Trying out a new design

While I love the double layered, padded iPad case design I've done, as I scale them up for bigger devices, they get bulky and I still want a case that will fit into a reasonable sized bag. So, I came up with the idea of using felt as a lining.

So here is my first foray into a lined bag. This is big enough to hold my 13" MacBook Pro which has a hard clear protective case on it, but only just. It is very snug. Next time I'll make it just a tad bigger so that a laptop can slide in and out easily. It has a velcro closing. Simple, but does the job.

What do you think? I'm thinking similar sleeves with outside pockets to hold the USB Superdrive and the power cable, plus two more for the thunderbolt cables I've also got for it. What else is essential in a laptop sleeve, without it having to become a bag in it's own right.

The outside uses a new Skull & Crossbones design that has just arrived in and I've coupled it with some cool matching Skull & Crossbones felt. There is a strip of black tape running around the outside to cover up where the tape meets. It is very strong. There are two layers of tape over the felt before you get to the Skull & Crossbones tape, so this is not going to fall apart any time soon.

It isn't padded like the other device cases I've made but the felt protects the laptop case from scratches.

If you like this idea but would prefer a different design, please let me know. I have several felts and soft fabrics to use on the inside.

New Duct Tape designs arrived

I've just received a new delivery of duct tape from the US and today I cut out swatches for my etsy store.

I can't wait until all the patterns make it over here so that I don't have to beg people to bring them with them when they come to visit.

And this is the sort of thing I'm making with the duct tape. Some of it is Duck Brand, some Scotch/3M, but some of it is more obscure names that I don't expect will ever make it to this side of the pond.

I've made some stuff and put it up on my Etsy store: http://judihodgkin.etsy.com. If you see something that takes your fancy but you would prefer one of the new tapes, please contact me and I'll make it up for you. Alternatively, you might have an idea for something. If so, let me know and I'll see if I can do it.

A quick decorative feature

My little girl loves to see photographs of herself - what child doesn't?

She has been pestering me to repaint her room. Currently, it is a lovely shade of 80s terracotta. She has been saying for about six months "please would you paint my bedroom, Mummy. I hate pink."

I've currently managed to paint just over half of the room. It starts out dark blue at the top and fades down to a light sky blue, then from waist height down, it is a soft cream. This allows me to use the cool colour she so loves, but warms up in the cream area. Once the base is complete, I'll sponge more of the cream, watered down, to form clouds. I'm keeping it simple so that the room doesn't feel crowded as it is only just over 3 metres by 3 metres (10 ft x 10 ft).

But the walls will need some things. I have loads of ideas of what I want to put up. I've picked up some drum protectors that I'll use to encapsulate some of her art work in.

A friend of our gave us a photo frame. It was pink. Pink. I thought originally I would paint it but it is a plastic that has resisted the paint I was going to use.

Then I bought some canvas self-adhesive tape. It adheres to the frame beautifully. Eureka!

If you enlarge the photo, you can see that the tape has been layered on in little shapes to give texture to the piece.

Next, I brushed a layer of water into the tape to break the surface tension and then brushed three colours of Dylusions spray dies - After Midnight, Calypso Teal and London Blue - in random patches across the entire frame, using more water to allow it to blend even more.

I then laid a huge number of flowers from Prima on my non-stick craft sheet and sprayed them with the same colours. After drying them in the oven on defrost setting (it's rather cold here at the moment), these were glued on randomly across the frame to add interest and texture.

Simple, but effective. I don't want to add more to it because I don't want any one picture to dominate in her bedroom. Sometimes simple is good.

Craft, Hobby & Stitches 2014

Display in entry

I managed to head to the annual craft trade show in Birmingham this year for two whole days. This enabled me to spend more time looking for things and to take a few classes.

This year the organisers had a Seminar stream to support businesses. I felt that these were under attended but I'm not entirely sure why - was it a lack of advertising or a lack of interest from retailers?

Of the Seminars, I got to attend four. The first was by Intelligent Retail on how to optimise your website for Google. It was very dry and full of techy speak. Being a techy speaker, I was struggling to follow it so I have no idea how easily a non-techy speaker would have coped, and they ran over time so there was no opportunity to ask questions.

One of Lisa Pavelka's samples in her class.

The second was from Bounti in association with ActiSmart and the description said it was on "how to leverage mobile technologies to build meaningful and valuable customer relationships, without the impersonal side of large scale database systems." It did not come across as that. It was far more useful, in fact, as Jess Cosad spoke about the best ways to communicate with your customers, using digital technologies.

Next, we heard Sara Davies' of Crafter's Companion story of her journey in the craft industry. It was amazing to hear first-hand how having the right idea at the right time and the tenacity and perseverance to push it through paid off.

The last seminar was from Craig De Souza of CHA-UK who spoke about the research that they have done into the craft industry in the UK. There sounds like a huge amount of incredibly valuable information there and support for retailers building there that if you're a craft retailer and not a member, you should be.

I also use Stitches to refresh skills and so I enrolled on some of the courses on offer. Each class is only 45 minutes long, so not really enough time to get a huge amount done but it is a great taster into a particular craft. Lisa Pavelka gave an extremely good, quick class on creating jewellery using Magic-Glos, Leandra Franich refreshed me with the use of paints, stamps and stencils, Wyatt White of Beadalon showed us how to make a simple necklace and earring set and Kim Thittichal showed us how simple the Hot Spots! from Vilene are to use to great effect with glitter and foils.

Nearly every vendor had new products to display but they were all extensions of product lines already in existence. There were a few exceptions.

Once Upon a Stamp have released their own die-cutting machine and thin plate dies to the market under the name Jus-Cutz. I have a few to play with so stay tuned for my review of their thin metal dies and I hope to be able to get my hands on the machine soon.

Photomate were new to the show but launched to great success in the US just recently at CHA. Their product is a photography backdrop and display stand for improving your photos for use in advertising and on your website. Nothing new you say, well the difference is that Photomate is inexpensive at £29.99 and folds flat easily for storage. It is small enough that you can have it assembled at one end of your craft table while you work and quickly move over to take step-by-step photographs of your project. Tina, who owns the company, is a cake crafter and wanted something that would fit her bill so invented it. I hope to be able to do a full review on the Photomate soon, so stay tuned for that too.

Spectrum Noir pens (left) with pencil (right)

If you're a fan of Crafter's Companion's Spectrum Noir alcohol pens, then you'll need to think seriously about investing in the new pencils. These are a wax medium in pencil form with colours directly matched to the alcohol pens. They blend beautifully on their own or you can use the blending solution to almost melt the colours together.

There was a lot more that I saw, but for me, these were the highlights.