Personalised Wedding Stationery Made To Order - Gaynor & John

Well, we thought we had got away with it virtually scott free, but last nights snow really did come down. 

We decided to walk to work and after a bit of snow shovelling 

and a liberal sprinkling of salt.... it was business as usual.

This week has been particularly busy and there's been 4 Wedding Orders go out... probably my all time high for any week, since I started... and in fact this month is set to be the busiest ever!

Sometimes, someone comes through the door and has a clear idea of what they want... and yesterday, such a thing happened, quite by accident. 

Do you remember these.... The one on the left was one that a Bride had ordered off the internet. The Bride 'thought' she was buying from a UK company. The problem was, when they came they were all in polish or some odd language! They were reasonably priced yes, but actually came from China and it would cost a fortune to actually send them back!

You can read all about Kayleigh's experience on an earlier blog post titled Brides on a Budget - BEWARE!

The Wedding was pretty close, so I offered to try and sort something out for her. This is what I came up with.....

Kayleigh's Wedding Invitations came ina wrap around cover and we decided to keep these... and come up with a design that you could see poking out of the top corner.

Gaynor immediately spotted these and said "I want mine in wraps too!"  Now I hadn't made the original ones and the size was not standard to our UK paper sizes.... but with a big of jiggery pokery, I somehow managed to come up with something that fit....

The daytime cards were to be a bit more fancy and were to be enclosed in the wrap... my concern was that with all the extra card and the ribbon, they wouldn't fit in an envelope and until I had actually made them up, I couldn't be sure whether they would or not. Sometimes, Brides ask you to make something that' seems on the surface and easy enough task, but coming to make it can turn out impossible. 

Fortunately they do fit!

The Evening Invitations are printed and foiled on thicker card.
Card that would be just too heavy for folded cards. It was dark outside, and no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't get the lighting right for good photos of these, but they are different, gave me a challenge and turned out pretty well I think.

For enquiries about this or any other item you see on my blog, contact me using this CONTACT LINK  or by clicking the contact tab at the top of this page.

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All posts and photos (c) Sue Simpson

Unusual Guest Book - Envelope Guest Book made to order!

Unusual Guest Book - Envelope Guest Book made to order!

As I've said before.... some of my best ideas are not mine... in fact they come from my customers, who request something a little different. Keely rang me and asked if I could make an envelope pocket guest book.... which she could not find for sale ANYWHERE in the UK. I must admit, I searched around and I couldn't find one either! The only reference to these books was on a Martha Stewart Wedding website.

The concept was easy enough, I just made a Japanese Bound book the same way I make Guest Books, wedding Albums and Honeymoon Albums.......

 You do however have to make the spine, twice as thick as the inside pages, so that when the envelopes and cards are glued  inside, the front of the book doesn't splay open.

 The request was for the book to be made in Ivory, Lemon and Gold.... oh and with Butterflies on....

 With the right colours the hot foil can look stunning!

 Although the envelopes are quite small (as envelopes go) adding 6 to a page makes the book rather large.
The overall size of the book is around 30cm x 49cm.

 This book contained 60 envelopes....
enough for 120 guests and I made little cards
 to fit inside each one.

And I've made a sign to help the guests along...

As I'm more your bright and gaudy colour lover, I really wasn't sure how this would look when it was finished.... but to be honest... I think it made a refreshing change! It's clean and fresh and quite an alternative idea to the 'normal', run of the mill guest books I get asked to do.

I'm looking forward to making more :-)

Watch  my website for updates:

http://northyorkshireweddings.co.uk

Last week in the studio....

Hot Pink, Wedding Stationery 

and Accessories for 

Karen and Richard

Very often there are 2 parts to every wedding order.

The first part is the Daytime and Evening Invitations,

Save the Date Cards and RSVP.

Once the numbers have been gathered in, it's easier to order the right amount of 'On the Day Items.

