New things in the shop

Hey y'all.
Last week I dropped off the biggest heart I have made so far! I haven't even measured it but it is BIG. (must get better at measuring, photographing, logging - note to self).

It is such a pretty piece and I am really proud and thankful to Coastal who helped me with the colours and sizing. Things are selling like little heart shaped hot-cakes down there and I am soon to launch the canvases in my Etsy shop (just as soon as I get this measuring bit down). May take me a couple of weeks to sort that out but eventually I will get them online. They have sold all but two of my Heart Lyric Cards, so I did a major re-stock of those and as I walked in Rachel said 'oh we just sold one of your canvases this morning'! Eepsters! I get so excited thinking about my little artworks going home with a lovely new owner :]

Here are some peeks of the latest pieces.

These are some of my Mothers Day hearts.

What are you doing for Mothers Day?

Love, me x 

New Makes

I have just delivered a lovely bundle of freshly made goodies to Coastal Creatives for a pre-Christmas restock. In the mix were a few new ideas: embroidered badges and rosettes. I am working on some more of these for upcoming events like Valentines and Mothers day.

I had a little commission yesterday to make some personalised versions of these...hmmm good idea!

Once I made this dinky little brooch I fell in love with it, then had to part with it soon after. Although this is a massive close up, it is in reality only about 6-7cm accross.

I restocked on all the hair clip duo sets, these are always really popular, and each set is one of a kind. I have been using more embroidery stitches on them, inspired by this blog.



And I restocked on the large clips, these have alligator attachments so can be worn as a brooch or shoe clip too.

These little beauties are very popular too, all sold out from my last stock update - Coastal call them pompom earrings.

Lastly...dropped a few more of these in for good luck. I originally made them as wrap around bracelets, but Coastal sell them as hairbands. In fact one of my Year 11 students came into school with one a couple of weeks ago and it looked amazing. How sweet of her to buy my wares...aw!

I love this new colour combo - claret and blue, very Aston Villa!

I wanted to show these ready for sale so I could share my packaging ideas. I make all my packaging out of old card: magazines, postcards, flyers etc. I cut them to size and apply my simple labels. I love it. It is born out of pure poverty and a desire to re-use as much as I can to make in an environmentally friendly way. The reverse has a label too with my Etsy shop address (which is empty at present...oops! Bad marketing!)

This is from a series of pieces: 1,2 and 3. Framed and ready to go...somewhere.

Lastly for today. I saw a funky idea for wrapping ribbon on a Google search and decided to give it a go. Hand stamped ribbon. Yes all my presents this year will be sporting it. Packaged with old Christmas cards to my daughter from her friends. I will post some images when I have done some wrapping with it. It's a super easy and satisfying little make, I just happen to have rolls upon rolls of ribbon that I bought in a charity shop bundle one lucky day.

Have you got plans for your wrapping or making this Christmas? My creativeness is on overdrive at the moment...

Love, me x

...Birthdays and Creative Days...

Today we had a house full: it was Olivia's birthday in the week (she has reached the grand age of 12). We were so busy on her actual birthday that we saved up all out excitment for the weekend.
We started last night with her friend coming over for a sleepover, we had pizza delivered (we never do this!) and we watched 'Arthur'. It was lovely.
Today I had 10 people over for a delicious lunch of Fajitas with all sorts of extra stuff that doesn't seem to go but, did - like houmous, halloumi cheese and guacamole....yum!

You can see my homemade banner a little bit too - upcycled from old papers.

I have been messing about with taking shaky photos on purpose (honest)...and processing them in the free program Pixlr-O-Matic. One of the many online photo editing tools I use, you should give it a go, I am totally addicted!

I have my final delivery of things for Coastal Creatives tomorrow, I will also take some pictures of their display of my pieces to share with you all. I can't wait to see what they have done with them.

I think I know when a product is really good because I don't actually want to let it go, which is how I feel about my baby clips! They are so beautiful...

What are you Wearing?

Today I wore a couple of new purchases and wanted to share as I love how it looks.

Skirt - charity shop £1.00 (originally Zara)

Vest - Olivia's (don't tell her)

Leggings - Tesco £4.99

Cardigan - donated by a friend (originally Zara)

Bracelet - Poundland...£1.00

Need to do something about shoes, as I don't have enough! I was just wearing these flip-flops around the house.

