It has been a week since my new look website launch, and I can’t believe how that time has flown! I had intended to write this blog post a little sooner to coincide with the launch, but life happens and it kept getting pushed back. I’m in full-on market prep mode for our Etsy Made Local events here in Newcastle, but it has been in the back of my mind that I wanted to at least say hello again before then. So, hello! I’m back – yay!

I really hope that you love my new site as much as I do. I have to say that I’ve had some wonderful feedback about it over the last 7 days, so thanks to everyone who got in touch via social media! It has been a labour of love as I’ve been building it myself since the end of September. I’m not going to lie, fitting it around family life has been a bit tricky at times. But Tom has been amazing as ever, and we worked out days where I could have decent chunks of time to work on it. This has actually been a gamechanger to be honest, and we now try and work it out each week. I find that it’s a great way to avoid procrastination and I can approach the week much more positively when I know that there will be time to work on my business.

Crafty Commerce

I basically have no coding experience whatsoever, except for the odd occasion when I’ve managed to copy some code to sort out spacing (haha!). My friend Dan from Baltic Design (who has hosted my blog for years) and said he wanted to create a platform for creatives to build their website, and I have basically been testing this out for him. I am so thrilled with the results! It has all been done front-end and I have created something which is unique to me. I now have my own shop, where you can purchase my embroidered items, kits, workshops and more! My blog is much more appealing and I feel like I can actually share it with people again (it was a bit of a mess after I tried to change the theme – nightmare!). So yes, this platform is coming but it needs a bit more set-up before it’s widely available. If you’re interested, you can find out more about Crafty Commerce here.

In other news…

So there are a LOT of other things going on, some of which you’ll already know about if you follow me on Instagram. We are getting used to life with 2 children and our baby boy is just the sweetest. He is in love with his big sister, crawled at 6 months and his current favourite thing is waving. We can’t remember life without him now!

I also handed my notice in at the day job in September, so will be fully working on Hello! Hooray! from January! I am beyond excited about this – my book comes out next summer and it just felt like the right time to go for it. That and the fact that it has been making me feel like rubbish for longer than I should have let it. That’s all I’ll say about it for now – onwards and upwards!

These little rainbows are my current favourite make and they have been popular in the shop! Custom versions are available, and I’m working on getting more ready to ship hoops too. Once my markets are done at the end of the month, I’ll list any here so you can snap them up. I have too many ideas and not enough time right now, but I’m hoping to use some time in January to get some more things made.

I have embroidery workshops listed in my shop, and I’m delighted to be hosting some at For the Love of the North in the New Year. I’m a huge fan of Lucy and Paul and how they support North East creatives. They have just opened another shop at Spanish City in Whitley Bay, and we’ll be stitching there at my workshops. So excited!

YAY it’s good to be back!

Sign up to my newsletter (link in footer or sidebar) if you’d like to be kept up-to-date with more happenings, and find out first about new products and special offers. And look out for more blog posts coming soon…

Tell me what you’ve been up to – I’d love to know what you’ve been doing, seeing and making!

The post My new look website launch appeared first on Hello! Hooray!.

Hand embroidered social media icons: basic materials

I started stitching 4″ versions of these hoops last year, but they were a complete mess. Especially the Pinterest hoop…so I decided to make it a little easier this time by going smaller. Each hoop is 3″ (7.5cm) and I’ve used satin stitch for each one using 3 strands of embroidery thread. It’s actually quite tricky to get hold of 3″ wooden hoops in the UK, and when I looked in my usual sources they had all run out. Thankfully, they came back in stock at Cloud Craft so I ordered a few to keep me going!

I also wanted to paint each hoop, and originally wanted to colour match to the icon colours but this proved to be quite difficult. So instead, I chose a lovely bright turquoise – something different to all the icon colours that would tie them all together.

Facebook hoop

The Facebook hoop looks like it could be the easiest of the four, but it was actually quite tricky. The curve of the F was a bit challenging, and I spent ages trying to get the top of the circle right. It seems that I’m better at sewing the bottom of a circle rather than the top, strangely! Eventually, I decided that slight lumps and bumps don’t matter. They are hand embroidered social media icons after all

Only one colour was needed for this hoop, and I used DMC 312 (Anchor match is 979).

Pinterest hoop

As I said at the start of the post, when I made my first version of this Pinterest logo it was SO bad! When I stitched it the first time, I didn’t go straight across around the circle but stitched outside in, if that makes sense?! Like the Instagram hoop later in this post. But that made it look so messy, as it was hard to get a neat edge. So this time I just stitched straight across from left to right, and I think it’s much neater. That’s the key to consistent satin stitch I think!

Only one colour was needed for this hoop, and I used DMC 304 (Anchor match is 1006).

Twitter hoop

This was probably the simplest of all 4 of my hand embroidered social media icons, which I wasn’t expecting! This is one of my favourite shades of DMC thread – the blue is just so vibrant. I was wondering if the detail of the beak would come out clearly in such a small hoop, but it is fine. Again, I kept my stitches consistent going left to right across the hoop.

Only one colour was needed for this hoop, and I used DMC 996 (Anchor match is 433).

Instagram hoop

Finally, it’s my favourite – Instagram! This was the most challenging by far, just because of the number of colours and getting the shading right between each one. But I LOVE how it has turned out! I have been a bit cheeky with this one, because I’ve used the colours from the new (ish) logo, but the shape of the old one. I just prefer the design of the original logo – what can I say?! So sorry, Instagram! I love the combination of colours in this one – yellow, oranges through to pink and purple. Can you spot the tiny hint of blue at the top? Just a small amount but it sets it off nicely

I’m actually going to use this colour palette for the next in the series of #craftycolourpalettes so you’ll have to wait to find out what they are…

Which one is your favourite?

You can follow me on Facebook, Pinterest (I really LOVE the new-look Pinterest!), Twitter and Instagram. Do pop over and say hello! What are you up to this weekend?

The post Hand embroidered social media icons appeared first on Hello! Hooray!.

I’ve been super busy getting everything organised and sending out my first few orders (yay!) that I completely forgot to share this with you. My poor blog has been neglected lately, but I’m hoping to change all that…I know I’ve said this before! Juggling family life, the day job and my shop and blog is a bit of a military operation, but I’m getting there. And after years of wondering about making things to sell, I’m so excited to finally be doing it!

Colourful and fun hand embroidery

So I had to think of a way to best describe hellohoorayshop, and basically it’s all about colourful and fun hand embroidery. I love colour and it has been really great to start designing my own embroidery patterns. I have a LOT more ideas than time at the moment, but the pattern for my Sunbeams banner (which features a super quote from Roald Dahl) is available to purchase now. Just click here if you fancy a look. I have designed all of the hoops and banners in my shop, so it’s great to see my designs come to life!

Limited edition hoops

One of the things that put me off opening a shop for so long was that I don’t really enjoy making loads of the same thing. Do you know what I mean? I personally find that it takes the enjoyment out of stitching if I’m constantly making the same design in the same colour. So when I had the idea to sell my hoops as limited editions, I knew I was on to something that could work for me.

So all my designs are limited editions, either one of one or one of two in the given colour combination. This means that you’re guaranteed to have a limited edition when you make a purchase!

Fancy a custom order?

I am always happy to take requests for custom orders – if there’s a quote you would like stitching or you’d like something else designing just for you, let me know! Get in touch by email clare@hellohooray.com or send me a convo via Etsy.

More new designs will be coming soon! And I’m hoping to get my website shop back up and running very soon too…thanks for your patience!

The post hellohoorayshop on Etsy is now open! appeared first on Hello! Hooray!.