Stitch & Craft fair Aintree

Went to the Stitch & Craft show at Aintree racecourse in Liverpool, it's usually in May but this year they moved it forward. It was really busy, it's never usually so packed; think nutty crafters trying to get a bargain then add beware- they will mo you down.
This show is quite good as its a varied mixture of hobbies-paper crafting, scrapbooking etc.
I got some stamps for card crafting and some inks as well as three large bags of ribbon & lace; which will defiantly come in handy for projects- both Uni & crafting :P

Bags of lace :P

PaperSalad- week 20

Well I finished the Christmas sample sets! I finished making them up on Monday, then sorted them into 12 sets and bagged them up ready to be sent out. I've packed a few Waitrose orders, stickered & labelled card packs with "JJ" required for Paperchase as well as working on regular orders.

JJ stickers

I've come up with my dissertation questions so hopefully will be able to interview Karen & Claire.
I've got six designs for my bird brief my latest of which was using my Tucan image; the design's turned out quite well and I'm glad I did this one in particular as I was using bright colours of green orange, blue and red; which is really different for me as they're not colours I really work with especially not in one colour pallet.
I'll be adding the finished designs to my Loie&Co blog at a later date so keep an eye out :)

My bird images with colour & pattern added

Working on Kingfisher design on my portabal CAD lab :P

PaperSalad- week 19

Okay so I've been working on the sample sets of the new Christmas range all week and still haven't managed to finish them yet, to be fair I'm making up & packing 42 designs twelve times over; each design has at least three stars on- which are different colours as well as sizes, so just when I start to get into a roll I come to a new design & have to find twelve lots of each star to go onto it or I have to change the shape completely as some designs also have two different sizes of hearts on too. It would be much easier if I was doing this amount in just one design as I'd have them done in know time; ah well something to look forward to for next week...:P

A pile finished christmas samples...still more to go!

I've got further with my design brief too adding colour to my drawings and starting to make up some card designs, I've been working with my Kingfisher & Flamingo images :)

Adding colour to my Kingfisher drawing

...and to my Flamingo drawing too

I've told Karen & Claire about my idea for my dissertation and said they're happy to help as I'm planning on doing a questionnaire so will be able to have first hand accounts from them- just need to come up with the questions now :)

Dissertation meeting at Uni

Well that kind of helped- gave me a bit of a panic at first but now I found that my idea is alright I can move forwards and start developing it further; into 6000 words- ah the joys of Uni...

some of my notes 17/04/12

PaperSalad- week 18

Back in after the Easter break and no sign of a pigeon :P
I worked through a load of orders, made up sample packs of the new wedding range and notebook set for the twelve agents. I cleared up round the studio, sorting out cards and boxes and refilling the card spinner. And also started hand-finishing the new Christmas range; making up sample sets for the agents after Karen had amended the position of where the stars would go on the designs.
 I've started work on a new brief which originally was going to be a "birds & cages" theme but has now just changed to birds as I've been drawing real species which I would like to stick with and leave the cage theme for later where I want to combine them with more elaborate and made up bird imagery.

Swan line drawing

Created in WA- Easter Market

Had a stall at another WA event today which I've been working on design ideas and items in my spare time over the past two months. I was able to launch my "British" jubilee designs and actually sold some as well. I had a corner stall so was able to have pretty much my whole stock on display and got compliments from customers about the presentation of it :)

My "British" & "Voyager" themed cards

PaperSalad- week 17

Emma's was on holiday for the week so it's mainly been a week of packing up cards, finishing off orders and getting cards ready for the PaperChase orders ready to be picked next week.
Started hand-finishing some of the new wedding range and making up sample sets of the notebook designs for the agents.
 I finished my "British" card designs off and continued creating my own textured backgrounds using dyes and inks; combining colour tones to create an added depth and shadow to them.

On Friday we had a bit of a problem with a pigeon in the studio; which had apparently flown in on a girl in the unit next door whilst she was on the loo- we had wondered what all the screams were about...

London trip

I went down to London for a weekend break but took photos of buildings and London's landmarks which I can use for inspiration for my "British" theme.
Taking my camera on trips is something I always do as my photos are usually the inspiration & starting point for the majority of my design work.

Tower Bridge 31/03/12

Big Ben & Westminster 01/04/12

St Paul's 01/04/12

glass building front 01/04/12

Structural 01/04/12

01/04/12

01/04/12