Over the past few months I have been exploring the world of papercraft.
At the day job we have often been asked if we do custom wedding invitations, and I have finally found a wonderful Western Australian paper and embellishment supplier that I am happy working with. So we have started to stock a lovely range of plain and patterned papers suitable for invitations of all types from Artee Supplies.
But that is only the beginning …
Once I started to look at papers, and glues, and embellishments I decided that there was definitely room for some additional ‘scrapbooking’ type papers and cardstock in our inventory. No-one is actually addressing this market in our town so that was all the excuse I needed to really start exploring the design companies out there.
I’ve never been one to do flat layouts in scrapbooking. I’m a 3D kinda gal and probably always will be. As with my embroidery designing my take has always been useful, or quirky or ornamental, not just flat.
So, my initial choice of designers is Diane Schultz of ‘Graphic 45‘ and the amazing Tim Holtz … I love the slightly dark, slightly twisted, slightly weathered vintage looks that both these design houses specialise in.
So … now that I have lots of beautiful papers and embellishments tucked into a corner of our shop … I have to start enthusing the local peoples so they will come and buy my papers and embellishments!
I have devised a couple of ‘exploding boxes’ which I will start teaching to a group of enthusiastic ‘guinea pigs’ in a couple of weeks. They aren’t hard to do … and there are lots of videos on the interwebs (that’s how I taught myself) … this is just my take on the idea.
The first uses papers from the Graphic 45′s Le Cirque range, and some vintage circus posters I found and printed out.
Here is the top of the box lid.
And here are the four sides …
And then … when you take off the lid … the box explodes!
I cut out some of the little clown figures on one of the papers, and attached them to thin lengths of clear acetate. When the box opens the little figures bounce about on the acetate above the rest of the box. This very clever use of acetate isn’t my idea … I found out how to do it from the extremely clever Carol here. Such fun!
Here’s a close up of the clowns doing acrobatics …
And for the girlie girls …
Papers are from the ‘Once Upon A Springtime’ range designed by Graphic 45. Same dimensions and similar layout to the Le Cirque box – just a few more ‘twiddly bits’!
Here’s the top of the lid
And a line up of the sides
And when the lid is taken off the box …
fairies fly above the box, whilst others sit on the outer leaves of the box watching on.
Here’s a close up of those lovely fairies …
Did you notice the little fairy sitting in the rose in the middle of the box?
These boxes have been great fun to make … hopefully my students will enjoy making their own exploding boxes next week!
I’m still learning about inks and markers and glues and papers … is this something you would like to learn along with me? Let me know!
It certainly has been a long time between posts.
Over the past six months I have often thought that I should close this site down, but I knew that I would want to come back to here to play from time to time, and this is one of those times.
I’ve been off adventuring into the wonderful and varied world of crafting – to get my creative edge back and to teach myself some new skills. I still have lots to learn, try and experience! I am still enjoying not having deadlines to meet. And for the most part I am enjoying the process of following other people’s instructions for projects rather that writing instructions for my own projects!
I wanted to pop in here today to let you all know that yes, I am still alive and well, AND to say that the little ‘Treasure Chest‘ project which was a collaboration between myself and Yvette Stanton of Vetty Creations has just been published in the latest edition of ‘Inspirations’ magazine. Yvette designed and stitched the gorgeous hardanger box top and I designed and made the fabric covered box.
The box is covered and lined with beautiful fabric I purchased from the lovely people at the Kimono Girls stand at the Sydney Craft and Quilt Fair last year. Their retail business is located in Bright, Victoria – but I think they attend most of the craft shows (apart from Perth) so make sure you take some time to catch up with them – their fabric is to die for!
If you are looking for a quick little present for someone close – or just for yourself, grab the latest copy of Inspirations and have fun stitching and box-making!
My friend Rozzi who owns a lovely needlework shop called Needle Nydle Noo in North Perth has a new grandson called Taylor. His full name is Taylor Samuel White and he is just gorgeous.
I was trying to think of something special to give him as a ‘welcome to the world’ present and finally I decided on some little Japanese Zakka owls for his nursery. I love owls. And I particularly love Zakka owls … so I made six little owls using a pattern I found at Moonstitches blog here. I then cross stitched his name on little blocks of linen and attached one to each of the owl’s tummies so that when they sit in a line they spell out TAYLOR.
