Sunday, 17 May 2015

Popping up again

Hello everyone

As the pop-up box cards have grown steadily in popularity and I am regularly asked to personalise them for my customers I realised that being able to allow customers to choose their own sentiment or age at point of sale might be a good idea.  It has taken a bit of time and work on my part but I am getting there!  I chose four particular cards to get the ball rolling and so far it has proved to be very popular.

 The four boxes are "Pink Flowers" (BOXP012), 


Artwork by Polkadoodles

"Green Flowers" (BOXP001),

Artwork by Polkadoodles


 "Butterflies" (BOXP013)

Artwork by DaisyTrail

and "Spring Flowers" (BOXP016).

Artwork by Victoria Nelson


Each box has it's own style of sentiment

Artwork by Polkadoodles
Artwork by DaisyTrail
Artwork by Polkadoodles
Artwork by Victoria Nelson


and I have made and cut out the numbers to colour co-ordinate with each individual box too.

Numbers designed by Tina Fitch




Numbers designed by Tina Fitch
So now when a customer purchases one of these four cards I can add their chosen number


and then their chosen sentiment
without them having to come back the following week to collect it.

Recently I have been asked to make these cards for anniversaries and to add the number too so my pop up box cards are very versatile!

They make super get well cards, particularly for hospital patients, now that flowers are no longer allowed on the wards.


Sometimes I am asked to add names or actual dates onto the box. I can do that too but unfortunately not on the spot so you would need to place an order for this.


I can also make a pop up box card with a special theme like this one with cats and dogs on it


or this one with a fairy theme, which was also personalised with the age and name


All of my pop up box cards are unique to me as I design, print, cut and assemble them myself, using licensed artwork from others.

Other cards in my current range include the following.

Birthday


BOXP004 footballer by MCS

BOXP015 footballer by MCS




BOXP007

Baby


BOXP005A

BOXP006A

BOXP018
And finally, this cute one, using artwork by Kate Hadfield Designs

Artwork by Kate Hadfield
which has a choice of four sentiments


I am constantly thinking of and working on new ideas so look out for new additions to the range.

If you are interested in learning how I make my pop up box cards, then call into The Venue, Manor Walks, Cramlington on a Thursday between 10am and 4pm and watch me at work - you will be very welcome.  I will be there every Thursday in May and June.  For further information about these free demo days have a look at the Lev3l 3 Community Crafters Blog or their Facebook Page.


Thank you for visiting my blog today.

Catherine x

Tuesday, 5 May 2015

Handbag Cards

Morning everyone

I hope you are impressed that I am making another blog post already!!!

Following on from my last post where I talked about my customers liking different cards, I decided to make some handbag shaped cards.  I started out by using a template and papers from Fabulous Fashion by Katy Sue (Flowersoft) so this was the first handbag card I made.



Then I decided to try my hand at my own handbag design - and created this in CraftArtist.  This was the very first of my own designs (using papers from Serif).



Other handbag cards followed using this design - this is just one of them.



This is my newest card using this design - the pretty papers I used are by Victoria Nelson, and the bow was made using a template from the very talented Sue Beasley.



Because I handcut my handbag cards using scissors I then decided to try making a new design that I could cut with my Cameo and so a new design was born.  This was the very first one I did (for Mothers' Day 2014)



This one is the newest one (and again I used the bow template from Sue).


My handbag cards have proved to be very popular and I am often asked to personalise them.

Thank you for visiting my blog.

Catherine x





Monday, 4 May 2015

Good afternoon to anyone who is reading this!

I posted a detailed update onto my personal blog yesterday but thought I would just add a bit more information about Charlie Cards today.

For anyone who read yesterday's blog post on What Katy Did Next you will already know that I now sell my cards almost exclusively as part of the Lev3l 3 Community Crafters group in Cramlington.  I still have a Facebook business page and have been uploading most of my new cards to that as and when I make them - I am afraid I have been very bad at keeping this blog up to date due to time restrictions.  Sadly I also get very little "playtime" these days - and I love nothing more than doing messy crafting.  There's nothig quite like having inky fingers!


The Venue, Manor Walks, Cramlington

Every Saturday Lev3l 3 Crafters hold a market day in The Venue, Manor Walks, Cramlington - The Venue is situated next to Lloyds Bank and is a shop unit which is used as a community hub.  I was a little worried about the location of The Venue as there is a well established card shop right next door and a national card shop virtually opposite so I need to listen to my customers and find out what they want - and then design and make the cards to fit.  The one answer I always seem to get is "something different" - some like that the artwork on my cards is different from cards available in the shops and other like cards that are a different shape.  They all like that I can personalise my cards.  Here are four examples of personalised cards I have made in recent months:

Made to customer specification for a Ruby Wedding Anniversary

Made to Customer specification for a 101st birthday

Made for a young man who is into boxing

Made to customer specification for a 16th birthday


Something that has become very popular recently is the "pop up box card" and so I now have a selection of them to choose from - and I sometimes feel I spend my whole life making pop up box cards as they are so popular.  Here are just four of them:

Very popular for the boys!

New Baby Girl

Flowers and Butterflies

For the gardener in your life

I will try and keep this blog updated more regularly from now on, promise!

Thank you for visiting.

Catherine x

Sunday, 3 May 2015

Can't believe it's so long since I update this blog!

I have just posted a lengthy update onto my personal blog What Katy Did Next so rather than posting it all again here I though I would just post the above link for anyone who is interested.

Thank you.

Catherine x