Happy New Year

To those of you who are celebrating the Jewish New Year and Festivals right now,

May your year be sweet and your days be long!

Wedding Stationery Sample

I have been doing some sample wedding invitations for a friend who gets married next June. Here is the design I like the best so far. (Of course the choice won't actually be mine.)

I seem to always lean towards clean designs when it comes to Wedding Invitations. 


Anyhoo, The front design is very simple. I printed the text with a font from here. For the little motif,  I used the crossing hearts paper punch from Tonic Studios.


For the inside I wanted to make slits to slide in the silver insert rather than just sticking it down, so I rummaged through my punches to see what I could think of and came up with this idea. I used this two in one paper punch

I removed the corner punching guides and simply lined up the punch with the edges of the card. To get the right size for the insert, I measured between the top and bottom points, and the outermost points and made the card just a fraction smaller. 

Because I used a contrasting colour insert I think it looks pretty from the back too. 
(I imagine it might be possible to do this with other corner punches that have a removable guide.)

I am thinking I could also use this idea for making small cards for inserting store gift tokens. 

for you birdy lovers out there....

I came across this and thought it was hilarious! 
I love anything birdy, but...well, watch the video and be afraid...very afraid!

blanket box makeover

I finally got around to painting this blanket box. (What do you call these in the States?) 

It had been stripped and sanded ready to paint about ten years ago, but it never was very high on the priority list. But I had some cream  paint left over from another project and so I decided to use it up rather than keeping a small amount in the tin to dry up.

This was what it looked like before!

I used this graphic from the Graphics Fairy. 

I had some carbon copy paper leftover from when my mum was a typist. I printed out two copies, one reversed, and then I traced the outlines on top of the carbon paper onto my box. I adjusted the design a little bit as I didn't want the stick thing that goes diagonally across the basket. I then painted the design with black acrylic artists paint. There are some differences between the left and right one because there was about a month in between each image, but I think that just adds to the handpainted look. 

My intention was not to leave it in this state. My intention was to distress the piece and then antique wax it. But I have chickened out of doing that for now as I have got used to it as it is. However, once the piece starts to naturally distress over time- and it will- I shall help it along a bit. 

At least I finally painted it!

What do you call a whole lot of pencils?

A whole gaggle of pencils wrapped with vintage encyclopaedia pages and old maps, and packaged in my handmade boxes, will be in my Etsy shop very soon...

pencil boxes

This is my latest thing. Vintage encyclopaedia wrapped mini pencils. 

When I get around to it, I'll be adding some to my Etsy shop.

8 to a box - they are so cute!

a handmade box - of course!

I love little things! Don't you?


They even will come with a poem!


Age old book,
Tattered, torn.
Cover loose,
Pages worn.
Ruler, knife,
pencils, glue.
Turn it into
something new.


(Do I need my head examined?)

and another one...

My poor family...they just don't understand why I keep making little boxes!

It gives me great pleasure to design and make them! I don't know why myself!

This is a little gift set I just finished. I think I will pop it in my Etsy shop soon...

It's a little journal with hand embroidered cover upcycled from denim from my son's jeans.

(It's OK- he had finished with them.)

The journal has a pretty bookmark ribbon, and comes with 4 little pencils, an eraser and a sharpener. Everything you need for a little sketching session.

The box is lined with smaller boxes inside- it took a while to get the template just right!

Actual size of the journal is 3" by 2, 1/4"