This Blog is Moving!

That's right, after four years of The Craft-Arty Kid I feel I've out-grown the name - or at least I'm trying to!

I will now be blogging at
Always Arty

It's basically the same blog with a different name and address. I've imported all of the posts from this blog to the new one so we can just pick up where we left off.

The reason I've chosen to start a new blog instead of just changing the name of this one is that The Craft-Arty Kid has been linked to in a lot of places and I didn't want those to become dead links. It does mean I will lose the followers I've gained on this blog, but I figure that if you are an active reader of this blog then you will follow me over to the new one.

Choosing a new name was not an easy task. A lot of the names I thought of were already taken by blogs that hadn't been updated in years, which was very frustrating.
Public service announcement; if you have a blog that you haven't updated for years and don't intend to, delete it to free up the name for someone else!

So pop over to Always Arty and, like you should always text a friend to let them know you got home safely, perhaps you could leave a comment to let me know you got there.

I'd also be interested to know what sort of posts you like reading from me, and if there's anything you want to request for me to blog about.

Catch you on the flipside!

This Week I...

...had my first week at my new job.

I'm a teaching assistant at a primary school and my first task was to decorate this display board.

I am a master of sugar paper.

The staff were very impressed. Well, I do have a Fine Art degree.

I spent a lot of time sorting things in my bedroom this week and I came across my old Talkboy!

You know, like Kevin has in Home Alone.

And even better than that, I found the cassette tape that I used with it.

Oh boy.

One side starts with me and my friends, at I think middle school age, doing little skits and then I must have just left it recording when we were hanging out practising a play by the sounds of it.

The other side is all me and my sisters doing various radio interviews as different characters. Between these are little 'sponsor messages' where I would switch to the high pitch setting and sing made up jingles.

Then right at the end is a recording of my oldest sister - unknown to her - singing in her bedroom.

I do remember standing right outside her door to catch her singing on tape.

I was so sneaky!

Did anyone else have similar childhood shenanigans?

Getting Organised

 Today I wanted to share a few ways that I'm trying to be more organised going into 2014.

The end of last year was very busy for me with craft fairs, exhibitions, work, finding a new job and Christmas, so there was a lot going on at once and a lot to remember.

I've modified the space around my laptop to help me keep track of what I'm doing.

To the right of me as I write this is my locker.

On the front I've printed out a calender of the month. I started doing this when I got the job at the care home as I was working shifts which varied week to week. Now I work the same three days every week - as shown in pink - but it's still useful to be able to glance at the dates. I have a diary that I keep in my bag but when I'm at my computer I don't want to have to get up and go looking for it.

When it starts getting to the end of the month I print out next months calender and keep it underneath.

I cleared some space on the other side of my locker for to-do lists and other scraps of paper with important information on that I would otherwise lose. 

These are held on with more washi-tape style magnets, like the ones I made here.

To my left is a storage box that is sort of my 'in-tray'.

Since I use high-lighter pens on my calender I needed a good way to store these cool syringe pens my sister gave me. I wove white elastic through the box, tying a knot in each ends and then each pen slots in.

I put a cardboard tube in one of the corners of the box so I have a specific place to keep pens and pencils. Again, I don't like having to get up to look for a pen.

And then I have my glasses and a pack of sticky notes which are always useful. 

Do you have any tips of how you stay organised?

A Gift for Grandad

These were one of the gifts we gave my Grandad for Christmas.

Earlier in the year he had got all his old cinefilms digitized and we received copies of the files.

I love watching my Dad's speech at my parents wedding. He does not.

 When I started putting all my videos on to DVD collections my Mum thought it would be a good idea to do the same thing for my Grandad with his videos.

We grouped the videos into four categories and then I started the task of burning them onto DVDs.

This took a long time as the files are really big which slowed down the computer programme and their format doesn't work on my laptop so I had to use my Mum's when she wasn't busy.

But I got them finished before Christmas.

I designed the DVD covers using stills from the videos and listed all the clips on the back.

My Grandad loved them and we watched the disc with family Christmases on Christmas afternoon.

This Week I...

...had my last shift working as a 'beverage assistant' on New Years Day.

During the three months I had this job I got into the habit of taking a photo of my dinner - provided by the care home - as long as there was noone else in the lift with me.

My friend kept telling me to get Instagram to make use of this habit but that's too much of a commitment!

