Colour Inspiration #8 – Schizostylis

It’s been very wet here for the last few days, although we have been much luckier than some people in other areas of the UK with floods.  This flower photograph is from a week or two ago - when we had lots of sun!
These beautiful flowers are growing in our pond and flower through the autumn – it’s lovely to have something so pretty on flower when so much of the rest of the garden is fading.  I didn't know much about the plant so looked it up – it is a Schizostylis (also known as a kaffir lily) and comes from South Africa.  Most places seem to say that it should be grown in moist but well draining soil and it grows beside streams - I've not seen many places recommending them grown in water but ours seem to do well there!

Christmas is coming!

I have more new Christmas items to show you today – a set of printable scrapbooking papers and printable gift boxes.

These scrapbooking papers include patterns made from my illustrations of holly, Christmas trees and puddings along with coordinating patterns like spots and stripes…

The Christmas boxes are sold as two printable designs – one in brown with the Christmas puddings pattern and the other with a holly pattern.  These boxes are easy to make and great for giving small gifts!

Each box comes with a coordinating gift tag.  The boxes can be made up in two ways – as a closed box like in the photograph above or as a gift bag by cutting off the top flaps and adding ribbon handles.

Both of these sets of printables are available to buy from my Etsy supplies shop.

London Calling and Christmas note card sets

I have two new sets of note cards to share with you today; the first has a ‘London Calling’ theme.  Each card features a different one of my designs including soldiers of the Queen’s Guard, London buses and taxis, post boxes and phone boxes and zig-zag stripes…

The second set of cards has a Christmas theme – it feels too early for Christmas but the shops are starting to get their Christmas stock in now so I thought I should get mine prepared too!

All of these cards are 10x10cm square and come with white envelopes.  Their small size is perfect for writing little notes!
Both of these sets are only available to buy to buy from my Folksy shop!

Monday Make – Fish Birthday Card

Recently I’ve spent quite a lot of time on paperwork and planning the Christmas craft fayre, so thought it was about time I made something!  This fun birthday card didn't take long to make and features my copperband butterfly fish illustration.

To make this card you will need:

• Fish Cardmaking kit  OR  a card blank, fish printable scrapbooking papers and collage sheet
• gemstones
• white card
• glue, scissors, double sided sticky foam pads, corner punch

1. Cut out the butterfly fish and ‘Happy Birthday’ message from the collage sheet.  Cut a piece of patterned paper slightly smaller than the card – so that it lines up with the fold of the card and there is a border along the other 3 sides.

2.  Use the corner punch to make 2 rounded corners on the patterned paper, then glue to the card.  If you don’t have a punch you could use something round as a template (eg. a small coin) and cut the corners by hand.

3. Mount the birthday message on white card, then stick the message and fish to the card with the foam pads for a 3D effect.

4.  Glue the gems onto the card so they look like bubbles coming out of the fish’s mouth.  Instead of gems you could also try using sequins or beads.

Now you have one finished fish card!

You could make similar cards with some of my other fish too – why not try a clown fish card or cardinal tetra?!

Clematis Note Cards

The first set of my new note cards is finished!  This pretty set has a Clematis theme and contains 4 square cards, each with a different design.  I have designed this set so that you can use them for a range of occasions, two cards have ‘Thank you’ messages on the front, one says ‘Just to say…’ and the last has no message.  The size of these cards (10cm x 10cm) makes them great for writing little notes.

The cards are printed on lovely white linen textured card and come with white envelopes.  As I am printing these cards myself I am able to offer personalised cards too – so if you like the designs but would prefer different messages on them I am happy to do custom orders!
 

At the moment these cards will only be available to buy from my Folksy shop.

More card sets will be released soon!  As well as other sets of small square cards I will also be making cards to sell individually and in other sizes.

Test piece - I would love your feedback!

I recently sold out of some of my clockwork bird prints and thought that before stocking up again I would try out something slightly different.  I've had good feedback and people seem to like my bird illustrations but I was wondering if people would prefer to buy prints of the birds without text on - what do you think?  Photographed above is a 5x7 inch print of my Nuthatch without text on, and below is the illustration as it is available now, with text.

If I started selling the prints without the text I would also include a little certificate...

On the certificate would be the model number and name of the bird along with a short piece about Edwin Cracknell and the print, I would hand sign each certificate too.  I quite like the idea of the certificate and sending a little piece of the Hexley story with each print - especially if the prints are given as gifts and the recipient hasn't seen my work before.

If you have any feedback please let me know!

Sneak peek at the start of a new range of cards

I'm currently working on a new range of greeting cards.  It's something that I've been planning for a while and now I have a new supply of card stock they are actually starting to come to life!  Here is one of my new designs...

Before my card designs have been printed by Moo and although I love the quality of their cards I have decided to start printing cards myself.  There are a few reasons for this change; it means that I can print on different sized card, different types of card (the card photographed is on lovely linen textured card) and I will be able to print customised cards.

The first sets of cards will be ready very soon - so keep an eye out for those appearing on the blog and my shops!



Fabric remnant cushion cover

I finished another one of the craft projects on my to do list!  I can't remember how long I've had this cushion, waiting for me to make a cover for it.

I have lots of pretty remnants of fabric but mostly they're too small to make a cushion cover from, so I stitched strips of the pretty fabrics onto a larger piece of cream fabric (which was left over when I shortened a pair of curtains - nothing's wasted in my house!).  I also used some ribbon, ric rac and braid to decorate the cushion.  I wasn't sure what sort of fastening to use on the cushion but decided on a pillow case style closing which I thought would be the simplest to sew.

I still have another cushion to make a cover for too - not sure when I'll get around to that!

 

And something completely different - do you remember the 'Picnic in the Meadow' treasury I posted?  It was chosen as the winning entry to the British Sellers on Etsy treasury challenge! :D  So I get to choose an item from my shop to be the featured item for the next challenge - I've picked my Clockwork Kingfisher print.   I'm posting the entries to the challenge on my facebook page or you can see them here: http://www.etsy.com/teams/6966/british-sellers-on-etsy/discuss/10860330/