Dad's are notoriously difficult to buy for, but you can hardly turn up on Father’s Day after the past year empty handed, can you? You want to find something unique, something that will make him smile, something which tells him just how fantastic you think he is. We’ve plenty of thoughtful gifts from Bristol creatives here at Bristol Pop-Up Shop so we’ve rounded up our favourite picks for a great Father’s Day gift for Dad, Stepdad, Grandpa, Father-In-Law or whichever special father figure you’d like to celebrate this year.
These wonderfully bright coasters are printed locally in Bristol onto hardboard using the sublimation process to product strong and durable coasters. Ideal to withstand even the strongest of brews! Perfect for tea and coffee lovers, why not pair it with something sweet for an afternoon treat.
Poison Oaks brushed organic cotton pullover is sustainably sourced and embellished with a crisp high-quality embroidery here in Bristol. A beautiful reminder to all the explorers out there.
Currently available in this khaki, or burnt orange.
If there’s one thing in life you know you can always count on – it’s coffee. Does your Dad fail to function without his morning cuppa? Inspired by their favourite Ruby Jeans coffee shop, these 100% cotton tees are screen printed and available in black and yellow
Keep his beard smooth and pristine with this all natural beard oil. It’s woody, nutty and old school. Great for deep beard nourishment and all round usage.
This is the original product in the Bob’s Beard Oil range and is currently on special offer at two thirds of the original price so you can get Dad something special and at a bargain price too!
Available in 30ml, 50ml and 10ml sample bottle size
Oh nooooo! A beast is attacking the Mshed AND the Bristol cranes. DOUBLE DESTRUCTION! This awesome illustration has been hand drawn and digitally coloured by Jon, the magic hands behind Dixon Does Doodle. A brilliant gift with a sense of humour, this fun design is printed on tip-top quality paper and is available to order as either a3 or a4 prints.
Ever seen a backpack made from plastic bottles before? Well this one’s made from 12 of them! Eco friendly and functional, this backpack will hold everything Dad needs for the entire day. Perfect for everyday travel, this pack comes complete with a padded laptop compartment making it a versatile choice to take you from the weekday work commute to weekend outdoor adventures.
Available in marine blue or mustard.
Never let him lose his page again with this beautifully soft cork bookmark. Handcut and machine sewn using sustainable cork fabric and cotton thread, this is a gift you know he will appreciate.
Available to order in a choice of 5 different colours
What do you buy a Dad that has everything? Surprise and delight him with a gorgeous personalised light box. Nina builds wooden light boxes showcasing photographs she takes in and around Bristol, but here your perfect moments can shine. Simply message with your chosen photograph to transform your favourite memory into something you can keep forever.
Lend a massive hand with the washing up with this friendly gorilla tea towel guaranteed to add joy to those kitchen chores!
Don’t forget the card!
Father's Day 2021, Sunday 20th June.
]]>Half term is approaching and we know it can be a challenge to come up with a full timetable of fun activities to keep the kid's entertained. Thankfully here at Bristol Pop-Up Shop, we have plenty of awesome craft kits and children friendly activities to fill those dreaded rainy days and all the days in between!
These easy-to-make kits will bring your children plenty of creative inspiration and are suited to various skill levels.
Make your own woven necklace with this super simple craft kit by Stitching Me Softly. Each kit comes with three skeins of recycled cotton cord so you can coordinate with your entire wardrobe. Great for teens, these easy necklaces can be whipped up in about 20 minutes and are highly addictive so you can keep the attention of even the shortest of spans
Macramé is huge right now and a plant hanger is the ultimate accessory for any plant lover. With this beginner friendly macramé kit by Pink and Green, you will learn the fundamental skills of the craft and make your own macramé plant hanger with an open front design to hang your spring flowers and blooming houseplants from a wall or ceiling. A little special something to keep them focussed with a beautiful reward.
