Thursday 30 December 2010

700 Sales... A great Big Thankyou Giveaway!

I have had a totally awesome huge Christmas and a great year, I just hit 700 sales in my shop and very nearly 700 facebook followers! How best to celebrate this? In traditional stylee with a giveaway of course!I'm feeling generous, I must have come over all festive like! I have decided to pick 3 lucky winners this time.

1st Prize... a hoot of your choice and a nice bag of goodies!
2nd Prize... a tweet or pet or real bird of your choice and some goodies!
3rd Prize... a teeny tweet and, of course, some goodies!To enter simply first leave a comment on my blog telling me what your favourite item in my shop is. For extra entries then if you can leave a Twitter comment mentioning this blog post with link @feltmeupdesigns or become a fan at facebook ... If you do all 3 you get 3 entries... simples! Just make sure you come back here and tell me in a separate comment that you have twittered and facebooked, if you are already a facebook fan just let me know to get your extra entry!The winners will be picked at random on the 7th of Jan to give all you party people a good chance to get your entries in!

There are also a few tweets left in the silly sale if anyone would like to grab a bargain tweet but they are going fast so hurry!

Monday 20 December 2010

A Very Merry Felty Christmas

I've had a crazy busy few weeks here at the Felt Menagerie but now the last orders are wrapped and posted and have decided to take a well earned rest. So all that remains is for me to wish you all a very merry felty Christmas.
I'll be back in the new year with a nice little give away since we're only 1 follower away from 700 on facebook and we'll be wanting a big celebration... until then Merry Christmas from all the Tweets!

Monday 6 December 2010

Last Posting Dates for Christmas

It's nearly time, there are just 19 days to go which means that for all you international buyers out there you need to get a wiggle on and get your orders placed if you want something Felty or Inky in you Christmas Stocking!
Remember to use the discount code CHRISTMASPUDDING in both of my shops, Inkmeup and Feltmeup to get 10% off your whole order and any combined ord
ers can fly together so over payment of postage will be paid back vis paypal.Sun 5th Dec 2010 South & Central America, Caribbean, Africa, Middle East, Asia, Far East (including Japan), Australia and New Zealand... sorry it's too late now *:( orders may still arrive in time but it's touch and go especially with our snowbound little island over here in the UK

Thursday 9 Dec 2010 Eastern Europe, USA and Canada... hurry, hurry, hurry!!!

Mon 13 Dec 2010 Western Europe


Monday 20th Dec United KingdomTuesday 21st... I pour my self a large brandy and tuck into some mince pies!

Hope everyone is enjoying the festive season!
x
mel

Tuesday 30 November 2010

Let's Get Crafting!!!!

I'm slightly dopey... no, no really I am. I have the memory of a fish and a teeny tiny attention span so when I received a message from JuJuDollie saying "just looked at Toddler Knits & saw you there! Random but a lovely surprise." My response was "ooo what's that then?"
This is mostly cos my daft little brain forgot that I did a little interview for Let's Get Crafting magazine a while ago and that it was due out this month in their intro to felting section.And here it is! Dopey head aside I am really chuffed with how nice the article looks (even tho it does have my little face in the middle there).Big thanks to the magazine for such a lovely article... now I just have to work out what to do with my balls of wool and knitting needles that came with it!
x
mel

Monday 29 November 2010

Bird Lovers Gift Guide

Some of you may have noticed my obsession with birds... I'm not quite a fully fledged birdwatcher yet but I reckon I am pretty close to buying some binoculars and spending my days creeping about in the undergrowth! I thought I'd share some of my favourite bird related items for the bird lover in your life!

