Merry Christmas!

I want to wish all of my Blog readers a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.


It has been an exciting year for Claire Hurd Design with lots more planned for 2011. It has been wonderful to be able to share my goings on with you all and I look forward to blogging even more next year.


All of your custom, support and comments have meant the world to me and have helped Claire Hurd Design become what it is today as I sign off and put my little business to bed until the 5th of January. Thank you so much for everything and have a wonderful happy, healthy, family holiday.


Best Wishes, Claire xxx

And the winner is ........

Helen Ruse!


Congratulations Helen, I hope Father Christmas brings you the craft supplies you have wished for!


If you could send me your address to studio@clairehurd.co.uk I shall put your goodies in the post for you.

Thank you to everyone who entered, both here and on my Facebook page. You left some lovely comments. The overwhelming wish was for families and friends to be together this Christmas. There were a couple of entrants with poorly family members so I wish them a speedy recovery and hope they have a fit and healthy festive period. 


Claire x


(winner selected using random.org)

Christmas Giveaway Update

Unfortunately Facebook are no longer allowing competitions to take place on business pages. I am therefore transferring my competition to my blog. All existing entries will be included and anyone else wishing to take part can leave me a comment below this post.


Simply tell me what is at the top of your Christmas wishlist this year.
Competition closes at 5pm tomorrow (Monday 6th December) - good luck! 

Christmas Giveaway on Facebook!

I am having a Christmas giveaway on Facebook. Pop over to the Claire Hurd Design page to join in. 


All you need to do to win the handmade Christmas goodies below is leave a comment under the giveaway post telling me what is at the top of your Christmas wish list this year. A winner will be selected at random next Monday.

I look forward to hearing your Christmas wishes, good luck! 

Winchester Handm@de

I had a lovely day on Saturday selling at the Winchester Handm@de Christmas craft fair. The fair took place in the Guildhall which has been refurbished since we were last there in the summer and is now looking great, much more light than before.

My products sold well and it was lovely to have a chance to meet my customers face-to-face and get their feedback. It is so nice when people have the time to stop and chat. People had such lovely things to say about my work and were so encouraging about where I am heading with 'Claire Hurd Design'. Most of all people admired the quality of my work which I was really pleased about. It is so important to me that everything I produce is manufactured to the highest standard. I want to show with my products that 'handmade' means made with love, care and attention to detail; making it stand out from mass-produced goods. 

As is always the case with the Handm@de craft fairs the other stall holders were all really friendly and there were some beautiful products for sale. In particular it was really lovely to catch up with Meninafeliz again. I first met Meninafeliz before I had taken part in any craft fairs and when I was still new to online selling. They have always been so friendly and encouraging and full of advice. We had such a lovely catch up and I was even treated to one of their lovely products (I won't know what until Christmas day!) by my Husband. Take a look at their beautiful work HERE.


My neighbours at this fair were the lovely 'Quercus Silver' and 'Jude Allman'. It makes such a difference at craft fairs when you are positioned with people that are producing beautiful that captures your interest and that are nice and friendly! Quercus Silver were selling silver and resin handmade jewellery and Jude Allman was selling beautiful ceramic pots, buttons and decorations. Do check out their work as I am sure you will love it as much as I do. Quercus Silver can be found HERE and Jude Allman HERE.

A Trio of Christmas Decorations

My handmade Christmas decorations are now available to purchase as a mixed set of three; consisting of one Christmas robin, one Christmas pudding and one Snowman.


Click HERE for more details.

Personalised Christmas Stockings

I am rather late with these this year, many apologies. Thank you to all of those that have enquired about these and placed your orders already.


My handmade personalised Christmas stockings are now available to purchase from my Folksy shop!

A generously sized handmade Christmas stocking personalised just for you. These bright and festive Christmas stockings are handmade to order making them a truly special gift that can be treasured forever. This Christmas stocking measures approx. 59cm tall, 37cm from heel to toe and 22cm across at the opening. The hanging loop measures approx. 9cm and is stitched downwards inside the stocking hiding it from view when not in use.


Click HERE or contact me directly at studio@clairehurd.co.uk to place your order 

Christmas Robin Brooches

I really hate to give up on a project or throw anything away. This has resulted in many half-finished projects and test samples for new designs around my studio. I recently came across the Robin test sample I made for my Christmas decorations last year.


This first sample really didn't work, it was much too small, tiny even. Tiny but very cute! So, I have tweaked it slightly and turned my rejected sample in to a cute little Christmas Robin brooch to wear at my upcoming Craft Fair (Winchester Guildhall, Saturday 13th November, 11am-5pm!). I was so pleased with the results that I have created templates for the design and am producing it for sale in my online shops.

