Magpies

Today is all about *new* shiny things :-)

 *new* metallic vinyls

 *new* 'shroom with a view buttons (what a great name!)

 *new* dainty snowflake trim

 *new* metal glitter beads in gold....

 ....and silver too

 AND *new* snowflake...

 Christmas themed...

...and star shaped sequins
all here http://www.paper-and-string.net/what-s-new

Fake Fur mini syle

*New* product alert :-)

Mini Fake Fur trim sold by the metre (70p) and available in 3 colours

I'm thinking thi sis PERFECT for mini santa hats, elf clothes  and all manner of cute tiny things :-)
It's here is you need to know more http://www.paper-and-string.net/product-page/f2745638-cf57-f443-4f05-0fbc30dbc3d5

Swap Tree

 I've had a swap re-think this year and made a Swap Tree to show off all the handmade loveliness as it gets posted to us :-)

 All the tree-making credit goes to John - I knew I wanted a tree-that-was-like-a-poster-I-can-hang-things-off...and I knew what it should look like, and then John was super smart and worked out how to make it perfectly :-)

 The background fabric is my favourite Cool Yule fabric...the tree is Apple felt, and the lengths of  mini-tree-garland work perfectly as an anchor to hang the decorations off

 The first swap decorations arrived with yesterday's post and look great on the Swap Tree :-)

Full swap details are here http://www.paper-and-string.net/swap
and there's a photo album on our Facebook page which will have more details on the swap's progress and the decorations received https://www.facebook.com/573466359364325/photos/?tab=album&album_id=1270143199696634

pop!

We no longer have our pop-up shop.

 We opened our shop space when the Custom's House opened it's doors (Easter 2015) and we stayed waaaay longer than we initially thought!  Yesterday we cleared everything out  (I say we, but mostly it was John's hard work)

We shall miss our little cave shop (the curved ceiling made us nickname it the cave) but after 18+ months we decided it was time to close the doors and move on - we've loved having a retail space,  but after we moved house last year (we used to live opposite The Customs House) we couldn't get there as often as we wanted to to keep it all clean & tidy and fully stocked up - and you know how we work - if we can't do it properly then we won't do it at all.

We want to say a BIG thank you to all our regular pop-up shop customers .  We only ever met a handful of you whilst we were there tidying/stocking up  - but those we did meet made it even more fun :-)

NEW fabrics NEW fabric felts (and unicorns!!)

 I LOVED the vintage-y colours of this brand new collection when I ordered fabrics in April...there's just something about Mustard and Charcoal that makes me smile :-)

 The co-ordinating patterns are gorgeous too...little triangles...

 ...and diamonds too

 The florals come in Large and Small scales

 I think the small flowers will be a big hit with our Fabric Felt fans!  These flowers are on a red background but it goes so well with our coral felt - scrummy!

 The second new collection is called Princess Dreams and is SO perfect...it's bright and cheery and there are unicorns, rainbows & toadstools!!

 It's girly, but not too girly

 The Frog Prince's are CUTE

 it's ALL cute!

As always our fabric ranges are available as fat quarters,  half metres & meters AND as fabric felt too :-)
All these can be found in the what's new section http://www.paper-and-string.net/what-s-new

chrystal white glitter

 Our original white chunky glitter is called snow white because it has pinky/lilacy tones to it but we kept getting asked for chunky white white....

 ...so I got some in!  This white is called Chrystal White and it is white with tones of silver....

...all the better for making snowmen or Santa's beards this Christmas :-)
We're keeping both whites in stock because they are really quite different :-)

new jars

All my drawers are FULL (aaahhh) and I was fed up with old cardboard boxes and grip seal bags holding some of my packeted stock SO I got John to measure the gap under my button shelves and I found the perfect size jars to fit in there (even better that the jars match completely)
It looks so much better :-)

winners!

Our 10th Birthday Free Prize Draw winners have been picked!
Each winner wins £100 of paper-and-string website credit to spend as they wish :-)

 Entries were received throughout our 10th birthday month (September) and there were four ways to enter: commenting on our birthday blog post, commenting on our facebook post, making one of our free templates & sending in a photo AND placing an order on the website (the order number was entered every time £15 was spent)

 I slightly underestimated how long it would take to copy and paste, print, cut & fold over 1100 entries!!

 After a BIG shake of the button jar John pulled out FIVE winners....

 Well done Ladies :-)
Please contact me to claim your prizes

A surprise for me!

For all those who don't see our Facebook page here is a copy & paste of the post John wrote this morning:
"Secret post" Hello world of crafters. John here for my first ever post on paper-and-string's page. Sarah doesn't know about this (so I expect a mix of joy and "WHAT have you done?") and will only find out when she reads this post. We are not only celebrating paper-and-string's 10th anniversary but this comming weekend is also Sarah's Birthday. To celebrate I have booked a secret weekend away so that means we will be closed for a long weekend.
The shops will still be open but we won't be posting orders out between Fri 30th Sept and Monday Oct 3rd
So if you want your order posting before we go please order by 9am on Thurday, orders received after that will be sent out on a "first come first served" basis when we get back (I hope that makes sense) Happy crafting. John.

How amazing is that?? amazing & sneaky I say ;-)
So we will be away for 4 days - if you need an order posting before we go please do it asap (last orders 9am Thursday this week) any orders placed after that will be sent when we come back...as always we will send out in the order we receive them :-)

what a week!

If something could go wrong this week, it blooming well did!  We had 60+ hours of a broken website.. 1 delivery driver who didn't show up (he still hasn't) ...wonky emails...a powercut... the barn's alarm went off late at night (false alarm) which meant a mad dash in the middle of the night to check it out ....
BUT
that's all over, and we've had a lovely weekend - we spent yesterday with my parents - the day after my Mum's Birthday - which is a proper reason to have cake - so we did :-)
Today we've been working, some of the time at the barn, but mostly on the sofa in my PJ's :-)
I've added some new button packs and new glittery pastel bells to our selection today

 and I'll be busy this evening ordering some restocks too.
This coming week is our last week of 10th Birthday celebrations, so remember to get all your entries in - I'll do a reminder post tomrrow :-)

The Balls are Back in Town

 My beautiful haberdashery cabinet was originally made to hold & display embroidery threads and tapestry wools, but little did the cabinet maker's know that it is also perfect for Felt Balls!

 The top three drawers are for felt shapes...then there's one for the 1cm balls

 three for 1.5cm and three for 2cm - with the perfect amount of compartments, one for each colour :-)
The BIG 3cm balls are in the bottom two drawers - with just enough room to also store the mix packs :-)

 Beautiful AND useful

The balls and shapes are on the website  here

fabric felt website update

After a MAMMOTH website update this weekend, I am super happy to announce that we now have 299 fabric felts to choose from! 

 I've chosen matching or contrasting felt backings ...
 ...and if you fancy a different felt backing colour you can have it! 

 ALL our fabric felt is made to order, here in the barn...when it's super busy it may mean it takes a day longer to send your order, but normally there's no delay at all :-)

 We now have 12 categories on the website (there's a link at the bottom of this post) 
from  Christmas, Halloween & Metallics...to Cute, Stripes & Dots ... with some Gingham & Tartan inbetween ;-)

 All our Fabric Felt is non-fray because the fabric is fused to our premium wool blend felt.  It is easy to use - just like felt really - and a dream to hand sew, the needle just glides through :-)

 Take a peek and see what you think:
Fabric Felt on the website