Wednesday 24 November 2010

Last Posting Dates for Christmas 2010

Crikey O'Rielly people! I can't quite believe it myself but it's almost upon us... the last posting dates to guarantee your parcels arrive for Christmas from my lovely shop are as follows:Sat 4 Dec 2010 South & Central America, Caribbean, Africa, Middle East, Asia, Far East (including Japan), Australia and New Zealand

Thursday 9 Dec 2010 Eastern Europe, USA and Canada

Mon 13 Dec 2010 Western Europe


Monday 20th Dec United Kingdom

As always the sooner you get your order in the bett
er... International buyers remember that items can occasionally get trapped and held hostage by customs so order now to be sure! UK buyers... we love our Great British Post Office but remember they aren't always as good as we'd hope!As an added incentive I am running an coupon code in my shop for all my lovely blog friends just enter the code:

CHRISTMASPUDDING

At checkout for a very tasty 10% discount on all your orders... offer is running right up until Christmas eve so you have lots of time to get those great gifts sorted or even just treat yourself because I know you have all been very very good this year!

Saturday 20 November 2010

Robins, Robins and more Robins!

Last Festive season I couldn't keep up with orders for robins so in an attempt to get ahead I have been stockpiling!We have the now traditional feltmeup designs Robins and Chestnut RobinsAnd Little and Big Robinsons Mctweets all decked out in santa hats!Phew... and yesterday I saw the Christmas Coke advert on TV which means folks that we are officially in Christmas mode... sorry guys!

Friday 5 November 2010

An Online Crafter's Guide to Surviving the Holidays

So the nights are drawing in, the adverts full of Christmas lights are on the telly and this afternoon I heard Christmas music playing in the local shopping centre. Yes It's that time of year again!This will be my third Christmas as in The Felt Menagerie and over the last 2 I have learned a couple of lessons that I thought might be worth sharing in my guide to surviving the holiday season and here they are in no particular order:

Launch your Christmas lines (if you haven't done so already) mine will be hitting the Felt Menagerie over the weekend, have you got your banner and avatar prepared? Do it now even if you don't intend to make you shop festive for a few weeks then it's just a case of changing it and you're ready to go!Sort out your packaging now and set up a packaging station, it's so much easier if it is all set out for you. Make sure you are fully stocked on tape, business cards, boxes, envelopes, shipping labels... what ever it is that usually goes into one of you packages.

Know the last posting dates, last date the UK post office will guarantee a Christmas delivery to the states from the UK is the 6th of December... that's only 1 month away!!! Do your customers know this? You'll need to make sure you let them know early so they can get their orders in! (you can find the dates for elsewhere here if you are UK based)

Preparing your parcels will always take longer than you think it will... and don't forget those post office queues make sure you leave yourself plenty of time to post things, if you do work another job like me (veteran bookslave!) try and avoid doing this on your lunch break... you still need to eat!

Enlist help... John is limbering up for his role over Christmas as Postmaster General as we speak! You can't do it all so even if you aren't getting help with your work ask your family to pull their weight a bit more and help with chores or enlist a pal to stick postage labels on things... I find bribing them with cake helps! Boy is Santa lucky to have an army of elves at his disposal!

Learn to say no... when is your cut off point for custom work? Set one and be firm about it... you already have enough on your plate!Look after yourself, wrap up warm, make sure you get lots of vitamins, make sure you get lots of sleep... set aside some you time because it will get hectic and even you, yes you, need to breathe occasionally!

Enjoy it!... ok it's crazy mad panic but isn't it every year? Find a way to make it fun because it will be over before you know and then you'll miss that buzz!
So now I'm of to put the finishing touches to my Christmas collection, maybe have a Baileys and a Mince Pie and sing some carols while I work....

Wednesday 27 October 2010

The Feltanomicon Re- Openth....

I have finally got around to reopening my side project shop The Feltanomicon... I know I have been a bit rubbish with it but recently I have dropped a day in my day job which should mean I have more time to dedicate to creating a little felted chaos!

Felthathulhu's, yeti's, dead bunnies and aliens are on the way plus my brand new needlefelted bat design which I am very proud of.

In my head this little bat is a Russian spy bat... I could tell you why but then he would have to kill you!

Friday 22 October 2010

Competition Closed.. and the winner is...

Besty!!!

