Xmas Fair Dates for the Diary!!!

Last Wednesday we took part in ECCA's Creative Fair in Islington's Candid Arts Centre. Here we launched our brand new Animal Letter Greeting Cards which were positively received, the night as a whole was a great experience & we met some lovely people there too. Including some possible new SewSmitten stockists in the pipeline.. so watch this space!

So now November is scarily coming to a fast end that means Christmas is on it's merry way too which also means Christmas Fairs are in full swing!

Get those date diaries at the ready and your shopping arms & feet on because this year we will be setting up shop at 3 different venues around London!

First up it's the fabulous Panto themed We Make London Christmas Fair on the Saturday 4th December in Chelsea Town Hall.

This event will be our biggest fair to date with over 80 stalls selling a wide range of unique hand crafted goodies, fancy dress competitions, xmas themed craft activities, yummy festive nibbles & much much more for a fun day out & a great shopping experience. Entry is just £2 but the first 80 customers through the door will receive a bumper packed We Make tote bag stashed with lots of handmade booty & promotional material from some of the stall holders on the day. (SewSmitten included!)

For updates on the fair & to find out more about the other stall holders be sure to visit the We Make blog

Date: Saturday 4th December 2010

Venue: Chelsea Town Hall, Kings Road, London, SW3 5EE

Time: 11am - 5pm

The following next 2 Saturdays (11th & 18th December) we will be at the Of Cabbages & Kings Xmas Market Days.

First venue is St Mary's Crypt in Islington and the second is the regular spot of Abney Hall in Stoke Newington. At these market you are always guaranteed to find a great selection of handmade wares along with a friendly & warming environment, festive music, xmas nibbles & lots of hot drinks! (fingers crossed for some mulled wine!)

For more updates on their fairs & to find out more about the other stall holders just visit the Of Cabbages & Kings website.

Date: Saturday 11th December 2010

Venue: St Mary's Crypt, Upper Street, Islington, London, N1 2TX

Time: 11am - 5pm

Date: Saturday 18th December 2010

Venue: Abney Hall, 73A Church Street, Stoke Newington, London, N16 0AS

Time: 11am - 5pm

Enterprise Week Party & Creative Enterprise Awards Night

Creative Fair Event Date for the Diary!

17th November 2010

5pm - 10pm

Creative Fair – everything under a tenner!

Enterprise Week is a programme of free talks, practical workshops and networking opportunities organised by ECCA - the Enterprise Centre for the Creative Arts at University of the Arts London. It’s part of Global Entrepreneurship Week with over 7.5 million people taking part worldwide. There are over 30 events with partners and sponsors designed to help you work for yourself, go freelance or start your own business. You can see the full programme of events online on their website at: http://www.ecca-london.org/events/viewevents/

So fortunately for us being graduates of UAL we've been offered a stall at their Creative Enterprise Awards night in Islington which will be a night of networking, drinks and celebration!

The award winners will be announced on the night and there will also be the chance to sample some products and services from other enterprising UAL students and graduates who will be selling you something very unique and handmade for under £10!

Date: Wednesday 17 November 2010

Time: 5pm – 10pm, Awards ceremony at 7pm

Location: Candid Arts, 3 Torrens St, Islington, EC1V 1NQ Click here for - MAP

Cost: Entry is Free but if you book a space via the following link you are also entitled to a Free drink! http://www.ecca-london.org/events/eventdetails/?eid=1045

It’s a great chance to pick up a bargain in time for Christmas as well as seeing at firsthand the entrepreneurial talent of the University’s students and alumni.

Here are some of the creative products and services available:

• Design and illustration magazines

• Portraits and photography prints

• Fortune telling

• Vintage-style customised clothing, jewellery and accessories

• On-the-day photo shoots and handmade frames and cards for photos

• Handmade cushions and bags, Oyster Card holders, hair clips and coin purses

• Self-published books

• Artisan food

At the event we will be selling a small selection of our wares, among our handmade stash you’ll find; Greeting Cards, Tea-towels, Oyster Card holders, Brooches, Hairclips & Handprinted Coin Purses. All for a nifty £10 and under!

Bold & Colourful New Card Range

On this staggeringly fast approach to Christmas we here at SewSmitten Hq are proud and excited to upload and present to you our fabulous new greeting card range.

Each design features an array of characterful creatures forming a letter of the Alphabet, making it both personal and interesting to give or receive. Letters are available in a variety of colours, comes blank inside, printed on 100% recycled card and comes with a coloured envelope.

