before and after....

 I started this order over the weekend - the snap of it half done on my sewing tray was taken yesterday and here they are all done today ::

swap update

all swap entries have been photographed and added to the swap album on Facebook ... in total we have :
120 handmade Christmas decorations made by 55 talented crafters!  There are already mummers asking if I shall be organising another swap for next year, and i think I shall! This one has been great fun so far...with the best bit yet to come!....All swap decorations will now be wrapped and packed and your address labels will be attached to parcels ...I'll be posting them out the week commencing 6th October so keep your eyes peeled for postie :-)

the SWAP is closed

Wednesday 24th September (TODAY) is the last day for entries into our Hand Stitched Christmas Decoration and swap - and BOY - did a lot of you leave it to the last minute!

Just look at this little lot!! 
I will be opening, photograping and sharing the contents of all of these at the weekend* - huzzah!
* that'll give a couple of extra days for any stray parcels to get here :-)

Happy Birthday to my Mum!

40 felt cupcake embellishments sent to the same customer as yesterdays haul......definitely not as good as the chocolate cake Mum makes for our birthdays but it's nice that my sewing themed itself so I could show my finished cupcakes on Mum's birthday - hope you had some proper cake today Mum!

my name's Sarah and I love hand sewing

 it seems like a long time ago that I last did a 'piles of sewing' post - these piles are the results of my hard work this weekend - 100 hand cut & hand sewn felt embellishments finished, and now on the way to their new owner ...

...and tonight I will be putting the finishing stitches to 40 cupcakes :-)

Decoration Swap Update

The pile of hand stitched decorations for the swap is growing steadily - the closing date to get your decorations to me is Wednesday 24th September, so I'm expecting a last minute flurry!  that's NEXT WEDNESDAY people! (yes Clare, I mean you ;-) haha!)
all the info is here :: swap details
and all maker info is on the photos over on facebook in this album

and the winner is....

 the random number generator has done it's thing....

 and the winner is comment #82 which was ::
Stephanie Burchatt said...
Fingers crossed for this. would be perfect to make with my little man before his brother/sister arrives this Christmas!

congratulations Stephanie!
please can you email me (Sarah)  your address so I can get your Angel Tree Topper Kit in the post for you :-)
mail {at} paper-and-string {dot} co {dot} uk

NEW sparkles!

 our range of 24 colours of Glitter Material have all been restocked & added to the website .... along with (drum roll please) our NEW glitter material ribbon!

Ta-Dah!   it's just as robust as the material - and just as good quality...the glitter does not shed....

...and  it's available in 9 colours - each roll holds 2.5m and costs just £2.50!

 It's turning into a sparkly crafty heaven here :-)

Quick Links ::
Glitter material is here
Glitter material ribbon is here

NEW felt alert ;-)

THE FREEBIES IS STILL RUNNING - CLICK HERE TO JOIN IN
**********************************************************
I have lots of new felt to show you!

 ...you may well get a serious case of the 'wantsies'....

 ..I know I did, which is how it all ended up at the barn :-)

That lovely full rack means that the  Soft Printed Felt has all been restocked - along with 2 new prints - Christmas Trees & Lime and Pink Tiles...I have also restocked everyones FAV printed felt:

 ....polka dots....

 ....stripes....

....and hearts AND I splurged on a new range of super-duper, Top Quality NEW printed felt....just take a lookee at this!

 ...it's gorgeous, the colours are ACE....

 ...and I love it all!

Quick Links ::
all my printed felts can be found HERE

John Lewis Excitement

I don't think I will ever loose just how excited I get when I see our craft kits on the shelf at John Lewis.  We used to pop up to the Oxford Street store from time to time to see them but now we are in Dorset it's a very long way to go BUT I can still see them online and look at this ::

 if you click onto John Lewis's website and find the Sewing & knitting page (it's here) you'll see our Christmas Tree Garland as the lead picture of the 'Make Your Own Christmas Decorations' department ****eeeekkkkk*****

 and when you click through you'll see our NEWEST kit - Make Your Own Angel Tree Topper
YAY!!!! (here's the link)

she's a £10 kit and once you've made her she'll be happy to sit on your Christmas tree year after year :-)

GIVEAWAY TIME!!

After all that excitement I think it's time for a new kit give away!
RULES ::
Leave a comment on this blog post to enter
One comment per person please
Winner will be picked on Wednesday 17th September by the Random Number Machine
I will post world wide


here are all our kits on John Lewis's website (click here )
here are all our kits on OUR website (click here)

FREEBIE IS NOW CLOSED AT COMMENT # 94

swap update

 are you ready for a Swap update?

I just unpacked this huge pile of parcels....which contained this beautiful array of decorations ::

you can see individual photos in my facebook photo album (click here)
AND there were a couple of extra surprises for ME - ace!

a personalised heart for our first Dorset Christmas tree, kindly made for us by Sylvia aka puffin patchwork

and the cutest snowman you ever did see made for us by Wendy aka peter pan crafts
thanks Ladies - you are very kind indeed :-)
any swap questions you may have will be answered on the dedicated swap area of my website (click here)

time has whizzed

over the weekend I put loads of new items for sale on the website & John and I have been manically busy ever since....it's safe to say they have gone down a treat!

 I'm a bit slow mentioning it on here (I posted it on Facebook which is when it got super busy!) but if you have yet to see all that's fabulous and new it's not too late :-)

 Die Cuts have also been flying out the door - in a whole host of Christmas themed colours

 ...I'm having fun trying to guess what each pack will be made into :-)

if I get chance tomorrow I'll be back with Handmade Christmas Decoration Swap news :-)
quick links:
die cuts are here
what's new section is here

six months ago today....

 six months ago (yesterday) we moved out of our Worthing workshop (and home around the corner)

 and exactly six months ago TODAY we moved into our Dorset workshop (and our new Dorset home, in West Bay)

DEFINITELY the best (and most scary) decision we ever made :-)

lots of website work

lots of deliveries arriving means lots of excitement, lots of photo taking and lots of website work...i've not finished unpacking them all yet but I did LOADS yesterday......mini tree garland :: restocked

a whole rainbow of teeny tiny pom pom trim :: restocked (plus I added a new colour: lemon)

a new size of tiny lights...1.8m long...in metallic bulbs....

....and frosted bulbs too

cute buttons have been added :: tiny candies, gingerbread men and ladies and 4 metal-look cookie cutters all in one packet :: CUTE

limited edition Christmas selection....

...and lots of Santa buttons

Gorgeous threads from Sublime Stitching (check out their website - it's ACE) in 3 colour ways at the moment (I ordered more and they will be here soonish)

freezer paper is back in stock

and I got A LOT of these very popular air erasable pens

Tiny gingerbread-like charms have been restocked....

as have the scalloped scissors (all 3 scallop sizes)

I got new baker's twine: metallic red, gold & silver when I restocked on...

baker's twine in red, pink & teal
phew! are you still reading ;-)
I'll be back with more later
here's the link to the new items (click here) all the restocked things are in their usual places :-)