Congrats Betsy you have been emailled, thanks to everyone who entered... look out for a special blog post tomorrow once my laptop has received a good kicking and is no longer playing up!

xx
mel

Saturday 16 October 2010

Sew Hip Owl Mobile Giveaway

A lot has happened this past month, my head is still spinning from it! The Menagerie passed 600 sales... and it doesn't seem that long since 500! We were featured in sew hip magazine with our mobile tutorial, Inkmeup had it's first Etsyversary, we helped orchestrate the UK Etsy silly sale... It's been a seriously busy month!

So to celebrate Feltmeupdesigns 600th sale I thought I should do it in traditional stylee with a giveaway.
The prize is the exclusive, one of a kind, never to be repeated Sew Hip Owl mobile! Plus some goodies, postcards, magnets and generally whatever I have in the felt goody box at the time!

How to enter:

To enter simply first leave a comment on my blog telling me what your favourite item in my shop is.

For extra entries follow me on Twitter and Twitter this message

Win an exclusive owl mobile from @feltmeupdesigns http://feltmeupdesigns.blogspot.com/

Follow the blog by clicking on the follow button in the right hand column of this page, leave a comment to say you follow me!

Become a fan at facebook .and the leave a comment to say you are a fan, if you are already a fan just say "I'm a fan" and you automatically get and extra entry!

.. If you do all 4 you get 4 entries... simples!

The competition closes 23rd October

Friday 8 October 2010

Let the Silliness Ensue!!!!


Tonight at 7pm (GMT that's 7pm in the UK folks) all silliness will break free in the first coordinated UK Silly sale, 24 hours of silly prices, reductions and promoting each other like crazy.

Uk sellers have banded together to bring you a whole world of silliness by reducing their goodies, offering free shipping, standing on their heads, juggling monkeys... no wait ... I'm getting carried away again!

Just go to etsy and type in UK SILLY SALE to find all the bargains on sale and begin your Christmas shopping maybe! This is the best time to pick up a bargain so get on board! I will be offering half price on selected tweets and silly prices on selected prints at Inkmeup but remember it doesn't kick off in earnest till tonight!

Friday 1 October 2010

Sew Hip Magazine... Feltmeup Feature

Ever wondered how to make a felty bird? Well now you can make your own woodland mobile from an exclusive feltmeup design original. This is a design that will not be appearing in my shop so if you want one you have to make it your self! Issue 22 of Sew Hip is on sale now in all good UK newsagents!
I don't know who did these lovely little thumbnail drawings but they are gorgeous! I shall certainly be keeping this copy safe!Lots of great projects and free pull out patterns inside too! I'm going to make some handy hampers for my felt!A big thankyou to Sew Hip for the opportunity to do this and for making the How-to so good looking and fab.
x
mel

Wednesday 29 September 2010

My Baby is 1 year old!!!


My little inky shop has been going for 1 year... how fast time flies! So I have decided to celebrate a year of success by sharing the wealth and having a blog competiton

http://inkmeupdesigns.blogspot.com/2010/09/1-year-on-anniversary-giveaway.html

the prize is worth $50 and you get to pick it! Head on over to Inkmeup's blog to see how to enter... where did the year go?

Wednesday 22 September 2010

SQUAWK!!!SQUAWK!!!

I'm always looking for new ideas for felty birds and these guys are two that have been percolating around my brain for a while now. There have been a few abortive attempts with ended up looking a bit like transvestite melodrama rather than classy parrots but I think I have finally got it right!The Blue and Yellow Macaw stands at 3.5 inches and has a long tail and distinctive facial markings and the red macaw is just under 4 inches with bright blue wingtips with yellow and red markings, he has blue and red in his tail although you can't see this from the pictures.

The Hardest part was doing the beaks as these are only3 quarters of an inch long... meaning very pricked fingers for me. They have lots of detail but often it's more about the details you leave out and of course each has the little trade mark feltmeup white dot in the eye which helps give them life and character!