Skull and Cross Buns - Hand carved rubber stamps

And the winner is.... £20 you choose prize

2011-09-13T08:56:00.000+01:00

Comment number 79! A big congrats to the Girlie Skull fan from xtipix@yahoo.com... I will email you shortly to get your selection, well done!

Many thanks to all you entered and help promote the comp, it's much appreciated and has been great fun as per usual.

Right back to the carving....

Competition time - You Choose!

2011-09-05T11:24:00.002+01:00

Wow, what a fantastic few months I've had. Thanks so, so much for all of those who've purchased some stamps, I've sold well over 4000 now all over my shops, I'm very surprised that my hands haven't fallen off yet :-D

Anyway to mark hitting the 2000 sale mark in my Etsy shop, here's a little competition for you!

I had decided on £15 originally but bumped it up to £20 as a special thank you :) So yes, the lucky winner can choose £20 GBP worth of stamps for free!

How about getting a selection of Halloween stamps for your trick n' treating or get organised early with some Christmas designs, the choice is absolutely yours!

Good luck everyone!

Giveaway rules:

~The giveaway will end 23.59 BST (British Summer Time) on Sunday 11th September 2011.

~Anyone can enter, I will ship them worldwide!

~Again, to enter, simply visit my Etsy shop or my Folksy shop and leave a comment below to tell me what your favourite stamp is. If you are the lucky winner I'll get your stamps choices for the prize at the end of the competition.

~ £20 GBP is only redeemable against stamps in my main range. It cannot be redeemed against custom orders or ink pads or in conjunction with any other offer/discount code.
~ IMPORTANT: If you don't have a Blogger profile, please leave me some way of getting in contact with you on the comment (email address, Twitter username etc.) so I can notify you if you win :-)

~ I will use http://www.random.org/ to determine the winner, the winner will be chosen at random by their corresponding comment number.

~ No cash alternative will be given or any credit for any amount under £20 GBP not redeemed.

And the winner is....

2011-07-04T19:18:00.000+01:00

Crazy Gecko!!! Well done :-D I'll message you shortly to get your particulars... thanks to all the other entrants and better luck next time!

Competition time - Summer Fun!

2011-06-26T22:08:00.002+01:00

It's Summertime! (Well it was in Devon today anyway, can't guarantee what tomorrow will be like, mind you!) In the Cross Bun household we're looking forward to some live music, road trips, days at the beach, birthdays and parties, weddings and bbq's (provided the weather holds up for most of them)... I just can't wait!

I've also hit the 1500 landmark on my Facebook page, which is fabulous, thanks so much to all the new (and old) fans alike :-)

To celebrate my I thought I'd give away a pair of my stamps which are proving to be very popular so far this summer. For this giveaway I'll be sending the lucky winner 1 x Small Camper Van and 1 x Caravan of Love, a lovely set of summery fun stamps! Prize is worth a lovely £12.75 GBP.

To enter, simply visit my Etsy shop or my Folksy shop and leave a comment below to tell me what your favourite stamp is!

Giveaway rules:

~The giveaway will end 23.59 GMT on Sunday 3rd July 2011.

~Anyone can enter, I will ship them worldwide!

~Again, to enter, simply visit my Etsy shop or my Folksy shop and leave a comment below to tell me what your favourite stamp is.

~ IMPORTANT: If you don't have a Blogger profile, please leave me some way of getting in contact with you on the comment (email address, Twitter username etc.) so I can notify you if you win :-)

~ I will use http://www.random.org/

to determine the winner, the winner will be chosen at random by their corresponding comment number.

~ No cash alternative will be given.

Good Luck, everybody!

Folksy Friday -Floral Finds

2011-05-20T14:55:00.000+01:00

Happy Friday everyone! Got that Friday feeling yet?

Blogger was being all peculiar for me last week so have dipped my toes back into the dashboard today and all seems to be well so here's my latest Folksy Friday! (Thanks to Sydney on my Facebook Fan Page for the theme choice today, I was all out of ideas...)

So in homage to me hopefully de-weeding the garden and planting lots of lovely flowers in pots if my hay fever will permit, here's some of my favourite floral picks from the talented bunch on Folksy!

I hope you enjoy these fun picks and have a great weekend!

Emily

Folksy Friday - Devonshire Delights

2011-05-05T22:08:00.001+01:00

Right, now I'm getting back into the swing of blogging... back to doing my Folksy Fridays again!

