Crafternoon session #3 knit & crochet

The third of our crafternoon sessions – knitting & crochet. Started with the obligatory coffee, and a worthy distraction to Guthrie & Ghani. The wonderfully wooly emporium of Lauren Guthrie, a finalist in The Great British Sewing Bee. We all left with wool which subliminally seemed to match our outfits : )
We all came with high hopes of pom pom bunting, funky footwear and ideas for crochet cushions…what we left with was something all together very different, but from small seeds…
Laura started by continuing her menagerie of mice to include an octopus.
The resident wool terrorist helped to make lovely neat wollen balls look more like cooked spagetti.
Abby had an awesome cotton yarn from Tiger, in the most amazing hot pink and practised double crochet
Jo Jo practised casting on and slip stitches. There was plenty of face pulling all round, as we wrestled with the yarn and hook combo.
Some examples of the finished squares – lets face it, we were always being a litlte ambitious. Always good to aim high – cat pom poms/squares/scarf potentials were created instead. Though this little granny square may grow up to be a blanket one day : )

Crafternoon session #2 pen & ink

The second of our crafternoon sessions – # pen & ink. We experimented with brush lettering and drawing with inks. The brush pens were a big hit, Zig and Tombow both being popular alongside the more traditional paint brush & ink.
It was a bit of a type frenzy to begin with, w’s were obsessed about. We put into practise some basics, stroke, varying direction & pressure (fat down, thin up : )
Then the colours came out – and the masking fluid, opened up a load more potential. Beautiful washes of colour with type reversed out.
Tea drank, pastries eaten, silence descends as the concentration levels hit their peak : )
We had all thought prior about type we may want to explore, so we had poems for friends, type for wall art and a little boys bedroom, birthday wishes and party invites.
It was of course the run up to Mothers day, so a lot of us tried our hand at making something we would be happy to send.
Tongues out – mean business : )
It was nice to see everyone’s individual styles start to come together, quite a varied bunch in the end.
Little geo repeats and graphic florals explored amongst others…
… and beautiful contemporary script.

Crafternoon session #1 Lino printing

The first of our crafternoon sessions – #1 lino printingIt was a good day, fuelled by tea, pastries and good conversation : )
Lovely geos from the lovely Laura
It was the right time of year for people wanting to say thank you after Christmas, so this was number one on a few of the crafternooners list of things they’d like to achieve. Thank you #1 from Abby
Thank you #2, reverse foliage and full bleed from Charlotte
Mark-making and a big thank you from Alex. Thank you #3
Denise was on fire with fishes and a winter scene.
Beautiful butterflies from Jo
Foliage, flowers and a little geo from Karen

 


Lillapa Christmas card 2015

So I was seduced by a bit of subtle sparkle this Christmas – subtle sparkle, is that possible? : )
One design, two colourways. A vivid pink and kelly green, both colours mixed by eye to achieve the colour of the envelopes sourced.
The clear foil is really beautiful to use – it gives what could be a very subtle debossing, a little help.
Just because I get asked, I wanted to show you the difference between clear foil (which replicates a spot UV) and a debossed image for a nice deep impression.
Green version – just for Alex : )
The finished prints – I love the simplicity of the design this year, with just that little pop of colour.
All set ready for Alan the postie.
Merry Christmas everyone, hope Santa was good to you all : )

Rowen & Wren’s bespoke Christmas cards

As always it was lovely to be approached by the wonderful team at Rowen & Wren to design and print their Christmas cards this year which would be sent to their suppliers, friends and the press. A little keep-sake for your tree.
I think this is what I love about working with Rowen & Wren – nice open briefs and a trust in the end result. Only criteria was, that it was to feature a tip-on brass star decoration that could be removed and kept.
The final proposal was an amalgamation of two proposals, the close up tree detail with the decoration, and the calendar entry. I really liked the idea of the card having a function as a count down to christmas so you could use both the star as a decoration but the card itself had a purpose.
First print pass, and a little trimming – testing the fold.
Goollllllllllldddddddddd! Sooooo shiny – I love it.
Final consertina folding and stacking ready for delivery.
All done and dusted, it’s the total satisfaction of each print pass revealing more of the design, building up the layers.
The decoration, the hanging calendar, and the calendar entry, how many more sleeps?

Kerry & Chris’s wedding suite

A lovely woodland inspired wedding suite for Kerry and Chris soon to be married in March. They liked the idea of using the very humble kraft card but adding luxury with the addition of gold foil and the pop of an intense white ink. This was a lovely project as it required initial direction and moodboards, which is always a satisfying part of the process – helping to make sense of all the elements and ideas the couple have.
First things first – a little bit of direction. This was a lovely open brief, so it was good to listen to what the couple were after, what they liked and so on and propose a couple of different directions/themes which might appeal.. The image above is an edited view of proposed colours, flowers, cake details, materials, wedding setting and details to inspire the couple and set the scene.
 Kraft card stacked ready to go, and the first run of invtes. Screen-printed with opaque white for a super punchy colour.
Save the dates, an adaption of the main design but still with the white foliage and gold foil mix.
Foiling stage – I love this bit, always satisfying, aways effective, and it works beautifully on the substantial Kraft card.
The finished Save the date cards.
The kraft folders were all made by hand to allow the kraft colour to be consistant throughout the suite. They were teamed with digitally printed elements for the RSVP and the details inserts. Again the neutral print matching back to the kraft colour.
Just packing up – assembling the final packs ready for delivery. A little paper string fastening and printed tag complete the package.

New wedding designs

Experimenting with some new ideas and working with the lovely Laura at Mile Lane pottery.
The little ceramic buttons make such a lovely sound in your hand, like seashells gathered from the beach. Real treasures to hold. Thank you to my beautiful hand model.
Double firing makes such a difference to the finish, unglazed, debossed and looking simply beautiful.
Ready to be teamed with some equally simple letterpress invites. More pictures to follow

Smart as a…

Interesting project designing an identity with a dual personality. On the one hand a creative craft business – fluid, fun and full of energy, and on the other hand a professional retail consultancy, still with a creative output but geared to a different customer base entirely – professional, business to business advice. I liked the idea of using the same motif but treating it in different ways to show the two scopes of the business proposition, appealing to the crafter and to businesses.

 Starting point – raiding my button jar and initial sketches

Close up of the two motifs

The full suite. Dual letterheads, comp slips and business card. Sticker seals were the icing on top.