PaperSalad- week 16

Worked on a few orders this week; hand-finishing cards as well as starting to pick the upcoming PaperChase order; which is similar to the Waitrose only not quite as manic- PaperChase usually order large quantities of a card as they send them to the stores themselves.
PaperSalad have a stall at "The Teenage Market" on the 1st April so I packed up a few cards and notebooks for them to take.
I finished my "Voyager" brief for tableware, which I also did some card designs with. I started incorporating my "British" theme into cards for the Jubilee which I hope to launch at an upcoming Created in WA event next week. I decided to test the market so to speak by showing my designs to a range of people and asking which designs they preferred to get the best success out of the final cards.

Sewing for pleasure & Hobbycraft show

Another yearly craft show I go to; this one is a really good show for a bit of everything, it has papercrafts for my card crafting, jewellery supplies as well as stitch equipment etc- this is where I really stock up for Uni withs threads and fabric etc.
I got some ribbons for one of my Loie&Co projects and some different colours of inks & dyes.

PaperSalad- week 15

The new resin disks  for the "Jelly Pops" arrived on Monday from China so I helped Emma make a load of them up as quite a few orders were waiting for "JPs" then they could be dispatched.
I spent quite a lot of this week drawing out miniature stars and cutting them out of glittered card by hand so they could be used on the sample cards of the new Christmas range for Waitrose.

My hand-cut stars; not bad eh?

I took all the Mother's Day cards down in the shop and replaced them with Easter cards and helped Emma with some orders.
I also helped make up sample cards of the new Wedding & Christmas ranges; cutting out a few more stars as well as hearts too.
I was able to try out my new dyes and inks; creating some interesting effects that I scanned in and started playing around with them in CAD.
Becky from Glick came in to view the new designs Karen's been working on for gift bag ideas.

Harrogate Papercraft show

This is definitely one of the best shows for papercrafts as it's everything to do with this area all in one show; it's another yearly event I attend and is great for topping up on supplies for both personal and Uni use.
I got some equipment for some of my Loie&Co projects as well as some inks and dyes- which I hope to put to work next week :)

PaperSalad- week 14

A bit calmer after last week; I was hand-finishing alot of the card ranges for orders, picked some orders for Not on the high street as well as popping out glittered shapes and refilling the card spinner in the shop.
The new and final notebooks arrived on Thursday so I packed a few, priced them and put them out in the shop- they look really good with a nice gloss/mat finished cover.
Karen showed me how to do a repeat pattern by hand for wrapping paper- the old fashioned way without the use of CAD software meaning everything needs to be really precise so that each section matches up and aligns perfectly.
 I was also able to work on my design brief again this week; continuing with "the voyager" theme. I've done some line drawings of monuments such as the Eiffel Tower and Leaning Tower of Pisa as this technique links in with the theme; I plan to work on these in CAD but wanted to combine my drawing with some texture so this week I started to create some of my own textured backgrounds using ink & dyes.

smeared ink

swirls in ink

Random imagery

left overs after shapes have been popped out :)

PaperSalad- week 13

A particularly mad week of packing up the Waitrose order- more boxes than last week as me and Emma were packing around more than thirty boxes each day this week.
 I was able to work on my design brief at the beginning of the week; finishing my "British" themed tableware on Monday and getting some positive feedback from Karen & Claire then starting researching for a new brief on travel & "the Voyager" on Tuesday which focuses on natural colours of browns and aged effects looking at landmarks & monuments of countries as well as items & forms of travel; bringing it all together in a vintage chique style.
By Wednesday we were so busy with getting the Waitrose orders ready that I ended up pretty much doing full days of packing to get everything finished in time. I'd say Thursday and Friday were the busiest days; where I packed up well over eighty boxes and labelled them whilst Emma was booking them out and sealing them ready for collection Friday afternoon.
We were that busy that as well as re-arranging and sorting the shop out; I also answered the phone, taking down messages.
It has defiantly been an exhausting week.

PaperSalad- week12

Well this week I've worked on an order of JPs for Hong Kong delivery. I helped Emma bring the palette of boxes up from the store room then put them in order on the new shelving. We've then been picking the Waitrose order from them; making up eighteen box fulls in total each with three sets of one design.
I also worked on an order which needed a lot of DBs and JPs making up from scratch.

New shelving; already in use!

I've progressed with my design brief too and have been showing my designs to Karen & Claire who have been giving me tips and feedback. They liked my final card designs with added texture.
I've now started a new brief on table ware, going with the theme of "British".