The Gift Box

I have a few minutes spare this afternoon, so I thought I would share with a you little graphics project I have just finished for a new local business.

It is a postcard design for a gorgeous new shop called The Gift Box, based locally to me and set up by Deanne (of Quirky Boots and Warkton Village Craft Market fame) and her good friend Rona.

The shop is now open and I was lucky enough to pop along last week and take some snaps to share with you. I was astonished at what the girl's have managed to achieve in just a few months; the shop is a handmade haven of glorious goodies, all housed in a super-cute old stable block that they have worked so hard to totally transform. With whitewashed walls and a new floor, it is clear that a great deal of care and attention has been put into the design of the shop and the numerous vintage display cupboards that have been painstakingly painted and finished.

All of the items for sale have been cherry-picked from selected local craftspeople, many of whom Deanne and Rona know personally. There are a diverse range of disciplines making up the huge range of items on offer, all original and handmade.

The Gift Box is a brilliant showcase for local craftspeople, I can't wait to go back and I thoroughly recommend that if you are in the area you should check it out too, you won't be disappointed!

First of my Screen Printed products

 I have been playing around with screen printing for a few months now and have been trying to find a way to create designs that still look like they are mine and fit into my range, but without embroidering them.

It's taken a little while to find 'my style' and I guess this is something that will constantly evolve, but what I'm really hoping to do is bring together my graphics work with my textiles so that I can have a harmonious brain and avoid the disjointed thinking that I have been doing for the last eighteen months.

For my first product I have developed on of my old favourites. Mot of you will remember my carrier bag holders with the free machine embroidery, well this is a new take on that and I am really delighted to be using gorgeous old vintage candy stripe fabric too.

I am offering each design in one base fabric, so they are very limited availability and once these have gone, the print design will change along with the fabrics.

I hope you like the new concept and product. They are available directly from me and through my not on the high street.com shop.

Bath in Pictures

As Vintage fesitval was cancelled at Boughton House at the weekend, we decided to seize the opportunity of pre-arranged childcare and get away from it all for a couple of days, I won't bore you with the details, but here are some pics which are quite self-explanatory.

Personalised Bunting

Well the sun has finally decided to come out, but for how long? At least until the washing has dried I hope. I have been doing the washing dance for weeks now (it's sunny so you hang it out to dry and the next minute it pours down so you have to rush to get it back in, for it to be sunny again ten minutes later) it's very annoying especially when there is bunting to be sewn.

I haven't blogged for over a week as it's so hectic right now, there's lots going on behind the scenes. I have been screen printing new designs at Leicester Print workshop, this is part of the product development that I have been talking about for weeks, I had hoped to have some new products to show for it by now but this new found urgency to design and make new products also coincided with everyone and their granny deciding they need personalised bunting! So here are some pics of said bunting. I promise my next post will contain at least one (and maybe even two) new printed products.

That's all for now!

New week - new designs

It's been a week since the not on the high street.com Make Awards, and I have now been sent my shortlisted banner that I can add to my blog which I am super pleased about.






I have also been busy trying to organise some local publicity from the event. With the help from the multi-talented Sarah Ward from Fouracre PR, we got into the Business Pages of the Evening Telegraph (page 48 if you're local and want to check it out).

It's also been a busy week for sorting new products and developing old ones, I am off for a day at the print workshop in Leicester next week to do some screen printing on to fabric so will be updating you with those very soon I hope.

Enjoy the sunshine (while it lasts).

The Make Awards 2012

We have just arrived back from the not on the high street.com make awards which were held at the beautiful Syon Gardens in London. It was a really exciting day and a great opportunity to meet other partners with noths.com and also to meet the lovely faces behind noths.com (I was a little star struck by Holly Tucker and Sophie Cornish).

Both myself and my husband Tony are partners and were also both lucky enough to be shortlisted for prizes within different categories. My category was best store front and Tony's was for Best Product for his Solid Oak 'Hot Stuff' trivet:

When we arrived in the main hall it was a real suprise to see that all of the shortlisterd partners had large photo's of one of their products displayed on easels on the tables around the room. First of all I could only see Tony's and thought they had maybe only included a few, but Tony hunted for mine and when we finally found it I felt incredibly proud :)

It was a really relaxed, but busy day filled with interactive workshops and seminars with help and advice on how to get the best from your creative business and how to take it forward and grow. But at the end was the really exciting part (the Awards).

There were two other partners in my category. Both with super storefronts and unfortunately I didn't win. I was a little disappointed to find out that I hadn't won, but the competition was fierce and I do feel excpetionally privileged to have made it to the top three. But there was no need to feel too despondent as my super talented husband won in his category!! Go Tony, well done, I am so pleased for you :) It was a really great day, thanks so much notonthehighstreet!

New look Blog!

Followers of my blog will know that I don't always make things from fabric. I am also a Graphic Designer (indeed this is where it all started). So my day is usually split between sewing and drawing, which isn't a bad life at all.

But lately I have been doing some snooping about in blogland and have found some pretty gorgeous blogs and to be honest they put mine to shame! As I don't really have any excuse for a shoddy blog I set to work designing my page especially for me, which isn't the easiest thing in the world to do as I hate designing for myself. With my clients I ask for a clear brief for the initial concepts stage but when you are designing for yourself the goalposts are constantly shifting and I think I would have to be the worst client, my ideas and needs are constantly changing and I'm never satisfied!

I did get some inspiration from a client's blog that I designed a few weeks ago claireabellemakes and Claire recently contacted me again to design for her some additional social media buttons for her site:

 I really like the greens and corally pink I have used and really wanted to use them on my own blog but in a different way. I have also designed a new blog button for evajeanie and a new shop button:

So it has take me a while to come up with and draw a concept that I was happy with, but here it it my finished design (which I am sure will morph into something completely different over the coming months, but this is the starting point). Hope you like the new look and I'd loved to heat what you think.

If you would like to have some designs made for you please message me, I can also do business cards, leaflets, posters etc.

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!