Multifaith calendar

I am very excited about the nothonthhighstreet Make Awards, this Wednesday. I have bought some new sandals to wear so I hope it doesn't rain too much!

A month or so ago I posted some icons that I had designed for a multifaith calendar I have been working on for 2013. The last post just showed the little icons and these were the starting point for the scheme. I thought you might like to see the calendar in it's entirety now it is finished:

This artwork is a sample and dates on the version are intentionally incorrect, so I wouldn't use it as a reference point as it stands, but they are available to buy with the correct dates either as a hi-res pdf download or a printed A1 posted, they can also have your company logo in the bottom yellow panel. Email me for prices.

Exciting News!!! As many of you know evajeanie is a partner with notonthehighstreet, next Thursday they are hosting their Make Awards 2012 which celebrate creative enterprise. 

Yesterday they announced their short list and guess what?! I made the shortlist!!!! Wahoo! My category is Best Store Front, I am so excited! I am so so so proud of myself for being shortlisted. You can see my store front here:

Store front:

Love heart keyrings

Wowsers it way too late for me to be blogging but I had to tell you about a new colourway I have added to my felt Love Heart keyrings before I go to bed and forget!

These supercute keyrings were a really popular product in the spring but back then they were only available in green and fuschia. So for Summer 2012 I have launched a new colourway, salmon pink with tangerine and olive, you can buy directly through me by emailing, or you can go to my online shop with nothonthehighstreet.

Goodnight peeps, I'm off to rest my poorly eyes now and indulge them with frozen tea bags, oh yes the glamour never ends!

Knaresborough Bed Race

It's been another busy week, with little time to blog, just lots of sewing and designing. But I have carved in a little time on this soggy Monday morning to just post about what a lovely weekend I had at Knaresborough bed race in North Yorkshire at the weekend.

For those who don't know, the bed race is a charity event that takes place every year in the sunny town of Knaresborough. It's a slightly wacky day and I will try to describe what happens, although it is a little surreal! Teams of six people, dress up a bed on wheels based on a theme that is given to them a few months in advance, the team of six plus friends and children also dress up. My Brother-in-Law was in a team this year and their bed's theme was Indonesia, their team name was St Johns Juggernauts! They decided to have a giant orangutan as the focal point of their bed and you can see from the photo's that it was an amazing design. The finished orangutan was huge and had a movable head and arms that would give Mr Tickle a run for his money!

Here's me doing a bit of speed sewing, to attach the head:

Once all of the emergency five minute jobs were done, the team wheeled the bed to Knaresborough Castle Gardens for the judging of the best dressed bed.

I have seen some amazing creations over the last few years, may favourite this year (apart from the giant orangutan) was the smurf bed.

Once all of the judging has taken place the beds leave the gardens for a parade through Knaresborough town, the bed looked amazing making it's way down the High Street and got a very good reception from the crowds:

 

Once the parade is over the beds are stripped and the teams get into running gear for a race around the town, yes I told you it was a bit of a wacky day didn't I?!

Knaresborough is a pretty hilly town and the race makes best use of this terrain, I struggled to push the buggy around much of it. Here's Conor's team just making it's way up one of the many hills! 

And as if this wasn't enough the race finishes with a swim through the river (with bed and child in helmet), which is hard work on a nice sunny day but after all the rain we've had, this weekend's finale was more of an extreme sport, the river was flowing so rapidly the current tipped the bed, luckily everyone made it to the other side in one piece although I think it was a bit touch and go! I didn't get any photo's of the river part as I had made my way to the pub for a pint (it's hard work being a spectator). 

Once the race is over it's time to go home, here's the bed that has been re-dressed making it's way to the pub to join us!

 

I think this was the 47th Bed Race and traditions like these are a sacred part of British culture and further validates the theory that us Brits go a bit bonkers when the sun comes out (or not). I should also add that all the money raised goes to charity and that St Johns Juggernauts raised over £4000! 

It was a thoroughly brilliant day :)

New design for Claireabellemakes!

It's been a hive of activity in evajeanie world. I have been making metres upon metres of union jack bunting, I am coming to the end of another big order and as I can see the end I thought I should quickly update my blog and let you know what has been going on.

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I planned to 'join up' my two design businesses, to firstly offer my graphics services to crafty folk, offering help with logo's and images for print and web and secondly incorporating some screen printed designs into both my graphics work and handmade items (this is a brief description, you can read the whole post here).

This new idea generated a lot of interest and the first of my new 'crafty folk' takers was the multi-talented Claire of Claireabellemakes. Claire is a keen blogger and writes a wonderful blog about beautiful Cambridge, where she lives by the river (only a tad jealous) and her hobbies and makes.

I was asked to design a new logo and banners for her blog and and new etsy shop and also social media buttons for facebook, twitter and pinterest. I started by asking a number of questions about the look and feel required for the designs (I also send out a short questionnaire to new customers to capture all the information I need).

Claire was really clear and concise about what she wanted and this made the job really easy for me, it also helped that we like the same kind of blogs and designs! Although she didn't have any imagery of her own to use I was happy to do some illustrations as part of the job and with discussion we decided a bike with a basket would be a great, alongside some sewing paraphernalia.