For those not in the know a 'Folksy Friday' is a weekly selection of items found on the UK handmade sellers website Folksy which usually pops up in sellers blogs, Facebook pages etc to showcase some favourite items from other sellers in line with a theme, colour scheme, occasion and so on. If you sell on Folksy there is a little feature on the basics of how to make your own on the Folksy blog and the all important (and highly acclaimed!) Haptree Mini Treasury Template which helps us bloggers make sense of the html stuff needed to make one!

Anyhooooo.... I thought I'd get some inspiration from a little closer to home this week and find some picks local to me in sunny ol' Devon. Enjoy!

1. Dice Drop Earrings by Joie de Vivre
2. Sock Cupcake by Devonly Crafts
3. Tattoo Heart Brooch by Lucky Lulu
4. Bride and Groom Wine Glass Charms by Seaspray
5. Organic Tea Tree and Fresh Mint Soap by Original Soap Co.
6. Chicken and Egg Tea Cosy by Ruby Ruby

And the winner is....

2011-05-04T11:15:00.000+01:00

Comment number 8.... congratulations go to....

tamarajayne

Well done :-D I'll send you an email to get your contact details forthwith!

Thanks so much for all your entries, will definitely do some more comps in the future, they're great fun :-)

Competition time!

2011-04-30T15:54:00.001+01:00

Well it's about time I got back into blogging... it's been far too long!

Since I last posted, my Not On The High Street shop has opened and has done amazingly well and I've smashed through the 1500 sales mark on Etsy and the 500 mark on Folksy (as well as having over 1000 'likers' on Facebook!) So all in, things are going really well in Skull and Cross Buns land and I'm thrilled. Thanks so much for all your support so far, it means so much to me!

Anyway, I thought it's time I paid it back a bit so while I'm sat inside in the rain during this long bank holiday weekend, I'd get a little competition up and running!

For this giveaway I'll be sending the lucky winner 1 x Wool and Needles stamp, 1 x Sweet Three Button Set and 1 x Keep Calm and Craft On stamp, perfect stamps if you are so craftily inclined! Prize is worth a whopping £23.75 GBP and I'll ship worldwide!

To enter, simply visit my Etsy shop or my Folksy shop and leave a comment below to tell me what your favourite stamp is!

Giveaway rules:

~The giveaway will end 23.59 GMT on Tues 3rd May 2011.

~Anyone can enter, I will ship them worldwide!

~Again, to enter, simply visit my Etsy shop or my Folksy shop and leave a comment below to tell me what your favourite stamp is.
~ IMPORTANT: If you don't have a Blogger profile, please leave me some way of getting in contact with you on the comment (email address, Twitter username etc.) so I can notify you if you win :-)

~ I will use http://www.random.org/ to determine the winner, the winner will be chosen at random by their corresponding comment number.

Good Luck, everybody!

And the winner is...

2010-09-27T20:24:00.000+01:00

...for the Spooky Halloween giveaway (drum roll please!)

Which makes the winner... Artygal/Lalheg with this selected comment :)

Artygal/Lalheg said...

What, choose just one? OK, if I have to narrow it down - and this choice would change in a nano second - the little caravan of love

A big well done to you, your stamps will follow shortly! And a big thank you for all who entered!

Spooky Halloween giveaway!

2010-09-21T23:01:00.003+01:00

As promised to celebrate hitting the 500 fan/liker mark on my Facebook Fan Page here's a lovely big giveaway in time for Halloween :D

I'm giving away one of my Halloween Bumper Stamp Sets worth over $27 which contains 1 x Baby Barn Owl, 1 x Halloween Ghost, 1 x Mini Cute Spider, 1 x Pair Mini Pumpkins, 1 x Mini Quirky Skull and
1 x Vampire Bat!

To enter, simply visit my Etsy shop or my Folksy shop and leave a comment below to tell me what your favourite stamp is! Simples :D

Spooky Halloween Giveaway rules:

~The giveaway will end midnight GMT on Mon 27th September.

~Anyone can enter, I will ship them worldwide!

~Again, to enter, simply visit my Etsy shop or my Folksy shop and leave a comment below to tell me what your favourite stamp is.

~ IMPORTANT: If you don't have a Blogger profile, please leave me some way of getting in contact with you on the comment (email address, Twitter username etc.) so I can notify you if you win :-)

~ I will use http://www.random.org/ to determine the winner, the winner will be chosen at random by their corresponding comment number.