'A is for...' includes Albatross, Alligator, Anteater and Armadillo

'Z is for...' includes Zebra, Zebu and Zope

Visit our Greeting Cards section to view the whole collection!

Our SewSmitten Designer Feature for We Make London

About the SewSmitten Team:

Hi I'm Penni P; the designer maker & head Honcho of the crafty website SewSmitten.com. I graduated from a Surface Design degree in June 2007 & from as early as I can remember I have always had a keen interest in the creative arts. Being practical is what I thrive at most, so whilst working part time as a studio assistant for other designer makers I decided to set up SewSmitten to make, sell & display my handmade wares.
Hello I'm Gnome; a freelance graphic designer, print & book maker, boyfriend & the second half to the SewSmitten team. I graduated from a degree in Book Arts & Crafts in June 2008, I have always loved drawing & I am an avid printmaker so I was very keen to get involved & contribute to SewSmiten & the creative side of things.


Our collection of goodies include handmade oyster cardholders, bags, purses, accessories, cards, prints & kitchen-wares all featuring original artwork designed & printed by our own crafting hands.

Inspirations:

We've always enjoyed working with different mediums so our inspirations stem from many sources & we are constantly looking out for new ideas. I especially have a fondness for the 50's, kitsch themes, bold imagery & antique machinery. But I'm always eager to learn new skills & create new things so you can be sure to expect unique & exciting designed products from our collections.

Best Sellers:

Our best seller by far has to be our Oyster Cardholders, which were actually the first thing I started making when I finished University. The idea came to me when I started to think about what useful products I could make, & the bonus of living in London meant that the birth of the oyster can almost guaranteed that everyone used one.

Since making them I have provided many a design.. starting off with the recycling of my old 80s comic collection which included such favs as Batman and My Little Pony, vintage sewing patterns, retro penny sweets and most popular of all London street maps. We also have made a fair few custom made cardholders too! (lookonline for more details)
This product has proved to be our best seller because we’ve provided many different designs over the years, they are fun, appealing, durable, useful, and also a great gift to give others.

We Make Christmas:

SewSmitten will be selling our full range of handmade goodies at this years We Make Christmas fair, it will be our debut at the event so we will be offering lots of fab favs as well as some new stuff too.
Among our handmade stash you’ll find; Oyster Cardholders, Passport Holders, Framed Coin Purses, Clutch Bags, Cards, Tea-towels, Aprons, Gift Sets and many more fun Accessories.

It was also recently our 1st birthday so in generous appreciation we will be offering lots of exclusive special offers and maybe some surprise treats too!

But if you can’t wait till then we are still running our amazing 2 for 1 offer online now on some of our stock so get shopping early to receive a great bargain!

Website:

http://www.sewsmitten.com

Follow Us On Twitter:

http://twitter.com/sewsmitten

Find Us on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/SewSmitten/306849530470?ref=ts

Follow Our Blog:

http://sewsmittenblog.blogspot.com/

View more designer features on all the other lovely crafty people participating in the We Make Christmas Fair on the We Make London blogspot

Magnificent Maps

In true Bank Holiday Monday spirit we took a trip to the wonderful building that is the British Library yesterday to visit the must see Magnificent Maps exhibition they have showing there until the 19th September.

I was thoroughly taken aback over the massive scale of the maps on display and amazed at how much intricate detail they held, all in all the day left me feeling cultured and a little light headed from the shear concentration it took to peruse all the contents of each map.

I would definitely recommend a lengthy visit to this exhibition as it will take you a fair bit of time to look through them all but it is well worth it, plus it is free to go and see!

Some of my favorites of the day were the more decorative and lavishly painted maps with stunning colours which had sea lines that reminded me of wood carvings.

Fra Mauro World Map c. 1450

Also we did have some great fun trying to spot the eccentric sea monsters which feature in most of the earlier maps, now these were probably what the explorers thought they saw at the time when really they were probably just dolphins or whales!

Some of the later maps in the last rooms brought on big crowds, like 'The Island' (below) by Stephen Walter 2008 which expresses quite a comedic view of London by altering the names of places with regards to how he and the average Londoner lives everyday life.

The Island 2008

So if you have a spare morning or afternoon why not go and see this exhibition for yourself and marvel at 80 of the most impressive maps dating back from 200 AD up to the present day.

