Thought you might like to see this little trapped ghost I captured at the weekend! Don’t be fooled by his sad little face – he’s been causing havoc for centuries. I had to make an especially big DO NOT OPEN label as I’ll be putting him out in public soon and I don’t want anything bad to happen.

If you’d like to see him in person, then he’ll be part of the spooky cute window display I will be doing for Hannah Zakari this Halloween! If you pop over to the Edinburgh shop over the next couple of weeks, he’ll be doing his hardest to tempt you into opening that jar.

Glad I’ll be in Japan if that happens…

More photos once it’s all put together! And don’t forget he’s part of my Spooky Wooky Badge Set too, if you want your own little ghost.

Here are photos of some of the zines made at the Zine Workshop. They were all amazing. Above is Jen‘s which she made on the train to Glasgow!

Bronwen made her first ever zine, on the subject of things she is unable to throw away. I think this has the makings of a full length zine :)

Neil made a super cute comic zine about things to do if you’re a ghost.

Aurora was the only one to use kraft paper and made an awesome zine of gestures. I think we all learned a lot from this one!

And Emma made two zines! All about the things she loves about Japan.

I also loved this zine which was made for her daughter who really wants a dog. Sorry, I forgot your name! Great use of all the materials.

This one is by Douglas. Not everyone managed to finish their zines but I think everyone was inspired to continue zinemaking. We used the 8 page booklet fold to keep things simple. There’s a video here which I think shows how to do it.

Lots more photos of these zines and others over at Flickr. If you’d like to make a zine then don’t forget to sign up for the Zine Challenge, and there are still some free zines left – see my previous post for details.

Oh, and I didn’t make a zine. After doing nothing but make, think and talk zines for the previous 5 days I was all zined out! Got lots of plans for new zines though.

Yay, thanks so much to everyone who came to the zine workshop yesterday. About 20 people turned up at Welcome Home to read some zines, listen to me babble about stuff and then make some zines themselves. Big thanks too to Jen and Mhari for all their fantastic help.

I was fully expecting everyone to run away when the zinemaking part started but at least half the attendees made a zine! It was really thrilling to see what everyone came up with, especially as some people were making their first zine ever. It’s a lovely feeling to have put people on the first steps to becoming a zinester. I took photos of lots of the zines that were made and will post those soon.

I also started a Zine Challenge where people could sign up and pledge to publish a zine by the end of the year. We’ve already got 16 people signed up so I can’t wait to see what they come up with.

If you couldn’t make it along to the workshop, you can still join in. I’ve created a Zine Challenge page where you can add your name, and there’s a Flickr group for sharing photos, asking questions and promoting your finished zine.

I made a little zine about zinemaking for the workshop but I also have a batch of wrongly-photocopied versions to give away. All the info is there but the pages are in a different order than they should be. If you want one, just email me your postal address (see top right for address) and I’ll send one out totally free. That’s UK only I’m afraid. If you’re outside the UK and want one, get in touch and you can PayPal me the postage or send me a trade.  (All gone!)

Hurray for zines!

It’s all happening now. I actually had a dream last night in which not only did I forget to bring the zines to the zine workshop, but all the stuff for making zines as well. Aaargh! This is now making me take my preparations 100x more seriously for fear of doing something equally stupid in real life.

Anyway, the zine workshop is this Sunday and I really hope some of you can make it along. I’ve been putting together a pretty awesome selection of zines from my massive collection, ranging from tiny hand-drawn things to full-on glossy magazines. I only wish I could bring everything, but I’m only one small person and this stuff is heavy. It’s going to be quite a relaxed event so even if you can only pop in for half an hour, it will still be worth it!

I’ve also just about finished a little zine about zinemaking which everyone will be getting a free copy of, and I can reveal there may very well be free badges too! Plus I’ll be bringing along my other zines to sell, plus copies of Katy’s Answers on a Postcard series, and Welcome Home will have lots of lovely zines and books on offer including Jen’s.

If you can’t make it, then don’t worry – I’ll be making the freebie zine available afterwards and will be expanding it into a bigger and better zine which will also be part of a fun new project. Ooooh! All will be revealed on Sunday, and then here too once I recover. Right, back to work!

PS. you can RSVP here on Facebook.

It’s been busy times this week, what with ongoing preparations for the zine workshop and also getting things together for Made in the Shade this weekend. I’ll be setting up stall over in Edinburgh this Saturday with 41 other designer makers, vintage sellers and creative businesses, plus Auntie M’s pop-up Cake Lounge will be providing the cake. I’m hoping they don’t put me next to Laura Donald or there’s no way I’ll be able to stop myself buying this:

Amazing. Saturday is shaping up to be a pretty fantastic day in Edinburgh all round- even if you’re not local, you should be considering a trip over as there’s also the grand opening of the Hannah Zakari shop (who will be stocking lots of my products!) and pop-up shop/gallery The Spider and The Fly. There’s loads of demonstrations, collaboration opportunities and cake to be had so don’t miss out! More details over on the GCM blog.

You’ll be hearing a lot more about this soon but please clear your diaries for Sunday 8th August when you can spend an afternoon at the lovely Welcome Home shop making zines with me and hellojenuine. I’ll be bringing a good part of my epic zine collection for you to browse through, as will Jen, and we’ll tell you a bit about zines and help you make your own. All for free! More info here, or RSVP on the Facebook event page.

We also have a winner in the sticker giveaway – Emma, who makes really fun popup cards as Kullakita Cards. Look out for an email from me!

Thanks to everyone else who entered – your comments were very helpful. I did look in the local megaTesco for silicon paper but no luck. I will keep my eyes open though and let you know if I get on any better with it. Or if you have some, send me a bit!