Instead, you all get to see a selection of the collection here.

You are welcome.

I start my new job on Monday. I'll be a teaching assistant at a primary school.

I think we can all agree that I'm better suited to this job then washing up for 10 hours a day.

Also this week I did an awful lot of shopping. Mostly to buy new school-appropriate clothes, but I also popped in to Hobbycraft as I needed some more paint.

I made use of their 3 for 2 offer on canvases and bought 4 pretty big ones.

This led to the following exchange at the till:

Cashier: 'Have you got a big art project coming up?'

Me: '...Yeah, I guess..'

Cashier: 'Is that A-level or GCSE?'

Me: 'Oh, um, no, it's my own art practice.'

Cashier: '...'

I'm a fine art graduate! AND I'm 23!

Aye aye aye!

How was everyone's week?

Our decorations are all down now, how about yours?

Christmas Time

New year, smew myear.

I'm still riding the Christmas train!

I just finished putting together this video of all my festive gatherings.

The song is It's Christmastime by Mr. Speaker, a local band who write songs for charity.

I saw them performing this December, and last December, when they were at the Letchworth Arts Centre and I was working on the bar both times. They are guaranteed to put you in the Christmas mood. I'm not saying now, but bare that in mind for next year!

They even have a whole album of original Christmas songs. These are my kind of people.

All their music is available to buy from here and you make a donation to their chosen charities in the process.

And, I guess I should wish you a happy and healthy new year. Or whatever.

I love Christmas!

This Week I...

...celebrated Christmas!! Yay!!

Who likes my Cookie Monster pyjamas?

Many Christmas movies were watched, Christmas songs were sung and a lot of food was eaten. And is still being eaten. Does anyone want a mince pie? We've got quite a lot.

My sister gave me a sword ruler!

I think we can all tell from this photo who the favourite daughter is.

Christmas Day, Boxing Day and the 28th were spent with family which was lovely.

On the 28th there were so many of us we had to gather in a church hall as we wouldn't all fit in my cousin's house.

What festive things did you get up to this week?

Wooden Decorations

At one of the Christmas craft fairs I had a stall at, my Mum bought these wood cut decorations.

The stall was being manned by a boy selling the things his Grandfather made, including wonderfully finished boxes and nativity scenes. And lots of these decorations - 4 for a £1.

I decorated them by painting the picture part in the middle with water colour paint so the texture of the wood would still show through.

Then I painted the rest with gold acrylic paint and finished them with a coat of gold glittery nail varnish over the gold parts. Because glitter = Christmas.

Then I strung them up with invisible thread and added them to the tree.

 

Have a merry Christmas everyone!

This Week I...

...had the Annual Gift Exchange with my friends, for which I made all these Christmas cookies!

They were a hit, even with some of the snowmen's dodgy noses.

On Saturday we took my Grandad and my sister, who's home for Christmas, to see my exhibition at Radlett, and then to see the open exhibition I have a piece in at the Museum of St. Albans, organised by the University of Hertfordshire.

And on Sunday I helped out at the Art Centre's Christmas Crafternoon making fun little decorations.

How was your week?

All ready for Christmas? Only 3 more sleeps!

Secret Santa Gift

My latest painting is a gift for my friend Stef, who I got for Secret Santa

In October she went on a trek across Jordan to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support, so I took one of her photos from the trip off Facebook to paint.

This is her shocked face.

I think she liked it - I made her cry!

I got her a few other things including a mug with photos of us from last year's Annual Gift Exchange, ordered from Photobox, along with tea and biscuits.

She treats those teabags like gold!

I was given Laguna Beach season 2 on dvd and a whole lots of Bueno!

I love Christmas!

Christmas Card Hanger

During our latest trip to the Scrap Store my Mum picked up a roll of what we thought was just star sequin waste.

You know that stuff with holes in where the sequins have been punched out?

When we got it home we unrolled it to find a pre-made Christmas card hanger!

So we hung it up on the side of our CD shelf.

It's got 3 star bursts at the top.

And mini gold pegs already attached to hang cards on.

We usually hang Christmas cards on the side of the stairs in the hallway, so we've reserved this hanger for cards from each other.

And this is our tree!

I think my Dad put every red and gold thing we have on it. I love it!

This Week I...

This week I was quite busy with boring stuff, but I had a fun day on Saturday.

My Mum and I started with a trip to the Scrap Store.

