January 2020

Hello folks and welcome to 2020, a brand new start to the New Year! I hope you all had a relaxing Christmas and New Year, unfortunately I was struck down with the flu over the Christmas so I was sick for most of it. We went round to my mother-in-law’s neighbours house for a big fat turkey dinner and we were completely stuffed by the end of it. I was still sick up to this point but by the Sunday I had a fever for most of the day and I couldn’t even get out of the bed… flu jab for me this coming Christmas (will be on my to-do list for sure!).

I’ve been meaning to write up a post about 2019 but I didn’t have the time to do it over Christmas or the fact of the matter is that I was so lethargic last week I had absolutely no energy to do anything. I’m now feeling much better so now’s a good time to reflect on the past year. Last year was jam packed with lots of life changing moments i.e. we got married, went to Japan, a friend had a baby, Savina went back to Australia…

I took part in Art at the Deli’s artist exhibition back in late spring and I show cased previous work under the theme ‘animal menagerie’, overall it was a great success as I had lots of people commenting about my work. Plus, it was great to be supporting a local business in Doncaster as well as the creativity within the area.

Me, matching my outfit with my work.

The next big thing that happened last year is that we finally got married! We spent the whole year planning, crying, shouting, raging and more planning (not in that order but you get my drift). I had to keep going back to Doncaster for my dressings but you know what? All those mega stressful moments was totally worth it. Everyone on the day was helping out and things fell into place; folks chipping in with moving tonnes of flower decorations, Savina (the super trooper person that she is) just stepped in and orchestrated people whenever they needed to be shuffled in and out of places. Totally couldn’t have done it without her, she held me and Sam together like cement. We’ve both said we were utterly grateful for her help right from the start. She’s now back in Australia so we were hoping to visit her at some point in the future.

After the wedding, we went out our mini moon to Cornwall for a quick getaway and we really needed that time just to breathe, be away from London for a couple of days and enjoy each others company.

A couple of months later we went away to Japan for our honeymoon and it was such a memorable and fantastic trip I’d love to do it all over again. Japan, you spoilt us and treated us like kings and queens. We ate so well those two weeks I can’t stop harping on about the food. The people are absolutely lovely; really helpful folks wherever we were and everyone went out of their way to help us when there was a language gap. That didn’t stop us from doing and seeing amazing things… a long and dreamy sigh here. Japan is calling me and I plan on going there again in the future and explore more of the islands down south. Sayounara!

Myself and my friend Monica Moro who runs Cook with Amore took part in two craft markets over Christmas. It was great to get back into the swing of things and I’d love to do more craft markets this year.

The London Crafters in West London

Last year I didn’t get the chance to make much artwork, so I’m a bit disappointed by that. Fair enough we had the wedding to plan but even times when I did have the time, let’s just say that I wasn’t super motivated and kept on doubting myself. Over the past month or so my Etsy shop has been really busy, as in, busy with orders for a particular print. Like I’ve said before, I have no idea where the traffic is coming from so I’d like to say thanks to everyone who has purchased it. I feel like the universe is in our hands- no matter how tough things get you have the choice and the power to make those changes. I honestly believe and live by this quote. So this year I’d like to be more focused on my work as well as concentrating on my Etsy shop and make a proper push for it. Let’s see where things go, who knows what’s going to happen in the next couple of months but it’s great to see the momentum gaining slowly but surely.

Readers. I’m going to end it here on a high. Wishing you all good health, luck and all that jazz for the start of the year and the end of the decade. Take care and thanks for reading as always!

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Miscellaneous

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Hello folks! I’m going to start a series of DIY guides for wedding-related craft projects. As you may know, Pinterest is such a wonderful source of inspiration and I’m forever looking at posts for ideas for our wedding. I started a board years ago and it’s been such a great tool for art and craft projects. However, sometimes I get way too carried away and go off on a tangent for several hours!

My main task for the wedding reception is that I wanted to create something quite opulent, flower-inspired since my invites are along that theme, so I’ve decided to make paper flowers as a start and from there use them to make a chandelier as well as garlands. I started off cutting out circles and then making them 3D shape so that they can sit nicely once they’re all bunched together. My only issue with this method is that it does takes ages and you need to have patience/music in the background to keep you going. I also found that it’s very difficult to get the flowers all looking the same, not like I wanted them to, but I was unable to to anything intricate due to the time factor.

