Sorry to meantion the 'c' word a little bit early but tonight is my first Christmas fair of the season. Ho ho ho. Last year I participated in my one and first Christmas fair, this year I am doing eight. (What one earth have I done??????) But as the song says, it is the season to be jolly and it shall be ace.
So if you are at a loose end this evening around the Clapham Junction area do pop along for some festive treats.
The Besom Chrstmas fair.
2 CROSLAND PLACE TAYBRIDGE ROAD LONDON SW11 5PJ,
Tonight 6-9pm and tomorrow 10-4pm... See you there.
Here are a few of my wares on offer:
Battersea:
I will stock the full collection of City Celebration prints, framed and unframed, personalised or unpersonalised. My 'postcards from' illustrations with a couple of new additions to the family, such as the above produced especially for tonight. Framed and signed Battersea Power Station print. £25.
Personalised House Illustration.
And another newbie on offer, Personalised house illustrations, framed and signed, £40.
Shopping List:
Dry-wipe shopping list with dry-wipe pen. £8. A classier update to last years biggest seller.
Crafty Kwak's.
And of course a few Crafty Kwak's bits for the little ones. Colour-in Cards, holds a 6x4 photo, ideal activity for children of all ages to create personalised cards for all occasions. 5 cards with envelopes and a pack of festive sparkles. £4.
Pompoms.
And I had to include a few decorations. Hands up I may have gone a little pompom crazy. I love pompoms. The little lady also shares my love of pompoms. She calls them pong-pongs which has an entirely different meaning altogether in our house (but I wont go there). In keeping with the whole personalised theme... Personalised felt, wool and jingly jangly bell gift tags.
More Pompoms.
And a few matching pompom, personalised jingly jangly baubles. All of these items can be personalsied with sayings, names and initials.
Even more Pompoms.
These twig star decorations are about 30cm height, which clearly the photos do not show. Lots of pompoms, bells and a punched 'twinkle twinkle little star' tag. They will look fabulous in any home. Price undecided (I had better crack on with that).
Close up.
I made a whole bunch of them, they were fun.
This is only a few of the bits I shall be selling, so if you like what you see and you are in the hood, come along tonight for some festive shopping and mince pies. Its going to be amazing. See you there.
I am super pleased to announce a second Crafty Kwak's venue for this half Terms Halloween Bat Puppet Crafting Class... Crafty Kwak's will be hitting Chelsea!! Tuesday 28th October at Gambado, Chelsea. Its a gigantic play centre which boasts the largest play frame in London, alongside a dodgem track, a fairground ride, a climbing wall, laser play, all sorts of fun and now with Crafty Kwak's for the day, whoop. For £20 children can take my class for 1.5 hours and then have an hours play after the class... Perfect indoor half term fun now the weather is getting so chilly (boo).
Chelsea:
Check out the Gambado website here.
Made in Chelsea:
This is the chap which will be 'made in Chelsea' (sorry, couldn't help myself).
Close-up shots:
A lovely fully operating puppet made out of card, felt and wood (& googly eyes) which we will be creating just in time for Halloween.
Upside down:
And here's his buddy, a topsy turvy hanging upside down version.
Flyer's:
And here is a shot of the 200 flyer's which were distributed around Kings Road last week.
If you are interested in the class or know of anyone who may be, please do pass on this blog and email me to book at queenkwak@hotmail.co.uk Thank you!!
Crafty Kwak's will be hosting a drop in crafting extravaganza stall at the 'Southfields Harvest Festival' event TOMORROW 4th October: St Barnabas Church, Lavenham Road, 12-3pm. Pop by for some autumnal crafting... Paper pumpkins, fruits & vegetables, Leaf decorating, painting, printing, sparkling, crown making... endless fun and entertainment for children of All ages. I hope to see you there!!
The next Crafty Kwak's class at Salt & Pepper, Southfields, London is now taking bookings. Monday 27th October, ages 3-10 years for some Spooktacular Halloween Bat Crafting fun. Halloween costumes welcome. All enquiries and bookings to: queenkwak@hotmail.co.uk
Following the fire engine invitations which I produced, check them out over here, I have been contacted several times over by mums looking to commission sets of bespoke, personalised invitations. I am having so much fun working on these invitations and have worked on a wide range of subjects, this example being one of the stranger combinations: Magician, Superhero with a hint of Dragon... what a combination? amazing!!