And because I needed to put them in something before wrapping them up as a present, I decided to make a cartonnage box which would be a useful thing for keeping treasures in, when he’s a bit bigger.
I originally planned to make a long narrow box, so that the six little owls would snuggle in a line. However, I didn’t have large enough pieces of board to make a long box, so compromised by making a rectangle which held three each in two lines.
I had a little bit of fabric left over from making the owl bodies which I used as a highlight on the lid, and cross-stitched Taylor’s initials on some more linen which I then fringed and glued to the lid as well.
The owls were quick and relatively easy to make. I made a couple of changes to the pattern intructions. I decided to apply a fusible lightweight fabric interfacing to the fabrics before cutting out the owls, which gave them a firmer body to work with. And I popped a fishing sinker into each owl before I sewed on the bases as I felt it gave them more stability.
Zakka is certainly a style that I will be investigating further.
The day job has decided to take over my life almost completely.
When I got back from the Sydney Craft Show several big decisions about the day job had to be made – and as the day job is what pays the mortgage and my and DH’s wages each week, the decisions made were for the good of my whole family, not just me. I will certainly be spending more time at the day job from now on. This will, unfortunately, impact on Janie Hubble Designs.
Everyone loves free stuff (me included), but good free stuff takes almost as much time to put together and publish as purchaseable charts – without the benefit of an income. I totally appreciate that everyone is suffering from the global downturn, so free stuff is good on so many fronts. And my free stuff has always been given with great joy, for your stitching pleasure each month. However, the head of financial services in our household has quite rightly pointed out that all my spare time in the past few months has been spent on Janie Hubble Designs, for very little financial gain. And as my future free time is about to be seriously curtailed, some decisions have had to be made.
So … I won’t be publishing a regular monthly newsletter any more, just when I add something new to the site. Which also means that free charts won’t be as readily forthcoming. I have re-arranged my website so that my blog is now the front page, and it will become more of a general craft blog. I want to branch out and do some different things and to start enjoying my crafting life again as a pleasurable past-time rather than just a business venture. My blog will document these forays into the crafting world, but won’t have a regularity to it – just when I get time to do it.
I will publish new designs as and when I get time to complete them. Some of those designs will be free, some will have tutorials associated with them, and some will be for sale.
I am hoping this will work. It’s been a topsy-turvy time over the past few weeks trying to work out what to do. My day job needs me to love it more than my crafting life at the moment, in order to take it in the direction it requires to grow and expand. But I don’t want to lose touch with all you wonderful people … so this seems like a way to have my cake and eat it too!
Hope you all understand, and pop back from time to time to see what I am up to.
I’m feeling a bit sad today dear reader!
I am sitting in my hotel room all packed up and ready to head home to Perth at lunchtime. The Sydney Craft and Quilt Fair has finished for the year – five days of fun, laughter, good friends and good sales.
I have learned a great deal over the past week on how to set up, run and pull down a successful booth in a retail show situation. The show organisers ‘Expertise Events’ couldn’t have been more helpful or encouraging, other booth holders were pleased to share their own learned knowledge, and everyone who visited our booth were just lovely.
I have to say that my ’2 suitcases and a shelving unit’ idea worked very well this year. But now I have been initiated and know about using the event organiser’s freight business contacts (duh!) I am already designing my stall layout and stock levels for next year!
I did manage to do a little retail therapy when there was a lull in our booth – when I’m home and unpacked I’ll share pics! Yvette, Belinda and I also managed to think up some possible collaboration pieces, and a couple of new design ideas popped into my head as I walked home each night from the Convention Centre to my hotel room. This is part of the reason why working at a show is so wonderful – the creativity and ideas that are captured in one area over five days is incredibly stimulating and sparks new and more wonderful ideas for next year!
I’m off to find a luggage trolley to get myself down to the foyer, then it’s off by taxi to the airport.
Thanks for hanging out with my in Sydney over the last week – see you back in Perth tomorrow!