Good Luck, everybody!

Folksy Friday - Mwah

2010-09-03T12:40:00.000+01:00

I know, I know, it's been forever since my last post but things have been crazy busy with a fantastic mention on a Etsy Finds email in June which sent sales through the roof! A big thanks to all my customers on Etsy and Folksy :D

Things are quietening down now so I've been adding to my ranges for Halloween as well as lots of other designs and I've been taking part with August A-Team on Folksy where we have to list a new item each day to promote sales. So yes, it's been fun but busy!

Anyway back to business, here's my latest Folksy Friday! It was mine and Mr Cross Buns' wedding anniversary last week so I thought I'd do a fun smoochie Folksy Friday! Enjoy *mwah*

Etsy Finds - We all scream for ice cream!

2010-06-03T22:48:00.000+01:00

Well summertime has well and truly arrived in Devon, we're hoping that it will be an 'ice cream' summer and my garden may actually stand a chance this year!

Speaking of ice cream, I saw a link from Cute Designs earlier on my Twitter feed for an adorable Amigurumi ice cream which inspired me to hunt around Etsy for some other sweet treats!

Enjoy! (and make mine a 99!)

And the winner is...

2010-06-01T08:55:00.001+01:00

...Comment number 5!

Big congrats to Em, here is her winning comment below!

Em said...

Oh I love those two! My friend is moving to Australia next month, so I'd use them to decorate the letters I'll be sending her, and to jazz up plain wrapping paper.

26 MAY 2010 22:49

Many thanks to all who entered, RT'd on Twitter and 'Shared' on Facebook, it's much appreciated! Look out for more giveaways to come :-)

Stamping Inspiration - Fabric Bags

2010-05-30T22:07:00.000+01:00

I've been taking some more product pics today; I've been approached by one of the top cardmaking magazines in the UK who would like a picture of my Caravan of Love stamp in a little feature so I've redone that picture. I'm thrilled to bits to have been approached for this :-D

At the same time, I started to take a few more shoots to inspire people on how to use their Skull and Cross Buns stamps. I made a custom stamp for my Mum to give as a gift and she made a sweet little cotton gift bag for it to go in and what better way to customise it than stamping on it, of course!

I used a Versa Craft ink pad on this one (sometimes they're known as Fabrico). It's a great multi-purpose ink pad which you can use on paper and wood as well as fabric, you simply heat set it with a non-steam iron and then it's permanent and can be washed.

The birdie in the stamp is my new Sleepy Birdie, coming to my shops soon in a pair like my mini and midi ones.

Right, I'm off to enjoy the rest of my Bank Holiday weekend, I hope you're having a great one, too!

(P.S. don't forget to enter my stamp giveaway, it ends Tues 1st June at midnight!)

May Giveaway!

2010-05-26T22:16:00.000+01:00

Hey everyone, it's competition time :-D

I'm giving away one of my Spotty Toadstool stamps and one Baby Barn Owl stamp to accompany it! Use them for cardmaking, scrapbooking, making your own unique gift wrap, stamping on fabric, wood and so much more!

So if you'd like to win these... here's what you have to do!

May Giveaway rules:

~The giveaway will end midnight GMT on Tues 1st June.

~Anyone can enter, I will ship them worldwide!

~To enter, please leave a comment underneath this blog post telling me what you would use the stamps for if you won them!

~ If you don't have a Blogger profile, please leave me some way of getting in contact with you on the comment (email address, Twitter username etc.) so I can notify you if you win :-)

~ I will use http://www.random.org/ to determine the winner, the winner will be chosen at random by their corresponding comment number.

Good Luck, everybody!

Folksy Friday - Foxy Finds

2010-05-14T13:10:00.000+01:00

Hey all! It's been a busy few days in Skull and Cross Buns Towers, school was closed two days last week which has delayed my creativity a bit but I was almost back on track after having a lovely influx of orders until my trusty laptop came to a grinding halt last night :-O

Anyway I've now taken over Mr Cross Buns' computer instead (sorry hubby!) so business as normal as soon as I can get my printer plugged in.

It's Folksy Friday time and as usual I racked my brain for ideas and thought about a Fox theme :-) It's our surname and the kids have got loads of toy Foxes around the house; they might well have a few more looking at the lovely selection on Folksy!

