Autumnal Colours

As it is now (supposedly) Autumn, I have picked out some of my favourite Folksy items in autumnal colours and shapes. I love this time of year when the trees are at their most dramatic. I missed it last year as I was living in the centre of London. I would go for days without seeing a tree! So it is nice to be back in Leeds and surrounded by lovely colours again. Enjoy today's Folksy Friday!

Beautiful beads by Luce di Luna

Little Autumn leaves by Meeni

Autumnal leaf hair pins by Sally

This gorgeous scarf by Broomhead Designs

Needle felt pumpkins by Lana Dolls

Hedgehog Folksy Friday

I have a 'thing' for hedgehogs. Being quite a nature girl, I always remember the excitement of having a stray hedgehog chilling out in our garden for a whole day when I was a little girl. I've hardly ever seen one before or since then (unless it is on a road, unfortunately).  With "growing evidence that suggests we should be worried about the UK's hedgehog population, here is my celebration of the hedgehog!

You can donate to help hedgehogs here

Isabel's Designs

By Charlie's Hand

Hoobynoo World

The House of Mouse

The imagination of Ladysnail

Alexia Claire at ReetSweet Sheffield

A couple of months ago I had a stall at the ReetSweet Sheffield event in the Millenium Gallery. It was a great venue with an awesome selection of designer makers. The sun beamed through the enormous windows all day and there was a very steady flow of visitors. I would definitely do it again!

My new printed tote bags all sold out! They definitely went down well. Look out for more of these in my Folksy and Etsy Shops. 

I tried a new fan shape display of my baskets this time.

This was the lovely Moonko's stand. Debbie of Moonko won the best stall of the day. It was my first time meeting her but we have been talking for quite some time and my work is featured on the Moonko Website. 

ReetSweet Valentines Fair

Exactly a month ago was Valentines day, and I was part of the ReetSweet craft fair at the Corn Exchange in Leeds that weekend. I love doing ReetSweet craft fairs, the organiser is so friendly and runs the events without any hitches. Their website is pretty amazing too! I had a good day here and had a few friendly visitors who'd come to see me and I made new friends too!

Mother's Day Gift Ideas

Right folks, tonight is your last night to order anything from my online shops to receive it in time for Mother's Day! If you order tonight I can post them first class tomorrow. Easy Peasy. So if you have any last minute gifts to buy, get cracking!



Don't forget that my handmade fabric baskets (above) found in my shop make the perfect gift bag, which your mum can re-use for whatever she desires instead of throwing away a paper one!

A much needed catch up

I haven't blogged properly in a while, shameful I know, but at the same time it has been for very good reasons, and also means that I have a lot to share about! I have had visits from uni friends, as well as paid visits of my own. I have had snow days, design days, craft days you name it! Not to mention landing a new and very exciting job! I have attended a couple of craft fairs (with more to come) had a few awesome nights on the town with friends and helped out with volunteer projects. So watch this space for lots of bloggingly good content!

A catch up on my recent makes

I have made a couple of one off specials in the last month or two which I have yet to share with you all! So here is a quick peek at a few of them...

We bought my Grandma a Kindle for her birthday last year, and I made her a sleeve for it too. It may have been quite a while ago but here it is! She loves her kindle, she had to show me how to use it a few weeks ago when I was staying over.

An old school friend was moving away to begin her new amazing career at the start of this year, and she asked me if I could reproduce an Alexander Mcqueen cushion that she had seen, to go in her new place. I made two large cushions and she loved them.

This was a watercolour I did for my Grandma, we're both huge bird lovers (in case you didn't already know!) in particular water birds so I drew her this Kingfisher.

And finally, I knitted my best friend this Irish hiking scarf for her birthday this month. I ran out of wool and couldn't find the same wool anywhere so it was a bit shorter than I would have liked! My mum knitted me the same scarf for last Christmas and I've loved wearing it.

Valentines Day Gift Bag Idea

I have designed and made this Valentines fabric basket which you can now buy in my Etsy and Folksy shops. Perfect as a gift bag to put other little gifts in or to give as a useful reusable storage basket. It also comes with a matching gift tag!

Handmade Laptop Sleeves

I have been making laptop sleeves for quite a while now but never got around to listing my silk screen printed sleeves online. Well now here they are! You can buy through my Etsy or my Folksy shop. The ones listed are all for a 13" MacBook as that is the laptop I have. I do however make sleeves for different sized laptops, all you've got to do is drop me a message with your exact dimensions and chosen design and I can take it from there! Email me at alexia@alexiaclaire.com. They are padded and have a toggle fastening. Here are a couple examples.

An Alexia Claire Giveaway!

The lovely people over at 20 Best Twenty are doing a give away of my Russian Doll basket on their blog this week!

Check out their blog post to find out how to enter.

Closing date is Monday 19th, and the winner will be announced on Tuesday 20th.

Best of luck!

Advent Calendar Offer!

There are just two days left until advent! So my knitted Advent Calendar now has free shipping! Be quick to take advantage of this offer before Advent begins.

You can buy it from either my Etsy Shop or my Folksy Shop



This Advent Calendar can be re-used every year and any little surprises you can think of put into its pockets. Why not begin a new family tradition and buy this Advent Calendar today?

Gosh

It has offically been far too long since my last post! It's safe to say I've been a very busy little bee, it's been my last year at uni so work loads have been constant, all the while I've tried my best to keep my Folksy shop nice and stocked. I'm very proud of how well it's done in it's first year with lots of commission requests and a couple of wholesale sells, I can only hope that the success will continue! I only have a couple more weeks left of my Final Major until it is all handed in for good. After that it's all hands on deck to get the degree show up and running for the 17th july which I'm very much looking forward to. I also have big plans for Alexia Claire Designs so watch this space! My next few posts will show you a little bit of what I've been grafting at for the last three months so again, watch this space...

Sneaky sneak preview

Here's a little sneak preview of what I've been making, and what shall shortly be arriving in my Folksy shop!

My Folksy shop

Thought I'd show you how much love goes into my Folksy sold items even when packing them up to send!

iphone cases galore!

I've also put all my iphone cases onto my Folksy!

Brilliant Bunting

I made some bunting for my Folksy shop inspired by my two little cousins. A boy's bedroom bunting featuring red, blue, white, and airplane flags.

Here is some pretty pink and green, flowery bunting. I sent one of these to my friend and expectant mother!

Alexia Claire is born!

I decided to open my own Folksy shop this summer and sell my fabric makes and hopefully some of my print designs too. It would be nice to earn a little bit from it but to be honest I just really enjoy the whole making process and the feeling you get when someone wants to buy something you've made! I really like the fabric baskets I made so here's two of about 5 that I started out with in my shop. I also started with my iphone covers too. I chose 'AlexiaClaire' as surprisingly that's my name. My mum is called Claire and she has been a huge influence on my crafty side while growing up so it's nice that she gets represented.