This cute little fellow has a bead and sequin eye, a foam beak and a lined felt wing. He has been lightly stuffed and the wing has been secured half-way so it stands proud. The brooch is fastened on the reverse with a silver-coloured brooch bar with safety catch. The robin measures approx. 8cm from tip of beak to tip of tail and approx 4cm tall.

This festive little bird would be a great addition to a Christmas outfit or snug Wintery coat and can be purchased from my Folksy shop or my NOTHS shop.

Christmas Snowmen

Things are really busy here at Claire Hurd Design at the moment. Online orders are gaining a festive momentum, private commissions are flooding in and I am preparing stock for the Handm@de Craft Fair at Winchester Guildhall on Saturday 13th November.


With Christmas in mind I have made a new decoration - a Christmas Snowman. I am pleased with this one - I think he looks rather cute! He is now available to buy in my online shops.

New Products Official Photographs

At this time of year there seems to be just a half-hour slot on sunny days between 10am and 10:30am where I can take photographs in the garden. At this time the sun is high enough in the sky to avoid too much shadow and has not yet gone behind the trees and become dappled. Therefore when I saw the weather was good yesterday morning I dashed out to get my new photos taken.

I now have images ready to list my new Personalised Liberty Print Make-Up Bags online, I have been able to list my Christmas Pudding Hanging Decoration, and I can give you a preview of this year's personalised Christmas Stocking design.

So, firstly here are my Make-Up Bag/Make-Up Purse photos ....

This is my new Christmas Pudding Decoration ....

And, this is my new Christmas Stocking to be listed in my online shops soon ....

If you would like to pre-order a personalised Christmas Stocking as shown above please email me at studio@clairehurd.co.uk. Cx

New Products

Firstly, please forgive the quality of these photographs. I have had to take them indoors using flash, it has been so dark here today. I shall be taking proper photographs and listing these items in my shops next week but wanted to share them with you before the weekend.


My Personalised Liberty Print Make-Up Bags have been hugely popular recently and I now only have enough fabric for two more. For these make-up bags I buy a length of Liberty Print fabric and then work my way through it as the orders come in, the fabrics are seasonal therefore effectively making my bags 'limited edition'. Once the fabric is gone, i'ts gone!


I am therefore introducing two new colourways for the winter season. The first is berry cordurory / olive pin-cord teamed with a bright and cheery pink and green ditsy floral Liberty print. The second is a lovely chocolate brown pin-cord teamed with a contemporary Liberty floral print in shades of brown and teal. 

I shall be introducing a new smaller make-up purse size that is personalised with a lower case initial (my make-up bags are personalised with an upper-case initial).


I shall also be adding a handmade Christmas pudding hanging decoration to join my existing Christmas Robin decoration already available in my shops. The pudding is made from felt and brushed cotton and embellished with a button and tiny black bead currants.

Must get on with completing more orders now. I hope you enjoyed having a little sneaky peak at my new products. Cx  

Happy New Year!

Happy new year! I hope you have all had a wonderful festive season and are feeling fresh and inspired ready for the new year.

I have had a lovely family break and am now eager to get back to work and start filling my shops with new products. I have all sorts of plans for 'Claire Hurd Design' this year and I look forward to sharing them with you.

I have pictures to show you of my final Christmas stocking commission for 2009. This stocking was extra special to me as I was making it for my gorgeous niece's first Christmas. She is an absolute bookworm and has already discovered a love of Fairies (a girl after my own heart!) so I personalised her stocking and added a pretty Christmas fairy for her. The embroidered 'Christmas 2009' text is on the stocking foot-arch reverse.

Just before Christmas I was lucky enough to win not one, but two blog giveaways. I have been extremely lucky recently with giveaway wins as I really do not enter many, only those where I am a real fan of the products!

My first was a lovely festive package from Monda Loves. I received some beautiful handmade tree decorations, some lovely handmade cards, a little stash of red and white fabrics and buttons and some of my favourite chocolates. Such a lovely surprise - thank you very much Monda!

The second was from Ruby Wren Designs. I received a lovely assortment of Ruby Wren handmade greetings cards including the 3D butterfly one below. I now have lots of lovely eco-friendly cards to send to my friends, great motivation to send more hand-written letters. Thank you Hayley for my lovely prize, I look forward to using them.

Christmas Giveaway on Facebook

I am having a Christmas giveaway on Facebook. Pop over to my page for a chance to win one of my cute little Christmas Robin decorations and a Christmas Pudding card.

Claire Hurd Design Facebook page.

AMENDED 13th Dec. 2009 - We have a winner!

Congratulations to Julie Davis who was randomly selected using 'Random.Org' as my Christmas giveaway winner. Your prize will be on it's way to you very soon.

Thank you to everyone who entered. The kind comments and messages you sent were lovely and a real boost.