Pretty package:
So if you are on the look out for a set of personalised invitations, do give me a shout on: queenkwak@hotmail.co.uk any ideas/ themes welcome. I am more than happy to develop new ideas, however unusual. I also offer to personalise previously produced invitations, so if you fancied hosting your own Magician, superhero, dragon party I am the person to call, alternatively a selection of others are on the website here, under invitations. Take a peek to see if anything is suitable for your next party.
As well as Invitations I am also able to produce matching Thank you cards, personalised paper bags, cupcake toppers, named cake banners, embellished straws and personalised co ordinating framed prints of your invitation. Any further suggestions welcome.
All artwork copyright of QueenKwak.
A spot of photo-booth action from last months Crafty Kwak's Korean Mask class. Check out the amazing masks the children designed, clever beans.
I have just set up a bright and sunny window display, on a bright and gloriously sunny morning over at Salt & Pepper, ready for the two classes this summer holiday. Well I did, once I had finished making the kite below. And once I had broken the news to the little lady that we were not off to the park to fly it first. No. Boo. The kite is a full size example of what we shall be creating in the Kite building workshop, a tissue paper and wool beauty. On the day there will be a plethora of materials for the kiddos to go freestyle kite building crazy, it is going to be a good one.
Kite:
Window close up:
From the side:
And the other side, in case you missed a bit:
Here are the posters...
Kites:
Boats:
If you are local and would like to book your child(ren) in, please email: queenkwak@hotmail.co.uk spaces are going fast. And if anyone, local or otherwise would like to 'Like' and share the Crafty Kwak's Facebook page, I would be forever grateful. Here is the link to the page. Thank you ever so.
Right, so now to go start on the goodie bags, and then get out in that sunshine... Toodlepip.
Ive been a bit slow on posting updates on Crafty Kwak's, there was a whole Korean mask day since the last mention. I will post those photos when I get a chance, but until then here are a few bits I have been making for the posters/ window displays for the two forthcoming classes this summer holiday at Salt & Pepper, Southfields. First up are photos for "The Great Southfields Boat Race". A class of boat design and build which will be followed by an actual boat race. Prizes to be won, its going to be lots of fun. Here are a selection of boats I have built:
Rainbow Bright:
Ahoy There:
Spotty Dotty:
And here are a few kites I whipped up for the Kite building workshop. The children will be designing, building and decorating themselves a full size kite to take home and fly.
Rainbow Kite:
Floral Beauty:
Fancy Ribbon:
All enquiries please email: queenkwak@hotmail.co.uk. Posters to follow shortly.
I was recently contacted by a local mum looking to commission a set of invitations for her sons fourth, fire engine, birthday party. He is a lucky boy, it sounds like an amazing party. So the brief was fire engine with a hint of superhero. Four year old dreams. This is what I created, based loosely on a superhero comic cover, with all the necessary info. The mum was happy, it was a fun job.
Wrapped up:
I do like to package all of our orders nicely. I have a big drawer filled with strings, beads, gems... etc. It is my little ladies heaven and I often find her sneaking up there to make things.
Envelopes:
I threw in a set of matching envelopes.
Print:
After the invitations had been delivered, the mum then contacted me to turn the invite into a print for her little chaps bedroom. So with a little bit of jiggery, here is what I created, one signed A3 personalised framed print, which was again well received.
Brown paper packages:
Again I could not resist the pretty packaging.
So if you are on the look out for a set of personalised invitations, do give me a shout on: queenkwak@hotmail.co.uk all ideas/ themes welcome. There are a series of invites I have previous produced, all available to be fully personalised, just take a peek on the website here, under invitations and I more than happy to develop new ideas.
All artwork copyright of QueenKwak.
The play tent I made my little lady here, has this week been featured on the Marie Claire Idées website, yippee!! It is included in an article about tipi's and tents. If you fancy a read of the article then do Click here to take a peek, it is in french. Alternatively this is what it looks like, how exciting...
