Christmas Doors? or Christmas Fairy Doors?

I hope you have all been well this week, I was struck down with the dreaded early winter cold and had a few days feeling sorry for myself, but hey ho things don't get done by themselves and I think the housework fairy has gone on holiday.
Ooo, did someone mention 'fairy'? oh yes that was me..so, talking of fairies!!! I was asked if I could do a Christmas Door similar to my small Fairy Doors, so I did, I liked it, so did my customer, so I made some more....
I painted wreaths hanging on the doors

Christmas Doors

  I painted mistletoe

Doors in chilly ice colours

 I painted stockings on some of the doors

Christmas doors in traditional red & green

 I painted snow 

These small Christmas doors measure a cute 2 x 3 inches

I'm due to do a Craft Fair at a village primary school this week so hopefully they will be well received, fingers crossed, I'll also be popping a couple in my Folksy Shop, question is, do I call them 'Christmas Fairy Doors' or just 'Christmas Doors' ? what do you think?

They will have a little label on the back saying that it is a special door so Santa will always find his way into the home (even if you haven't got a chimney)

Before I go I'd like to thank every one who popped over and left messages (or just had a read) of my previous posts, I think I managed to get around most of the other blogs that take part in Handmade Monday, and I'd like to say a big thank you to Wendy for hosting this linky party.

Take care all

Jan x

Fairy Doors & Wooden Bunting

What a busy time I've had, It's been the last weekend at the Pumpkin Patch Craft Fair and the weather wasn't kind. On Saturday it rained, it hailed, we had sleet and it was muddy. The crossbow people decided it was too cold and windy to set up, the ponies were spooked by the wind, the rain and the lightening so they were taken back to their stables and visitors were a bit thin on the ground, I don't blame them either, it was a day for most people to stay at home in comfort and warmth.
But don't think it was all doom and gloom, the people that did venture out were warm and friendly and I had a few sales and orders. Saturday was also the yearly Village Art Show to raise money for the Poppy Appeal. Money is raised by paying £1.00 for each painting entered into the show, the obligatory raffle and by donations. I entered my 'Toadstool Painting' and for those who haven't seen it before I posted about it Here.
I'm pleased to say that my painting was sold. We'll know in the next few days how much was raised altogether.

Sunday's weather faired a bit better and we had a busier day, (did you all remember to turn your clocks back)? My most popular items were my Zombie Art Dolls and Zombie Sock Dolls, after them came Wooden Bunting, Fairy Doors and Hearts.

Fairy Doors

Bunting for Grace

Wooden Bunting

So all in all a good weekend was had and a great but tiring month was enjoyed and I've signed up again for next year.

I'm going to pop over to Handmade Harbours linky party and check out what everyone else has been up to. I hope you can join me.


Jan X

Handmade Monday Link Up

Firstly I'd like to say hello to my new followers and say a big thank you to all who left comments on my previous post.

This week is Handmade Monday 51, Wendy's Linky Party has been very successful and I would like to say another BIG thank you to our weekly host Wendy, you will find the link to her blog at the bottom of this post.

Not much new to show you this week, I've been busy doing more Fairy Doors  and Personalised Hearts  for the run up to Valentines Day. But I did get a nice surprise in the post this week.........

A picture of Nanny and Grandad 

This is from our grandson, ok I know I'm biased but isn't it lovely? My daughter drew the outline ready to be coloured in.

He is 21/2 years old and chose the colours himself.

Grandad is wearing a hat and I am wearing a jumper and jeans and he said I am wearing a belt. I love the imagination of children.




I've also been busy doing sketches this week, not for anything in particular but more of an enjoyable exercise. I love doing quick sketches of anything that takes my fancy, I usually limit myself to an hour or less on each sketch, sometimes the limit is as low as 5 or 10 minutes. For the last few months the only sketches I've done are for my Plaques and although I enjoy doing these sketches they don't really stretch me. I believe that a good sketching technique is a good way of getting quick and varied ideas stored away for future use and something you can build on. I also believe that to get a good sketching technique, like any thing else, takes practice. Sometimes when doing a 'quick' sketch it is hard to know when to stop, hence the time restrictions. So over the next few weeks I am going to hone my sketching abilities, scan some of the results and hopefully show you some of my efforts in a future post.

I have linked this post to...

1St Unique Gifts

I hope you can pop over and have a nosey.

Jan xx

Chalkboards & Fairy Doors

It's been a week for Chalkboards and Fairy Doors, the chalkboards always do well at this time of year, you can check out more of them on my facebook page here.

These small Fairy Doors in bright colours have been a big hit and as they are only 'pocket money prices' they do really well with the children at fairs, they can be placed anywhere in the home, they can be placed on a book shelf or toy shelf, they also look good sat above a door or down on a skirting board, although in most childrens rooms you can't see the skirting board for toys.

Small Fairy Doors

Medium Sized Fairy Doors

These Medium Sized Fairy Doors are approximately 4 x 4 inches but because they are cut individually they can vary in size.