Here we have 80 hot pink 

wedding wishing tree butterfly tags

And of course the wishing tree sign

Hot Pink foiled table numbers

again with butterflies

8 Butterfly Menus.... 1 for each table

And a beautiful Hot Pink 

Butterfly themed Wedding Post Box

And a close up of the front

The punched out butterflies all had a little diamante,

adding that extra glitz and sparkle.

There's still the Seating Plan and place cards to make,

once the final confirmations of names have been received

and the list checked for any spelling errors.

I loved making up this order

as there was no restrictions  on how I went about it.

The brief was:

Hot Pink,

Butterflies,

and NO

 there can't be too many of them,

and do it however you like!

Great stuff.... that means I can go to town 

and give it my all.... and I think it shows! 

You can see more of our wedding stationery at

http://northyorkshireweddings.co.uk 

Birthdays and Weddings, Personalised Cards

We've quite a few Birthdays close to each other in out family.

After my sister-in-laws birthday 

(where I blogged about this card)

we have Steve's mums birthday....

The card is simple enough and made using hot pink foil,
some embossed card attached to hot pink card,
a couple of hot pink butterflies (I did try hearts but they didn't look right) and a few sparkling diamantes.

Plain and simple but effective.

To see more of my posts on Greeting Cards

click on this link here.

If you make cards yourself.... I hope you find some inspiration.

If you wuld like me to make a crad for you... get in touch by clicking the CONTACT ME button :-)

I love the Personalised Blessing/Wishing Tree drawing 

that I designed for Wedding Invitations

For this weeks post, on my Wedding Blog.

I thought I would show you 

how different the design can look depending on the 'Format' of your card.

Firstly.... here it is on a square card.....

Alternatively you may like the DL

 (Long and this) format better....

(Ruth and Lee also wanted butterflies)

Unfortunately the design is large,

so doesn't lend itself to 

single sided Postcard Invites,

but it can be printed and personalised on the front

with all your Wedding details on the back.

For this design and many more,

go to our website:

http://northyorkshireweddings.co.uk 

It's been a month and there's lots to share.....

It's been a long month! Just 2 days after my last post our second baby grandchild came into the world..... Little Mylo Munchkin..

His birth was not without trauma and one that I couldn't share on the blog at the time.... because I and my son were in shock and once reality dawned we felt it very hard to talk about it.

They are trying to close the maternity unit at our local hospital, meaning a 30 mile drive to the nearest one. Now, our hospital covers the Dales and surrounding area, some half hour drive from us, which means for those people that to get to the James Cook Hospital would take up to an hour.

My daughter-in-laws labour was quick to say the least. Made even quicker when half an hour after she arrived, she was rushed for an emergency c-section after Mylo's heart dropped rapidly and so did my daughter-in-laws. It took 10 mins to get him breathing. Now the reality check for us, was that if my son had had to drive his wife to the proposed new hospital....neither of them would have survived and we would be looking at a very different picture.
Thankfully, 4 weeks later and all seems to have settled down and we are more than relieved it's all becoming a distant memory.

Daisy continues to be a darling and has just had her 2nd Birthday...

She loves Mylo to pieces

but has been known to cover her ears

and shout 'Shut ooooop!'

when he cries

She's turning out to be quite musical, encouraged of course by Grandpops, who insists on buying her instruments....
here she is serenading us with a harmonica!

Oh.... and I have a new name....Grandma La La....or is it Ga Ga....after Lady Gaga, who she is very passionate about. I love music too, but insisting on putting that CD on every time she visits and so she can dance can wear a bit thin at times :-)

Business wise, my feet haven't touched the ground and since I decided to rehash the studio and make a positive affirmation that I wanted Wedding orders to come my way, I haven't stopped. At one time I had 8 weddings on the go!

I have been blogging over at my Inspired by Script and my North Yorkshire Weddings blogs....so if you take a trip over you will see that I have not been idle.

