A special Anniversary Notebook

I've been busily working on a very special custom order for the last month, and it finally came together this week and is now with its very happy owner! (sorry for the bad light in the photos - that's what not being in my office during the daylight hours does to photos!)

I'm really happy with how this turned out - a custom Notebook cover which was spray-glued onto the front of a lovely red moleskin notebook, and a matching card.

Think I'd definitely love to do another order like this if anyone out there likes the idea!

Busy, busy, busy

Quite Contrary HQ is a mine of cutting action at the minute, with lots of lovely orders coming in and getting ready for a flurry of Christmas Fairs in December! (which is why things have been a wee bit quiet on the blogging front - sorry!)

Thought I'd share some of my recent creations with you - remember there's still plenty of time to order a special Christmas card, or a custom designed coaster/mug if you'd like :)

Amid the Christmas orders, there's still been lots of 'regular' orders which is nice - including this special little new home card

And, for a Bride-to-be to give to her Parents...

Fab Giveaway with From Britain With Love & From The Wilde!

Have you seen this amazing giveaway? In From Britain With Love's November competition, you could win over £500 worth of goodies stocked by the fabulous online store From The Wilde - including some of my I♥tea goodies!

This is a fantastic competition, and I'm chuffed to be involved in it. So, get in there and grab yourself a chance to bag the goodies!

Happy Halloween

BOO!

Hehe, sorry - this was us all dressed up as Zombies last night. Which included driving home via a petrol station to top-up, still in our dead faces which evoked quite a lot of funny stares! I hope everyone's been busily creating Pumpkin carvings and getting dressed up in the most absurd costumes!

We've carved the pumpkin and I'm using half of it as a very *experimental* (ie. never before done and no idea what on earth it's going to taste like) creating of Pumpkin soup. I'll let you know how it turns out - all I did was route around on the t'internet for a simple recipe. Here's the one I'm using if you're looking for one - BBC Good Food.

In true halloween fashion (and yes, we're well over 12 but who cares!) we've made our own Spiders for pud later, yum yum! Concocted from a mini roll, chocolate teacake, butter icing and Matchsticks, I'm quite proud of our freakish creations!

Enjoy your spooky evening everyone!

Quite Contrary meets Widget!

Yes, that's right - at the Ilkley Arts Market last Saturday, we were lucky enough to have a celebrity amongst us! Widget had popped over to Yorkshire to stay with Quernus Crafts for a bit, so of course wanted to come and have a nose and meet some new people at the fair!

We all wanted a picture with him of course - and donated money to the Rabbit Welfare Associtation, making £20 alltogether!

So, here are Quite Contrary's first 'famous' pictures, and some of Widget's other antics on the day - he sure can move fast for a little 'un!

Meet the lovely Kirsten from Quernus Crafts - I was very excited to finally see her wee-uns in the flesh, and am currently babysitting a wee horse until I have to give it away as a pressie.

Widget and I got on quite well I think, aw...

He even had a quick nap in one of my I♥Tea mugs!

Tracey from RubySpiritDesigns got quite close and personal to him

Widget (along with the rest of us) found it very hard to stop himself gobbling all the yummy cakes available from the cafe!

He finally fell asleep in the pocket of Dan, web designer and developer extraordinaire of Sawley Studios

So there you go - a very famous day! The next Ilkley market is a special Christmas one on Saturday 11th December, so please pop along and say hello - and sample some of the yummy food too!

Quite Contrary stocked in the Pop-Up Design Shop

Quite Contrary has been lucky enough to be selected to feature our goodies in the Pop-Up Design Shop, in Newcastle upon Tyne. Hurray!

It's being hosted by the lovely people of MushroomWorks and supported by Hunkydory Home - they've chosen a selection of some of the best niche design-led, handmade home accessories and gifts, and it's on from now until 13th November, so please go and have a nosey if you're in the area!

More info can be found on their website here - let me know if you're popping along, I wish I could go for a peek but it's just a bit too far for a day out from Lancashire, boo. So if anyone has any piccies, please share them! :)

Some recent custom card creations

Sorry for being so quiet on the blog front recently - we've had a mad busy few weeks at Quite Contrary HQ! We're going to be in a local Gallery for Christmas, along with displaying our stock at a lovely Paper themed exhibition for 2 months, and taking part in the Pop Up Design Shop up in Northumberland - phew! So lots and lots of cutting and many late nights have been had and still to be had...it's all very exciting though!

I thought I'd share a few of the custom orders I've had recently - even though some of the backgrounds are a little odd I'm afraid (that's what having so much cutting and so little time for anything else does to you!) I'll start with my favourite one - it's just so romantic!

Romance has been in the air this month, with one of my best friends celebrating her 2nd Anniversary, and our lovely Neighbours celebrating their Golden Wedding Anniversary, aw! I created this special little card for them, with their initials in either heart.

New babies have been popping up everywhere apparently, as orders have been coming in for lots of special Baby cards. Here's a few of my favourite, including an adaptation for a Christening.

Hope you liked that little selection :) Time to get back to Gallery stock now, yey!

the Official Folksy Friday!

Today it was my lucky turn to be Curator for the official Folksy 'Folksy Friday', yippee!

I decide to choose my favourite subject - paper! I chose some items I've loved for a while, and others I came across in my search - including the most colourful and funky paper animal creations I've ever seen. I really really want either the Frog or the spotted Monkey!

Have a look at my selection here and show it some Folksy love please :)

Some Folksy Folk Revealed!

