January 2011

Romantic PaperArt

Posted by Andrea in Creative Art, PaperArt on January 31, 2011
2 Comments

There are a ton of mind-numbingly uninteresting jobs I have to do this week, so before I even began to look through the dreaded task list, I thought I’d get some crafting in -  feed the soul so to speak. Inspired by great movie one-liners and some pretty awesome lyrics by Mr Kravitz himself, I created these 2 pieces of romantic PaperArt this morning. I now wait with bated breath to see if the We Are Birmingham shop is interested in stocking them for Valentine’s Day ….

Thinking about it, they’d make great personalised gifts … fingers crossed!

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Creative WordArt

Posted by Andrea in Creative Art, WordArt on January 21, 2011
2 Comments

Every year in September, after the kids have gone back to school, I start to give some serious thought to what kind of hand-made Christmas gifts I will be offering to friends and family – I’ve done the greeting cards packs, knitted scarves, little hand-made bags and iPod pouches, and the ubiquitous scrapbook pages and albums. Last year I wanted to create something far more personal – a unique personalised gift so to speak.

I had seen this wonderful piece of WordArt on Etsy (would credit it but have since been unable to relocate it!) some months beforehand on one of my routine hops around art and crafts websites and blogs; it really sparked my imagination and was very much in keeping with the ethos I apply to my scrapbooks – very personal and very unique.

It really got my creative juices flowing, especially as it involved one of my oldest passions – typography! It would make such a fabulous gift but would involve much participation from other relations of my friends (and my family!)

I sent out emails to them requesting a whole host of information on the intended ‘victims’. Some didn’t reply – a big ask, I know, especially coming up to Christmas, and anyways, asking people to think deeply about the personalities of their loved ones is surprisingly difficult; BUT a couple did reply, much to my excitement. A few hours of sifting through the information sent and a few more hours playing around in Photoshop, and VOILA! Wonderful little pieces of WordArt.

This one was for a friend of mine – her daughters provided me with all the information, for which I was extremely grateful! I did a double act here and asked Sharon for info on her 2 daughters, they too received pieces like this!

and these were for my nephews – my sister very kindly racked her brains and came up with all the words and the phrases – I especially love the ‘but…but…but…but…but’ reference as this captures a time in his life when he was very argumentative!

These are items that I am giving serious thought to adding to my stock designs. I enjoyed doing them and they make wonderful gifts!

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Jake Nicholls – Motocross Superstar!

Posted by Andrea in Scrapbooking on January 19, 2011
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It was a real honor to be asked by Jake Nicholls’s mum, Julie, to design a bespoke digital scrapbook album heralding Jake’s career and rise to fame in the Motorcross world. It also gave me the opportunity to design something unique and against the grain for scrapbooking – grungy, edgy and FULL of photos and newspaper cuttings; no single photo layouts here, I can tell you! The result (a glossy coffee table book) was pretty special and I often flick through the copy with great pride. I’ve posted the front cover but figured you guys would probably want to see the whole book too, so here it is – enjoy!

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Been so long….

Posted by Andrea in Life on January 11, 2011
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I can hardly believe that it has been nearly 12 months since my last post. It has been one very busy and very manic year, especially coming up to Christmas. I swear there must have been someone walking around London with a big placard advertising my little company.

Lots has happened too on the home front, Amber spent most of the year out from racing due to a fractured foot but is now up and running again. Greta has taken up Street dancing and has been involved with 2 stage shows – you can see her here at the Positive Steps Dance Showcase at the CBSO Theatre, Birmingham strutting her stuff – she’s the one in the cap!

I have been really busy with weddings, photographic shoots, craft courses and scrapbook albums for most of the year and will be posting the results later this week. It has been amazing to see how it has grown from strength to strength over the past few months.

There has also been a new addition to the Etsy pages and Facebook pages to incorporate my crafts. Don’t forget to check us out on Facebook HERE and Etsy HERE. Will keep you posted on developments this week as I try to bring everything up to date – phew!

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