One giant colouring poster + pot of colouring pens for them = time to sit down and enjoy a hot cup of tea and maybe even a cheeky choccie biccie for you! This massive A0 poster by the fabulous Dixon Does Doodles features over 300 beauties from the animal kingdom for them to colour in exactly as they please
Aprons on, newspapers down. Let their imagination run wild with The Crafty Hen’s collection of ceramic painting kits, perfectly suited to big and small kids alike wanting to create a personal keepsake. We love the paint your own egg cups which contains three pots of high quality paint in the primary colours and 2 ceramic egg cups. Watch as they mix up colours and explore the colour wheel and have fun creating their own deisgns. Once painted, simply bake them in the oven to set and then they’re all set for dipping soldiers at breakfast the next morning!
Who doesn’t love donuts. Am I right? Make two deliciously tempting donuts from scratch with this crochet kit from Tenguerengue Art works. This wonderfully fun kit contains everything you need to tackle your first amigurumi project including a beautiful branded tote for you to carry around all your supplies!
After a fun filled day, it can be difficult to get them to settle down and drop off. This is where Bohobo Aromatherapies comes in. Their Kid’s Sleep Kits are created to enhance your child’s sleep experience. Containing a hand painted natural wood star that can be hung or place by our beds and a bottle of sleep magic Sweet Sleep! Pillow mist you can simply shake and spray and let the comforting mix of lavender, sage, camomile and sweet orange help your little one’s head sink into the pillow in preparation for drool and creased cheeks.
Kate Blandford specialises in cross stitch kits for the radical crafter, designed with a good sprinkling of pastels, bold typography and sometimes (but usually) an alternative twist. We love the ‘Killing It’ design to provide you with both blissful down time and a motivational slogan at the end of those challenging days(!)
Moloneymakes' vegan friendly knitting and crochet kits are perfect for stitchers of all levels. Relax and unwind with some mindful making time and create something beautiful in the process. We love the crochet scrubbie kit for a satisfyingly quick make that are both sustainable, fun to create and useful all around the home.
Want to learn hand embroidery? Then this Beginners Embroidery Kit by Sew Made By Jess is for you! Learn the 14 basic stitches of hand embroidery, whilst creating a beautiful wall hanging which is the perfect memory aid for all of your future hand embroidery projects.
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Christmas 2020 is in full swing and we’re gearing up to open the Winter Pop-Up Shop in The Galleries, Bristol for the third year running. It’s safe to say it’s been a bit of a rocky year with uncertainty and challenges being thrown at us all, but we’re delighted to be back for another year and with a slightly different look too.
We’ve had a bit of a rebrand as we’ve worked hard behind the scenes on our various projects this year so we thought now would be the perfect opportunity to introduce ourselves and reflect back to how it all started.
The Bristol Pop-Up Shop is a collective brought to you by 10 members of the Bristol Etsy Team. Our mission is to connect and support Bristol’s small creative business community whilst simultaneously offering Bristol shoppers a special shopping experience that truly makes a difference.
Each year since our launch in 2018, we’ve hosted our physical Pop-Up Shop, The Winter Pop-Up Shop in The Galleries Shopping Centre in Bristol where we bring together a show-stopping selection of high quality products all locally designed and made from over 80 of Bristol’s small creative businesses.
2020 has also seen the launch of a new project; our online Bristol Pop-Up Shop. With the uncertainty of in-person shopping this Christmas, we decided to bring all our favourite Bristol creatives online so you can shop meaningfully even from the comfort of home. The online store officially went live on Saturday 14th November featuring work from over 100 southwest based businesses. If you’re looking for a one stop Christmas gift shop this year, the Bristol Pop-Up shop is packed with unique handmade gifts, quirky stocking fillers and easy secret santa solutions so you can tick off your gift list and support small businesses all in one fell swoop.
As I’ve mentioned previously, the Bristol Pop-Up Shop is a collective of 10 members of the Bristol Etsy Team, and it’s there where our roots lie.