The gift shop is full of great treats too, but unfortunately for us I think we missed a SewSmitten opportunity there by not contacting them sooner as I think they would have loved to stock some of our London Map Oyster cardholders there too!

Happy 1st Birthday to us!

It will be our 1st Birthday this August & we cannot believe we will be a year old already! During our first year we've enjoyed attending lots of craft events, meeting fellow crafters & of course making oodles of handmade goodies for our customers.

So to celebrate & thank all those that have supported us since our launch we are offering an amazing 2 For 1 sale offer on some of our products!

Come & enjoy our special Birthday Offer in our 2 For 1 deal.

We have created a Mix & Match page in the online store so go have a gander & grab a bargain whilst stocks last. Simply choose at least two products from this page & the cheapest will be free!

All you'll need to do is email us with you're order & we'll send you an invoice with the discount! Send all enquiries to: payment@sewsmitten.com please title your email '2 for 1'

Alternatively just purchase the dearest item then email us which one you've chosen as your freebie.

This offer will last throughout August or whilst stocks last! So happy shopping!

.....& lets hope we will have many more exciting years of making to come as we have many more ideas that we wish to share & new products to launch very soon......

July Craft Market

Last weekend (3rd & 4th July) saw us at our last craft event of the summer as we take a break to concentrate on designing and making new products ready for the upcoming winter & christmas events which we will post details about in the coming months.

Here's a few pics from the event:

To see more photos from this event why not visit our SewSmitten Gallery

Upcoming Summer Fairs

Join us on Saturday 26th June at Mossbourne Community Academy in Hackney where we will be holding a stall and taking part in their annual summer fair! Click here to view the MAP

Check out just some of the fun stuff they've got going on:
Take part in the Penalty Shoot-Out organised by a professional Arsenal Coach
Win brilliant Arsenal prizes & goodies.
Make your own badges
Shop at the Craft Stalls
Live music from the school Samba Band as well as Band Slam Winner and band contestants

Also there will be a RAFFLE! With some amazing prices:
A family Tour of the Emirates Stadium
'Have-a-go' riding lessons at Lee Valley Riding Centre
Rio Cinema & Hackney Empire Panto tickets
Rowan Bowling Lane Vouchers
Tickets to a Wembley Saracens (rugby) fixture
Spa London York Hall 3 hour thermal treatment
Signed original print of Arsenal Footballer
Pages Bookshop £10 voucher
Photographic portrait shoot

Plus you'll be able to indulge in sizzling burgers on the Barbeque, delicious noodles, various international delicacies, cakes & ice creams.
+ much much more!!
So why not bring your friends and family and join us there for some summer fun!
Visit their website to read the flyer

Can't make this date then why not come down to our regular haunt in Stoke Newington's Abney Hall on July the 3rd & 4th!

Entry is always free & there is always a great cafe serving hot & cold drinks and a wonderful selection of cakes and savory goodies on hand.

Plus lets not forget the other wonderful stall holders selling all kinds of handmade goodies from designer knitwear and hand-printed stationery to glitzy jewellery and gorgeous home wares, each weekend a different selection of designers and makers will be peddling their wares.

For more info visit their site website

So get those dates in the diary now and see you all in a few weeks time!

Original Lino Prints now available to buy online!

Check out our amazing limited edition Three Colour Reduction Block Lino Prints now available to buy online!

Printed in london by Luke Kulchstein © 2008 aka Gnome (the second half of the SewSmitten team!)

These bold prints merge iconic themes from WWII posters with images from Cult Cimema classics such as Darf Vadar, the Mad Hatter, Batman, Topgun, Titantic and the Wicked Witch from the Wizard of Oz.

Luke produced these prints following a dissertation he wrote on the rise of mass production propaganda and public access to free media during the Russian Revolution. Taking historic images from mass produced war posters and teaming it with images he grew up with Luke has created a novel yet sophisticated and striking series of lino cut prints.

There are six different prints in the series available and all are limited editions from a run of 10 in each set. Below are three in the set:

Check out the full set online where you can also find these prints features on our greeting cards and our tea towels and aprons too!

May Stall & World Map Passport Holders

Last Saturday was a miserable day; the weather was gloomy and the temperature felt like winter again! But thankfully that didn't stop people from visiting us at the Cabbages & Kings May market and so a good day was had by all!

