Well another new year! Hope everyone had a good holiday season ;)

Christmas seemed to go by quite quick, with the usual amount of bunting and frolics (hehe), and now I’m sorting out the shop for the new year, taking out the Christmas items and adding some new and exciting additions!!

As soon as I get back home again I’ll start up making beads again, I love that – and someone is bidding on some already – yay! :D

As a crafts person myself I like to make things a lot, and that is sort of why I opened my craft shop – so I could make things to sell, not just buy them and sell them on.

To that end I have started making Millefiori beads out of polymer clay! I think this type of bead is absolutely gorgeous, and so unique.

You make them by making a ‘cane’ of the design – as in a long tube with the design running through the middle of it, then you cut off small strips and pierce them to form the bead hole.

Even if I do another run of the same design, they will never be quite the same because they are hand made and so carry their own little quirks ;)

I love to make these, and have been designing them for a while now. I take other people’s designs and modify them, use my own artistic flair and create a new and individual look.

They take a long time to make, but once they are done they are really worth the wait and the time and effort. I hope people like them!

I am also going to start selling my One Of A Kind sculptures soon, I hope! Starting with cute animals, because they are so fun to make and I know a lot of people like cute animals!

I have a new line of exclusively designed scrapbooking papers in my shop! Exclusive, as in nowhere else sells them - if you want to get your hands on them then Arts and Crafts Heaven is the place!

I hope these sell well as they are very gorgeous, and so cheap compared to some scrapbooking papers that are on the market.

They are only 35p each and I’ve started selling them in packs of ten, but really I could sell anyone any number they want.

I will be adding more colours and variations as time goes on all being well! I'm also going to make up some packs of different sets of papers, so people can mix and match.

Why do some companies actually believe they are the only shop in the world? Don’t they realise if they let me down, I can just go somewhere else to get my stuff.

It’s really annoying when I have to apologise to customers for something that isn’t my fault, but the fault of a supplier who has let me down!

So sorry to anyone who I have had to cancel or change orders for – really sorry, but it’s just out of my control. I’ll do my best to send out your orders but sometimes it’s just not possible.

I’ve just spent a little time trying to find some more suppliers that are the same and/or better than the one I’ve been using. I’ve had some luck, thankfully, so I’ll be able to provide lots of good products very soon! I’ll only be listing them when they are in my hand to list, I won’t be relying on the company saying they have posted something when they clearly haven’t!

So watch this space for new and better products coming very soon!!

After Christmas (hopefully!), I will be setting up Arts and Crafts Heaven independent of eBay. I’ll mainly be using eBay as an advertising tool and to keep in contact with some regular customers I’ve built up. Watch this space!

It’s quite disconcerting that on eBay it seems that most people want something for nothing, and want it delivered yesterday!

I’m trying my best, packing items the same day as I get payment and posting the next day, and it Still doesn’t seem to be enough for some people!

I don’t want to seem like I’m whining, I do enjoy it overall, it’s just I think buyers on eBay Have to give a little leeway…after all, we’re only human.

To run a shop you have to have a sizable amount of listings (I have been keeping mine capped at 200 at the moment), which means usually more than ten packages to go out each day, for powersellers even more than that. Speaking for myself, I run my shop single handed, with a little bit of help taking photos of items, but the rest is up to me and there are only so many hours in a day! I only have two hands!

It’s also funny to me than if you were buying from an online shop not on eBay, you wouldn’t expect next day delivery. I’ve even had delivery after more than a week and not been too bothered about it.

Buyers please cut us sellers some slack – we’re providing a service, and a good one at that. Most of the time a Great service if I’m blowing my own trumpet for a second. We’re happy to sell you good products at reasonable prices, but sometimes reasonable isn’t rock bottom, and sometimes delivery does take more than one day!