They had loads of tinsel up for grabs, and grab I did!

I got this cool blue, pink and gold tinsel. I don't where I'm going to put it yet because our tree is strictly red and gold.

Then we moved on to some shops to pick up a few Christmas presents.

I bought myself these gloves.

They look like Christmas puddings you guys!

In the evening my Dad and I put up the Christmas tree whilst watching CMA's Country Christmas.

Loved it!

What did you get up to this week?

Bring and Share Desserts

As I said on Sunday last week my friends and I had our Bring and Share Christmas Dinner.

For a look at past dinners click here.

We always split up the meal so each person brings something and this year I was given desserts.

I made an apple crumble, Christmas cookies and a chocolate cake.

This was the recipe I used for the apple crumble. Just some notes I jotted down from my Mum's instructions.

I'd never made one before but I think my first attempt when pretty well.

It was just your standard apple crumble, but I added some dried cranberries in with the apple for a festive touch.

I used a simple sugar cookies recipe for the Christmas cookies and made some into snowmen...

...and some into snowflakes complete with a sprinkling of edible glitter. Because it's Christmas!

There were also some angels, stars and Christmas trees.

The cookies were a big hit with my friends wrapping up the left over ones to take home.

And finally the chocolate cake.

I used this recipe and it is a winner.

I finished it off with some dark chocolate curls from Jordans Mill.

Jordans as in the cereal company, so these chocolate curls are the same ones you get in the chocolate Country Crisp.

We had way to much food so some of these came back home with me - but my family weren't complaining!

This Week I...

...put up my exhibition at the Radlett Centre with my Dad's help.

The exhibition features over 20 of my paintings and it's really great to see them all hung together.

It's up for almost a month which should be plenty of time for lots of people to have a look, and maybe even make a purchase.

Also this week I finished a few extra things for my stall at the Letchworth Arts Centre's Christmas Craft Fair.

What do we think of the elf on the stocking? I like the pom-pom on his hat.

Thanks for the photo Lizzi!

On Thursday my friends and I had our 7th Annual Bring and Share Christmas Dinner.

This year we had additions like asparagus and a cheese board. We're getting fancy!

I'll share my contributions to the dinner next week.

How was your week?

What Christmassy things have you been up to?

Christmas Pudding Baubles

Here are some more Christmas decorations I've been working on.

Christmas pudding baubles!

These are a fun alternative to the winter scenes I usually paint on baubles.

First I painted the whole thing brown. Once that had tried I painted the white for the icing.

Then I covered the icing in glitter. I used clear glitter that on mass looks white.

I painted the top part red for the holly berry and stuck on some holly leaves made out of painted green card.

Really simple but really fun.

These ones I made have already sold at the Letchworth Arts Centre's Christmas Craft Fair. I may have to make some more!

Craft Fair Set Up

I'm now done with all the craft fairs I'm doing this season - well the Letchworth Arts Centre one is on going but I'm done with the setting up - so I thought I would talk about how I arrange my stalls.

 

This is how my table looked this year.

At this particular craft fair I was fortunate to have the space to have two notice boards as part of my display, but usually it's just one.

The cork boards I use were purchased at a local car boot for £1 each! One was still in the packaging. Such a bargain, especially since I couldn't find one the size I wanted in the shops, let alone for such a cheap price.

My Dad made this stand for the board which is two planks of wood held together by three long screws which can be tightened around the board to make it stand up.

My displays this year have been all about baskets. In fact a lot of displays I saw this year used them.

Mine came from around my house and from charity shops. That round one in the middle was only 50p.

I always make sure everything is clearly labelled with its price because as a customer I hate having to ask how much something is.

This year I started using clothes pegs to display the price of everything within a basket.

It helps to group together things that have the same price.

To display the crochet hats my Mum made I bought this polystyrene head on Ebay.

I call her Creepy Maureen.

As well as the cork board stand I also have this rail stand, also made by my Dad.

I use this one to display my hand painted baubles and other hanging ornaments.

This is how my displays have looked in the past.

Before the cork boards I used a piece of trellis in the wooden stand. I also used bright blue cloths on the table to be eye-catching, but I prefer the simpler white tablecloths I use now.

Another thing I do at craft fairs is have a list of all the items with the prices and every time I sell something I mark it off. This helps me keep track of what's popular and how much I sell at different fairs.

Have any of you done craft fairs? Have any display tips?