Things Are Ticking Along.

This September marks 12 months of my Busy Work etsy shop. As that year ticked on and I knew I wasn't putting quite as much effort into the shop as I'd initially hoped I decided I would be happy to see an average of just one sale per month. And I was on track to reach this goal... until last month... when I suddenly sold 7 items! I really don't know what has driven this but I really appreciate each and every sale and am sending my thanks out to whoever or whatever has boosted my sales for that  last month. Thank you! I have surpassed my goal!

Now, I am just a few weeks away from the birth of our second child so there isn't a lot of sewing going on at the moment. I've got a stack of fabrics waiting for the next batch of bloomers and a few other items in my mind too but it might be a little while until they get made. My sewing foot is itching to do something soon though.

Lastly today I want to say a big thanks to Kylie from the Kidgredients blog for hosting a little ad for my etsy shop. I really appreciate it! Check out her blog for great, healthy meal ideas for your family. (She's running a great organic hamper giveaway at the moment too.) 

Nappy Covers/Baby Bloomers.

Happily and excitedly we will be welcoming a small, new member to our family later this year.  The weather will be starting to warm up around the time of this bub's arrival and I have found myself wandering around the clothing stores looking for some little nappy covers or bloomers. It seems to me that frilly ones are fairly easy to come by but plainer, less feminine pants are a lot trickier to find. In the end I decided to make some of my own. 

I found myself getting a little carried away and have made multiple sizes in many different fabrics. (Almost 20 pairs!) Some of the fabrics are newly bought and some have come from op-shops or my own stash.

I suspect that these are going to be very handy through spring and summer and will look sweet with just a singlet or even no shirt at all.

The hard part now is deciding which pairs to keep and which pairs to put in my etsy store!

Did you know you can join my facebook group to find out a bit about this and my other busy work if you are interested.

Zip Pouch Prototype.

A few weeks ago I was trying to come up with something small to make so that I can use up my test swatches from Spoonflower. I threw together this (wonky) little zip pouch using some of my thermos fabric and some vintage fabric for the lining. I used fusible interfacing to give the pouch some body but because it is quite small it just seems to have made it overly bulky. Next time I will try it without the interfacing. They could be good for coins, makeup essentials or your favourite Lego minifig.

Penguin Parade

This morning I was rather chuffed when I opened my email and found that my recent penguin design is one of the nine designs in the Spoonflower email advertising this week's design competition! The winners won't be known until the end of next week but I think this feels as good as a win. Especially considering I enter the weekly competition mainly to give myself a deadline to work to and a challenge to create something I might not normally do.

This week's theme is 'Penguins' and there are a lot of nice designs that have been entered. (Some can be seen in this screenshot of the Spoonflower email shown here.) Check out all the other designs here if you are feeling penguin-y.

I chose black, white and greys for my repeating pattern of penguins and drew it using Copic markers after sketching it out with pencil. I then fiddled around with my drawing on my old version of Photoshop to create the seamless repeat. I'm looking forward to receiving my test print of it on fabric so I can then decide what to make using it. Perhaps a t-shirt with this all-over print on a knit fabric, or perhaps some sort of top/blouse on a floatier fabric?

I have added the design to my Society6 and Redbubble stores and it will soon be available as fabric in my Spoonflower store.

EDIT - 16 Jan 2015.

With the help of the above appearance in the Spoonflower competition email this week my Penguin design broke into the top 40 after voting closed. I was very pleased to see that I came in 39th, considering that I average around 224th position. The only way is up! See you in Hit Songwords magazine. (Sorry... sorry for my bad "Top 40" references/jokes.)

More Busy Play Than Busy Work.

At this time of year things feel a lot like they are on fast-forward so I haven't spent much time making anything... even though I've wanted to.

We took a trip to see the Lego Christmas Tree in Sydney's Pitt Street Mall which was pretty cool even if it seemed to be mostly Duplo blocks. I think I will always be a fan of this sort of primary colour combination.

Lego Christmas Tree in Sydney's Pitt Street Mall.

After visiting the Christmas tree we strolled through Hyde Park and ended up at the Australian Museum. It was a long time since I had been to this museum and it was nice to watch our son excited, interested (even if sometimes a little fearful) of the displays.

This guy seemed friendly.

A lenticular picture of dinosaurs at the Australian Museum in Sydney.

And although I haven't been getting very creative over the last week or so I wanted to share an awesome creative collaboration between creative/artist friend Katy B Plummer of Felt Underground and writer/artist Vanessa Berry. These iron-on patches feature classics from Vanessa's 'Lost Sydney' series seen on her 'Mirror Sydney' blog.

Lost Sydney fabric patch collaboration between Vanessa Berry and Katy B Plummer. 

I am saving up my pocket money and trying to decide which patch is my favourite. I remember our visit to Magic Kingdom so many  years ago and riding the Aqua Trikes on the lake there but I also lived around the corner from the Marie-Louise Salon when I was in my early 20s. And then there's the monorail - somehow so '80s even in the noughties. (Patches are available in both their etsy stores - links in text above picture.)

Christmas Market Night Mini-debrief.

Friday night's market stall is done. It was a learning experience as I have mainly just had secondhand market stalls in the past. With 'Busy Work' and 'Duchess and Lulu' combined we had far too much stock for one table but some sales were made. I suspect that a few stall-holders may have spent their profits at other stalls before the night was over! We were positioned between some experienced marketers including 'Kristen Doran Design', 'Hiccup Art' and 'Me We'. They all had beautifully presented stalls and I hope everyone had a good night.