Good evening dear reader -
I can’t believe I have already done three days of the Sydney Craft and Quilt Fair! The days seem to be whizzing by at a great rate of knots.
It certainly helps that the customers are all so lovely, and that we have been busy for the three days. Tomorrow (Saturday) is traditionally the busiest of the five days apparently, so I can’t imagine we’ll have much time to look at our watches during the day!
Today, Belinda managed to take some pics of me working at our demo table. I had a double demo stint today, so I was able to make up one of the Mouse in Old Amsterdam boxes, cover and line it with fabric to show everyone HOW EASY it is to make a custom-made box as a gift to yourself or for a friend.
And Belinda also got a pic of Yvette demonstrating her new Portuguese Whitework when it was her turn to sit at the demo desk …
At about this stage Belinda and I were working outside the booth as things were starting to get a bit squishy. I think we might be doing rather a lot of ‘outside the booth’ hovering tomorrow in order to allow everyone to get ‘up close and personal’ with our products on display.
I decided to pick up dinner on my way back to my hotel from the Harbourside food hall this evening – and grabbed a little glass of red from the bar on the way up to my room. So, dinner is done, and now I’m going to settle in for a little TV watching before an early night ready for tomorrow.
Thanks for dropping by – I’ll report in tomorrow!
I remembered to take pics today dear reader!
Day 2 of the Sydney Craft and Quilt Show was excellent – lots of people, lots of laughter and good sales.
Once again I caught up with more of my lovely newsletter recipients and had fun demonstrating my Cartonnoz trinket boxes.
Yvette, Belinda and I are taking it in turns to do demos at our booth – it’s a great way to explain our product ranges, and gives people the opportunity to see first hand how Yvette creates those beautiful bullion stitches, Belinda makes paper beads and how I get covered in glue whilst making fabric covered boxes!
The pics were taken early in the day, when you could still see the carpet in our booth. At times the three of us were standing outside the booth so that everyone else could fit in!
The coffee vendor close to our booth is doing well out of Belinda and I, and lunch options are very much within my diet requirements of no wheat, little dairy and mostly salad and veggies. There’s even a carvery stand where you can buy an entire roast meal if you’re up for it – seriously upmarket stuff for a craft fair!
It’s on again for young and old tomorrow – if you have a chance come and say hi!
I’m off to get some dinner (and a wee glass of wine I think) then a good night’s sleep.
Ah dear reader … I was so carried away with the first day of the Sydney Craft and Quilt Show today I totally forgot to TAKE PHOTOS!
Yes, I know, completely hopeless … but I did manage to meet lots of lovely stitchers, put faces to names on my newsletter list – so lovely to meet you all 
and generally have a great day all around. Yvette and Belinda are wonderful fellow boothees … (now, is that actually a word?) and the booths around us are filled with wonderous colours and designs, and, and … I could almost become a quilter with such inspiration all around!
In order to keep you entertained this evening, and due to total lack of photos on my part, I thought I would share some pics sent through by Rosella. She sent them a little while ago and I feel dreadful that I haven’t shared these with you before now! I have tried all sorts of ways to ensure that the day job doesn’t bump into my needlework life … but unfortunately sometimes it gets a bit out of hand! So, without any further to-do, here are the photos of Rosella’s beautiful diamond and biscornu necklaces she made recently, using my free design ‘Peacock Feathers’.
Here are Rosella’s descriptions: “I stitched them on Belfast linen 32 ct Clay with The Gentle Art Sampler Threads Orange Marmalade, Peacock, Blackboard and on 35 ct cream linen with The Caron Collection’s Cherry Silk.”
They are truly gorgeous Rosella – thank you so much for sharing these with me.
I’m fed, watered, my shoes are off and I’m off to do a little light reading prior to getting a good night’s sleep ready to do it all again tomorrow.
Dear Readers – I am here in Sydney, having missed the ash clouds by a day – and sitting in my hotel room after setting up the booth at the Sydney Convention Centre this morning.
The Hotel Ibis (where I am staying) is about 500m from the Convention Centre, and Halls 2 and 3 where the show is setting up is about another 500m from the front door of the Centre – so as you can imagine a bit of walking too and fro was done today (and for the rest of the week methinks)! However, it does mean I get my morning walk in this way so I’m not complaining too much!
