Monday 25 June 2012

Holiday!

If you're wondering why it's been so quiet on my blog recently the answer is I have been away on holiday!  I went back to the same place in North Norfolk that I visited last year and had a really lovely, relaxing break. :)
The holiday was the first chance I've had for testing out my new camera properly - and with a new 8Gb memory card I took a LOT of photos!!
There was a variety of wildlife around the lodge we stayed in - muntjac deer, rabbits, moor hens, ducks and on the last day a heron in the beck...
 
I found some fantastic little independent shops in places like Holt and Sheringham - which left me feeling very inspired.  I have lots of plans for the next few months - designing and making new work, planning my next craft fayre and adding new things to my shops - I just have to catch up on my emails and paper work first!

Monday 11 June 2012

Colour inspiration #3 - Strawberries

To remind me that it doesn't rain everyday...
We're getting a good crop of strawberries this year - I love the smell of them when they're freshly picked from the garden!

Friday 8 June 2012

New Clematis Wedding Stationery set

Based on the clematis patterns I made last week I have just designed this new set of wedding stationery.  I like the simpler look to this stationery with its white backgrounds.  If you didn't want the white background though you could experiment with printing on coloured papers.  These invitations could be combined with the more densely patterned scrapbooking papers which would make great envelope liners!
The set contains a 5x7 inch invitation, Save the date card, R.S.V.P. card and Thank you card.  It is a customised set - I can add your own personalised text, then send you the finished designs as jpg files for you to print yourself as many times as you want on your own choice of card / paper.

Wednesday 6 June 2012

Jubilee Crafting!

I hope you had a good Jubilee weekend!  I watched quite a lot of TV - like the pageant on the Thames.  I heard the atmosphere in London was great, although I think the crowds were so huge we had a better view of everything on the TV  It's a shame the weather wasn't better, the poor singers at the end were drenched!

I enjoyed doing some Jubilee craft projects over the long weekend.  I made some bunting and a patriotic red, white and blue crochet flower garland to hang in my window...
I also baked some cakes with my Mum and sister...
The union flags were fun to ice :)  We also used some of my cupcake toppers on the more simply decorated cakes...
This golden carriage is my Dad's from the Queen's coronation, I thought it made a great prop for my little photo shoot!
All these photos were taken with my new camera.  It's a Canon Ixus 230 - I really love it :D  My old Olympus still works but I wanted something a bit lighter to carry around with me.  I'm impressed with the big screen (about 4 times the size of my old camera) and it records HD videos too!  The only downside is I don't have a memory card for it yet - the place I bought it from said that it came with a card but it doesn't.  I'm borrowing a card for now but will hopefully have my own soon.

Friday 1 June 2012

Clematis Pattern Designs

The drawings of flowers which I did in my sketchbook the other day have proved useful already - I've just finished this new paper set based on clematis flowers...
I've been working on how to make my repeat patterns better - so that it's easier to use one motif in different scales and colours.  I'm pleased with how the repeat clematis pattern came out (the pink one above is my favourite).  This one was designed on paper first (using tracing paper to help make sure it would all line up) before making the finished pattern on my computer.
The set of 8 papers has just been listed in my shop: https://www.etsy.com/listing/101139199/clematis-printable-scrapbooking-papers