A Day Out!

This post is a bit late, but I wanted to write about a lovely day out that I had on July 2nd.

A few weeks ago, I received an invitation, as a blog writer, to attend the Press Event for the release of the new Autumn/Winter/Christmas items from Rex London (DotComGiftShop).

If you've been a follower of my blog for a while, you may remember this post about bunting, which Rex London (DotComGiftShop) sent me, with a request to review it on my blog.  I'd been a fan of their lovely retro-feel bits and bobs for some time (see also this post from 2009!) and responded to a call for submissions from blogs, when they were compiling a list of favourite blogs that they had found.  
 

Anyway... It seems that they kept my blog on their list of favourites, because I received an invitation to attend the Event and bring a friend.  The Press Event was in London, so I set off in the train and met Keri-Anne at Euston Station, where she had arrived on her train.  

We walked down to the gallery where Rex London (DotComGiftShop) were holding their event and were made very welcome.  

Drinks in little jars, sweets to nibble... very welcome after our walk from Euston. 

...

Then this is what we saw...

...a roomful of wonders and treasure!

There was So Much Lovely Stuff, that it would take several blog posts to show you all of it (of course, you can go to their website/shop and have a browse for yourself).  Here are some of my own favourites from the Day: 

There's a big wildlife theme going on - in various styles - and I loved these little storage suitcases, with wild birds painted on them. Who could resist? 

There was a whole range of lovely items with the wild bird designs all over.  Coasters, mugs (in lovely giftable boxes), storage tins, a tower of lovely lidded glass bowls, glasses and drinking bottles, even a flour or sugar dredger for your kitchen.  Oh, and not to forget the pretty case for my glasses... Tempted again! My favourite is the Blue Tit design - I really like blue-tits.  

Still on a wildlife theme - Rusty and Friends.  A second set of suitcases, this time with woodland creatures on them, along with a number of other goodies, including these brilliant breakfast sets in melamine.  I could cope with eating my porridge, toast and orange juice from these and I'm sure my little nieces would love them! 

Then there were some great retro-themed items: 

Kitchen timers!  

A row of adorable and gorgeous china cups, that look like old-fashioned enamelware (memories of camping, anyone?).  The red one is my favourite, though I remember my mum having a white enamel mug, with a blue-painted rim... and actually, I love all four colours.  Have been trying to think of a good excuse to buy these - perhaps an "accident" will occur with our existing mugs (all 20 or so!)?  Maybe I can find someone to gift them to next Christmas! 

Alarm Clocks! Old-style clocks, like the ones I used to have on my bedside table when I was a very little girl.  Updated now to have a battery-powered clock and a beeping alarm, instead of the old bell-alarm that I had in mine; still just as appealing and I love the colour range! 

Then there was the Japanese Design Porcelain... 

Look at these!  They draw inspiration from Japanese pottery designs, each one being different and special.  I would love to have All of them in my china cupboard.  They are just lovely... sigh... There's a Mediterranean Stoneware range too, which is also gorgeous! 

There were items to appeal to all tastes - it wasn't just "pretty things" and items for children: 

For the Bicycle Fan in your life... 

For the Dapper Gentleman... 

For the Gardener and Nature Lover....

Keri-Anne and I had a lovely time browsing the little Aladdin's Cave full of treasures. 

You can see that there were loads more things to look at - I just haven't room to tell you about all of it!  If you are interested, do go and browse their website shop - it's full of great items, for yourself or to give as gifts.  After all, there are only five months to Christmas! ;-)  

We were sent on our way with a little shopping-bag full of goodies - aren't these lovely? And look, blue-tits on a cover for my new tablet pc! 

Many thanks to Rex London (DotComGiftShop) for your invitation and hospitality.  I had a really fun time and a lovely day out.  

...

And then we had Pizza for lunch before heading back home (spot the Selfie in the mirror!).

The End. 

And Lots More Books: The Commissions Update!

My previous post had an update of some books - and one more business card case - that I made in the last few weeks, for my online shops.

I've also worked on several commission books and this post is to show you those.

Commission One - An Italian-themed Holiday Journal: 

Anne chose raspberry red leather, ivory binding thread and a wide ivory ribbon to tie her book.  She specially wanted the ribbon to tie vertically, as shown in the photo.  I used a variation of a traditional Italian Longstitch binding to stitch the pages.  It looks rather nice...

Inside, the leather is lined with red mulberry paper, but each cover has half of a map of Northern Italy, from a vintage atlas.  The map was chosen online by Anne and I purchased it for her.  

