One Year Out and The Other One In!

I won't be the only one to be happily saying goodbye to 2012. For many, and as mentioned in my last post it's been quite a difficult year for so many people. No matter how positive we try to be we just can't help but get affected by it. 

Every year I seem to say the same think "Time is going by so fast.... where did that year go and what in the hell happened!". 

These days I don't keep a journal or diary... although I know I should. This year in particular I have had so many things happen around me that I found it too personal to write them all up on the Creative Spirit...... which is a bit ironic when you think of not so long ago I created the Honest Blogger Award and planned to spill out the good, the bad and the ugly. 

Some things of course were things that my friends and family  were going through,  and it wasn't my place to air publicly the problems and losses they were having to deal with. 

Actually, looking at my stats for 2012 I posted 62 blog posts.... which is better than 2010 when I posted just 32.... so perhaps this year has been better than I give it credit for! 

Apart from the business taking off, probably one of the best things to happen in 2012 is the birth of our second Grand-child, Mylo, back in February.  

Of course, remembering the BIG THINGS is always far easier, than the small ones and this year I'm planning on a new strategy and I'm encouraging you all to do this too.

The ideas is simple. A jar which you fill with Memories. You can call your jar: 

The Memory Jar - For the little things that happen

Blessing Jar - Counting your blessings

Gratitude Jar - Things to be grateful for

Wishing Jar - Your wishes and your dreams

However it works best for you.

I'm writing mine on Rainbow coloured paper,

so I can look at it on those down days and remember that through the dark and the rain... bright rainbows appear. 

Start in January and on New Years Eve 2013,

it will be a great reminder that the year just past,

has not all been bad and will bring back memories of those all important little things :-)

Regular readers of my blog, know that I don't make New Years Resolutions... I'm not perfect enough and would break them too easily.... which would be a FAIL in my eyes! Instead I write a *WISH*LIST*. I do this on New Years Eve and it's a ritual I have done for many years. I don't really think of this list all year through, but always amazed at how much of it came true without me even trying! 

Oh and of course.... at the start of a new year a word comes to me. This year the word was Opportunity.  I'm quite shocked looking back at how much opportunity has presented itself this year! 

As yet.... my word for 2013 has not come to me.

But I know it will.... and I will share it with you when it does. 

So..... as I post my last post for 2012,

I wish you all the very best for the coming year,

With love and the brightest of blessings,

Pixie Sue xoxox

Yule Blessings....To all my readers!

Happy Yuletide Blessings...

My card to you.....

You may have noticed, my postings have been thin on the ground.... in fact VERY thin on the ground over the last couple of months!

It's been one helluva crazy year. My little Grandson born in February, joining my little Grand-daughter Daisy.... both of which Grandma RaRa and Grand-dad Steve adore and love spending spare time with them. They are both growing up so quickly! I can't believe that Daisy Doodles is 3 in March.... and to be fair...... she's as mad a box of frogs .... my son says she's just like me! (Where does he get that idea from?). 

The decision to go head long into wedding Invitations and Stationery has kept me very busy, especially with the resulting change around of the studio and Gallery so that things look more focused. Then of course there has been Wedding Fairs. 

Steves Kiln Fired Jewellery has also taken off big style and we are now doing a Sunday People's Market, which is a great community of makers and shakers.... and it's good to connect with such high spirited folk and be welcomed as part of a 'locally based' business, even though we live almost 20 miles away :-)

Then I decided I needed some time out.... away from thinking about work, creativity and new ideas and for once in my life I just had to get off my backside and exercise! 

So.... off to ZUMBA class we went! Dancing, loud music, exersise, oh and some mad moves! What more could you ask for? I never knew I could loose so much body water and stay alive! 

I've had a lot of friends or their off-spring with pretty serious health problems this year  and I've spent a lot of energy trying to keep them afloat and be supportive too.

To be honest... it's been a pretty exhausting year. Yule is a time for celebrating the dark.... the light is coming back slowly. I'm never at my best at this time of the year and the lack of sunshine this year certainly hasn't been helpful for many people. Hopefully the holiday break will do everyone some good.... as we look over and reflect on the year past.

I hope you have lots of fun and happy smiles during your break. Come back refreshed and with renewed optimism for 2013. 

If you want to catch up on my Calligraphy and Lettering work... I have (almost) kept on top of my other blogs:

http://inspiredbyscript.blogspot.com

and http://northyorkshireweddings.blogspot.com

Many of the people who used to read this blog are now friends on FB, so I suppose I am more likely to post on there than write copious amounts of rabble on here. If you want to join them, send me an email to inspiredbyscript@yahoo.co.uk  and I'll send you the link :-)

See you in the New Year! 

xoxox

Personalised Birthday Card for a Pink Princess

Personalised Birthday Card for a little gir!
Here's a card I made for my little Niece Amber's 6th Birthday.

She's a very pink Princess kind of girl.

I always find it pretty hard to design and make cards for kids...

Oh and men too! 

A simple concertina style card, folded out to reveal her name AMBER in cut out letters. Then decorated with sparkly, diamonds and hot pink and purple butterflies.

She rang me tonight to thank me for her card and tell me....

"It's the nicest card I've ever received"

What a compliment :-)

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

Congratulation on your special day Cards

Congratulation on your special day Cards, a photo by InspiredByScript.com on Flickr.

2 new card designs: Congratulations on your special day. Cards can be personalised and suitable for lots of different occasions.

As a Pagan....

To dispel any myths..........

Simple as that! :-)

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 

FUN FRIDAY - How to make a hand made birthday card, step-by-step

I wrote this for my MAKERS and SHAKERS Blog....

but wanted to share it with 

my readers on The Creative Spirit,

so here it is.......