Special Offers on Society6.com.

As it is post-thanksgiving sale time in the US at the moment there are a few special offers happening on Society6.com (and therefore in my Society6.com/georgiatapper store).

US$6.00 off phone cases and worldwide free shipping for a little longer today then followed by 24 hours of US$6.00 off pillows and free worldwide shipping. Double-check when each offer ends if you are interested as it is not based on Australian time.

My First Sales on Society6.com!

Last night I opened up my Society6.com store to check something and was completely surprised to see that I have had my first customer/s there! I was very excited and grateful and I just want to send out a thankyou to the generous person/people who chose to buy my designs. I don't get to see who the buyer was on the site but I want them to know that I really appreciate their support. Thank you!

(The geometric design is an old work by my mother-in-law... she will be very surprised to receive a 'royalty' payment!)

Today's Busy Work - Noodlehead's Divided Baskets

Today's Busy Work - Sewing up some fabric divided baskets (pattern by Noodlehead - http://www.noodle-head.com/2013/01/divided-basket-pattern.html) for upcoming Christmas market. If there are some left after the markets I plan to put them in my etsy store.

12 Days of Design Spoonchallenge

Interested in taking your designs from paper to fabric? I've signed up to get some tips from Spoonflower (custom fabric printing place of excellence) about doing just that. 12 emails over 12 days and it's free. Starts December 1st. Maybe you would like to follow along with the 12 Days of Design Spoonchallenge too?

Cushions and Totes and Upcoming Market.

I ordered some of my tote bags and throw pillow covers from Society6.com for an upcoming market stall I will be sharing. As I wrote the other day it is always exciting to see your own designs turned into something other than a flat image on a piece of paper or a computer screen. 

I am particularly pleased with how the tapestry scans turned out as cushions. I think I am going to have to order another trio to keep for myself.

A bit of Christmas reindeer fun on a tote bag could be good for delivering gifts to family or friends when the time comes.

I believe that Society6.com is offering free worldwide shipping until the end of this month (excluding framed art prints, stretched canvases and rugs).

Check out my etsy shops for information about the market stall we are going to have for Christmas. - Busy Work or Duchess and Lulu.

Turning Your Work Into Something Else or Something More.

Have you visited Society6.com before? Do you have an account and try to sell your work there? After I've finished my design for a Spoonflower.com weekly contest I have been putting it up on Society6. There is something really pleasing about seeing a design transformed into a cushion cover or a mug, even if nobody purchases them except me.

"Thermos Pattern Blue"mug.

Some of my designs as throw pillows on Society6.com.

One of my original drawings before it was turned into a design for Spoonflower and Society6.

I am terrible at talking about what I do with my time and energy... or terribly scared of doing it. I find it really hard to talk about myself and my interests and activities. When meeting new people I dread the inevitable question "So, what do you do?". As I see it, artists and creatives have to be their own brand. Part of my creating and collecting has lead me to want to grow a style, a portfolio and some confidence and therefore, I guess, my own brand. I have a handful of little online stores in various places now and they have only had a couple of visits and sales so I have realised that it is time to bite the bullet and put myself out there a bit more. I am finding it really difficult to even post on my own personal page to share my work with friends and family. If I can't be confident about my own work then why should I expect other people to be interested in it. My (seemingly) confident husband said to me "If you like it then someone else out there will like it. If you don't like it then someone else out there will be bound to like it". (He knows how contrary and anti I can tend to be!) I could just put up posts without this little intro but that wouldn't be me. For some reason I often feel like I need to explain myself... but I really don't. Anyway, here goes nothing! (And thanks for visiting and reading!)

Blog - http://www.thisbusywork.blogspot.com.au

Fabric, wrapping paper design - http://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/busy_work_

Art prints, throw pillows, totes, mugs, clocks - http://www.society6.com/georgiatapper

Vintage, handmade and paper items - http://www.etsy.com/shop/thisbusywork

And I help to run an etsy store for my mum and aunt - http://www.etsy.com/shop/duchessandlulu - handmade one-off clothing for children under 5.

Thermos Inspiration

A thermos from my collection. This provided inspiration for the thermos design in the previous post. I think it was an old op-shop find. Dig that groovy lettering! 

My Thermoses for the next Spoonflower Competition.

The theme for the upcoming weekly contest on Spoonflower.com is "Thermoses". My attempt is made up of hand-drawn, retro thermoses.

Today's Busy Work - Old Skirt Becomes New Shorts

Using New Look 6193 ($0.50 from Vinnies) and two skirts I was never going to wear again (sorry for forgetting to take "before" photos) I made some shorts for my preschooler. They are a bit baggy and "90s" in style (anyone remember "Keppers"?) but the pattern is pretty straightforward and wearable. 

Vintage Geometric Brooch on etsy.

 

I recently found this great vintage brooch on an op-shopping adventure. I thought that it was so retro and so "on-trend" at the same time with its colourful geometric shapes. I've added it to my etsy shop (but at the same time I'm tempted to keep it for myself).

Summer Sewing Assembly Line

Summer sewing assembly line. Three "Wiksten Tova Tanks" cut out ready to put together.
Two fabrics from Spotlight (a while ago) and one John Kaldor fabric from the op-shop.

Coming Soon... Stay Tuned... and all that jazz.