Stitched Letter Rack

I found a great tutorial for making a decorated letter rack via Craftgawker - here's the orginal tutorial which inspired my version...http://camillestyles.com/life-2/diy-cross-stitch-office-supplies/
I started with this silver mesh letter rack...

And painted the edge white with acrylic paint...

Then stitched a pattern with stranded cotton thread through the mesh...

Yay! New business cards :) and discount code for Moo

I had another exciting package in the post today - some new business cards and mini cards from Moo! :)

I'm always impressed when I order from Moo - the order wasn't due to arrive until next week so it was great to receive it early.  The quality of their cards is always excellent too - more like mini art prints than business cards.  I'll be using these cards to send out with orders I post and to give away at craft fairs over the next few months :)

I've been given a special referral code - if you order from Moo through this link http://www.moo.com/share/5jnnc7 you will get 10% off your first order!

New Card Stock! - craft supplies

This is just a small selection of the cards and envelopes I received in a new delivery of stock yesterday!

There are lots of white cards for making my printed greeting cards as well as coloured cards to be listed in my supplies shop.  I also ordered a sample of some recycled paper - it comes in some gorgeous colours!

I made a larger order than usual, which will hopefully keep me going for longer, although I slightly under-estimated the task of finding somewhere to put it all!  Almost all the card is sorted now, so tomorrow I'll be able to make a proper start on printing new cards :)

I decided to make some changes to the cards which I sell in my supplies shop.  I looked at the most popular sets and have chosen to condense the number of different sets I sell, but still maintaining a good range of colours and textures.

These are the colour sets that I will now be stocking...

From top left...

• Recycled (sandstone, suede, tuscan brown, dark grey and ash)
• Berry (burgundy, violet, raspberry, pink with a hammer texture, cream with a linen texture)
• Christmas (deep red, deep green, hammer textured cream, hammer textured white and bright green)
• Nautical (deep blue, bright blue, dark cream, hammer textured pale blue and linen textured white)

The cards in these colours measure 4 1/8 x 6 inches (104 x 152mm) - approx. A6 and are available with either square or round corners.  The recycled cards come with brown Kraft envelopes, all of the others come with white envelopes.

These white cards (which have a very slightly rough surface) are the same size as the cards above and come with brown envelopes...

I will also be selling white cards with either a linen texture or with the very slightly rough surface with white envelopes in two square sizes: 100mm and 125mm.

You can see the range of cards I have for sale in my shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/hfcSupplies?section_id=7812465

Love Birds printable wedding stationery

Yesterday was quite a productive day - I ordered some new supplies (which will hopefully arrive soon and I can share with you!) and I finished designing some new wedding stationery...

This new love birds printable wedding stationery set has a simple stripes pattern and silhouette illustrations of two birds and a heart.  I have designed the set in three colour schemes; mint, cornflower and plum.

The set contains an invitation, save the date card, rsvp card and thank you card.  The designs come as high resolution 300dpi jpg files, complete with personalised text so they are ready to print!

This printable wedding stationery is now available to buy from my Etsy shop: https://www.etsy.com/listing/111747855/love-birds-printable-wedding-stationery

Delicious Halloween Pumpkin Cakes!

I don't usually like eating pumpkin but these pumpkin cakes are delicious and they're perfect for Halloween!  This batch was baked yesterday based on a family recipe, I've decorated them with a fun spiders web pattern and some of my Halloween printable papers.
 

To make the cake you will need:
1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon (I also add a little ground nutmeg and mixed spice)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup pumpkin, cooked and cooled

For the topping:
icing sugar
milk or water
orange food colouring

Heat the oven to 180C / 350F / gas mark 4

The recipe I was given says to mix all ingredients together and pour into a floured tin.  I usually mix the dry ingredients together first, then add the beaten eggs, then the oil and finally stir in the cooked pumpkin.

I find the easiest way to cook the pumpkin is to heat it in the microwave for a few minutes until soft.  If the cooked pumpkin is very wet drain some of the liquid away before adding to the cake mixture to stop the cake from being too moist.  This recipe only uses a little pumpkin - if you're not making anything else with it the spare pumpkin (raw) can be cut into cubes and stored in the freezer, ready for baking another time. 

 

Pour the mixture into a tin or individual cupcake cases and cook for 25 minutes.

When the cakes are cooled they're ready to decorate!  Make some glace icing with icing sugar and milk or water.  Take some of the icing and colour for the spider web pattern, leaving the rest white.  (I gradually added a little yellow and red colouring until the colour looked right.)

Spread white icing onto a cake then pipe orange rings onto the white icing.  Using a cocktail stick draw lines through the icing, from the centre to the edge of the cake to create the spider web effect.  It's best to decorate one cake at a time rather than ice them all in white first.

I think the cakes look great with just this iced pattern on, but to finish these ones off I have also used some of my Halloween printables.

The designs were printed onto card, then cut out by hand.  The cupcake toppers can also be cut with a 2 inch circle punch.  For the circles, sandwich a cocktail stick between two circles of card and glue together.  I also used some of my new Halloween flags - for these simply fold in half with a cocktail stick glued in the centre fold.

Bright as a Button - new printable papers!

Organising the Creations Craft Fayre has been taking over my time a bit recently - I set up a new facebook page for it: www.facebook.com/CreationsCraftFayre and the hall is nearly fully booked with stalls.  I've just started this year's round of stall features on the blog too www.creationsfayre.blogspot.co.uk  It's exciting to see everything starting to come together!

 

I'm trying not to fall too far behind on my other work though - I'm always full of ideas, just lacking the time to do everything!

This is my newest set of printable scrapbooking papers, similar to my Pastel Buttons papers but in brighter colours.  The set contains 10 papers in 5 colour schemes - each colour scheme has a buttons patterned paper with a coordinating striped pattern...

This blue colour scheme is my favourite!

The set of printable papers is now available to buy from my Etsy shop: http://www.etsy.com/listing/111226290/bright-as-a-button-printable

I have some other new buttons designs in progress too - just waiting for a few supplies before they will be finished!! :)