The trip over from Perth was uneventful, a very helpful taxi driver managed to get me and all my bags to the hotel without any bother, and I batted my eyelids just enough this morning to ensure I got a trolley from the Convention Centre for free, to haul everything over from the hotel. The trip from the hotel to the Centre was slightly nerve-wracking as it meant wheeling the trolley through the carpark, down two ramps, over a street bridge, into the Harbourside Shopping Centre, down in the lift, through the food court and over to the Centre … but girls can do anything … so I just did it! LOL
I’m sharing a booth with Yvette Stanton of Vetty Creations and Belinda Fox of Cassis Craft – and we all arrived at about the same time this morning to set up. I’m amazed at how organised we all were – everything up and done within three hours! As I finished my third coffee of the morning and gazed around at all the amazing booths still very much in the process of being put together, I realised that some exhibitors are going to be working well into the night in order to have their displays ready in time!
All my ‘pack flat’ ideas seemed to have worked (and weathered the trip from Perth) and I am very happy with my display. I guess if I was in Perth I’d have had a lot more stuff to include – but at least I have a good range of what Janie Hubble Designs is all about on display, and I am happy.
The three of us are doing demos on our stand throughout the show – I’m doing cartonnage boxes, Yvette is doing embroidery demos and Belinda is doing quilling and paper beading demos – come and watch – it’s going to be great fun.
I’ll be there bright and bushy-tailed tomorrow when the Show opens at 9am – see you there!
After receiving a concerned email from a reader about whether or not I was still alive and kicking I thought I’d better gather myself together and give you some updates!
Yes, I’m still very much alive and kicking dear readers – in fact I have been beavering away at both the day job and at preparing for the Sydney Craft and Quilt Show to be held at the Convention Centre, Darling Harbour (nice!) next week. The Show runs from Wednesday 22 June to Sunday 26 June.
The day job was a bit demanding over the past month. However, all is now calm there (well, as calm as it is ever going to be which really means ‘manageably frantic’) so I have been concentrating on getting everything ready for Sydney over the last few days.
I have had to devise some rather clever ways of taking myself and all my ‘stuff’ on the ‘plane as I just didn’t have enough lead time to get everything onto a freight truck to have it transported by road. Luckily Qantas has just changed all its excess baggage rules, so things have worked out rather nicely. I can take one 32kg suitcase free of charge (bless you Qantas Club) and 2 additional 23kg or part thereof, suitcases (or things in place of suitcases) for an additional $50. Bargain! So the plotting and planning and making has begun!
I decided I needed shelves and ended up buying this fab unit from Howards Storage World – it comes as a flat-pak which I can put together without any effort (not even a mallet) and weighs in at under 23kg!
Having shelves meant that I also needed some boxes to hold all my charts, scissors, and cartonnage cuts neatly … I worked out the size and shape I needed and then designed some fabric covered boxes which are collapsable … they are working out well. They fold down flat and six of them will weigh 4.5kg. I’ve actually made four so far, and have stopped so that I can work out if I go ahead and make another 2, or whether I make one slightly wider to accommodate some of the larger cartonnage box cuts I am bringing with me.
As part of the overall look for our booth (which I am sharing with Yvette Stanton of Vetty Creations, and Belinda Fox of Cassis Craft) we agreed that we would use black tablecloths to cover our tables. As I have a shelving unit rather than a table I set about making up a cover … it took all of Saturday afternoon, but I’m pleased with the result. The front flaps have velco strips sewn onto their top edges to hold them in place. This also allows easy and quick access to the boxes of charts behind them.
I was also planning on taking photos of my new suitcases – but my camera has decided that life isn’t worth living and has died. (It’s been on it’s last legs for several months now – ever since it got dropped in the sand on a slightly drunken trip to the beach at Busselton – oops!) Sigh. So … need to put ’new camera’ on my shopping list for today so I can take more pics of my preparation tonight.
I still have to put in an appearance at the day job this week … so I’m off to make sure a few jobs head off to the printers and then I’m back onto printing off my own charts ready for the show.
