father's day

Following in the footsteps of my new Mums are like stars card, I've created a new card for Dad using the same thick and lovely speckled cardstock. Just in time for Father's Day!

I thank my lucky stars for the good taste my mother had!

get yours here in my ETSY SHOP

new wood table numbers

Reading through some old letterpress type specimen books I came across some Bookmakers Numbers, had to find a use for them!
New in the shop - Rustic Wood Wedding Table Numbers available buy unfinished here or in a choice of hand waxed finishes. Perfect for a rustic, country, woodland or a boho wedding!
They are getting lots of love on Etsy after being featured in EtsyFinds! Yeh!

new card for mother's day

New Mother's Day card in the shop, silver ink printed letterpress on some super thick recycled charcoal board which was rather more speckled than normal!

You can also get a Love♡Letters© card personalised to say what you want or there's my marvellous mum one!

Check out my etsy shop here for cards

my funny valentine

Hey I'm so last minute for Valentine’s Day, only a week to go. At least I'm a year early for next year!
I had a play at hand lettering the word love and hello while ago (7 months!) where does time go! I'd forgot all about them, so I thought refined it in illustrator as a vector, see I was trying to be organised! Letterpress impression works best when's there's room to breath and I just could find a font that I was happy with, pleased how this turned out! So this was a little last minute and I'd had enough of mushy love and felt like a laugh, well I think it's funny ;)
I also loved how it printed as a blind de-boss (no ink) so I went into refined and elegant mode too! A woman of many faces!
There’s a list of things I could put after Love you...
...even though you pick your nose
...wear big gigantic knickers
got any you could add for a laugh? (go on give me a giggle haha) If you make me laugh I'll send you a card in the post!
Now for sale from any my online shops ETSY,  NOTHS or FOLKSY

new letterpress card for Valentine's

a new letterpress card in the shop, printed on thick 450g cotton letterpress board
For a limited time envelopes are available lined in paper designed by Elizabeth Friedlander  for Curwen press. And I mean for a limited time as I didn't realise when I bought this paper that it was original and Curwen Press no longer exists!
Available to buy online form ETSY  or FOLKSY

A few good reads regarding Curwen Press www.tate.org.uk and eye magazine
JPP Papers have a limited supply or original patterned papers.
There's also a beautiful book New Borders: The Working Life of Elizabeth Friedlander printed by Incline Press
I was suppose to be printing my own pattered paper, time to get those ready for next year!

sweet little swallows

A new addition to the shop, die cut notes printed letterpress with two little vintage swallow blocks.

Letterpress card for mum

New Mother’s Day Cards printed with wood and metal type in violet and purple ink.
Available to buy in my  Etsy and Folksy shops in time for Sunday 18th March.

Believe in magic!

A new and exclusive large letterpress print for Unlimited Editions in Brighton. Limited edition of one hundred, 760 x 560mm, you can buy online here or pop into their Christmas Open Studio Shop, which looks fabulous! There also an interview with little old me which you can read here. I'm not one for having my picture taken but my little apprentice gave me moral support ;)
We should all believe in a little magic, does wonders for soul...

Christmas Crackers!

Can't beat a good old corny cracker joke Its the way you tell 'em! A must round the table at our family Christmas dinner ;)
Originally I was hot foiling them in red and green but alas the Ludlow isn't working properly so had to hatch another plan. Don't get chance to use Gill Cameo Ruled but makes a good cracker don't you think?
Who hides in a bakery at Christmas? A mince spy!

What did the fireman's wife get for Christmas? A ladder in her stocking.

What's Santa's favourite pizza? One that's deep pan, crisp and even.

What do angry mice send each other at Christmas? Cross-mouse cards.

Why was Santa's little helper feeling depressed? He had low elf-esteem.
Available in the shops in time for Christmas ;)

New colour in the shops

1. Cornishware 2. The Great British Bake Off 3. Le Creuset 4. Emma Bridgewater

So I could have said here's another Bake More cake this time in red as this came out the top colour in a little survey I did, but I thought I do a little research of my own...
By looking round the general high street where I think my target audience would shop gives me a good idea of colour trends for the kitchen, red kettles where defiantly showing in abundance!
I also love the way T.G. Green have updated their traditional Cornishware® to include a new range of colours that would suit a modern home as well as a county kitchen, nicely packaged too! CORNISH RED® once a prototype of the 50s but never made it to full scale production is now available in the complete range. Love Emma Bridgewater’s new Sampler Range! Red is also a very iconic British colour, red bus, telephone box, post box, red arrows and of course predominately featured in the Union Jack and the flags of England, Scotland and Wales.
Would never have really thought about printing in red but goes to show what a little research throws up! Red the colour of Christmas too, maybe I should photograph it with some mince pies ;o) Now available in my shops. FOLKSY & ETSY
PS. It's National Baking Week 17th - 23rd October so get baking, lots of recipes here

Crack open a bottle...

Thanks you for all your feedback, grey was the winning vote, by a mile! Did try a slate grey but chose a lighter one which balanced with the red instead of overpowering it.