A foxy selection, I'm sure you'll agree ;-)

Have a great weekend!

Etsy Picks - Feeling Fruity!

2010-05-12T13:13:00.000+01:00

I'm trying to have a bit of a healthy eating kick at the moment (last night's takeaway excluded!) so my currently overflowing fruit bowl gave me some inspiration for some Etsy picks!

Enjoy :-D

Folksy Friday - Happy St George's Day!

2010-04-23T10:46:00.000+01:00

Well it's St George's day today in England, so it was rather easy to choose my theme this week for my Folksy Friday.

It's a gloriously sunny day so I'm going to attempt to plant bits and bobs in the garden so straight to my picks!

Happy St George's Day!

Sneaky peek!

2010-04-21T22:18:00.000+01:00

Good evening all :-)

Firstly, I'm in shock... three posts on my blog in less than a week? Hopefully the sign of things to come! (If you're really interested in up to the minute Skull and Cross Buns news there's always my Facebook Fan page or 'Like' page, whatever it's now called ;-) )

Anyway, I thought I'd pop up a sneaky peek of a new design, mini cupcake with wings, let me know what you think!

I will pop it up in my shops over the next couple of days; I've got a couple more 'winged' designs in the offing. too. My rationale, I think, after this whole Volcano erupting ash cloud nonsense affecting my overseas orders is to add wings to my designs so they have a better chance of flying themselves over!

Right, I'm off to carve :-)

Etsy Picks - Star Wars

2010-04-20T00:18:00.000+01:00

With hindsite I should have done this selection on May the 4th (...be with you) but after being inspired by a post on the Domestic Sluttery blog today, I thought I'd rustle up a selection of Star Wars themed items from Etsy.

Star Wars reigns supreme in the Skull and Cross Buns household, my youngest insists on going to bed clutching his Lego minifig of Luke Skywalker plus lightsaber every night and I'm often serenaded of a morning by both boys singing the Imperial March at full volume...

Anyway... onto the selection!

Enjoy ;-)

Folksy Friday... First attempt - Skull and Cross Buns

2010-04-16T11:38:00.000+01:00

Eeep, I'm trying to set up my first Folksy Friday as inspired by my lovely mention in the Hotdog and Me blog today :-)

My first theme will be inspired by my brand name so here's a lovely selection of skulls and cupcakes from fellow Folksy sellers (my cross buns!)

I hope you like my little selection!

Have a nice weekend

Emily xoxo

Just don't look at the date on the previous post...

2010-02-27T23:33:00.000Z

Oh dear, it's been far too long since I last updated :-S

Anyway, I'm here now so I'll get typing! It's been fantastic since I opened my Etsy shop http://www.etsy.com/shop/skullandcrossbuns; it's really gone from strength to strength, especially the past couple of weeks. Less than a fortnight ago I was eagerly awaiting my 100th sale and now I'm not far off my 150th!

My bestselling item so far is the Tweet, tweet - pair of mini Birdie stamps and the same design in the midi size as well as plenty of cupcakes, skulls, swallows, owls, toadstools and much more besides.

Further to my attempt for (craft) world domination I have opened my Folksy shop today, which is like Etsy but UK based and in £GBP, http://folksy.com/shops/skullandcrossbuns.

I'm also into a bit of social networking (aka procrastinating!) so you can track me down on Twitter http://twitter.com/skullncrossbuns and on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/pages/Skull-and-Cross-Buns-Hand-Carved-Rubber-Stamps/245453522738.

Right back to order fulfilment, I've been so busy tonight I didn't even realise I've watched Match of the Day from beginning to end!

Hurrah, finally open!

2009-10-22T20:58:00.000+01:00

Just a quick update, I'm really busy finally listing my wares on Etsy! Have a look, let me know what you think!

There's a sneak preview in the box on the right, which links through to the shop and listings, ok the shop is fairly empty at the moment but I'm gradually adding my stamps so keep popping back :-)

The 'Punk' stamp was my first item listed and it's had quite a few 'views' so far; everyone keep your fingers crossed that I'll get that first sale soon!

Birthday pressies and Etsy shop!

2009-09-27T19:45:00.000+01:00

Thought I'd pop up a couple of pictures of some of my latest creations, some personalised stamps for my friend's kids for their recent birthdays... they went down rather well! I hadn't really thought of selling personalised ones before but the text wasn't actually too fiddly to do, so it might be an option.