I, personally, started as part of the Bristol Etsy leadership Team. As part of the Bristol Etsy Team, we regularly put on events and organised monthly meet-ups designed to grow the city’s creative community. We provided a space for makers, artists and sellers to connect with one another, to learn and support one another in their creative endeavours.
Through our selling events, such as the successful Etsy Made Local Christmas Market, we bought together many talented Bristol based designers and creatives to offer exciting shopping opportunities where each and every purchase matters. After having firmly established Etsy Made Local as a go to destination for Christmas shopping, we needed another challenge and started to think about the possibilities of running a Pop-Up Shop...
The Bristol Girl Bosses; a collective of 8 designer/makers within the Bristol Etsy Team, was founded in 2017. Similarly, their group was based upon seeking community and support. Being a ‘one girl band’ brings about a lot of challenges so having a group of like minded women to talk to, to seek advice from and to bounce ideas around with was extremely important to them, thus their collective was formed
Back in March 2018, the Bristol Girl Bosses ran the exhibition ‘Muse’ at local makers' shop Blaze. Each Girl Boss produced a piece of artwork inspired by their interpretation of women and femininity which were exclusive to the event. Their International Women’s Day launch night was an incredible success with a great turn out which continued for their month long run. The community spirit and success of the event created a high that they were eager to retain and thus ideas began to form.
Geared up by their success, the Bristol Girl Bosses and we (Bristol Etsy Team) arranged a very informal pizza based meeting in Pinkman's, and slice by slice the foundations for our Pop-Up Shop started to be put in place. The wheels started turning and we approached the Galleries with our pitch to open The Bristol Etsy Team X Bristol Girl Bosses Winter Pop-Up Shop.
We had a fantastic opening year with success that exceeded even our greatest of expectations and we were delighted to follow that up for a second year. Now, in 2020, we’re back under the name of The Bristol Pop-Up Shop and ready for a Christmas unlike any before.
Now more than ever, as a nation we are realising the power of our small creative businesses and, more importantly, we are championing and supporting them more than ever. 2020 is the year many of the population are taking the pledge to shop a bit more thoughtfully and buy gifts with meaning. We at the Bristol Pop-Up Shop are delighted to play an active role in that.
The doors for the Winter Pop-Up Shop are open to the public 3rd-24th December, Monday-Saturday:10:00-18:00 and Sunday 11:00-17:00.
All the team working shifts in the Winter Pop-Up Shop are the makers, designers and artists who have their products stocked in there. This means you can meet the makers and speak with the experts themselves!
And if IRL shopping isn't for you, you can still find 95% of the Winter Pop-Up Shop stockists online plus a load more online here at the Bristol Pop-Up Shop. Sit back, have a browse and get that Christmas gift list ticked off.
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‘Shop Small’. It’s become a bit of a buzzword, a popular catchphrase, something we’re all trying to do a little bit more of when we go about our Christmas shopping. But what does it actually mean?
I suppose the clue is in the name – it means choosing to spend your money with a small business over the larger corporations such as Amazon, Apple and ASOS. It looks like walking into your local greengrocer for your veggies, rather than the nearest supermarket.
Or, now that Christmas is fast approaching, it's hopping online and shopping with Bristol Independents Online or browsing Bristol Pop-Up Shop which stocks products from over 100 small business owners from Bristol and the South-West, rather than jumping straight on Amazon to start ticking off your Christmas gift list.
Think of your local high street or town centre without them. How much would you be left with? Say goodbye to your favourite bakery, or the hairdresser across the road. The delicatessen will no longer be, the handful of lovely restaurants, the little bookshop on the corner or the computer repair guy you know you can rely on.
When I think of several popular Bristol destinations; Church Road, North Street, Gloucester Road, Old Market, Clifton Village, it’s incredibly difficult to imagine them minus their small creative outlets.
With everything that is happening in the world right now, I don’t think I am the only one who is realising the importance of small businesses. What would you have done without your local corner shop when the world and its mother were fighting over toilet paper at the height of lockdown?
