So, my very short holiday craft market season is over, and the Holiday Hullabaloo was a fantastic day. Definitely my most profitable market to date and everyone was so nice too. I gave out hundreds of free cookie ornament postcards, introduced a lot of people to the world of zines and barely got a chance to sit down all day. Good times. I was too busy to take any photos but the one above of my stall is by Made in the Shade. Here’s a few more pics of my own from the past few weeks.

1. Lucky bags! I have a few left, which I’ll be popping in orders this week.
2. Filling a crate with stuff to take to market. Those cookies were popular!

3. Adorable little poker chip necklace sent to me by Hannah Zakari.
4. Jam-less Jammie Dodger notebooks in progress.

5. The winter madness in George Square. It looks like summer – it was actually freezing.
6. The joys of winter – almost full moon at twilight.

If you’ve got an iPhone/iPod Touch you can follow my photos on Instagram (marcelinesmith) or if not, there’s Instagrid, and I post the best ones on Flickr too.

PS. Don’t forget my Christmas Countdown – 8 new products up today with 25% off!

It seems very strange to only be doing one craft fair this Winter, but it’s going to be a good one! I’m getting things ready for the Made in the Shade Holiday Hullabaloo on Saturday and if you can make it along, I’ve got some festive exclusives just for you.

For starters, I’ll have fat quarters of my fabric designs available to buy at just £6 each, cheaper than the current price on Spoonflower! They’ve been sitting around my house all year so I thought I’d give you the chance to use them. They’re all quilting cotton and great for patchwork, doll clothes, purses and more.

I’ve also been sewing up some Cookie ornaments, from my Spoonflower design. I’ve done them single sided with a felt backing and candy cane string – just £5 each and perfect for your Christmas tree.

And everyone who buys something on the day will get a free Cookie Cute ornament postcard to keep you occupied while you wait for Santa.

Don’t forget! I’ll also have my Pushpin Zines hat on, so you can browse and buy a selection of awesome zines for your holiday reading.

Check out the Made in the Shade blog, for all the details of the vendors and exciting extras, including a pop-up cinema! I hope to see you there, but if not I’ll have something special happening online too.

PS. Everyone outside the EU – I need your orders by 10am GMT tomorrow (Thursday) if you want your parcel to arrive for Christmas. I’m putting ornament postcards in every order!

If you like zines, you should plan yourself a trip to Edinburgh this weekend for I’ve Zine You. There’s a whole load of zine makers, zine distros and independent publishers setting up stalls so there should be some great stuff to browse and buy.

I’ll be there with pretty much the entire pushpin stock, so come along and say hello! I’ll be there Sunday only, from around 10am til 6pm. The venue is right beside Waverley Station so you’ll barely need to brave the festival crowds if you’re coming from out of town. More details here.

I’m back! And very tired. It was a really fun weekend, though I maybe should have stayed one day more as I barely had time for a peek at Paperchase and a rummage in the Uniqlo sale, and some cheesecake brownie from the Hummingbird Bakery. Thank goodness for late night shopping!

Anime Con itself was great fun. This was my first convention and there were lots of cool costumes, though I can’t say I recognised half of them. I did like the guy dressed in a dinosaur suit (spot him above!) and someone dressed as Ash from Pokemon, with a rucksack full of pokeballs. The stalls were mostly either bigger stores selling toys, figurines, posters etc. or individual artists, most of which were drawing sketches of people while you wait, in every style from kawaii to manga to realistic. And there was a stage in our room with a random assortment of entertainment so it was difficult to be bored.

As someone who hates the fake-optimism of craft fairs where everyone tries to pretend they had a great day, when they barely covered their stall costs, I did have a great day, but I didn’t make nearly as much as I hoped, nor did I cover even half my costs (stall, travel, hotel). BUT on the upside, I learned a heck of a lot. Firstly, that these events seem to have a much more suitable audience for me than craft fairs – there was a lot of enthusiasm and I had many conversations about Japan. Secondly, that taking my stuff across country is nowhere near as stressful as I expected – I was able to bring a good selection of stuff without having an impossibly heavy bag, and even with London’s ridiculous weekend transport issues – it was mostly no trouble getting around. And Thirdly, from what I could see, I wasn’t doing any worse than anyone else. The only stall people were going mental over was the one selling trading cards.

So, despite the cash loss, it was well worth it in research. I got some good tips from other stallholders of other events too, that might cost me less to attend, and I gave out many many discount cards, so it will be interesting to see what comes of that. And I got a nice holiday too.

I stayed at Club Quarters, where I have stayed before. I like it a lot because they have self check-in/out, nice rooms, free wifi and a fancy lounge with free filter coffee. And they’re pretty cheap for London too. The downside is that it’s in the financial district so hardly anything is open at the weekend. It’s easy to get into the city centre though and nicely situated close by London Bridge / St Pauls / Tower Bridge / Borough Market.

On Sunday morning, I ended up climbing The Monument on a whim, mostly because it was there. I can tell you that climbing up 311 steps in 24 degree weather after dragging a heavy suitcase around town all weekend is a good way to tire yourself out. You do get a good view from the top though, even if it is obscured by chicken wire. Plus, a surprise certificate at the end. They could at least write your name on it for you.

PS. The sale is now over, but I have an exciting August promotion coming up soon. Watch this space!