This was a toadstool for the fairy mad Isobel...

and a super hero for 'Spidey' fan Ben!

I was especially pleased how Ben's came out and I've been constantly pestered since by my two to make them the same.

I've set up my Etsy shop finally (http://www.skullandcrossbuns.etsy.com/) and I'm just getting my first selection of stamps ready to sell and getting stupidly excited at the prospect!! Please have a nosey and let me know what you think so far :) You can always 'favourite' me in advance if you like ;-) Please check back early October, I'll be running a couple of special offers for the grand opening.

Right off to do yet more carving, hope you all had a great weekend...

Blows dust off blog...

2009-09-19T20:21:00.000+01:00

Well it's been rather a long time since I last updated this so here goes!

After being made redundant in late March I pretty much went straight to work for another local mail order company, I love my new job!

Anyway, back to the stamps! Over the summer after experimentation and spending rather a lot of £, I was really struggling to get good results out of the polymer clear stamping kit. This was really frustrating as I had loads of great designs with now not much to do with them. I spent a bit of time searching the web for some inspiration and found a fantastic selection of pictures of hand carved rubber stamps on flickr and had a bit of an 'Eureka!' moment!!

Now the only real experience I had of hand carving before was doing Lino printing in secondary school using incredibly blunt and virtually prehistoric carving tools (our Art department was massively underfunded...) I sourced some cheap erasers and a basic carving kit and got some fairly good results and it was really nice to feel that I was getting back on track..

Fast forward to today and I'm almost ready to start selling! I've got some wooden blocks, some slightly better tools than the school ones (I bet they are still being used there now and still haven't been sharpened ;-) ), found which carving medium suits me best and lots of great designs under my belt. I'm faffing around on Gimp tonight to create my Etsy banner, so watch this space!

This picture is of some of my works in progress, let me know what you think!

Plotting

2009-02-04T22:17:00.000Z

So, I've had a really positive couple of days business wise. Me and hubby's mate Dan popped over last night who is a software developer (I think...) and it knowledgeable in all things 'web'. Needless to say setting up the online shop for selling my wares is rather a steep learning curve but very exciting nonetheless. Lots of talk of Google Analytics and metatags and optimisation and lots of blank expressions on my face.

I have been finishing my first set of designs over the past couple of days, some folksy-style Russian dolls, in varying sizes and patterns. I think primarily I will be concentrating on designing and making clear unmounted rubber stamps to start off with, business-wise. I've been looking into the start up costs and they aren't too high and making the stamps myself means I'm not tied down to large minimum orders from suppliers etc etc.

Anyway, better get back to the light box, these designs don't draw themselves :-)

It begins...

2009-02-02T13:33:00.000Z

Well I thought I would start one of these blog thingies as a kind of diary to document the start (hopefully!) of my business and of day to day goings on in the family as my memory is so blinking awful!

I'm sat at home with a poorly Eddie who decided to throw up all over himself en route to nursery and we are gradually watching our way through the Disney Pixar back catalogue, just for a change...

A bit of background on my current situation, I've just found out that it is pretty likely I will be made redundant from my current part time job. I've been there since leaving uni and to be honest this is probably the kick up the bum I've needed to actually use my degree and have a job I might actually enjoy. So following my love of design and card making I have started to go into business making and designing my own rubber stamps. The start up costs are remarkably cheap and I have lots of unique and rather funky ideas up my sleeve, so watch this space :-)

Skull and Cross Buns - Hand carved rubber stamps

And the winner is.... £20 you choose prize

Competition time - You Choose!

And the winner is....

Competition time - Summer Fun!

Folksy Friday -Floral Finds

Folksy Friday - Devonshire Delights

And the winner is....

tamarajayne

Competition time!

And the winner is...

Spooky Halloween giveaway!

Folksy Friday - *Mwah*

Etsy Finds - We all scream for ice cream!

And the winner is...

Stamping Inspiration - Fabric Bags

May Giveaway!

Folksy Friday - Foxy Finds

Etsy Picks - Feeling Fruity!

Folksy Friday - Happy St George's Day!

Sneaky peek!

Etsy Picks - Star Wars

Folksy Friday... First attempt - Skull and Cross Buns

Just don't look at the date on the previous post...

Hurrah, finally open!

Birthday pressies and Etsy shop!

Blows dust off blog...

Plotting

It begins...

Folksy Friday - Mwah