How useful was the home delivery service of your local bakery or deli when there was a 6 week waiting list for a slot at Tesco? And I betcha bottom dollar that countless people realised how important those ‘non essential’ services such as hairdressers, nail salons, or beauty rooms were when they didn’t have access to them for 3 months(!)
Those small businesses have more of an impact then we first think, which is why I am encouraging you to do your Christmas shopping with them. So here's my:
In fact, they are the epitome of the word. Our high streets and city centres are full of stores churning out the same identical products. The world of fast fashion means that designs are heading from the catwalk to the rails at breakneck speed and retailers have new designs coming out every week just to stay on trend.
It’s made to be created quickly and available cheaply to the masses. A small business can provide a breath of fresh air and imagination into an industry that can rapidly become suffocating.
With independent makers and designers, you don’t have that fear of walking into a room and seeing another wearing the same earrings as you. Staying away from high street retailers pretty much guarantees that you’ll be rockin’ something that no one else has, unless of course you’re at an event like Creatival where you can run out of fingers counting the number of Dakota Rae Dust Oversized Tassel Earrings adorning the ears of the creative crowd(!!).
The same goes for gifting too. We’ve all had birthdays where we’ve received the same card 2 or 3 times, right? And I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty much guaranteed to receive at LEAST three Dove sets each Christmas. Well, when you shop small for your Christmas gifts, you can rest assured that your offerings will stand out from the rest.
One-of-a-kind gifts mean there’s no worry about your recipient receiving duplicates. There are so many imaginative makers with incredible gift ideas which mean you can find a Christmas gift for even the most difficult of family members. They might have everything, but can they find cheeky swear words whilst drinking their coffee in the morning with a Dixon Does Doodles Wordsearch Mug? Or enjoy the beauty and comfort of a Bohobo Aromatherapies Rose Quartz Gua Sha ritual?
And I’d say that’s an absolute fact. As a small business owner, we are involved with every step of the process when you place an order with us. We have worked hard to design it, then actually made it before personally packing your item and popping it in the post. We do it all so you can rest assured it’s been quality checked again and again so that you receive something of the highest quality.
Not to mention the little added extras. Customers are important to us so we go the extra mile. We have the power to be able to offer bespoke custom-made pieces, or personalise your item to suit you and oftentimes, there’s usually an option to request for a gift message to be included if you are purchasing as a Christmas gift to be delivered directly to the recipient.
We rely on small, local businesses more than you might think. Shopping locally is actually better for the local economy. Take the idea of the Bristol Pound, for instance - £10 spent with a local shop means £50 back in the local economy. Shop owners have more money to spend in the area, circulates the money and allows the community to thrive.
Small businesses are also more likely to shop with other small businesses for a lot of their business needs (think I can say business one more time?!). Whether that be choosing a local Bristol printer for a print run, investing in the lovely local marketing agency for expert website building or even those trivial necessities such as that crucial oat milk flattie that they buy regularly from one of Bristol's top notch coffee shops en route to the office.
In a similar theme to this, shopping local helps reduce the impact we can have on the environment. Take Bristol based Kate Blandford who sells ‘contemporary cross stitch for modern makers’. She proudly states in her Etsy Shop that she uses “the best quality products with the lowest carbon footprint as possible. Almost everything is made right here in the UK”. That includes: wooden hoops made less than an hour away from her home, tapestry needles made in Worcestershire and printed goods printed with FSC certified stock in the UK.
Finally, and perhaps this is the most important reason of all, a purchase from a small business is human. There’s a person behind the brand and products plus a story to go with it. People love buying from people and not some soulless entity.
Our Winter Pop-Up Shop in The Galleries, Bristol, for instance, is ran by the makers and artists themselves which gives shoppers the opportunity to speak to the experts who have created the items they are buying directly. We love that we can offer the faces behind the brands to inject personality and spirit to make your Christmas shopping experience more human.
Make your Christmas a meaningful one this year and help keep our independent businesses alive.
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