The text reads something like this: "To read in the shade, or stroll cool we love this teepee Eastern inspiration, which also finds its place in the living room. An embodiment of Queen Kwak".
I opened an Etsy shop, hoorah!! At long, long last, hoorah!! Ok I admit it, I did it a few months ago but have not had the time to promote it or do anything with it. Still unsure how to promote it, any ideas? But I listed a new item on Saturday, and within two hours I had made my first sell...yay!! I was super, duper excited. Etsy sent me an image of a champagne bottle, alas not a real bottle but it was lovely none the less. Hoorah!! So chin chin to more sells.
Sketchy Kwak:
The logo, sure to be changed. The shop is called Sketchy Kwak, as the work is produced by the Mr and myself.
Shop front:
So the SketchyKwak Etsy shop looks a little something like this, click here to go to the shop. Categories will be added but at the moment you will find all current City Celebration prints, a selection of limited edition prints and the vintage London street signs. I hope to add further work shortly.
And as this is a sort of launch, I will do a little promotion for the weekend... Buy any two full colour A3, signed City Celebration prints and get £10 off your order. Simply type the code: CELEBRATION10 at checkout. The code will expire on Sunday... happy shopping. And here is the shop link again, just in case you missed it, ha.
Well hello, its been a while hasn't it? Life has been KER-azy bananas. Life/ work/ life/ work and so on. I have a bundle of things I would like to share on here and rather than instantly bombarding you with lots of work efforts I thought I would share a little fun day we spent with the babies and their friends. Now this dates back to the Easter hols (I told you its been a while) but it was a fun day and hopefully by the end of this this I will have fathomed how to add a free download onto this, yes thats right free stuff, hoorah!!
So Easter, looking for something fun to do with the littlies, a friend and myself decided to take the little ones on a stroll around London to see some sights. We do in fact live in London, but to be fair we don't really ever (ok never) go and see such sights. So the night before our adventure I whipped up this little scavenger hunt, purely as I thought it might be fun and entertain them. I happened to have a pack of union jack pencils, like you do which was a nice touch, though probably I was the only one who appreciated such things.
London baby:
I wont lie, this is a shoddy effort of a map. I earnt a living creating plans so I am actually disgusted with myself, but I figure its simple and should be easy to read, and I very well might have made it ever so slightly super quickly. Background map courtesy of Google maps.
So you can see the route we took, it was not that far, and fine for the two three year old's in the party (with buggies for back up) to manage. We began at embankment, headed to Downing street and so on. The entire route took us about 5 hours in total with a lunch break around the Strand.
On your marks:
Get set, GO. Little lady very eager to start.
Downing Street:
The police guarding the gates were very friendly, chatted away, and posed for photos with the friends (my children were scared). We saw a few cars being searched and we ticked off a few treasures along the way. Happy children.
Horse Guards Parade:
With a stroke of luck we rocked up at the Horse Guards Parade just in time for the changing of the guard. Brilliant, the kiddos LOVED it. Loved the horses, loved the guards, they had a lot of fun.
Say cheeeessseee:
A few poses at the horse guards parade. The boy wasn't up for posing that day.
Backs:
I LOVE this photo, bless them. My son is in blue on the right, and the love of his life/ apple of his eye is standing next to him, he is properly in love. Aged 3.
Trafalgar Square:
Stuck on Nelson.
On guard:
At the Stable yard guards.
Buckingham Palace:
Coo-eeee Queen.
Big Ben:
We passed Big Ben on the route back.
Complete:
And this was my two's completed sheets, even the little one got into it and postboxes/ buses are forever more pointed out on your daily travels.
Free Stuff:
So this is the image you can download, it is at A4, and as you can see there are two hunts per sheet. To download please click here. Please DO NOT download to sell/ make profit from/ take credit for the artwork, this has been purely created as a fun activity by me Queen kwak. I appreciate the free stuff isn't quite free gold but if it gives one family something to do this summer holidays then I shall be a happy bunny. Happy London hunting all, tell me how your adventures went if you do use the hunt.
All Artwork copyright of Queen Kwak.
