Handmade favourites - gifts for icecream lovers

No holiday is complete without sufficient intake of ice cream. In fact, I might go so far as to say it's not really a proper holiday unless ice cream is consumed at least every other day. So today's handmade favourites collection is celebrating the wonderful weather here in the UK and my love of ice cream. Everything is handmade in the UK and links to the shops are below. Enjoy a feast of ice cream designs.

Ice cream sunglasses case from Rosiebull Designs

There's always room for ice cream print from Two for Joy Paper Studio

Kawaii acrylic ice lolly necklace from Hoobynoo World

Wooden ice cream cone ring from Ginger Pickle

Ice cream holiday pennies purse from The Peartree Boutique

Kawaii ice cream iphone case from The Nosuch Disco

Ice cream cushion from Victoria Eggs

Ice cream cone pin brooch from One Sunny Afternoon

New designs with my silhouette portrait

I have wanted one of these electronic cutting machines for AGES. I kept bidding on a few on ebay to try and get one a bit cheaper as they are pretty expensive, but always got outbid. I wasn't sure I could justify spending the full cost. But now my wonderful husband has surprised me by buying me my very own brand new silhouette portrait. I am so excited!

What I particularly love about the silhouette portrait is that as well as being able to download fab designs to cut out straight away, you can also cut out any design of your own. So it's perfect for me as I can create and cut my own designs for the shop.

Hence a couple of new cards have just been added to the shop! I'm still playing and have so many ideas to try out, so expect to see more soon.

Personalised cut out wedding card
£2.75

Personalised papercut birthday card
£2.50

And another new card not made with the silhouette portrait but equally nice!

Personalised children's age birthday card
£2.50

If you'd like one of these new cards (or anything else!) get your orders in by Wednesday as the shop is going to be closed 10-21 July whilst I'm off on holiday. Why not pop over to the shop now?!

I'm linking this post up with Handmade Monday so if you fancy checking out what other creative peeps have been making this week why not pop over for a browse.

Top stationery trends: Chevron

Another new mini series for the blog! Half way through 2014 and I thought it would be good to share some of my favourite stationery trends so far this year. I'm going to start with chevrons, and then hopefully post the others often enough that I get through them before Christmas!

I love stripes. Anything stripey is a winner in my book. Especially socks. One thing better than stripes? Zigzag stripes! Totally loving the chevron trend this year. Here are some of my favourite chevron stationery finds.

1. Mini chevrons wood wiro notepad from Paperchase

2. Chevron washi tape from Chamby and Cor on Etsy

3. Mint chevron notebook from Finest Imaginary

4. Watermelon chevron notebooks from Felt Mountain Studios

5. White and brown chevron wrapping paper from Sophia Victoria Joy

6. Chevron thank you cards from Peter Pauper Press on Amazon

Five of my favourite online papercraft shops

Last month I shared with you five of my favourite blogs to read in my new mini-series of posts, and this month I thought I'd share my top online papercraft shops. There really aren't many craft shops in Hull at all, apart from Hobbycraft, so I buy most of my crafty stuff online. It's quite hard sourcing decent craft materials, so once I've found somewhere I like I tend to stick with them. Do check out these wonderful craft shops that sell supplies for papercrafts.

1. My favourite shop for coloured card is Papermill Direct, a paper mill based in the Lake District. Definitely the best I've found for both quality and price (A4 sheets of card work out at only 8p each!).

2. If you're looking for unusual craft paper I can't recommend The Exotic Paper Company highly enough. Their beautiful recycled papers come in all sorts of varieties, including paper made from rhino poo, bank notes and wildflower seeds. All made in their mill in Hemel Hempstead.

3. Payper Box is the best place to buy double sided tape, as well as paper, card and other craft essentials.

4. For luxury papers with all kinds of amazing textures and finishes I love Inspire Me Papers. They source their wonderful paper collections from all around the world.

5. Fred Aldous have a great selection of craft materials for pretty much any craft on your bucket list (plus a ton you've never even thought of!). Their papercraft section contains a good selection of accessories and kits as well as some lovely handmade papers.

Handmade favourites - 8 of the best travel journals

Since my travel journals are one of my best sellers, I thought I'd find 8 of my favourite travel journals for this month's handmade favourites collection. If you're off on your holidays this summer why not record your adventures in one of these super journals, all handmade in the UK.

The world is a book A5 travel journal by Bookishly

Scratch map travelogue by Luckies

Explorer's notebook by Coulson Macleod

Screen printed lighthouse travel journal by Sukie

Personalised travel journal by Grace and Favour Home

Bear spotters A6 notebook by Hole in my Pocket

Old suitcase leather journal by Bobby Rocks

A6 leather journal with recycled maps by Girl With Beads

Open for business

I'm back from a wonderful week off and my shop is open again. I do love running my little business but my fingers really did need a rest from making so many wedding cards and travel journals. I haven't used any double sided tape for 10 whole days!

As promised I did make myself tidy up my craft room. You can now see nearly all of the floor (just a little bit more sorting needed!) and the desk is nice and clear. I hate tidying, but boy do I feel better starting work this morning in an organised space rather than stressing about the chaos around me! We'll see how long it lasts once the orders start pouring in though...

I didn't have time to make as many cushions as I was hoping but I did finish one. It's looking a little bit lonely sat on our sofa all by itself so I really hope I get chance to make the others soon. I'm really not a sewer so I'm pretty pleased with my attempts. Not quite ready for the Great British Sewing Bee yet (especially given how long it took to make!) but I enjoyed spending time being creative in a different way.


Back to making with paper again today!

If you'd like to see what other creative peeps have been up to this week pop over to the Handmade Monday link up.

I'm having a week off :-)

Gosh what a busy couple of weeks making up orders! Thank you so much to all my lovely customers. There are going to be lots of happy couples receiving handmade cards on their big day!

Just a quick post to let you know that my shops are now closed for a week whilst I have some much needed time off. I'm going away to the Yorkshire Dales for three days then have some time at home. I'm going to have a big tidy up of my craft room (I hate tidying, but you should see the state of it. And if I tell you I'm going to do it I really will have to stop putting it off!) and I've got some crafty projects planned too. I'm not the world's best sewer (give me paper over fabric any day!) but I've treated myself to some rather snazzy fabrics and I'm going to attempt to make some cushions to brighten up our lounge. I'll let you know how it goes. 

If you're looking to buy something from my shop please pop back on Friday 13 June when it will be open again and I'll be ready to get making your order.