I made a label for the inside of the book, using a copy of part of the map, printed onto vellum paper, with the title "Italy 2015" (the label is not attached in the photo). 

* * *

Commission Two - An Artist's Sketchbook: 

Danielle and her twin sister have their 18th birthdays in May.  She asked me to make a special sketchbook for her sister, who is a keen artist.  

Danielle chose a rich brown leather for the covers.  This was lined with red mulberry paper and we decided on a fastening with a simple red cord to wrap round a metal button.

The pages were of Murano paper, which is an artists' paper designed for drawing with pencil, pastel, charcoal and other dry media.  It has a slight texture, giving it a good "tooth" for the drawing media used.  Danielle chose several shades of ivory, cream, grey and charcoal for the page sections.  I also added some loose sheets of glassine tissue paper, to be used between pages, so the drawing doesn't smudge, until it can be fixed with spray.   

The pages were sewn with a cross-stitch, in red linen. 

* * *

Commission Three - A Book of Shadows: 

I was commissioned to make a book, by my sister.  She asked for a Book of Shadows, for her friend's birthday.  

The covers are black leather, lined with purple mulberry paper.  The book ties with a black organza ribbon.  The cover is hand painted in silver, with a traditional Book of Shadows design, of a Pentacle, along with a black cat and symbols to represent the four elements.  

There are forty pages of hand-made Indian cotton-rag paper inside.  The book is sewn in a decorative longstitch, with purple linen.  

* * * 

Commission Four - A Present for Jen: 

Finally, I commissioned myself!  I wanted to make a gift for the birthday of a very lovely lady, who is a skilled artist and produces the most beautiful papercut art.  She goes by the name of Jen and you can see some of her work here - My Papercut Heart. 

Jen designs large and complex paper cuts, which are all hand-drawn on plain paper, before being copied to the sheets from which they are cut.  We chatted about drawing paper recently and she commented that she'd been sticking A4 sheets together, to make a sheet large enough for one of her commission pieces.  So, it was pretty obvious that I should make a Large sketchbook!  

A3 (16.5" x 11.75") Sketchbook.  This has hard covers, in a Nepalese Lokta paper with a screen-printed "Kongpo" design of a garden - a very special sheet, that I bought some time ago and saved for a "special project".  Well, this was just the right project, as I was able to show the whole of the wonderful design on these book covers.  

The edge trim is a saffron yellow silk and the covers are lined with a matching saffron coloured art paper.  The book is sewn with a Coptic style binding, in double rows, with ivory linen. 

The pages are sewn in several sections, so there are plenty of sheets that open out to A2 size, for Jen's large and complex planning drawings.  Hopefully, she won't have to keep tearing out sheets and sticking them together, to have enough room to plan her next masterpiece! 

I wrapped the edge of each section with brown art paper, to give a bit of space inside the book and also to add a nice contrast to the golden silk edge-trim.  I added a small hand-tied silk tassel to the front of the cover, along with a silk-mounted label, with "Jen" printed in an oriental-looking font. 

I'm happy to report that Jen was very pleased with her birthday present - and I'm still smiling! 

Wednesday Worktable - 18th March 2015 - and More Leather!

This is my contribution to WOYWW (What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday), over at JuliaDunnit's Blog. Each Wednesday, Julia invites fellow crafters and bloggers to show a photo or two of their worktables, and explain what they've been doing. 

I've missed a few weeks, as it's been pretty busy here. What's more, today is actually Friday and I'm late for this week too!  However, I have made a few things during my busy spell and my worktable was busy this week, so I thought I would show you what's been going on here.  I'm afraid they're all "finished" photos now, as I forgot to take my In Progress desk shot - sorry!

Zebra

This notebook is a gift for a friend.  I was in Cambridge for a day last week and spent some time in the wonderful Fitzwilliam Museum.  This card was for sale in their shop.  It's an image from an old Russian matchbox; the museum has a number of these matchboxes, all decorated with interesting and artistic designs. 

My friend loves all things Zebra, so I bought the card, then decided to add a section of paper and make it into a useful notebook for her bag.   I haven't given it to her yet - I hope she will like it! 

 Red Leather Sketchbook 

This is another gift - it must be Giving Nice Things to your Friends Week! 