We also launched our new Passport Holders at the event and got some great feedback on them too, so why not go check them out online now. Also recently uploaded to the site are some World Map Passport Holders in addition to the colourful Sweet ones we launched last week...so get your travel documents into order with our latest accessory.

There are four different varieties available:

Sweetie Passport Holders!

Summer is fast approaching which can only mean Sun, Sea, Sand and holidays!! (if you like hot places that is!)

Oh yes.. It's that time of year when the travel bug starts to hit and all you can think about is getting on a plane and jetting off for a relaxing holiday away from all the hustle and bustle of the everyday working week. Whether it be a lounging sunbathing holiday on a beautiful beach or a sightseeing picturesque mountain we all need a little time to drift off to another world to unwind.

So in aid of your holiday preparations we have made up some fabulously bold and colourful Passport Holders to help you remember your important documents!

Available in Jelly Bean, Dolly Mix, Love Heart or Smarties design:

Holder measures 14cm x 10cm closed (14cm x 20cm open) and includes two sleeve pockets inside to hold passport, ticket and boarding card. Visit our store to get yours!

Freebies!

We here at SewSmitten HQ love the summer so to celebrate the heat we are now giving away a free IceCream keyring with every order over £10!

So go visit the store now to claim yours!

Market Dates for your Diary

Come and join us on Saturday 8th of May as we return to the lovely Abney Public Hall in Stoke Newington for the monthly craft market held there by Of Cabbages & Kings.

We will be selling all of our products at special stall rates as well as having some brand new goodies on sale too!

Entry is FREE to the public. 11am - 5pm Nearest BR: Stoke Newington or Rectory Road Buses 73,393, 476 stop outside Abney Hall.

New Dates for 2010

Of Cabbages & Kings will now be hosting this great craft market at Abney Hall, Stoke Newington every month throughout 2010!

So jot down these dates in your diary and pay them a visit!

May - Sat 8th & Sun 9th June - Sat 12th & Sun 13th July - Sat 3rd & Sun 4th

11am - 5pm, Abney Hall, 73a Church Street, Stoke Newington, London N16 0AS

All things from designer knitwear and hand-printed stationery to glitzy jewellery and gorgeous home wares, each weekend a different selection of designers and makers will be peddling their wares.

Hot and cold drinks and tasty treats available

For a full list of all the designers exhibiting visit the Of Cabbages & Kings website

For directions follow the map link below:

Map

We will be returning to this venue in June & July too so visit our website for more details...(our dates seen in red above)

March Market Day @ Abney Hall

Last Saturday (6th March 2010) saw us at our first stall this year down at the lovely Abney Public Hall in Stoke Newington with the organisers of the event Of Cabbages & Kings and it was a good day had by all.

I started off the day feeling quite tired having just spent the last few days preparing stock for the sale, but after a very strong coffee and some yummy ginger biscuits I was ready for a day of selling and socialising...as we bumped into quite a few familiar faces too so we felt right at home! The weather even held off the rain too which was a welcome surprise to be greeted with some sunshine during the day.

Here are a few quick snaps of our stall for those of you that didn't make it down:

Not to worry though, if you missed the sale this month come and check us out on Saturday 8th of May so don't forget to pencil it in your diaries..

This months stall also launched our new Sweetie Cardholders to the public as well as our brand new Animal Happy Family Greeting Cards featuring Mr Bite the Butcher, Mr Paws the Policeman & Mr Toad the Tailor. Visit the store now to see more!

Sweetie Cardholders

One of my fondest memories as a child would be the trip to the news agents/sweet shop on the way home from school! Here you would be greeted with all kinds of sugared goodies all in a colourful row, and with empty tub in tow you would start to choose handfuls of assorted sweets which would only cost you between 1&2p! Oh no, there was no messing around with weighing, nope you had your pocket money in hand and would choose accordingly to how much you had to spend. Some of my favourite finds would be white mice, foam mushrooms, strawberry laces and fizzy cola bottles.

Ah those were the days......

So in cheerful reminiscence and because we simply love all things sugar coated, we here at SewSmitten HQ have created some colourful sweetie covered cardholders!

We spent a few days gorging ourselves on some of the classic Pick & Mix sweeties (Ooo isn't our job so hard!!) and have chosen 8 of our favourite to be turned into colourful cardholders.

So tell us which is your favourite sweet?

Here's a peak at just 4 of the 8 we have available online:

Dolly Mix & Fried Egg

Love Hearts & Liquorice allsorts

To view the whole collection go take a look online!