Martisanne handmade, new products

At the beginning of this year I started ordering more supplies to widen the arrange available at Martisanne Handmade
I have been ordering magnetic snaps, more keyring rings, and brooch pins,and been working on patterns for some new products.

I love the shape of a butterfly it is so recognisable but can vary so much and still easily be identified as a butterfly , giving each butterfly shape real character , so with this in mind I have been creating butterfly brooches and hanging fabric decorations, which are currently available to purchase in my Etsy shop






Do you like what I did with the moving pictures ?, a little montage of my butterflies, for those like me that are not technically gifted , I used a free downloadable photo editing programme called PhotoScape, I use this for all my photo editing and created this Gif( mini movie) of the butterflies using this programme, easy to do and free.


And what have I been doing with the key ring rings I hear you ask ? The pictures below are what I have been creating so far but there are lots of ideas that haven't made it to the sewing machine yet, so keep an eye out for those coming up soon.

Upcycling wooden drawers

A couple of weeks a go I stumbled across a set of wooden drawers that would be perfect for my new sewing supplies, key ring rings, wooden buttons etc. , it was a little gem found in my local recycling shop, for the bargain price of £2.00 , it was just plain and wooden but had a draw missing, apart from that it was perfect.
If you have a local recycling shop it is well worth a visit as their stock frequently changes and you can find some real bargains to use as they are or use as an upcycling project as I have done, I usually try and pop into mine a couple of times a month.
I am sorry but I do not have a picture of the unpainted draws to post on here as I took it with my phone instead of my camera, and it is teeny weeny you can however see them in my Instagram feed here. I post various photos from craft projects and Martisanne Handmade products in the making and finished, along with various random thoughts and ideas , feel free to follow me. If you don't have an Instagram account it is a lot of fun and you can read more about it here .

We undertook the drawer upcycling as a family project with the house elves, we used decoupage paper , but you could cut pics from magazines , and used pva glue to attach the pictures to the wooden drawers, along with some transfers designed for decorating furniture, then it was all clear varnished to seal it.
And this is how it turned out.

I am really pleased with how they turned out , and just as a little insight into me as a person, we could not leave the little drawers as they are as I have an ahem phobia of bare wood, it makes my teeth itch , wooden spoons in particular, I will leave you with that little nugget of information, so now you know if you want to chase me off at a craft fair, chase me with a wooden spoon and you won't see me for dust.

Martisanne Re-design

Sorry for the absence, I have been around and about but due to personal reasons have not been able to put as much time and effort into my blog or my Martisanne Handmade business as I would like to , but hopefully things are now getting back on track.
Starting with a new blog design, what do you think ? I have also been redesigning my shop banners and avatars , you can see here and here .
So a fresh new start for 2014 , and hopefully the blogging will be back to a more regular basis , along with new items in the shops.
I have been working on a few new designs this last few weeks, with more to come that will be available to purchase in the shop soon .
Here below is one of them a new fabric card holder for my business cards. The business cards were also designed by me using a graphics programme called Inkscape which is really versatile and free, ideal for a fledgling craft business.
I am really pleased with the new graphic designs for banners and avatars, and also my new handmade designs, it is a very exciting and creative time in the Martisanne household .

Handmade fabric card holder

As part of the new year new goals push, I am hoping to be able to bring you Martisanne Handmade products to be available to purchase direct from the blog here, I am just working on the best way to be able to do this, I am not a technical wizard so anything you see here is all self taught and learning as I go.
If I can do it so can you.