Handmade Monday 174

Welcome to Handmade Monday!

This week the latest Craftseller magazine arrived.  Inside are a couple of my cards, using Craftseller's free papers

and my music paper cones with heart shaped confetti - this is a quick make for their 30-minute make section

The vintage sheet music is a free download from The Graphics Fairy.

Quentin News

Guide Dog puppy Quentin is growing at an alarming rate - I realised how big he was when we went to puppy classes this week.  At five months, he is already bigger than a six-month-old pup (another labrador) who was there too.  And his paws were twice the size of the other puppy's.

Big paws and cute puppy dog eyes!

I mentioned a few weeks ago how he sat down at the start of any walk that started at our front door (as opposed to going out in the car).  I remedied that by adding in some exciting detours - the woods and a field where he can free run.  Now he doesn't sit down at the beginning of walks...but he does sit down now if we don't take the turning to the field or cross the road at the right place for the woods!!

Quentin's paw in my hand!

I'm now varying the routes as much as possible, so he realises there are different routes to the same place - but also that he realises I'm in charge and not him!  There are many more learning curves for him than I had imagined!  I'm told that pups who show initiative make better guide dogs than those who are more placid, so perhaps it's not such a bad sign, although I can't help imagining a blind person hoping to go to the corner shop for a pint of milk and Quentin taking him or her to the park for a run!

He is still jumping up when he's very excited but that is lessening and now he doesn't jump up every time there's a visitor or when he gets petted when he's out - which is a great improvement and a bit of a relief!

It's time for handing over to you for Handmade Monday now.  Enjoy meandering through the links!

An InLinkz Link-up

Handmade Monday 173

Hello and welcome to Handmade Monday.

This week the July issue of Sewing World dropped onto my doormat, and in its pages is my little baby shoe pincushion.  This was such a quick make - and a superb use of old baby shoes!  I first wrote about this here a while back, but it's lovely to see it in print!

I'm still waiting to hear back from HMRC about the new EU laws on digital sales.  If this is as bad as everyone thinks it is, it's going to be a disaster for everyone who has a small digital art/craft business as well as anyone who buys them.  It may be an EU law, but it will affect the whole world.  The EU expects everyone everywhere to collect VAT at different rates from each EU customer (28 countries!) and it looks like there is no minimum threshold.  This means selling even one digital stamp to an EU country will implicate you in collecting VAT.  It's not feasible to expect a micro business to do this, so the new law will inevitably cut down choice for buyers.

If you want to know more, or support the artists, join the Facebook group.

If you want more light-hearted news, here it is...

Quentin News

Guide Dog puppy Quentin is now five months old, and I've realised that training him up to now has been much easier than I expected in some respects, and much harder in some others.

If I watch it long enough, someone will throw it for me

He's mostly a very good puppy and sits obediently in the back of the car, he waits for food (even when it's in front of him and he is drooling!), his recall when he's out free running has been absolutely perfect up to now and his toileting on command when we're at home has been much easier than I expected (not as easy when we are out!).  He's got a good response to sit, wait, down, stay, stand, leave and come.  His response to the whistle when he's free running is spot on - he comes running immediately.

I'm here, where's my treat?

There have been harder things though.  One of the most difficult has been curbing his excitement - he still jumps up when he's excited and sometimes tries to grab your clothes or arms (yes, I've got holes in most of my clothes).  This is improving slowly, though, which is good news for my arms but may be too late for my clothes.

I like it here

He prefers walks in natural surroundings (don't we all?) and I think the problem we have with him sitting down at the beginning of walks is actually his little protest.  It only happens when we're walking the streets around our house (or about to!).  I think it's possibly his way of saying he'd rather go in the car because we go to more exciting places then (shops, parks, woodland, etc).  I've thrown in a few more interesting activities on local walks to try and improve this - there's a patch of grass where he's now let off the lead and there's some woods and fields we sometimes go to - although I'm careful to mix it up so he doesn't expect something exciting every time.

long cool grass on a hot day is wonderful

And that's all from me for now.  It's over to you for your Handmade Monday now...

An InLinkz Link-up

Handmade Monday 172

Hello and welcome to another Handmade Monday!  We've had some fabulous weather here this week (hope you have too!) but interspersed with rain... still, it wouldn't be Britain without copious amounts of the wet stuff, would it?

My personalised fish and chip cones are always a lot of fun to design.  I draw them out the traditional way on paper and use alcohol-based markers to add colour to them.  They then get scanned and emailed to the customer, who then prints and assembles them ready for their celebration.

I've been meaning for a long while to get some generic ones done too and I finally got round to a couple this week.

But all this might change soon.  I've been shocked to hear about new EU tax laws, coming into play in January 2015.  It appears that anyone selling pretty much anything digitally will need to charge VAT at each individual customer's country's rate and it also appears there is no threshold - which is the really scary bit, because my little digital art business really doesn't make enough money for me to start jumping through complicated international VAT hoops.