]]> http://www.askingfortrouble.org/crafts/2011/08/01/back-from-anime-con/feed/ 1 http://www.askingfortrouble.org/crafts/2011/07/29/london-anime-con-this-weekend/ http://www.askingfortrouble.org/crafts/2011/07/29/london-anime-con-this-weekend/#comments Fri, 29 Jul 2011 09:00:49 +0000 Marceline http://www.askingfortrouble.org/crafts/?p=3400

Don’t forget, I’m selling at the London Anime Con this weekend! If you’re in the area it would be lovely to see you and it looks like being a fun (and hot!) day. You can see the full schedule online – I’ve got my sister as a helper so I hope to get a peek at some of the action – anime films! Pokemon tournament! uh, Zombie make-up?!

I’m in the dealer’s room on Saturday 30th from 12pm-6pm alongside lots of other cool anime and kawaii stores. I’ll be in full-on kawaii mode – if it isn’t super-cute, it isn’t in the enormous suitcase I’m bringing! It’s also one of the few opportunities to browse my book, build you own pick ‘n’ mix badge set and pick up some free postcards.

Make sure you register online in advance to save money on the entrance fee. Hope to see you there!

I had a great time at the Zine Fair yesterday, meeting lots of nice people, selling some zines, getting lots of good feedback on my range and spending my profits on more zines! I was kind of stuck away in the corner but that also meant I was right by a window, and since Glasgow finally decided to move into Summer yesterday, that breeze was most welcome.

I still find it hard to believe this was my first zine fair but it was just as I hoped – lots of cool people selling ace zines and books, most of which I’d never seen before. Everyone was really friendly too and it was great to get some feedback on my stock. Glasgow guides proved popular with Glasgow residents so they can keep them by for visitors – good plan! I was also pleased to be able to use my new bear chalkboard – he’s so adorable.

I’ll be setting up shop at the CCA this weekend, with Asking For Trouble. I can only bring a small selection of things (mostly stationery) so if there’s anything you want, let me know in advance.

Don’t forget that tomorrow I’ll be selling zines at the Free Hetherington Zine Fair – it would be lovely to see you, and it sounds like there will be tons of great zines to browse and buy.

I’ll also be at Upmarket this weekend at the CCA. I’ll be there both days with a whole heap of Asking For Trouble products. I may also be back another weekend just with zines but I’m not sure if I’ll have enough stock – things are selling fast!

And in July, is my biggest event yet as I’ll have a stall at the London Anime Con on Saturday July 30th. You can buy tickets now, and they also offer cheap accommodation if you want to make a weekend of it. It looks like it will be really fun!

Anyway, more details on all of there are on my Events page so I hope to see some of you soon.

Well, things have been getting very busy on the zine front. As you may note from my cool new badges, my zine distro is called pushpin. It’s got nice associations with maps and journeys and creative fun, plus if you say ‘pushpin publishing’ five times in a row you’ll instantly get my feeling of glee when I know I’ve found the perfect name.

I’m hoping to open shop on Monday but watch this space for more news. I still have a lot of work to do, but I’ve been getting parcels of ace zines in the post all week, plus I’m plotting some fantastic collaborations that I can’t wait to reveal.

By fantastic coincidence, I will also be selling at my very first zine fair next week, so you can come along and browse the zines in real life! I can’t believe it took almost 20 years of zinemaking before I got to attend a zine fair.

In other exciting news, I decided I should make a new zine for the zine fair, in just one week! But then I realised there was yet another bank holiday on Monday and the printers would be closed so instead I made a new zine in 24 hours! Admittedly, it is based on something I originally posted on my blog, which may give you a hint to its content. All will be reveealed very soon. Meanwhile, back to writing zine descriptions and editing images.

If you’re free next Thursday, then do come by the Free Hetherington Zine Fair. It’s at Glasgow Uni and it runs from 3pm-7pm so you can swing by after work.

Myself and the Glasgow Craft Mafia are heading back to Inver Cottage this weekend to kick off the Christmas market season. With my post-holiday jetlag I have no idea what I am bringing yet but expect lots of cute stationery, Christmas gifts and some bargains.

It’s a fantastic day out if you’re anywhere nearby – Inver Cottage is beautifully situated on Loch Fyne and has an amazing restaurant.

We’ll be there on Sunday 14th from 11:30am – 4:30pm so do come by if you can. More details here.

Yesterday I took a train over to Edinburgh to install my spooky cute window display at Hannah Zakari. Rachael has been selling my stuff online for ages and now has a pretty little shop off the Grassmarket full of lovely things by indie designers.

You’ve already seen my trapped ghost and I also made some cute felt ghosts plus I brought a load of jars to display spooky products from the shop. It was great fun wandering around the shop selecting products to use – I like how it isn’t overtly Halloween themed but just a bit spooky and dark with black cats, skeletons, ravens and trees.

Anyway, there are more photos on Flickr and the window should be up for the next couple of weeks so do go and have a peek! It was really fun watching people spot the ghosts and cross the street to have a better look :)

Claire was also in the shop making cross-stitch badges on demand so I got her to make me some BOO! badges for the window and also a ghost for me – isn’t he cute! You should be able to buy more of these from her soon.

Psst! The Hannah Zakari web shop is 6 years old and there’s a special birthday discount ending today!

AND don’t forget to enter my Kawaii Paper Packs giveaway - I’ll be picking the winners tomorrow!