Tonight I'm going to have a nosey at some of the other blogs linked to Wendy's Handmade Monday then it's out with the sewing machine for me, I need to finish a few bags I'm doing for a school craft fair at the end of the week, photo's to follow.

OOohhhh, my wonderful hubby has just brought me a lovely cup of tea and a dish of turkish delight. MMmmmm

I wish you all a good week

Jan x

F is for Fairy

It doesn't matter to me how it is spelt it all means the same, whether it be fairy, faery, faerie or any other spelling, to me it's magical, enchanting and charming. 

Did you know that the word 'faery' originally derived from the Latin 'fatum' or 'fata' meaning Destiny, Enchantment and Fate? Fatum/Fata developed into fee (french) and the English fay or fae. Now this isn't me being clever, I gleened this information from one of my most favourite books, Good Faeries-Bad Faeries  by Brian Froud. 

As the title suggests Fairies are not always the sweet, gentle, helpful creatures we usually imagine, they can be mischievous, disruptive or even evil.

Other names we can use for the Faery Folk are sylph, spirit, elemental and pixie.  Brownie, elf, sprite and nymph. Gnome, goblin, gremlin. Siren, imp and leprechaun, these are just a few that can be used for the different classifications of Faries. We have the Fairy Godmother the Tooth Fairy and even Fairy Rings.

I often paint Fairies in my artwork, not in the same class as Mr Froud but I get great pleasure from doing these paintings.

Autumn               &               Springtime

Summer                      &                      Winter

Some of my commissioned Plaques

 I love Wooden Fairy Doors too, they are the doorway to an Enchanted Kingdom.

Do you believe in Fairies?       I do and it's often been said that I am 'away with the Faeries'!

All my Plaques and Paintings are either for sale or can be made especially for you, you can contact me by leaving me a message on this blog, through my Folksy Shop or my Facebook Page

Also check in on Wendy's Blog for a look at lots of other great bloggers or even join in on Handmade Monday.

I'm off now to play at the bottom of the garden, I'll be back soon with the letter G

Jan x

More Toadstools (and Plaques)

I've been a busy bod the last few days, I finished painting 3 more plaques for collection and posting tomorrow, I really like the turquoise of the car.

The colours for Chloe's plaque match
the colours in her bedroom.
It's not noticeable in this pic but the plaque is sprinkled with fairy dust and what girl doesn't like a bit of magical fairy glitter?

And what can I say about Harry...... He's a big Spurs fan and wanted something to hang on his bedroom door.
The Rooster standing on a ball is Tottenham Hotspurs emblem.  

As well as painting my plaques I have been uploading some of my old paintings onto the computer, these are two that were part of a nature exhibition I took part in a few years ago. I love the effect of the paint, it looks good  for this type of  subject.

 Both of these photo's were taken when the picture's were in their frames so didn't turn out so good but they are some of the only copies I have of these.



 I lost a lot of my good copies of paintings when my computer decided to crash and die a couple of years ago, since then I've always backed up my pics on an external hard drive.

I have some of my paintings, plaques and other bits and bobs in a lovely local shop and as all my toadstools paintings and fairy doors sold well I need a few more to replace them and I do enjoy making them.

The shop is Oshuns Emporium ,please find a link to their facebook page Here


Thats all from 'ickle old me for tonight, it's getting a bit late and I need a bit of shut eye, another busy day tomorrow so it's off to beddy byes ............. nighty night all

Jan x      zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

March is here....

I can hardly believe that March is with us already, the last 2 months have just flown by.
February was a busy month for me, I have managed to get my facebook page a bit more established, I'm really pleased about that, the biggest thing that helped was a fair that I done in January, I managed to give out a lot of business cards and hey I now have a load of 'likes' on my facebook page.

I have my Folksy shop up and running, I haven't sold anything up to now but there's time yet. Even though I'm very excited about everything it's all a bit daunting, as you may know I'm not very computer savvy but I am learning as I go along. My latest thing is this blog, I'm getting the hang of it and I'm sure that things can only get better. I've been playing around with the design settings and up to now my theme has been green, then blue, then I decided I liked the dark red better, I then decided that it was a bit difficult to read with such a dark background so I've changed it again to a pale green, it will probably have many changes, I imagine I will never decide on just one theme, there are far too many choices and I want to try most of them.

So back to March, what will this month bring, it's already brought out the first flowers in the garden and the hedgerows, the trees are budding and the sun is shining (sometimes). It is not warm though, by any stretch of the imagination.  Brrrrrrrrr
I've seen my first lambs of the year, happily gambolling and frolicking away in the field and I've also been lucky enough to see my first hare of the year. 

  Do you like him?


Today I finished an order of plaques, a monkey and a rabbit, no photo's as yet, I'll hopefully be doing that tomorrow and getting them up on my facebook. I've also been playing around with some fairy doors, A friend who has a shop want some to display.  I done my first ones many moons ago when my not so ickle kiddies were really ickle. I used to do them out of paper mache or air dry clay but I'm thinking of doing a few out of wood, I think wooden ones will be a bit more robust, they can also be done for outdoor use. More on that later.

That's all for now, I'll be back soon

Jan