Sunshine Cottage Crafts had a break from crafting last year due to family commitments. We did however manage to fit in a few small Christmas fairs and change the direction of the business, working on some new concrete products, which people were very positive about at the events that we did attend.

I am working on more new products and experimenting with Jesmonite so check back soon to find out what else we’ll be selling this year.

We also have some great fairy garden bargains to watch out for!

Thanks for looking

Jackie 🙂

In this blog I want to tell you how I opened and cleaned walnut shells to make some fairy baskets.

We have a walnut tree overhanging our garden and the garden gets littered with them in the autumn, we have discovered that the ones that are on the ground are discarded by the squirrels because they are not good to eat, so I have been wondering how they could fit in with my makes. Then I came across a picture of someone who had turned them into little baskets so I decided to give it a go.

Firstly I needed to be able to open them without damaging them and I came across this post from Debbi Thinks Deep http://thewickerpatio.blogspot.co.uk/2008/11/how-to-break-walnut-shells-cleanly-in.html …….and it worked amazingly well!!

Next the shells needed cleaning, so I searched and came across this video on youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Obh4ntAQlE …..and that worked too!!

So now I had nice clean shells to work with to make my baskets!

Using the string, glue, reindeer moss and some accessories these are what I made!

It was quite a lot of effort but I am really quite pleased with them especially the fruit baskets! Have fun if you have some walnut shells to play with!

Thanks for looking

Jackie 🙂

The weather has been so grey this week I have found it really difficult to get motivated, plus my head is buzzing with new ideas that I want to try, so that I don’t really know where to start. Finally I managed to get a couple of projects underway!

One of my new ideas is fairy door fridge magnets, due to seeing a pack of mini magnets in a craft shop and inspiration struck!! So I ordered some mini fairy door blanks, painted and glittered them and then decorated them.

Once they were dry I added the magnets, two on each door which I thought would be fine as the doors are fairly light.

It was only then that I discovered my new magnets were completely useless!!! 😦 So I will be ordering new magnets and will hopefully have fairy door fridge magnets for sale very soon!!

The other items that I was able to complete this week were new outdoor fairy doormats, which now have plastic flowers (previously I had ones with needle felted flowers) so these are truly waterproof and will be added to my Etsy store soon.

Hopefully the weather will pick up soon and more new ideas will be underway!!

Thanks for looking

Jackie 🙂

With my background in early years education I have long been aware of many ways a fairy door could be a very valuable asset, so how could a fairy door be beneficial to you and your child?

1. It will give your child an opportunity to use their imagination.As fairies are not real but magical they are able to do anything and go anywhere so children are truly free to imagine them in any situation.
2. Imaginative play helps them to develop their language skills, when thinking and talking about what their fairies are doing your child will often incorporate language from familiar stories, resulting in the use of a wider vocabulary and more complex language than they would normally use in everyday conversation.
3. A fairy door could develop their creativity they can be encouraged to (or indeed may just want to…) make things for their fairies such as furniture or clothes, or they may want to make them gifts or draw them pictures.
4. They could be encouraged to write to their fairies, even before they are able to write formally they can make marks on paper and tell you what they have written, with practice they will be able to begin writing their own name or their fairies name. Putting their letters into an envelope will make it extra special.
5. For parents, with just a bit of imagination the benefits could be endless. The fairies could write back to the child asking them to do things that you are struggling to get them to do….maybe they would like your child to go to bed earlier so the fairies have more time to play! Maybe they couldn’t collect the gift last night because the bedroom was too messy and they were frightened of hurting themselves so would like it tidied (this could help to develop empathy towards others…how would your child feel if they were unable to collect a present?)
6. Just like Santa Claus the fairies can be watching…it might work well for rewards if the parent writes to the fairies to let them know how good the child has been (it’s good for them to see that you believe and also to see you modelling writing) and the fairies could bring them a reward or put a magic star on a reward chart.

So have fun with your fairy door, because learning really should be fun!!

Thanks for looking

Jackie 🙂

The blog is a bit late this week due to the cold weather and poor light, I haven’t been out to construct any new fairy houses so I needed to think of something else to blog about!!

I decided to put together some indoor fairy door displays but have then struggled with the light to get it photographed, in the end I have had to rely on flash so I apologise in advance for the pictures.

The first picture is with the smaller wooden doors that I sell and the pot of fairy dust and tiny key that comes with it. I have combined this with one of my new doormats, two blue painted plant pots with imitation flowers but because these planters have a hole in the base they can be planted with real plants, tiny succulents would work well. Also shown are some butterfly wall decals to make a display that would look lovely in any little girl’s room!

The second display shows one of the larger wooden doors and the fairy dust and key that you would receive with it. Then I have the new picket fences and a ladder that will soon be added to my Etsy store and more wall decals, making a simple but effective display.

I will be showing more door display ideas soon to help develop a child’s imagination and making the fairy doors much more interactive.

