Recently I saw a beautiful picture of some “Salt Dough Gift Tags” on Pinterest. They immediately piqued my interest and I set about thinking up a tutorial with a slight twist on the original idea (look out for it next week!) but didn’t think much of it again. This morning, half way through baking my own gift tags, I decided to wander along to the original blog (which I hadn’t looked at previously) and see how her dough recipe might [...]

I have been doing a LOT of browsing around Etsy, MadeIt and Artfire recently looking for some prints to put up in our bedroom, of course, I start looking at prints and before I know it I’ve got about forty tabs open with everything ranging from prints to clothes to jewellery. Now I’m certainly no photography snob, but so many times I saw something that might have been fabulous, if only the picture was a little clearer, a little brighter [...]

With the advent of online market places it’s become a lot easier to sell your handmade crafts, gone are the days of sitting out in the rain on a sunday morning at a craft market hoping that the right person would come along and see your wares. Now you can create, take some photos, write a bit of blurb and for a small fee sell your wares whilst you’re sitting in your pyjamas watching reruns of “Friends”. I’m about to [...]

Some parents claim that their child is a true ‘artist’, sure that the random drawings they create reflect natural talent and ability. Now for them it may be true, but for my daughter and many other young kiddies out there this is simply not the case. If you are anything like me though, ever the proud parent, you still love the scribbles and want to keep as many as is realistically possible, but what to do with them? Keep the [...]

Lately my husband and I have implemented a rewards system for our three year old. She is awarded stars (the cute origami kind) and gets to trade them in for little pretties that I buy her from??? You guessed it! No other place but Etsy! Recently I was wading through the thousands of tiny hair clips for sale when a beautiful pair of violet flowers (which have since been sold, boo hoo) caught my eye. I never could have imagined [...]

I am always (and I do mean ALWAYS) checking Etsy, in search of unique clothing for my girls. If I am going to buy handmade clothes I want them to be different and original, but I still have the expectation that they will be well made, reasonably priced and of course, look amazing. Whilst there is a lot of clothing for children on Etsy, finding everything I want in the one place is not an easy task. Needless to say [...]

Eeee! A new local artist find, I am a happy woman. Trawling around Etsy this morning I stumbled on to Melbourne based Mara Girling and her beautiful artwork, my jaw hit the floor, Instantly I was drawn to her Animal Stack – my son’s room is a jungle theme so I have a soft spot for animal artworks. I love how simple the prints are and yet manage to cram in so much detail, she has a beautiful whimsical style [...]

Ed’s note: Please welcome Leah, our resident shopping guru, to the blog, this is her first post of (hopefully!) many more on CB. My name is Leah and I’m an addict. An Etsy addict. I can’t make, sew, knit, paint or build anything (yet), but what I can do is buy handmade. For me, my girls, our home, our friends and just about anyone else I can justify making a purchase for. I pour over the lovingly handmade item treasure [...]

…or something like that, I forget. What I do know though is that I am currently coveting Tim Neve’s artwork, in particular his “Nest” collection full of beautiful handmade items for your home. I love butterflies and secretly long to have walls covered in carefully pinned specimins, but then my inner hippy comes along and my consience gets the better of me. These beautiful framed butterflies are just as good and you can feel safe in the knowledge that nothing [...]

One Red Robin is the blog of Melbourne based (see what I said previously!) mum of two, Jhoanna. An IT Analyst by day, she moonlights as a crafter by night, her blog is filled with some amazing artwork, with a big focus on kooky softies with a beautiful vintage twist, and more recently a strong focus on fabric design – as a crocheter I love her granny square fabric!. She has been featured in newspapers and has had her designs [...]