I came across a die-cutter thanks to my aunt, who has kindly let me borrow hers, and I’ve honestly not looked back since I’ve been using it! It’s saved me so much time and I’ve been churning loads of flowers out like a pro! I think there are numerous brands of die-cutters but I’ve been using one called the Sizzix. It’s pretty straight forward to use and so far I’ve not encountered any problems with it. There are loads of options of different dies too so I’ll buy a few more so that there’s variations in the types of flowers. For me, it feels really durable and the die cutter has some weight to it- so it feels super sturdy when you’re holding it.

What You’ll Need

  • Die-cutting machine (you can by them online or in craft shops)
  • Paper (lots of it!)
  • Pencil
  • Heavy-duty ruler
  • Scalpel or scissors
  • Cutting mat
  • Glue (I like to use super glue)
  1. Prep your paper so that it sits nicely between the plastic board and the die. You’ll want to cut it so that it can fit through the die cutter- so I tend to measure up all my paper and cut them to the right size.

2. When your paper is sandwiched between the plastic boards and the die (the foam side facing upwards like in the photo above), you’ll want to leave at least a 1cm gap when you’re feeding it through. Gently push it through and start to turn the handle. At this point, you’ll be able to feel the rollers grip onto the plastic boards.

3. Done! Well almost. I usually keep going at this point, mixing up the papers until I have enough to keep me going.

4. Once you’ve cut out all your layers you’ll want to start layering up the bits of paper. I fold the petals inwards so that they’re 3D-looking and using different types of paper/card will give you different effects.

Note: try using plain paper and washing it down with light water colours or spray paint to get different effects.

And that’s pretty much it. I’ve found that the more you try out different types of paper, the variations are limitless. There are lots of helpful online tutorials if you get stuck but personally once you start using it’s really so easy to use.

I hope I’ve inspired you to create your own paper flowers; even with or without the dit cutter you can still make simple paper flowers even it’s cutting out the petals and arranging them on a circular paper disc, continuing to layer them up as you go.

Happy crafting folks!

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Uncategorized

Happy New Year everyone (is it still too late to be saying it at this time of the month now?!). I hope you’ve all had a restful Christmas; even if it means doing nothing, just chilling, spending time with family, and eating loads of chocolate. I did all of that including more wedding-admin which never seems ending right now.

So in terms of wedding related things, what have we done so far? Bearing in mind it’s about seven months now and right now I’m feeling rather elated and slightly stress-y just because there’s so much to do.

  • I bought my wedding dress! YES it’s done! Am I going to reveal anything about my dress? Nope!
  • Thanks to Sam he’s made an online RSVP form for folks so it’ll making the process of collecting information much quicker.
  • Invites are printed and we’re currently in the middle of writing the rest of them up. Hopefully they’ll be done by the end of the weekend. (Separate blog post about the invites will be up once they’re all sent out).
  • Honeymoon to Japan is now booked and I’m currently freaking out about it. I bought a Lonely Planet guide a while back so now I’m book marking all the pages and there’s a long to-do list, the most important one is to eat our way around Japan. Bring on the noodles.
  • Dresses for the flower girls are done plus accessories. This was a bit of a tricky one as it’s actually quite hard to find formal wear for children. My mum and I went to loads of shops around Doncaster and in the end we had to go to further afield to Sheffield but I’m happy with the dresses and so are the girls.
  • Bridesmaids dresses are also off the list.
  • The order of the Tea Ceremony has been written up. Again, I’ll write up a separate blog post about the Tea Ceremony for those that aren’t familiar with it.
  • We’ve got our caterers sorted out, all we need to do is to finalise the furniture and tableware.
  • We’re currently finalising potential florists so this should be dine either this week or the following week at the latest.

My current project at the moment is making paper flowers, thanks to my aunt, she let me borrow her die-cutting machine and it’s saved me loads of time. If you don’t know what a die-cutting machine is there’ll be a how-to-guide in the next couple of days as I highly recommend getting your hands on one if you’re planning on making paper flowers for whatever project you are doing.

I’m going to leave it here as I need to go back and write out more invites. I’m really eager to show photos of them but unfortunately I can’t do that just yet.

In the meantime though hope you have a lovely January (bye January, you were cold and it’s still dark!). Take care of yourselves and have a great evening.

Jo

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Uncategorized

Good evening folks! How’s your week been so far? I just wanted to quickly post about some new A5 prints in my Etsy shop. I’ve finally gotten round to adding three A5 prints, which are now discontinued as I no longer do A5 prints. These are the last few designs and once they’re gone, well, they’re gone! Perfect for all ages and for only £5.00 they’d also make a great additional gift for someone special.

 

Tweet Tweet Art Print

Tweet Me Art Print

Little Yellow Bird Art Print

Thanks so much for reading this short post- will be back with more updates about new work and Etsy news.

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