogy about a world in which children are forced to fight to the death...  If you haven't read it, do.  I couldn't put it down.  I'm 23 (so a bit older than the target audience, I imagine) and I really enjoyed it.  If you're wondering about my taste in books to see if you'll like it, my other favourites include (I read these a while back):

• Harry Potter - who doesn't love it?
• Abhorsen Trilogy by Garth Nix
• The Windsinger Trilogy by William Nicholson
• The Doomspell Trilogy by Cliff McNish

I love to read, so I welcome suggestions if you've read anything you think I'll like!  My "to read" list includes Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones, currently.  Again, I've seen GoT on TV but I want to read the books before I see much more.

Anyway, I digress :)

More sparkly things!  This is how my shop ended up so diverse, I get an idea and try it out, so I end up with a few of each type of item.  Since I last posted I've been making wine glass charms, "Something Blue"s, and hair pins.

Just love these!  When they're in your hair you just see the crystal, and they add sparkle to any hairstyle.

And these wine glass charms make gorgeous keepsakes from weddings or parties.  I make them to order in any colour.  They're such a cute party favour :)

This is one of my favourite wedding keepsake ideas though.  Something Blue...

This little charm on a ribbon ties around the bride's bouquet on the day of the wedding, adding just a little bit of sparkle and a flash of colour, and after the wedding she can take the charm off the ribbon and wear it as a pendant!  I just think it's a really cute way of having part of your wedding you can wear over and over.  This one features Swarovski crystals, and it is packaged for sending on the ribbon, in a pretty organza bag, with a snake chain included.

So, there's a little update on what I've been up to in my absence!  I've got lots more to add to my shop, so please do check it out.  At the moment I'm really trying to build my online following under my new name, so if you could pop over and "like"my Facebook Page, and if you're feeling especially lovely, share it with your friends, I would be most grateful.  I plan to host some giveaways once I have more "fans".

In the meantime, check back here for more product features - I've ordered some gorgeous stuff recently! - and hopefully these craft book reviews I've been meaning to write...