'HOW TO' MAKE A BIRTHDAY CARD

STEP-BY-STEP

It's my sister-in-laws birthday today.... 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY FLORA!

If you are a card maker, there's always 

an element of guilt if you actually BUY a card! 

I feel that it's a cop out and would only do it

 in extreme circumstances!

This time, I wanted a challenge,

something a little bit different

than I had done before. 

So for those of you who are interested,

here's how I made it.

First off, using a fine line permanent pen (o.8)

I drew some flower doodle, outlines... 

Then using water-based brush pens,

coloured them in and blended with water.

Then I scanned them and added

a few more......

Then I cut each one out....

Here's my collection.....

Then I printed out the card front....

And foiled it with a lovely HOT PINK!
(If you haven't got a foil machine, print in colour instead)

I decided it was too white...

so scraped on some pastel chalk....

And blended it in with some old towelling 

Then used fixative.... 

so Flora didn't get filthy when handling it!

The pastel colours suited the card much better!

With some of the flowers I added foam pads to the back

to give the card some dimension....

You may be able to see it better here...

Oh... then I added some little diamantes,

for a little bit of sparkle! 

Doesn't that look better?

Still.... it lacked a certain something....

Ahhhh.... a little bit of HOT PINK ribbon!

It's always nice to make cards for friends and family. Very often clients don't get to see your full repertoire
so your chance to go a little wild is stifled.
But if anyone is interested and would like one of these made for someone special... I have a few of these flowers left (I printed double.... just in case it went wrong!) I'd be happy to make them one. Email me at: inspiredbyscript@yahoo.co.uk

Glastonbury.... no better place....to spend Summer Solstice!

Summer Solstice, 2012 

and there was only one place to be......

Glastonbury is my spiritual home!

Of course we wore our brightest togs....

Me with my rainbow socks....

And Steve with his bright red shoes....

The Purple Kipling Bag is mine of course :-)

We arrived to stunning blue skies.....

And were met with a tiny Pixie door,

leading to our home for the week....

Betsy Cottage

We had booked on-line, but just 'KNEW' this was exactly the kind of place we were looking for when we read:

Steeped in history, this Grade II medieval sandstone cottage is fantastically quirky, and can accommodate up to four people, in one bedroom..

Dating back to the 16th century, this medieval cottage has had a variety of incarnations in its life, including once being a poor house, kitchen and even a jail. Now, however, the cottage offers a unique opportunity to holiday in wonderfully quirky surroundings, including a double bedroom with four poster bed and free-standing copper bath, and a Victorian range in the sitting room, which also has a sofa bed. There are ancient beams throughout, as well as exposed stone walls and flagstone floors. Guests have shared use of a small courtyard garden. The famous town of Glastonbury is a few miles away, and the whole area around the cottage is designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, making this character cottage a wonderful relaxing retreat.

We walked into the living room and joy of joys....

All that was missing was the broomstick by the fire! 

The kitchen was delightful....

but somehow the fridge looked out of place. 

Other than that you would have thought 

we had stepped back in time!

And this is what greeted us 

as we walked up the stairs 

and into the bedroom........

A King sized, four posted bed,

with memory foam mattress! 

Not even the jg hanging by the side of the bath

was enough to put us off...

And the copper bath soon filled up

with lovely 'Lush' bubbles...

and was large enough to swim in.....

The writing had been left on the wall.....

On more than one occasion!.... 

We spent most of our time in the town...

but went for a day out to Longleat!

There were plenty of signs warning us about the monkeys!

And we could have avoided them.... 

But we didn't listen (no change there then!)

This guy was definitely the look out!

He let 3 cars go past, before (I'm sure I heard him!)

he whistled to his mates to come 

and strip the trim off the car room!

Flapping my t-shirt at the sun roof window did not help!

However.... we got away lightly!
 Not like the Merc driver who lost his back quarter light!
One even had the cheek to hitch a ride all the way to the gates as we beat a hasty retreat!

To be honest, I was less freaked out 

in the Lion enclosure and 

felt safer there than with the monkeys! 

In Glastonbury itself we visited lots of old friends.... 

and made some new ones too! 

This is Pan (My name fr him) and his 'Pet bird Mr Corvus.

Rescued as a fledgling, the bird chose him not the other way round. My friend Kath over at Hillside House,  kindly let me use this picture as the most horrible cafe owner told him to 

(in her words)

 "Shift that disgustingly, filthy, bird 

away from my tables, before I call the Police"

I'm not even going to repeat 

the conversation after that,

but would like to say,

that I, in the same circumstances, 

would NOT have kept my cool, 

and all credit to the lad for doing so! 

We also manage to visit his glass suppliers.....we twice actually, as his stocks are getting low and he needs to make more for his website

Where he spent a small fortune..... 

thanks to me, who actively encouraged him!...

And this is what £500 in glass looks like!

 (But Steve..... the colours were so pretty!!!!)

And then we were invited to the Opening Night of

The Glastonbury Art Collective, Exhibition......

And stayed till dark... as we met and chatted

 to so many wonderful people

And that's where Steve...... met James......

James creates the most wonderful pieces of

Twisted Wire Jewellery, 

You can find his creations here

And he and Steve are going to be working in collaboration

to create some new and exciting pieces...

but I'll let Steve tell you more about this as things develop

over on his Steve Smith Jewellery Blog

We had the most wonderfully, romantic and busy week. 

We made many new contacts, drank far too much coffee and spent far too much time acting like 'real' artists...

I cry when I arrive,

and I cry when I leave.

The place just lets me shed some built up stress

and puts things right back into perspective.

The people are great,

they support each others creative endeavours.

The understand that by working together,

there is plenty to go round!

I love the place,

I love the people

and I love the way that time seems to stand still there....

no-one rushes and everything gets done.

There's no need to stress about anything!

It's called The Glastonbury Experience!