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!

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!

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!

Wedding Invitations!

Yes - I proudly bring you my newest little project which took a good many hours at 'Craft Corner' last month. I had a lovely custom order enquiry for some Invitations with a summery pink theme, and after a nice bit of brainstorming, here's my stages for the final product!

Caroline, the lovely Bride to be, chose an Ivory and Pink wedding theme with sparkles and butterflies as the signature (quite handy as you know me and my Butterflies!). We explored the new Chequebook style Invitation which I'd never seen before - it's a brilliant idea, neatly fitting all the information that's normally in a separate bundle into the one special little keepsake.

So, first of all after plenty of scouring the lovely Paper shelves in various shops, I found some lovely thick hammer textured cardstock in an Ivory shade to create the covers. To add a touch of colour to the back, I layered it with an inner lining of 'Raspberry' paper and used my signature Butterfly cut to show the little hint of pink amongst the Ivory.

Next (and most importantly!) - the front cover. After experimenting with my little knife, hearts and ribbons, we settled on a sparkly little design using sequins and a lovely pink 'raspberry' trim featuring the Butterfly cut again. All tied together with a matching pink ribbon, and an elegant font for the all important 'Wedding Invitation'. Printing off 70 of these was a bit nerve-wracking (mainly my disbelief in the new Printer's ability to print straight on such custom pieces of card!) but there was no need - it came out perfectly, and a lot more professional that handwriting them would have been.

For the inside of the invitation, we chose an Ivory parchment paper with a dark grey font and the header of each page in pink. The cheque-book style of the invitation allows for an easy to read Invitation, clearly laid out and organised. The sections in this were the main Invitation, R.S.V.P slip (for the guests to cut out and send back - cutting lines included!), Order of the Day, Accommodation, Guest Information, and finally a special custom map showing the Church and Reception locations. Thankfully (with bribery of biscuits and copious cups of tea) I got Dan to help me on the final production lines - and it was his Designer talents and Computer God status that created the brilliant map :)

So, what do you think? Hope you like it! I'm quite proud of the final result (as I hope the Bride and Groom are!). I'm thinking of offering a sample of this in my shops for interested Brides to be, what do you reckon?

Custom Cards & Summery Greenwich!

Phew, what a busy few weeks! The virtual cash and cards have been flying around over the last 2 weeks to my amazement, hence the quietness of my Blog! It's Mother's Day coming up soon in the States and other places, so I've some lovely orders from my Etsy shop coming through for my 'SuperMom' card. Typical that then of all times that a Volcano decided to shed its load! But I have to say, my lovely US (and one Aussie!) customers have been lovely and totally understood - a big thank you guys!

We've also done another market stall at the lovely Greenwich Indoor Market, unveiling our new 'Summer' look! What do you think?

It definitely felt a lot fresher than our 'All Black' look for Winter. Unfortunately it was just too gorgeous outside for people to come in and have a browse, but it was still a fun day.
I've had quite an array of custom orders recently over Folksy, involving Toothbrushes, Terriers and Robots! Try and spot the logo of a well-known Folksy shop that the owner kindly let me use on her card order ;0) So here's a few pics for you - some of my followers may spot their card!

Over and out - off to stock up on sleep for more Craft Corner action tomorrow!