Creativesque Blog

Happiness Again

2010-03-13T16:26:06Z

Just wanted to share another photo of something that made me happy recently. Mum and I went to a local charity shop and I instantly loved these shoes. The colour makes me feel so happy and cheerful plus it also reminds me of the pink in my logo. Really love the round toes too as pointed isn't really comfortable for me. I think they would look great with some narrow leg jeans, blue or black in colour.

This Made Me Happy

2010-02-28T14:45:39Z

Hello!

Just a quick and simple post today about something that made me happy this week. My mum brought this wonderful selection of new bulbs and flowers. I love it because it reminds me of the promise of Spring and hope for the future.

I love the embossed design on the container too.

Recent Blogs Featuring Creativesque

2010-02-18T16:50:25Z

Hiya,

This is just a quick post to let you know about two fabulous bloggers who kindly featured my work on their blogs.

First is the lovely Jasmine from the Utina Blog who interviewed me about the beginnings of Creativesque and my current inspirations. I met her on twitter and she has been very friendly and supportive.

Next up is Anna who runs a blog on her Funky Diva Designs website. I follow her tweets on twitter and I usually never miss a chance to enter the giveaways on her blog because her handmade bags are fabulous!

Thanks to Jasmine and Anna for generously featuring me on their blogs.

Take care

Stacey-Ann

More Handmade Books

2010-02-01T17:05:09Z

Here are the books I've been making recently. I've been experimenting with different sizes and designs so that I can offer a handmade book for my next giveaway.

After trying it for the first time yesterday, I really like the idea of offering a set of matchbook notebooks for free on my blog. Maybe a set of two or three as they're so quick and easy to make and they are fun to embellish. I made this one by using this tutorial:

Here are the other two books I made but for one reason or another, they didn't come out how I wanted them, so no good for the giveaway.

This one has been bound by hand using waxed cotton thread It was then embellished with punched flower shapes and illustrated with black ink.

This one has also been bound by hand using waxed cotton thread. I then punched an entwined hearts shape through the front cover and then drew around the shape with a white gel pen. I think the pen marks look like I used white-out!

So those are my latest bookbinding adventures with more to come soon since I really want to make one or more that are good enough to give away on this blog.

15% off Sale on Handmade Paper Goods at Creativesque

2010-01-24T20:32:51Z

Hi,

Creativesque will be having a 15% off sale on all items in the Coriandr shop starting Monday 25th January all the way up until Sunday 31st January at 12 midnight. This is to make way for more stock in the lead up to Valentines Day and to give my wonderful customers the chance to grab a bargain. Here is a selection of some of the paper goods on offer to tantalize you:

Any Occasion Handmade Greeting Card

Original Mini Art Card

Set of 4 Notecards with Envelopes

When you have purchased through paypal I will refund you by the appropriate amount on the price of the item only.

Have a wonderful week!

Valentines Gifts On Coriandr

2010-01-17T12:47:22Z

I don't know exactly what it is about Coriandr that I feel so attached to, but I always like promoting the products on there and trying to get the Coriandr name a bit more well known. I think it may be a combination of having been lurking on the forums in the very beginning whilst the site was still in beta, watching as the owner Matt put a lot of hard work into getting the site up and running and seeing the result: a fresh looking, easy to use marketplace for seller and buyers alike. I've sold a few products on there already and have bought some too as gifts and everything went smoothly. There are some great little shops on there with fantastic products and I thought I would showcase a variety of them that would be suitable as Valentines gifts:

Beautiful Love Heart Necklace by AlibaliJewellery

'I Love You' Handpainted Canvas by strawberry magpie

'I Love You More Than Chocolate' handmade card by redrobindesigns

Gorgeous Silk Paper Heart by hmdesign

I Love Tea Cosy by kavanaghknits

I had such fun choosing these Valentine's items that I may do another selection closer to Valentines Day!

Take care and check back soon.

Exciting news for Creativesque!

2010-01-01T13:55:53Z

Hiya,

Creativesque now has an online shop with the very popular www.notonthehighstreet.com! They are well known with shoppers because of the quality and variety of the goods on offer and their customer service. They are also very popular with small businesses like mine because once you are on their site, your exposure sky rockets and the potential to grow your business increases exponentially.

So I'm chuffed to have been accepted onto their website as a new seller and have high hopes that it will have a positive impact on Creativesque's future. I've also already sold this set of gift tags!

Handmade New Years Greeting Cards

2009-12-07T23:05:53Z

I've been a bit quiet online for the past several weeks because I've been working on some custom New Years cards for a friend who is also a repeat customer. I really enjoyed making them, especially coming up with the designs and experimenting with a mixture of collage, illustration and stamping. Here are the results:

I'm planning on making some more Christmas cards next and hopefully that will go equally well. Time allowing, my online shops should be well stocked for Christmas as I have so many ideas for gifts and cards.

My First Custom Orders!

2009-11-15T02:31:53Z

I've been so pleased for the past few weeks to have been commissioned to do two paintings. One was a small ACEO sized watercolour painting for a lovely repeat customer and the other one was from the same customer who was commissioning it for another person who I also know. It was fun collaborating with her to come up with a painting that we both thought she would love.

Here is the ACEO, which was based on another one I sold to her before:

This is the one it is based upon:

This is the larger painting which was sent to Akua who owns and runs The Sheabutter Cottage where I buy really high quality, fair trade shea butter from on a regular basis:

I'm pleased to say that she loved it and to have such happy customers has really boosted my confidence and I'm no longer as apprehensive about custom orders as I once was.

In fact, I'm working on another one right now for the same customer!

Thinking about Christmas

2009-10-19T13:35:15Z

Like a lot of crafters at this time of year, I'm thinking about stocking up my online shops with Christmassy items. I've already started making individual greeting cards and gift tags but I was also thinking of festive notecard sets, Christmas card packs, and if I can find an effective way to do it, wrapping paper too! I would love to be able to offer handmade wrapping paper in sets with my gift tags and cards but I'm having trouble finding a printing service that won't charge exorbitant amounts to print my designs. My printer at home can only take A4 sheets and I think that size might be too small for most people. There is also the hand stamped option as spoken about in this post and I've also been thinking about illustrating by hand too but that could be even more time intensive than the hand stamping.

I would also love to offer some gift items so I'm just brainstorming how to do it. I was given a few ideas on my facebook fan page like bookmark and notebook sets with pencils showing my own designs. Quite like that idea.

What do you think I could offer as gifts? Any ideas will be appreciated!

Here are some Christmassy items already in my shops: