The Lovely Blogger List!

Just a quick introduction whilst the blog is a baby. This was an idea posted over at the Lovely Clusters blog. Visit the link to discover some interesting and inspirational design and craft blogs!


My name is Jaclyn and I am a recently graduated graphic designer from Sydney, Australia. I love to read - I'm currently obsessed with Percy Jackson and the Olympians (by Rick Riordan) series as well as The Mortal Instruments series (by Cassandra Clare). I have a wonderful group of friends who enjoy (or endure) movie nights watching hideously bad horror films, for reasons unknown to us.

At the moment I design print material such as restaurant menus, logos and banners. I also design and code websites (my skills are basic but I'm learning more and more as I go along). But my first love is designing and making journals or notebooks, which I have been doing for several years.

I am constantly inspired by the work of any other book binder that I come across and I am always looking for new techniques and ways to improve. I am inspired by nature and romantic/vintage/pretty things! Under 'My Blog List' you can also find some of the blogs that I find inspirational.

Find me here:

Home | Shop | Twitter

A Beautiful Idea

Now why didn't someone think of this before?! A Beautiful Idea is an organisation that encourages artists and crafters to donate 100% of the proceeds of one (or as many as you like) of your goods sold to a charity! This month it is World Vision, specifically for the Haiti relief. If you sign yourself up they will feature your chosen product on their Shop. Spread the word!

I have chosen the Leaf Wrap Journal to be sold in partnership with A Beautiful Idea, and 100% of the proceeds (even the postage) will go towards World Vision.

Mini Burgers!

These amazing little mini burgers were recently featured on the Upon A Fold blog. They are made by Stephanie Anderson. I am in awe of the attention to detail and patience you would need to make this!

Visit her Flickr page or her store for more.

I also thoroughly recommend that you visit Upon A Fold to see more goodies like this!

Aussie Hand Made websites to sell your goodies

I always thought that there weren't any Australian websites that provided a platform for Australian designers to sell and promote their goods without having to set up their own website and shopping cart platform. I thought Etsy was the only option, and whilst Etsy is fantastic I wanted something local as well.

How silly of me, because I am discovering more fantastic Australian sites each day!

Here are some well known ones:

Georgie Love - "Georgie Love launched in March 2006 and was Australia's first website store dedicated to promoting and selling handmade delights from independent and emerging artists from Australia!"

Made It - "Madeit.com.au is a handmade online buying and selling destination, which showcases Australia’s most creative, undiscovered art, design & craft talent."

Leeloo - "Leeloo is an online community and store where treasures from a selected group of emerging Australian designers and artists can become yours!"

Udessi - "Udessi is an online boutique gallery and the new home of independent Australian art. By bringing together both established and emerging Australian artists to showcase and sell their works, Brisbane-based curator Kim Wallace has achieved her goal of providing a unique shopping experience to those who value quality and originality."

Modamuse - "showcasing creative designer gifts crafted by independent modern Australian and New Zealand designers and artisans."

These two stores are actually retail spaces. How awesome it would be to physically see one of your designs in a store! You can apply to be a supplier via their website.

Milk Thieves Art & Design - "The Milk Thieves Art & Design store is a mini market of handmade art, design and craft goods located in central Wollongong. The store aims to provide a unique space for Australian independent and emerging creatives to sell their work."

Little Shop Of Handmade - has a retail space located in Melbourne and an online store. I believe you need to be in the Melbourne (or possibly Victoria) area to become a supplier as they focus on supporting local work.

First knitting adventure

After reading a couple of how-to-knit books from the library and getting very confused, I was finally able to get a hands-on lesson from a friend visiting from the US who is an extremely passionate ( and skilled! ) knitter. Here is the first ( and rather sad looking ) patch that I completed. Yet another crafty hobby to obsess over!

Wrap Journals featured in Lovely Clusters!

Two Nothing Sketchy journals are up on Lovely Clusters in the 'Journals, Jotters & Notebooks' section! Woot!

Websites to kick start your online handmade business

Some interesting websites that I stumbled across that help promote your handmade store and generally just make it easier for you to gain some exposure. Some of them charge a small fee, but are very reasonable.

Lovely Clusters - international site that gathers handmade and vintage items from sellers all over the world together for people to browse through. Each item is linked to the sellers shop. Starting from US$5 a month you can have some of your items featured there (after you have submitted your shop website and it has been approved).

Indie Art and Design - a weblog featuring products made by independent Australian artists, designers & craftspeople. You can submit your site to be part of their art and design directory.

We Love Indie - describes themselves as "a unique platform for indie artists, crafters and designers to showcase their best work and to allow these works to be discovered by a new audience". Sounds good to me! Basically gathers heaps of art, craft and design blogs together on one site for people to browse through. If you have a blog for your work you can submit it to be part of the site.

Indiespotting - a website that features handmade products that people have discovered and submitted to the site. Each item is linked back to the seller's store. You can submit an item from your store to be featured and its free!

I Heart Handmade - an online handmade market. Each shop participant has their own page on the site with up to 10 product images linked directly to your online store. They charge about US$20 but they put heaps of work into marketing and advertising the market and they also do shop spotlights on the site and their blog.

That's all for now but I'll post more as I find them!

New products up for sale!

Five wrap journals and six hardcover journals have finally been uploaded to the Nothing Sketchy store (http://nothingsketchy.bigcartel.com)! So much work has been put in to making it to this point, but it's safe to say that my work has only just begun!

I'm hoping get a spot at some of the design markets in Sydney in the near future to gain some exposure for Nothing Sketchy. I've got some other marketing strategies (probably a little ambitious to call them that at this point haha) up my sleeve as well. Fingers crossed!