Here's the finished designs:

I'm delighted to say that Claire loved the finished designs so much that she wrote about them in her blog, she said "Thanks so much to Lindsay for totally understanding my concept and prettifying my online space If you need any design work, I would highly recommend her! In addition, Lindsay specialises in fantastic sewn goods including some fab bunting for Good Housekeeping Magazine." You can read more on the wonderful Claireabellemakes blog here


Other Good things that have been happening:

I did screen printing all weekend, working on designs for new products and some kits, these will be blogged about soon but here is a little pic of some genius lady coating a screen that she had made herself from a picture frame she bought in an Oxfam shop, now that's my kind of upcycling, apparently it cost her £1.00!

I have also moved into my new studio, as I have been so busy making I haven't had time to move all my things in and prettify it yet, so here is a pic of me in my new space looking happy if a little tired (from all the bunting making).

Last weekend I had a stall at the ever lovely Warkton Craft Market, it wasn't the busiest day, but I still had a great time, the Market owners are so nice and make a really lovely environment for sellers and buyers, oh and the cheese scones were especially scrummy :) Here is a pic of me and my stall:

Bye for now as off-a-bunting-making-I-go la la la la la!

Still making Jubilee Union Jack Bunting

I can't believe I am still making Union Jack bunting! I made the first batch a few weeks ago for a special order for The Biscuit Factory gift shop and wasn't going to list the item in my shop, since then I have had an abundance of orders and I am also really delighted to say that last week I received an email asking if I could make a rush order of the bunting for Good Housekeeping Magazine as they had seen online it and loved it, they placed an order for 4 metres and are going to be using it in their Jubilee celebrations. I am absolutely delighted about this and had to stop myself from skipping to the Post Office this morning to send it off!

Doing some proper Graphics work

Today and tomorrow I am mostly going to be doing some 'proper' work, as most of you know I am a Graphic Designer and I don't usually document this work on my blog, largely because it's usually for private clients and it might not be appropriate for my blog.

But as I mentioned last month I am going to be joining the handmade and the graphics together progressively more, so I thought it might be nice to share some of the graphics projects I am currently working on too.

Today I am producing a set of religious symbols that will be used in a multifaith calendar that I have been commissioned to design. I have hand drawn these with a pencil and scanned them, I have then re-drawn them using illustrator. I am going to give the client two options so I will show the other option once complete.

Personalised Owl Bunting

I have just made some owl bunting for an order from notonthehighstreet.com and am really pleased with how it has turned out. I bought some chunky gingham fabric on Sunday when I was in Brighton from a magical little shop, the fabrics were stacked to the rafters and if I'm honest was possibly a bit of a death trap, but what a way to go!! I digress, I have used the lovely chunky lime green gingham in my latest bunting order and love love love it, I wish I had bought more!

I don't stipulate in my listings exactly which fabrics I use as I like to keep things fresh and make each design different, but you can choose a colour scheme. This customer chose pink and green which always work really well together. I am slowly replacing all of my photographs in my shop with up to date ones, it's starting to look a lot more how I would like it to.

Monday morning, erm actually it's Tuesday

Good morning peeps.
I am a bit confused about it being Tuesday as it definitely feels like a Monday, those pesky bank hols, I'm sure they are just there to throw out my body clock. This morning I was so unprepared for the day I didn't have any milk for cereal and Eva's pink milk, so I had to drive to the shop (which I hate doing as at 8.15am it takes forever, in fact I should have walked) I was feeling a bit stressed out about my early morning shopping trip but I actually managed to get most of my supplies for the week, including a cheese straw for my breakfast, which I have now eaten and it has certainly lifted my mood. So if it proceeds to rain all week as forecast I can now hermitise myself. I actually quite enjoy sewing in my cosy little work room when it's chucking it down outside.

The more observant of you will have noticed that I have changed my blog design. I just thought as I am making a lot of florally Jubilee themed products right now I ought to embrace the moment and signpost these makes. All of my items are available through my shop, if you have an aversion to red, white and blue, or you would like the design to fit with your own colour scheme I can make you a bespoke version, just email me. Here are some shots of my bunting in alternate colour schemes.

The new background image on my blog is a recent shot of my fabric stash and some vintage buttons. Its looks quite neat in the photo but I am preparing for a craft fair during the next two weeks, so I doubt it will remain in neat little bundles for long! I might photograph it next Friday just to see how it compares!

Hope you have a fabulous week!

Handmade Floral Union Jack Bunting

This week you have not heard from me as I have been locked away in my sewing room making an order for the lovely people at The Biscuit Factory in Newcastle.

The Biscuit Factory is one of the UK’s largest independent contemporary commercial art galleries, showcasing two floors of contemporary arts, crafts and design, offering a refreshing and sumptuous space and they wanted my bunting to sell in their shop, woop woop, how excited am I?!

I decided to take some photo's as I went along for you to see the amount of work (and fabric) that goes into making a wholesale order. It's a visual diary, the photo's are self explanatory...

So that's it, all ready to be packaged, wow that's a lot of bunting.