Handm@de Cambridge Christmas Craft Fair

I am back! It has been a while as I have been very busy keeping up with online orders and preparing for the Handm@de Cambridge Christmas craft fair.

The craft fair took place on Saturday and I am really pleased with how it went. It was my first craft fair and I was not really sure what to expect so went along with the attitude that as long as I covered my costs I would be happy. It turned out that despite being a relatively quiet fair I easily covered my

costs and made a healthy profit on top.

It was lovely being able to chat with my customers and I received lots of really positive feedback on my products which was very encouraging. I was also able to catch up with some familiar faces from the Winchester and Oxford fairs. Through the Handm@de craft fairs I have met some really lovely fellow designer/makers and it was wonderful to chat about crafty things and share hopes and dreams with people working in similar fields.

I particularly want to introduce my blog readers to the following people - all truly lovely, very friendly and creating beautiful products.

Julie of 'Little Button Nose', Karen of 'Chalk Hill Studio', Karen of 'Hodge Podge Arts', Cath of 'Emerald Framing', 'Twinkly Spangle', Natalie of 'Nat's Nest' and Alice who organised the event. It was wonderful to meet you all and sorry if I have missed anyone!

What I am Working on Today

Just popping my head in to say a quick hello.

I am busy, busy, creating Christmas goodies for my Craft Fair stall whilst keeping on top of my online orders and commissions.

Here is a quick glimpse of what I am working on today.

My Handmade Christmas Robin decorations have been selling as quickly as I can make them so I have been working hard these last couple of days to produce a bulk quantity in preparation for further orders and for my craft fair stand.

I also have some 'Claire Hurd Design' bunting cut and waiting to be embroidered which my Mum has very helpfully started off for me (thank you Mum!). I shall do a proper reveal as soon as it is finished.

The Christmas Craft Fair I shall be exhibiting at is the Handm@de Cambridge Craft Fair at the Guildhall in Cambridge city centre on Saturday the 5th December between 11am and 5pm. Do come along and say hello. There are some great designers exhibiting and it will be the perfect opportunity to do some unique handmade Christmas shopping.

More Christmas Goodies

I have been listing more Christmas goodies in my online shops today including my personalised Christmas stockings in my NOTHS shop and a cute little Christmas robin decoration in both my NOTHS shop and my Folksy shop.

As always, feel free to contact me at studio@clairehurd.co.uk if there is anything you would like to order directly.

Christmas Robin Card Design

My latest Christmas card design shows a cute little Christmas Robin. It is available now from my online shops here and here.

Christmas Listings

I have been trying to hold off listing my Christmas items online as it still feels too early to be admitting that Christmas is on its way. However, browsing online this weekend and also receiving my copy of the Not on the Highstreet Christmas catalogue in the post made me realise that I had better get listing ASAP or risk getting left behind! It seems that the beginning of October is the time to list Christmas items and not mid-late October as I had imagined!

I have now listed my Christmas Pudding card on both Folksy and NOTHS and have plenty more Christmassey items lined up to join it. The only problem with this time of the year is having enough daylight to take sharp and bright photographs. Hopefully I will get a chance to photograph a couple more items tomorrow and list them too.

I shall keep you updated as I add each item and remember if you would like to place a custom order based on something you see here or simply wish to order direct you can email me a studio@clairehurd.co.uk and I will be happy to help.

Christmas Cards Now Ready - Early Bird Special Offer

The first design from my 2009 Christmas card collection is now ready.


I have created a small Christmas pudding motif in felt and appliqued it on to a festive red gingham base. I have decorated the pudding with felt holly and sequin and bead berries. The card base is a lovely pearly white, as is the matching envelope.


The card measures approx. 10cm x 15cm and has been left blank for your own message. The card comes in a protective cellophane wrapper and will be listed in my online shops for £3.80 each.

However, my Christmas goodies will not be listed in my online shops until mid-October. For an early-bird 10% discount and free P&P please email me directly with your order at studio@clairehurd.co.uk.

Christmas in August!

As all other designers will know, you have to get ready for Christmas very early in this business. I have therefore been working on new personalised Christmas stockings for 2009. I have perfected my stocking shape which I first experimented with in 2006 when I made the grey stocking in this image. This year's design is simple yet striking making it easy for me to produce at short notice for custom orders.

I have chosen nice bright Christmas colours and cheerful gingham fabrics. The stockings themselves are made from corduroy making them cosy and robust. I have added a hanging loop to the top and secured it in such a way that it is hidden from view if not in use.

I shall be adding these stockings to my NOTHS shop later on in the year. However, if you are super organised and would like to order one before then or would like something custom made in a similar style then do not hesitiate to contact me. Simply send me an email with your request to studio@clairehurd.co.uk.