A few hiccups along the way... ;D

Will be available to buy from my shops soon...

Food for thought!

Some new editions will be added to the shop this week! I wanted to create some diversity to my stall at Saltaire and had all these vintage blocks and I'd never printed. The copper engraved Vintage Lavender Salts block prints amazing detail! The blocks vary from Victorian to the 60s

The small note book is my favourite, gas bottle next to the cooker, how times have changed! Great for jotting down ideas for the kitchen or out and about when cooking up that big idea!

new in the shop

Stocks are low for Bake More Cake so I decided to print them in a choice of just green or blue too, as well as the original 3 colour print here. Still has to go through the press twice as not enough wood border to print all in one pass. All available in my Etsy and Folksy shops

Also thought it would look as a tea towel but what colour to choose? Green's a good choice for kitchens I think, but then I like blue too. Lots of other ideas but as I would be getting these screen printed I need to get it right before I commit.

Would love to know what's your favourite colour for the kitchen?

new cards

new eco friendly cards printed letterpress with vintage woodtype in my Folksy and Etsy shops.

Special offer: also available as a pack of 3 which comes beautifully packaged

new cards

New cards in the shops, an updated more in your face version on my early one (in teal).

Available in fluorescent pink and bright orange for the guys who don't like pink ;o)

Soon to be available for the proud to be 50ish too!

follow the golden rules

No matter what you are doing always have a laugh!
Say please and thank you, it's not too much to ask.
Support your local shops, don't throw litter and pick up your dog poo!
If you dream of visiting Paris, make it your dream to see the world.
What goes around come around...

My new letterpress print for the Brighton May Artist's Open House Festival 2011 at Unlimited Editions. Printed in wood type and sparkly gold ink which really needs to be seen to be appreciated, looks good unframed too, just propped up on the shelf so it catches the light don't you think...
Available in my Etsy and Folksy shops soon

Paris to Milan

I was having one of those days with a to do list where I didn't know where to start! So I did something NOT on my to do list. Crazy! Screen-printing ink arrived so I thought I'd test it out on wood type on the new proofing press, but alas it dries too quick to do a large amount of wood type all at once so went back to my normal ink and proofed some on some bags which fit the press perfectly. I'm a little worried about wearing my type down by printing on fabric so I did a light impression with hard packing but I like the worn look. I also love the texture and colour of Gmund Bier paper...

Not all was lost, the bags will be a great addition to an up coming craft fair and I've also listed them in my Folksy and Etsy shops.

Having tonnes of wood type in cases I forget what I've got, so I think I'll continue this on the big proofing press, adding more cities and using all my wood type until I get an incredibly long poster, will look amazing on the studio wall. I can also label the cases to match!

I've been to London, Dublin, Edinburgh, Berlin and New York, would love to go to Paris! Which amazing cities are on your to visit list?

Now to crack that to do list...

new stockist and print

I've some exciting news to share with you! A selection of my prints will be available at the next unlimited editions pop up shop in Brighton. A new print especially for the occasion featuring some chromatic, two part,  wood type which is fast becoming one of favourites!
I'm amongst some very talented company, check out their website or better still pop along and see for yourself...

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Love Letters Pop-Up!

Saturday 5th February 10am - 5pm
The Old Stables, 4B Upper Gardner Street, Brighton, BN1 4AN
www.unlimitededitions.co.uk
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Also available  in my etsy and folksy shops.

Yes it should have an apostrophe after S but they are not commonly used in signage, so that’s my justification for not using one, so all you disciples of punctuation don't hit me with your exclamation marks ;o)

Yeh! The sun has come out to play so managed to retake some pictures of this I did in July, for once I'm in time for Valentines ;) Available in my folksy or etsy shops
Have been messing around with my blog banner, packaging, lots of thoughts but not quite there yet! There is a word that I dread, so I shall say it quietly, coding, have been searching through the html trying to understand why I have big gaps between my links on my side bar, totally confused and gave up! But I was proud of myself as I managed to add an about me page, didn't realise it was so easy to add pages and got rid of shadows round my photos on Letterpress in the UK! I'm learning very s-l-o-w-l-y ;)
As a designer I find it very frustrating not being able to have my blog how I want, maybe I should hire the services of Lindsay, she has managed to do things with blogger that I didn't think possible and offers some useful tips on her bog busy thoughts. for the time being I will keep playing...
Any thoughts will be gratefully received ;o)
If my banner looks fuzzy, it didn't and does now and have not done anything different, oh joy! Hopefully will fix it soon looks like blogger is trying to compress my files!
Found some help about this here

letterpress quote

Handset wood and metal type printed letterpress into soft 300g somerset cotton, limited edition of 30.
Ansel Adams is best known for his black & white photographs so only fitting that it be printed so, don't you think?
Though a small number have been printed on somerset antique cream, as shown in the frame, thought it just softened the black a little!
Available direct from my little Big Cartel shop or from Folksy or Etsy.
Printed by request for a present, can't say who in case the other half finds out ;o)