I am reallly loving my fringe, my Mum just cut it for me and it looks so nice. I have managed to work out how to make it look just right with a little pair of straighteners my Mum gave me (I am not the type for fussy hair and am usually so un-girlie about things like straighteners). I like how it looks, I can't imagine not having a fringe.

Apart from all that I have been falling in love with twitter. It is so amazing to be tweeted back from people who I really admire in the blog world, like Kara from I Might Just Explode and Thursday from My Girl Thursday.

Next week should be nice and quiet, no making deadlines or birthdays. Maybe I'll get back to doing some of my sketchbook. What are you up to? Love me x

More Summer Sketchbook

Here are some more pages from my Summer Sketchbook, which has now become 'My Sketchbook' but these pages are from the summer. This year was a great one for my artwork, the weather was so bad it meant many gloomy days in with cups of tea. making a mess with art materials.

These pages follow on from the last I blogged, a mixture of: sculpture garden with Lisa and baby Amber on a very hot day, booking myself in for various craft fayres that were disasterous, Weight Watchers and booking Olivia in for her cycling proficiency.

The thing you can't really pick up with these pages it that they are cut out in places, maybe I should have photographed them standing up, looking through? I loved this page until later I drew a black pen page and it messed up the man's face on the left...now he looks like he has a rubbish moustache!
This one depicts: cold cold days at the beach in August, more raffles (hoping to hit the jackpot, only one a bottle of ketchup!), treats, and my journey to get work into Coastal Creatives.

Hope you like them...

Seeing as we are on a summer theme, thought I would drop an old picture of little Olivia when we used to live in the Caribbean. This, for me is the ultimate photo of a Caribbean child - so free and happy. She still loves Mangoes so much, even though we have to pay for them these days! This picture fills me with motherly love ♥

My little baby will be 12 next week! She has asked for a Soda Stream machine...I can't wait for her to get it so I can make one (hehe).

This weekend I will be sorting out her birthday requests, working at the It's All Been Done Before Vintage Festival, making final touches to my Coastal Creatives consignment...and maybe I might get time to drink tea, listen to the radio and enjoy some Autumn sunshine. Love, me x

Colour Blocking : Autumn Trend and Makes

I have been soooo busy this weekend making things for the Autumn collection for Coastal Creatives. I was up till far too late last night, slaving over my glue gun to get it all complete, only to go to the shop today and discover it closed! Boo hoo...
So I decided to come home and blog about the gorgeous bright block colours on trend for this Autumn.

I read a LOT of blogs (one day I will blog about the blogs I love hehe), and I really enjoy reading things about fashion and style. I don't really follow a 'trend' as I buy most things second hand and you have to just go with whatever you get with that. But I do need to keep an eye on fashion, I do love it, and it really inspires me, especially trend colours; inspire my making.

So Coastal asked me to make some corsages and wrist-wraps (from previously seen work of mine) in some lovely trend colours. Fab.

I have had fun looking at lots of gorgeous fashion. I adore the site Polyvore, and all the amazing creations there by some really talented folk. So I thought I would post some 'inspiration' from Polyvore on this season's trend: colour blocking...

Unleash Your Inner Rocker with Nicole Miller by href="http://elafashionable.polyvore.com/?.mid=embed">elafashionable featuring leather bags


I love this edgy style, and the hair! Here's another...

Bright Fall Colours by fashionistlady featuring beaded stretch bracelets

The orange/ blue clash...reminds me of my student years; my flatmate and I painted our kitchen cupboards in these colours! Ouch.

So here's what I came up with in response:

Orange/Blue Corsages

Autumnal Corsages: Grey and Brown trend.

Other Makes - Wristwraps

I love this last image, how it looks like my glasses are disappearing off the page!

So...pop on down to Coastal, not today though as it's closed (did I mention that?) See if you can spot my tasty Textiles.

Now...I must prepare for a Craft Fayre this weekend that I am super excited about, called It's All Been Done Before. Lots of vintage and vintage inspired lovelies.

Oh P.S, before you go...check out this amazing blog, one of the many I am addicted to and can't get enough of! 

Bye x