I'm not sure what the new laws will mean for the future of Handmade Harbour.  I don't even know if it's viable for Handmade Harbour to have a future as a digital crafts supplier.  I mean, even before we get to the laborious and time-consuming gathering of 28 different countries' taxes (with records needing to be kept for ten years!) how do I charge different people different prices?  Do I have a drop-down list on every product with every country's VAT rate calculated for people to choose from?  Could I just charge everyone one rate and would that even be legal?  Could I block sales to non-UK EU countries? And how would this work in practice? Would it still be necessary to get embroiled in VAT?

Blocking sales to other EU countries currently seems the way some digital artists will choose to go - certainly not in keeping with the idea of a common market, but possibly the only way to stay in business?  It does seem HMRC hasn't considered small or micro businesses or indie artists at all.  If you do know more, please share.

I just want to create!

What's running through my mind now is this: is it really worth continuing to sell digitally?  I have a few months to make up my mind, and explore my options.  There is a Facebook Group set up to discuss this, if anyone is affected and wants to know more.

Quentin news

Guide Dog puppy Quentin is doing really well in most areas of his training, but he still gets very excited at times - completely normal for a puppy but sometimes difficult to manage.  The worst times are when a stranger pets him while he is out.  Even if he manages to contain his excitement at the time and not jump up, a few seconds later he is jumping up and taking chunks out of me.  Not good, especially at the checkout in Sainsbury's!

So we've been doing a lot of practice with reinforcing the sit and wait commands.  He's really good at these, but needs much more practice when there are distractions around him, so we're sitting and waiting everywhere I can think of.  Out on walks, I've been sitting on benches so often, he looks expectantly at any bench now whenever we pass one!  I think I should add here that it's me who sits on the bench and Quentin sits on the floor!!

It does seem he's improving with visitors to the house.  He jumps up less and is a little calmer.  The strategy of visitors ignoring him when they first arrive seems a bit mean (and is difficult for dog lovers!) but definitely works in encouraging more acceptable behaviour.

Otherwise, he's just delightful and most of the time he really is quite calm and well-behaved for such a young pup.  He's patient in the car, stands on command for me to lift him out, and never gets over-excited having his lead on for walks.

It's been a bit of a long post this week - sorry!  It's over to you for Handmade Monday now.

An InLinkz Link-up

Digital Stamp: Girls Celebrating

I think it's about time I did a post spotlighting a digital stamp - and today it's the girls celebrating digital stamp.

I wanted to show you some of the cards (and more!) that the design team came up with using this one stamp - I love their makes and hope you do too!

Elina's card - celebrate!

Emma's card - have fun!

Lynne's card - party!

I love that Teresa made not only a hen party card but also...

...a hen party rosette!!

It's such a fun image, and I love that all the design team's creations are such fun too!

You can buy the girls celebrating stamp over at the Handmade Harbour shop.  As with all our digis, it's an instant download so you can get crafting immediately.  As in right now.  

But only if you want to!  

Handmade Monday 171

Hello and welcome to Handmade Monday!

There's been a lot of sewing this week.  First there's been a couple of cute coin purses going on...

for Sewing World magazine.  I was asked for children's designs - one for a boy and one for a girl.  These are for the September issue and I'm guessing there's a back-to-school theme in there somewhere!

I think you can probably tell from the photos what the the idea for each coin purse is!

One of the things I've been battling with for a long while is getting together the time to publish PDF sewing patterns, so for these coin purses I wrote all the instructions for the PDF at the same time as writing the magazine instructions - a time saver as some of it is just copying and pasting.  I think if I can do this in future, it will save a lot of time in the long run.  I do have to wait a while to publish the PDF though, as the magazine has to be off sale for three months before I can release the pattern.

I've also been finalising the PDF pattern for the floppy linen rabbit that was in Sewing World about 18 months ago...(where did all that time go?!)

and I realised I didn't have enough step photos, so I made the rabbit's clothes again.  With lots of photos this time!

I'm hoping to be able to get the pattern ready for publishing later this week - it's not quite ready yet but it probably only needs around 3-4 hours more work.

Quentin news

Adorable guide dog puppy Quentin has had a big week.  He got let off the lead to play in a park for the first time and behaved impeccably, coming back every time when his name was called and also when the whistle was blown (this is the same whistle he associates with food, as we use it every meal time).

I have to hold a treat at my knees when I call him back, so that he gets used to coming back and touching my knees with his nose - this contact is how a blind person can be sure he has returned.

These free running sessions are a really important part of his training, as his eventual owner needs to be able to let him off the lead to play and be sure he's going to come back!  I think it would be pretty traumatic to be blind and lose your guide dog when you are out!