A lovely artist I know did something wonderful for me last week.  I decided I would love to send her a present, to show how much I appreciate her, as she's become a lovely friend over the past few months. Bright red and turquoise are a common theme in her colour palette and somehow I associate them with her, so I chose a bright piece of red leather and some beautiful deep turquoise handmade Thai tissue to line it.  I cut pages from smooth white drawing paper and special cold-pressed watercolour paper, then stitched it all together.  

A couple more shots, to show off its loveliness.  I really like this book and was so excited to send it off.  

The book was finished and ready to send - in fact she has now received it and was as surprised and pleased as I had hoped! 

These two have now been replaced with some more piles of paper and leather - more journals on the way. Watch this space!  

* * *

That's my contribution to the WOYWW Story this week - thanks for reading.  

Why not pop over to Julia's Stamping Ground and see what else is going on in the crafting world?

A Birthday Elephant

I've been getting the Simply Homemade magazine regularly, since issue 1.  A few issues back, there was a pattern for a lovely crochet elephant.  I decided to make it for my mum and adapted the pattern a little bit, to suit what I wanted.

The elephant is basically the same, except that I made the "arms" a bit thinner than the legs because I thought they would look neater that way.  However, the original pattern was just for an elephant, with no garments.  I thought it would be nicer to make a dressed doll, so I invented a dress, hat and bag - complete with little friend!

 Here she is! She's rather nice, I think...

 And she has a hand-made dress, hat and bag... and a little friend!  

See, the little mouse?  I invented him too - no pattern! 

The elephant and mouse are made in double-crochet (US single crochet!), using the circular technique popular for amigurumi style toys.

The bag is two granny squares slip-stitched together, with a narrow ribbon strap.  And the dress is a fab stitch I found in my crochet stitch bible, adapted slightly to make it flare; the bodice is double-crochet again, with some lace I had in my stash, to make it pretty. The yarn for the majority of the dress is one of those "self-striping" yarns, in cotton. It's produced a great patchwork effect which I'm very pleased with.  I used a plain lilac cotton for contrast, which I also used on the hat.

I didn't photograph the back of the elephant... probably should have, as she has a dear little tail and her dress fastens down the back, with narrow ribbon bows.

I'm really very pleased with how this has turned out!  It's taken me about five months to complete it all, as I don't have much spare time for crafting, but now it's ready for my mum's birthday at the beginning of July. She adores elephants, so she will love to have this as a gift.  Eeeeee.... I can hardly wait to give it to her and see her big smile! 

A Family Album Gift

We have a lovely friend, who was married last year and became a step-mum to a lovely boy and girl.  About eight weeks ago, she and her husband, were blessed with a beautiful baby boy, as a brother to her dear little step-children. 

I wanted to send a gift for the whole family, not just for the baby, or for our friend.  So, I made one of my extra large albums for their family photos and memories.

I posted it yesterday, but my timing was a bit bad, as they left this morning, to go and visit her mother for a few days!  The post office apparently tried to deliver this afternoon and left a card.  I really hope they're home before it's sent back to me as undelivered.

I know she doesn't read my blog, so I feel safe enough showing you photos here - just so long as it's not shared on Facebook yet!

I messaged my friend on Facebook and just asked her "Beatrix Potter, or (original) Winnie-the-Pooh?"  She replied  "Beatrix Potter", so this is what I have used - a lovely green fabric, with a paisley-style background and lots of the best-loved characters from Beatrix Potter's wonderful books.  

 

I teamed it with an emerald green silk edging and stitching in mulberry coloured hemp thread, to pick out the purpley shades on some of the characters and give a nice contrast with the green.

I made an embossed and printed "Family Album" label, which I mounted on a piece of silk and attached to the front cover.

I so hope she likes this!

 

Back cover,

The stitching of the book - a Coptic binding, with a section of French Stitch in the centre, as a decorative touch.  I hope the number of pairs of threads will help you to realise how large this album is.  It's about 11.5" tall and 13.5" long.

 

Each page was a single sheet, which I folded over to make a spacer.  The thirty pages were made into sets of three, then stitched on the folds, so the album will open out flat the whole way through. 

 

It made a lovely thick and heavy book.  You'll see that the spine edge is a lot deeper than the right-hand (front) edge.  This is why the spacers are there - to provide room for expansion when the photos are added.  Otherwise you'd end up with a book that bulged out of shape and looked "overfilled". 

 

I said it's big - the photos on the left are 6" x 4" and the right-hand photos are 4.5" squares, with white edges on three of them, making them 6" wide.  The album would hold a good number of photos. 

I really hope our friends like their gift - I so enjoyed making it!