I love my new look studio and there's still a lot to sort out in between orders. The garden is also starting to grow and that means more to do there as well. Thankfully for this year the decorating will be put on the back burner after doing the house top to bottom last year....so one less job to do.

Steve's Jewellery has taken off in a big way and his new kiln has made him even more excited and creative and we've both been working like mad on our websites Steve Smiths Jewellery and North Yorkshire Weddings.

I've also got together with a couple of other Wedding Service providers and we are forming a team to advise and co-ordinate Brides and Services in North Yorkshire. We have an avid following on Facebook already and I'll keep you informed as we progress, thrive and grow.

So....we are busy, busy, busy with one thing and another. My time on The Creative Spirit may be limited for a while. But, I sometimes get time to chill and catch up on a few of your blogs, although not as much as I would like to.

And lastly, dear blogging friends, if you would like to help us save the Friarage Hospital's maternity unit, please take just 2 mins to sign this e-petition http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/28364 we intend to march and over 2.000 have already committed to doing this. Many thanks in advance xxx

Enjoy the extra hour of daylight everyone and I'll blog again very soon.

I'm so dizzy! My head is spinning....like a whirlwind it never ends....

well, actually, that's not entirely true....

it does calm down eventually,

and nothing lasts forever...

A week ago today, we left the hospital, a little dazed and in shock. Steve's been diagnosed with Sleep Apnea and after a two and a half hour consultation....we left the hospital CPAP Machine in hand.

We were shocked, because after monitoring we really thought they would say that everyone stops breathing every once in a while and his results were nothing out of the ordinary. How wrong we were.... he actually manages to stop breathing 51 times and hour! The result of this is oxygen levels drop and your heart rate goes up and POW! you gasp for breath and all is well, until the next time. You can imagine what he feels like been woken up 51 times an hour.

We are reassured and have proved that after 1 week, Steve feels fully awake and alert all day long....something most of us take for granted.Not to waste the day and in his usual, lets make the best of this manner....he decided to take me to Whitby and treat me to fish and chips at my favourite restaurant.... we have both been vegetarian for 28 years.....but I do like to eat fish now and again..... mainly because I believe that women need their calcium and other good things not found in the main veggie diet.Whitby was a little sharp, but the sun shone and we gradually came to terms with what we had been told. I was looking forward to seeing him feel 'eyes open, wide awake', not only in the mornings but during the day and evenings too. So often, sleep apnea can be mistaken for laziness, which he very much isn't.

4 days later, his new kiln had arrived (he's like a dog with 2 tails!) and we went to the studio to try it out and then came the snow! It was lovely and toasty in the studio....but I couldn't resist some snow writing....

Smile for no reason!

Can I just add, that this photo was taken just before I almost fell flat on my asse (which will give you cause to laugh FOR a reason!)..... my balance these days isn't what it used to be lol. I bought some banner blanks. I was quite taken with them and decided to sod the expense, as there was no way I could cut those fluted edges myself, for the price I had to pay for someone else to have done it before me....anyway....I wanted to have fun! I'm offering these banners to order.... perhaps with Mr & Mrs for Weddings or Beccy's 18th for birthdays or whatever....

Yesterday, I created a new design for my Wedding Stationery collection.

I've a few more ideas in the pipeline. Although I love to work with the bride and groom and create something just for them, it's nice to have a jumping off point,,,,These are in silver foil, but there are lots of colours to choose from....

While I was making the banner, I decided to create a wall plaque out of A4 sized MDF and personalised it with the names and the date, to be used as a commemorative gift for the newly married couple. Perhaps they will sell, perhaps not....but it's another idea for visitors to the shop.


All in all, quite and eventful week. Steve's got used to the CPAP, so have I and I now have a bright eyed and bushy tailed man, who in my opinion is amazing for getting to grips with having air pumped up his nose at great pressure all night and STILL managing to sleep! I feel quite emotional, that at last he's getting the sleep he should and now feels like the rest of us have been feeling for years. Perhaps now, he won't think I'm such a live wire, always rushing around and on the go.....In fact, I may find it hard to keep up!