He's also got his first coat and is quite happy wearing it.  So that he associates it with a positive feeling, he wore it at first just for feeds - now he wears it quite happily whenever he goes shopping!

How has your week been?  What have you been making?  To let us all know, please feel free to join us...

An InLinkz Link-up

The Really Easy DIY Dog Toy

Since becoming a puppy walker* for Guide Dogs, I've become acutely aware of toys for puppies - tug toys, chew toys and the need to stop them chewing your furniture and other important stuff.  The dog toys I've bought have either been too expensive for something that's meant to be to be chewed (although significantly less than my sofa cost!!) or they fell apart within minutes (and however cheap they are, falling apart almost immediately still makes them too expensive - really, what's the point?).

So I made some.  This one is the very easiest one to make.  You could have it done in two minutes, you may have the materials lying around the house, and there's absolutely no sewing.  The cost in time and money is close to zero.

You will need:

• At least one pair of old jeans, preferably two
• A pair of scissors

This is how to make the dog toy:

Cut three seams from your jeans, leaving a little fabric at the sides of the seams. It doesn't need to be neat - nobody will care (the dog certainly won't!).  You could do this from one pair of jeans, but if you have two pairs you can select the double-stitched seams (which are stronger).

Tie one big central knot with the three seams.

Tie a couple more smaller knots either side of the large central knot, this time using two of the seams for each knot.  This just secures the toy a bit more and gives the dog a bigger chewing area.

Add a dog.  This is great fun for chewing, tugging and throwing games.

Enjoy!

*puppy walkers in the UK have a puppy to live with them from it being about 8 weeks until it's about 14 months, when it's ready to move on to further training.  You socialise the puppy, take it for walks (and in shops) and do some basic training (things like sit, down, wait - and they soon learnt the word no!).  I'm sure there are similar schemes in other countries too.  There's more info on the UK Guide Dogs website.

I'm rather in love with "my" puppy Quentin and we have lots of fun together.  I don't know quite how I will give him back, but it's probably a good thing they got me to sign a contract!

A note about safety:
Puppies should be supervised as much as possible with chew toys, and if the toy starts falling apart it should be discarded.  To remove loose fibres before giving to a puppy, you could throw this in a washing machine first (although the puppy is unlikely to care).

OK, now you can stop making toys for me and go and get the lawnmower out.

New Papercraft Challenge: Pretty

Our papercraft challenge has now moved!  You'll find it over on Handmade Harbour Challenges, our new dedicated challenge blog.

And our new challenge is now open!  We hope you'll join us there to see our design team makes, last week's winners and this week's entrants!

Rachel's card made using flapper girl digital stamp

A New Home for Papercraft Challenges!

I wanted to let you know we have a new home for our weekly papercraft challenges.

From tomorrow (Wednesday 4th June) onwards, we're meeting up over on a dedicated challenge blog at Handmade Harbour Challenges and I would be delighted if you could join us.

In case you wanted a little heads up, our first theme will be pretty.  It's a theme which most papercraft projects would fit into...if you think yours does, then feel free to link up with us tomorrow.  There are prizes every week.

If your projects include digital stamps and you use something other than paper for your creative makes, you are more than welcome to join in - I love to see digis being used in creative ways!

Josie's pretty pencil case uses vintage caravan digital stamp for the applique

Handmade Monday 170

Welcome to another Handmade Monday!

This month's Craftseller magazine (issue 38) landed on my doormat yesterday, and I seem to have quite a few projects in there this month!

There's the cards...all very vintage and masculine this month

and the quilled wedding makes...

with the cat cake toppers

the flowers in pots

and the quilled rose-inspired bunting too...

and as if that's not enough, there were my fox and owl bookmarks (and it was a lovely surprise to see these on the cover photo on Craftseller's Facebook page!)...

It probably all sounds more than it was - the quilling makes were all part of the same article, so they really only count as one!

Quentin news
One of the (many) things guide dogs have to learn is to "spend" (do their toileting) on command.  When Quentin first arrived I was a bit worried about this...but this weekend we had a breakthrough!

At home, it's no problem at all - he has a fenced-off area which he now strongly associates with all things toilet-related.  He even rushes off there by himself in the middle of a play session!  But when we're out it's a bit more difficult.  Guide dog puppies are taught the command "busy busy" which means they can relieve themselves - but Quentin has never really quite "got" that while we were out.  Until now...

Yesterday, after a trip around Asda, I took him to a corner of the car park and told him "busy busy" - and for the first time outside the home, he responded appropriately!  I was so disproportionately pleased!

Now, I do apologise for hi-jacking what really should be a craft blog with tales of puppy toilet training, but to make up for it, here's one of him demanding attention while I sew!  I can't resist those puppy dog eyes!

Before I turn into a puppy bore, it's over to you for Handmade Monday - you know what to do...

An InLinkz Link-up