Thursday 30 April 2015

New Designs Revealed - Birthday Age Cards for Young Men


Today is the last day of my new designs revealed.  Well, for now anyway as I am currently working on lots of other new things.

These are designs for young men aged 16, 18 and 21.  

These were a big challenge for me.  I have two daughters, many nieces, but only one nephew.  So my world is very pink and I had to dig deep for these designs!

However, sometimes the most challenging things can be the most fulfilling and I'm glad I had a chance to develop these to see what I'm capable of when I try! 



These designs and all the other designs I have shared with you this week are available for wholesale orders now from publishers Art Eco Designs.  I'm due to get a stock of them all in the next few weeks and will be gradually listing them to my online shops when they arrive.

Have a lovely day!


Wednesday 29 April 2015

New Designs Revealed - Birthday Age Cards for Young Women


Hello!

Today's new designs reveal is all about youth as I share with you my brand new designs for female birthday cards for 16, 18 and 21

These were a chance for me to have fun with vibrant colours and revisit my college days.  
To put me in the mood whilst I worked on them, I listened to....and occasionally sang along with (Oh my poor neighbours!) some great tunes from those days and I hope that the joy I was feeling comes through in these designs.



Tomorrow I'll be back with the last of these new age cards to reveal - the ones for the younger men.

Have a lovely day!


Tuesday 28 April 2015

New Designs Revealed - Birthday Age Cards for Men


It feels like Happy Hour on my blog today as I showcase my new age cards for 30 plus men.

I found creating these designs a very refreshing change from my usual style and I had some fun developing them.  It's always good to stretch yourself creatively and do something that is not the most comfortable thing initially. Usually from doing that, it's where I find the most creative satisfaction and joy!




Have a lovely day and I'll be back tomorrow to reveal more new designs for 
younger women aged 16 to 21

Best Wishes


Monday 27 April 2015

New Designs Revealed - Birthday Age Cards for Women...


Hello!

It's been very busy times here.  Over the past few months I have been studiously working away on more designs for occasions cards to license to the publishing company that handle pretty much all my card ranges for wholesale.   Most of the designs I've been working on have been filling the gaps in my existing range.  The past few weeks has seen me focus on birthday age cards for men and women from 16 to 90 and all the milestones in between.  

Over the coming week, I am delighted to be able to reveal all these designs on here.
Starting today with my range for wise and wonderful women aged 30 plus...  








Tomorrow I'll be back to reveal my designs for men for these ages.

Have a lovely day! 

Best wishes


Sunday 19 April 2015

Sharing a Bit of What You Know is Good for The Soul....


Hello,

It's been a little while since my last blog post, mainly because April is a very busy month here for family celebrations such as birthdays and wedding anniversaries, and with the school Easter hols - finding time to blog is pretty unpractical.

Looking back over recent posts, I can't believe I've not yet had a chance to share with you my recent wonderful experience of being a guest speaker at a local creative women in business group. Also the fact that my little business has become a case study in a book to help small start up businesses on a budget.

Both of these events have completely thrilled me, as never in my wildest dreams when I tentatively posted my first blog post on here back in 2010, did I ever believe I would be writing about things like this happening a few short years later.  To be completely honest, I wasn't entirely sure whether I'd still be lucky enough to be doing what I do now at all and was fully prepared to adopt my plan B, i.e. look for part time employment within 18 months if my little business didn't show signs of working out. 

Thankfully, it never came to that and because it didn't, I have learnt so many valuable lessons along the way which have enabled me to keep going...keep swimming!

In the beginning it was a case of do some designs, allocate a small budget, get the designs printed onto a small batch of cards & prints and set up a website/ online shop - and then promote the heck out of them and see what happens.  There have been ups and downs, but by showing up at my desk and doing the work, I'm still moving in the direction I want to be.

If only I had read a book like the one pictured above, before I got started, I may have avoided a few of the downs and the lessons learnt the hard way!!  'Start a Business for £99' by Emma Jones is a great book for anyone starting out, it outlines lots of helpful advice for all the things you will encounter and need to consider in the early days of your business.  Even for more established businesses, it helps to remind us of things we should be thinking of in the day to day running of a business.  My case study appears on page 60 and it covers my story about how I went from selling my work on Folksy to getting my designs stocked by Waterstones and National Trust, with a focus on the benefits of online selling and licensing....



Speaking of online selling and licensing...those were two of the things I spoke about at a recent gathering of West Country, Creative Women In Business hosted by Kindred Rose.

I was a little nervous about giving the talk as it had been at least nine years since I had done anything like that.  Thankfully, the event was brilliantly organised by my friend Helen, who put me completely at ease, and with my previous career being in advertising, I'm no stranger to board rooms, power point and presentations...and although a little rusty on all of the above, I soon got back in the swing.  This was far more enjoyable than any presentation I had ever been a part of before though, as this was sharing what I know, love and believe in with a room filled with warm and wonderful creative ladies.  Before and after my talk I had the chance to chat to a few and listen to a great talk by Liz Oram of Love Local and came away feeling inspired and very encouraged.  I hope that my talk helped to inspire and encourage others, like they have for me.


I firmly believe that stepping up and sharing a bit of what you have learnt along the way holds the greatest rewards of all. I got a real buzz whilst I was delivering my talk when I saw people actually making notes about what I was saying!!  That to me, has made every struggle, every late night, early morning and every financial sacrifice, completely worth it because it means what I went through may prevent someone else with a similar vision or dream not having to ...and yet still end up thriving in business....and what a wonderful gift to be able to give that is!  

Best wishes


Monday 6 April 2015

20% off Offer...


Hello,

I hope you've had a lovely weekend.

In case you've missed some of my social media posts last week - I am currently running a 20% off discount code on my website, Folksy and Etsy shops. 

The offer is available until 13th April and the code to type in at the checkout is

EASTERBUNNY

That's not all though!!....


I've been having a bit of a spring clean of my stock.  As I've mentioned in an recent blog post, I am currently working on LOTS of new occasion cards AND, I am developing roughs for a new themed range of general, blank greetings to start work on in the coming weeks.  So the bottom line is, I need to make some space for these new collections and it has to be a case of out with the old and in with the new.

Which is why I have an OFFERS section on my website and a new one on my Folksy shop and have added a few amazingly priced items to them.  Here are the links:

Please note - on my website, the list prices INCLUDE P&P.

You'll find offers like the pack of 10 mixed cards above for £5 plus £1.50 P&P

Also, for a limited time, some of the popular Life is Sweet range have been marked down over on my website from £2.95 including P&P to £1.70 including P&P !! ...



It's a good time to stock up! ;)

Best wishes


Friday 3 April 2015

Happy Easter With Something Pinteresting For The Weekend...


HAPPY EASTER!

This weekend, my 'pins' have an Easter theme as I share some of my favourites from my pinterest board called 'Its a Spring Thing':


I have to share this with you - it's a wonderful design from a fantastic company called Meri Meri.  If you're unfamiliar with Meri Meri, they are a party ware and stationery company established 30 years ago and they create bright, fun, cute and very lovely things.  Here's their website so you can see for yourself:


Here are a couple of rather jolly Easter designs from the 1960s.  I think it was a great era for illustration and design, I love the Easter Bonnet Parade above by Tom Vroman (circa 1963).  The characters and colours make me smile.

As do these cute chicks from a book about Gift Wrap from the 1960s by Kevin Akers.  

It's wonderful to discover these treasures on pinterest - it's small wonder I've lost hours of my life over there!...


I hope you have a very lovely Easter!

Best wishes