New Toys!

I made myself a lightbox today! I came across this tutorial and thought I'd give it a go... Seems to have worked okay! Since it was such a nice day I thought I'd try and make good use of the sunlight and take some photos of my new toys....

The new toys are - Shrink plastic, new mini-business cards (which are going to multi-task as labels)  from Moo...

And I found a little craft shop in town that sells daylight bulbs! So now I can take nice photos at night time too! (Do you like my shrinky-tea lady? I think she's destined for the shop, once I find a nice brooch back for her.)

The main reason for wanting a working lightbox is that I'm gearing up to add these customisable  invitations to my shop.... I'm still mulling over the wording of the etsy listing, but it should be ready to go in a couple of days! I know that this one isn't particularly wedding-ish, but I thought it would be nice to design an invitation that could be used for any event - wedding or otherwise!

Hooray for productivity! 

x

False Serenity.

Okay, so remember when I posted a few weeks ago about the Redcurrant Jelly, and I was all serene about how it didn't turn out the way I wanted but I was still happy with it? 

I might have gone back on that position a bit. 

In fact, while I was making the Blackcurrant Jam, (which I boiled the heck out of and thus turned into an awful gummy mess,) I thought I might try and give my redcurrant syrup another wee boil, to get it to set. 

Big Mistake. 

I got it to setting point and as I was pouring it into the jar it burnt. It tasted like sugary death. I was SO disappointed, and maybe a little bit angry with myself - all that delicious fruit wasted! (which is why I didn't Blog it right away - time has lessened the sting.)

So, since I won't be using them, I thought I would share these labels I made for my preserves. 

****Click here to Download the .pdf of the Labels!****

They're nice labels - They deserve to be on better preserves!

GUESS WHAT

I have plans. Not big, megalomaniac ones, (but not small, insipid ones either,) and they're going to be going hand in hand with a bit of Blog-Redesign.

Now, I know we've been through this all before. Which is why I'm writing this post and saving it as a draft, and I'm only going to publish it once the plans are ACTUALLY in motion. So if you're reading this, we're past the whole "Oh she SAYS she has plans and I'll believe it when I see it!" phase of the endeavor.

OK. So after all this build-up, you might be wondering what these plans are, and I have two words for you.

Printable Stationery.

.......

So maybe it falls in the slightly insipid end of the plan scale, - it's not going to cure cancer or anything -  but if you have an occasion to use stationery, (say, a birthday card!) and you want a quick, easy, inexpensive and relatively instant solution to your lack of stationery, (eg: OMG, I FORGOT TO GET A CARD FOR X'S BIRTHDAY AND I SEE THEM IN FIVE MINUTES!!!) I think printable stationery comes into the fore.

Having said that, I don't have any cards ready YET. But I DO  have, designed and ready to launch, note-paper and envelope sets, which I will also offer as personalized invitations. (ooh! Custom stationery!) I'm also working on designing birthday and greeting cards, labels and tags for home-made gifts, Paper Dolls and other Printable toys and goodies.

If all that takes off, I'd like to offer real PHYSICAL stationery and paper toys that are printed on lovely paper and comes in a package in the mail (because buying real things on the internet is always like buying a present for yourself!)

My Esty shop is HERE and will launch on the 24th of August, 10am GMT, which is less than a week away! 

Have I mentioned that I'm both excited and nervous? 

Because I REALLY am!

xx

Hollytron

AS AN ASIDE: On my trip to Google to check that I had the correct spelling of stationery, (as opposed to stationary - I play fast and loose with grammar and spelling all the time, but some things you have to get right!) I came across the Wikipedia page for Stationery, and was delighted to discover that the name came from the STATIONARY nature of the merchants who sold  goods near universities, and that the Stationer's Company were a big ye-olde mega-company and were the first to use copyright. 

History is Fun :)

x

Quick Update

Just to let you know that I've updated my website with some of the work that I've done over the past few months - Check it out Here.