Wedding fair notebooks

A blog post mostly made up of pictures today.  Recently I have been producing small notebooks to go in goody bags at the Glemham Hall Wedding Fair this weekend (at Little Glemham, Suffolk).  I've made bulk quantities of notebooks before, but never 200 at a time so I thought it would be interesting to document each stage.

Firstly I designed and printed the covers.  The covers feature several different wedding related images all drawn in Illustrator and in black (because it's quicker to print than colour) and printed on to coloured covers.  

Next the paper was folded for the inside, having been trimmed slightly in the guillotine.  Each book had 6 sheets of paper stacked one inside the other, making 12 pages or 24 sides.

Holes were then punched in both the covers and inside papers.  Here they are ready for sewing.  Each notebook was sewn in a different colour thread to the cover.  The sewing probably took about 4 hours (and was done while I was watching TV!).

Finally an wedding invitation sample (the object of the exercise for me!) was attached to each notebook with thread and a tag.

Here they are boxed and ready to go ...

Hope the brides-to-be at Glemham Hall this weekend like them!

Today’s blog post focuses on a great new campaign – Support Handmade However It’s Made (#SHHIM for short!). 

This has come about primarily as a response to changes by Folksy, who from November are only going to allow items to be sold if they are the seller’s own design or are made from only handcrafted components.  I don’t think any of my books or stationery will be affected but I’m struggling to work out who these changes are good for.  Yes, some items on Folksy are made of mass produced components and some products clearly involve more work than others but this is usually reflected in both the description and price and surely it only benefits the consumer.  People have different tastes and budgets, especially in the current economic climate.  

Up until now I’ve always been relatively satisfied with the service offered by Folksy, with the exception of the fact that certain sellers/items are repeatedly promoted via their ‘featured sellers’ and ‘top picks’ while a far greater proportion never feature, which seems a bit cliquey.  Create.net, who I have my main website with, seem to have a more equitable system (by inviting sellers to be featured) and, as a result, showcase a wider variety of sites. 

So back to SHHIM, this is an initiative by the creator of the Diddybears™ site which sells adorable hand-crafted and collectable mini teddy bears.  Until the end of December she is offering free advertising for anyone affected by the Folksy situation.  Details can be found here http://www.diddybears.com/handmade.html and you can also visit the wonderful shops on this page.  I’m very big on inclusivity and am proud to display the SHHIM badge on my blog!  

Owls

I haven't produced any new designs for a while so thought it was about time I changed that.  This owl design was originally intended to be used on a notebook (and still may be!) but I thought it also lent itself well to a new baby/birth announcement card.

Here is the original owl, in four colours:

The owls then became pink and blue to form the design for the birth announcement card:

I'm discovering the benefits of having an increasing range of designs.  With this design, the tree branch was adapted from my 'Birds in Trees' wedding invites and the clouds acquired from the 'On my travels' notebook design.  Saves time!

Dandelion wedding invitations

This is a wedding stationery I created a few weeks ago in response to a request from a friend who was looking for dandelion style flowers on her wedding invitations.  With my original design I depicted lots of seeds, each with a tiny wedding related item at the end.  However, the end result looked to me to be a bit, well, straggly. 

So the design evolved and became one where hearts made up the dandelion head and fluttered off into the breeze, fading as they did so.  As with many of my other wedding stationery designs, the colours can be changed and the dandelions feature, in slightly different layouts, on all of the stationery.

Snowflake wedding stationery

A new wedding stationery design I've adapted from one of my business Christmas cards last year. It features snowflakes shaded in a contemporary pattern featuring lots of warm winter colours. Perfect for a winter wedding!

The range includes invitations (which come with a reply card), Order of Service, menu, place card and thank you card.

Upstairs Gallery

I've recently updated my stock at The Upstairs Gallery in Beccles. This is a fab gallery which changes displays and exhibitions every month. I have a range of notebooks and notebooks there and am now selling prints featuring my 'Beccles', 'Southwold' and 'seaside' designs too.

Pay the gallery a visit if you're in Beccles! It's in the centre of Beccles opposite the Twyfords cafe (which you can visit afterwards to recover from the stairs).

a rather hazy picture of the display

Back to blogging!

I have been neglecting my blog in recent months while I have been upgrading my website. However, that’s all done now so it’s time to get back to blogging! First I thought I’d give an update on what The Leaf Press has been up to:

I have introduced quite a few new designs into my journals and notebook ranges, most of which have been designed using Photoshop and Illustrator. The majority I’m pleased with, but one or two ran into difficulties – I discovered my ‘Coins’ travel journal cover was likely to run into major copyrighting issues (useless fact – some countries copyright coin designs where as other’s don’t). I’ll show my new designs on here over the next few days.

'Dotty' journal

An early version of the 'coins' design that was never to be







I’ve also introduced a range of wedding stationery which at the moment features four designs I’ve had my first sales, some lovely feedback and am now working with Gina (a wedding planner and merchandiser) at www.bygina.co.uk.

An invitation from the 'cake' range

More pics to follow soon ...

Seaside notebook

It's a bit late, but Happy New Year! Below is a notebook featuring a seaside design I have been working on. I also hope to make this into a photo album and possibly a print.