Thanks for looking

Jackie 🙂

Another walk in the woods, on a lovely sunny but cold Saturday afternoon and another fairy shelter made. This time I found a lovely little hollow at the bottom of the trunk with the afternoon sun shining on it between the trees…perfect!! I collected a few fallen branches and leaves and used these to make the little shelter. A stick pushed against the trunk and propped up with a forked stick enabled me to lean the other sticks against it and a few leaves provided a covering and my little shelter was made. Moss from a nearby log made a lovely soft green carpet.

I hope a passing dog walker found it and it made them smile! (Hopefully before the dog did!!)

I have been busy updating my Etsy store this week and have added new indoor fairy doormats decorated with beautiful ribbon roses, perfect for getting the fairy dust off your feet!

Also added are fairy message sets, containing 10 pretty paper scrolls and a miniature fairy pencil, just right for writing letters to the tooth fairy or the fairy through the fairy door.

And finally one for the grown-ups….the wine fairy door is back in stock…for those people who just can’t understand where all of the wine is disappearing to, well the wine fairy has drunk it of course!

Thanks for looking, I hope you too find magical places where the fairies could be hiding! Don’t forget to share!

Jackie 🙂

Happy 2017!!

Well the Christmas rush is over and I am thinking about my goals for 2017 and of course one of them is to blog more regularly…not just when things are quiet!!

For my first blog this year I thought I would check on the fairy garden and how it is fairing over the winter.

As you can see some work will be needed!! The river has virtually disappeared, the fence is broken and the lawn has gone!! On the plus side most of the other plants seem to be growing very well and the great thing about fairy or miniature gardening is that it shouldn’t take too long to get it looking good when the spring arrives!

But while I was out walking in the woods I found this amazing hollowed out tree trunk, where the tree had fallen and it looked like a perfect place for the fairies to shelter and with a few pieces of bark from the tree, that were lying on the ground, a little house was constructed.

This has given me the idea to look for places where fairies might be found and build them a home to encourage them to visit and hopefully my construction skills will improve with practice!! So watch out for future posts and if you have a fairy home or garden or spot one when you are out and about please share!

Thanks for looking

Jackie 🙂

I know many people do not like the word Christmas mentioning before December 1st but for us crafters we have to start thinking about it months before that!! I am now in the thick of the Christmas events, my 1st one was in October….my last one is December 17th. I have put together a list of all of the events I will be attending.

And here are all of the survival kits I now have available at a fair…..All major anniversaries, plus general anniversary, bride to be, bridesmaid, bridegroom, best man, mother of the bride, father of the bride, wedding, engagement. Parents/Mum/Dad to be, New baby girl, new baby boy, twins, grandparents, 16th, 18th, 21st, 30th, 40th, 50th, 60th, 70th, 80th, 90th, 100th birthday. Football supporter, golfer, ten pin bowler, fishing. new home, new job, new driver, retirement. Christmas, teacher, teaching assistant.

Personalised kits can be ordered and new kits can be devised if you have an occasion or reason for wanting something a little different…for example I have designed a kit for someone who has reached their slimming target…so if you need something just get in touch! A new design costs £6 and postage would be £3.

Thanks for looking, I hope to see you soon

Jackie 🙂

Sunday was the last of my outdoor events for this year, didn’t need the gazebo as we were in a barn at Woolsthorpe manor, it was a lovely day (until we had a heavy shower) but unfortunately it was very cold in the shade of the barn. Hat’s off to fellow crafter’s who do outside events right through to Christmas.

So now the preparations for Christmas begin in earnest, I know for a lot of people it should not be mentioned before December 1st but for crafters we have to think about it way before then and for some even in the middle of Summer.

I am working on some fairy Christmas trees, Christmas fairy doors/elf doors and Christmas fairy houses, as well as building up the stock of my usual products. My next fair is at Grantham Museum on October 29th, when I will have all of my Christmas products available! I will post some pictures when I have some completed.

Well where does the time go, I am well and truly into the thick of the Summer events, country fairs, village fetes and school fairs and have not had time to blog recently because my whole week is spent replacing things that have sold the previous weekend!

This week’s blog though is influenced by the terrible British summer weather! Last weekend we had a disastrous event due to the weather, we were outdoors with the gazebo which we bought on EBay a couple of years ago now and so far has done well! We did get a bent leg last year when a gust of wind briefly picked up the gazebo and dropped it back down (even though we had leg weights) but luckily not bent enough to cause any real problems. Then on May day bank holiday we spent a whole event hanging on to a leg each to stop the whole thing buckling (which happened to a lady behind us with a similar gazebo). But last Saturday was the worst, we had very heavy rain for over an hour which caused water to run along the bars at the top and then drip down onto my stock, so I had to cover everything with my packing bubble wrap.

Then when the rain stopped the wind got up and the gazebo was moving and lifting (along with those of the ladies either side of me) even though once again the legs were weighted down, so we had to pack away early and quickly because I was afraid of causing injury to someone or damaging much of my stock.

So the reason for the blog, if you are looking at purchasing a gazebo for craft fairs and you can afford it go for a market quality one as I have a come across a few people now with these and they do not spend their day hanging onto them or covering their stock inside the gazebo. The £80 ones are ok in decent weather but in Britain we especially this Summer decent weather is quite rare!! 😦

Thanks for visiting

Jackie 🙂