All is well with the world! :o)

It's Wedding, Weddings, all the way.....

It's been a busy week at the studio. Busier than I can ever remember. With 2 lots of place cards to do and a visit to the studio today to start and finish these little beauties, the week isn't over yet...

I designed and made some Valentine's Day Cards. Every year I get the occasional customer into the Gallery asking if I have any of these cards, every year I say, I haven't. I assume that people go to card shops to buy these cards... obviously they don't.

Anyway....if you want to read more and see other photos, you'll find it on my Love, Love Me Do, Valentine's Day Card Blog Post

I've also completed the Wedding Stationery, for a bride who is getting married in September. Wedding and Evening Invites, R.S.V.P Cards and little cards to ask in a polite way for money not gifts. You will find more about that along with more pictures at the

Butterfly Themed, Foiled, Wedding Stationery post.

I'm loving the way Brides are being a little bit more adventurous these day, regarding the theme of their weddings. For so long the UK has been behind in the adventure stakes and generally most brides choose to go Traditional.... something that is at last changing and makes my work all the more interesting.

I'm a little bit behind on posting pictures

of my latest work on my blog,

so to avoid cross posting

and save me time....

I'll add a picture and a link here.

To see more of this Personalised Ruby Wedding Card

click on the link below

MORE PICTURES AND DESCRIPTION HERE

More links to follow, as they happen :o)

We're off to a Wedding.....

We're off to a Wedding..... and it's a chance to be girly! :o)
Although Ian is my late husbands cousin, he was only 6 when I got married and around 7 and 1/2 when I had my son, so he's more like a nephew than a cousin.

I've done the Invites, Table Names, Seating Plan and Place Cards as their present....and as an extra surprise I've made them a Wedding Post Box.

Their theme was Ivy....

And the colour was green....

The lettering was foiled in silver to give it some pizazz...

And here's a close up of the cut-out Ivy....

It's a great chance to meet up

with the 'other side' of the family....

some of which I haven't seen

since my own wedding 32 years ago.

Doesn't time fly?

Now.....if I can only stop fighting

with my fascinator,we'll be on our way!

UPDATE: Realised it wasn't a good idea posting this as we were about to leave the house unattended all day.....well you never know who's reading this blog. So, I'm posting it AFTER the event.....and a good time was had by all. Great to see the family, although sad that their numbers have now dwindled drastically since my own wedding 32 years ago, but wonderful to see, that although we may have matured in age....the years simply fell away as we reminisced about times gone by.

Although many are no longer with us, they were definitely alive and well today.

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Looking back at the end of a busy week

Once again the week is over all to soon. I've had 2 wedding commissions to do.....Some Wedding and Evening invitations, where the bride wanted Ivy included to the basic Simply Stylish Design

Here's a close up of the design, more can be seen on my Wedding Website

And some simple RSVP cards to go with them

And I've completed another 34 personalised egg cups

Each one of these will be filled with a Kinder Surprise Egg, bringing out the child within all the wedding gusts. I think it's a great idea!

Along with these, I've had the added worry of my 5 year old cat Dodger coming down with a mystery illness. Raging temperature and no obvious signs of anything wrong, except when a normally charging around cat, suddenly stops dead in their tracks and can hardly be bothered to get up and walk, you just have to worry. So far he's had 2 different anti-biotic injections and is now on daily pain killers fluid. His temperature has come down a bit, but we want him to resume his normal interest in life, otherwise we hare going to have to go down the blood test and x-ray root. Very worrying times indeed.

The studio clean up and turf out continues and now there's actually space for Steve to move in and work. This will enable him to be more productive, having a space that doesn't need him to clear away every day. And as well as all this our websites and business plan continue to grow.