Admittedly a tinsy bit late, when I was at Ilkley Arts Market the other weekend, I met some lovely other Folksiers who were there too. It was a lovely Market, and very good considering it's the odd September in-between time of people saving their pennies for Christmas and the mad Christmas present buy!

So, have a peek below to put some faces to some Folksy names you may recognise!

First up is the lovely Lynsey from Swirly Arts. You may also know her as the amazing lady behind Cuteable, a great website throwing the spotlight on handmade and the talent to be found!

We were both doing our very best to spread the word about Folksy and Cuteable to anyone and everyone who was interested, so hopefully sent some newbies over to both of them!

Dig The Earth aka. Kev is also one of the regulars at Ilkley Arts - I love his prints SO much! (I'm secretly hoping Dan might buy me one of the gorgeous button heart prints one day...I'll have to try and hint a bit harder! ;0) )

I also met a new seller on Folksy whose creations I love - meet Kate Bowles who makes the most intricate little books, they're so cute! She recycles unloved paper and materials into something to be cherished - gorgeous.

And, of course, here's a peek at Quite Contrary's little table for the day - featuring my new Cake and Tea Papercuts! :) They'll be listed on-line in the next few days. I'm so glad I've finally managed to find frames to suit them!

Swanky Maison feature

Quite Contrary is now proudly part of the fabulous Swanky Maison family - and what almost made me choke on my cuppa this week, but a familiar little picture featuring at the top of the monthly Swanky Newsletter!

You can view this Newsletter here. Thank you very much Swanky lovelies for choosing my I♥Tea! Mugs to be amongst the lovely new items appearing on Swanky Maison. Going to go make myself a nice evening cuppa in my own I think!

If you want to find out more about Swanky Maison, just click here and it will take you to their home page - where you can also sign up for their Newsletter and competitions!

Blackpool Word Fair

This Saturday, Blackpool kick off their week-long Literary fair with plenty of events - including a lovely bevvy of word-based Artists and their stalls in the Old Post Office on Saturday. I'll be amongst them with my worded cards, papercuts and mugs, so if any of you fancy a day out to Blackpool, please pop in and say hello!

Entry is free, and it looks like a fab event. You can find out all the juicy details including all the events planned for the week here.

Quite Contrary's Swish New Look!

For those of you with a keen eye, you might have spied something a bit different today? Yup, Quite Contrary has had a paint job and a bit of a re-design, hurrah! As much as I loved the other look, I feel we've definitely progressed and the 'old paper' look of my other was perhaps a bit dated. Plus the technicalities of how to create that in Photoshop still outsmart me! Here's how we've progressed:

...realised I'd gone a bit wood-crazy, so funked it up a bit!

...and now, after focussing on a more professional look...

So, here is Quite Contrary's new sleek look - I hope you like it! I think it fits in a lot better with the delicate Papercuts I also create now, and still works really well with all my cards.

So don't do a double-take if you see it and wonder if you've come to the right place - it's still me! :)

Come find me in Ilkley this Saturday

This weekend, I will be found amidst a lovely bunch of fellow Artisans at the lovely Ilkley Contemporary Arts Market - so please pop in and say hello if you fancy a nice day out!

Showcasing the work of 20 painters, photographers, silver smiths, ceramic artists, paper cutters (me!) and everything in between, this looks to be like a lovely day - and hopefully including quite a few Folksy faces too!

There's also a lovely tea toom serving home made cakes, scones and tea - what more could you want ;0)

Details can be found on their website here, along with directions :)

A sneaky peek at Christmas

So, it's September. Which officially means in the land of Gifts and Stationery that Christmas season is a-coming, ho ho ho! Here at Quite Contrary HQ we've already had our first Christmas tune of the year blasting out amid the Christmassy sketches - can't beat a bit of Mariah to put you in the festive mood! So here's a sneak peek of what I've been up to, and what you could get your hands on this Christmas - to be available over on my Folksy and Etsy shops very soon!

This year, I've also created a special Christmas-themed Papercut especially for my 'I♥...' fans! Last year my little 'I♥snow' design proved very popular, so it is now available as a lovely little wall hanging - and I'm working on different colours too!

This year, I've also created a special Christmas-themed Papercut especially for my 'I♥...' fans! Last year my 'I♥snow' card proved very popular, so it is now available as a lovely little wall hanging - and I'm working on different colours too!

Right, back to the cutting board for me now! Hope you liked this little preview :)

Cards Galore

Another busy week - I've been working on my Christmas range (some sneeky pics to appear soon, I promise!) and also had some nice flurries of custom order coming through so thought I'd share some piccies of my favourites you. I'm thinking of listing some of the brand new ones I've made if they're popular - let me know what you think :)

First, some of my favourite Birthday requests - the first is a lovely idea of a Birthday card for a Shop's First Birthday!

A very sweet one from a kid to his footy-mad Daddy -

A special card for a little chap who was born this week -

I had a very special order for a BIG A4 card for a 50th Wedding Anniversary - it was great fun doing everything super-sized! Here's the final result, I'm pretty pleased with it.

Here's a few of the Wedding and other Anniversary cards I've been making - including one with some sweet little Wedding Bells on.

And finally, my favourite cards of the week - this special 'Cheer me up' card, which I hope would make anyone smile!

Animal-tastic Folksy Friday

To celebrate my new animal & pet range of 'I♥...' cards which will be launched later today, I thought it only appropriate to choose some of my favourite Animal-themed goodies from Folksy today!





Just click on the image and it will take you to their Folksy shop.