Stop!

I haven’t shared any work for a while, not on this blog at any rate.  I have got quite lazy and been sharing things on Instagram instead which is all very well and good but I should pull my finger out and stop the eternal procrastination about blogging.

When I first produced this design (back in 2014, wow) I printed it onto pocket sized Moleskine notebooks.  This time I decided to go big, so I’ve done a limited run of A5 sized notebooks and exercise books.  There are also a few sets of notecards available if you fancy something you can frame.  Click here to visit my Etsy shop (they’re in the Print Gocco section).

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Minions, minions, minions…

I really do need to be less tardy with my blogging.  A couple of months ago I decided to gocco print another batch of minion cahiers… and they’ve been available in my Etsy shop for over a month, I just hadn’t got round to telling you all about them!

In the past I’ve used Moleskine cahiers, but they’re quite expensive and I wanted to be able to offer these to my customers at a better price so I had a look around and eventually found some similar cahiers at Hema.  Aesthetically they look very similar, although the Hema books contain more pages than the Moleskine ones and lack the pocket on the inside of the back cover.

As it turns out those extra pages were my undoing.  Why?  Because they didn’t allow the notebook to sit completely flat in the gocco printer.  I messed up quite a few books before working out that I would have to block out the text portion of my original design and just use the minion image, because the text just wasn’t printing clearly.  A little disappointing, although in a way it just goes to reinforce the fact that most things I make are one of a kind, or from a small batch.

The books are available here.

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Wednesday WIP

It’s been a bit busy this past week, and I’ve worked late a few days to try and get ahead before a new distraction arrived…

…our new puppy, Loki, came home yesterday!  He’s an absolute delight, and I’m glad I put some extra hours in last week because now I can skive off for a few days with a clear conscience!

So, what did I do in my studio then?  I created a new gocco screen and printed oodles of notebooks and cards…

…these will be added to my Etsy shop very soon, so keep an eye out if you like all things minion.  I also spent some time playing with a hot glue gun and some sealing wax…

…Hogwarts wax seals, which will have sticky pads on the back very soon.

I’ve also been dithering about trying yet another different craft, but I will tell you about that another day.  Right now there’s a wee puppy to be played with 🙂

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A visit to… The Leopard Anchor

A few weeks ago I went to see the lovely Kirst, of The Leopard Anchor.  If you’re not familiar with Kirst’s blog then you really ought to go and take a look, and one of the things you’ll discover is that she’s about to move to Canada.

Moving to another country involves a lot of things: paperwork, getting your dog neutered (poor Milo)… and whittling down your possessions to the bare minimum.  Which is what led to me visiting Kirst’s studio – to raid it for goodies, thus furnishing myself with some bits and pieces, and adding to her travelling fund at the same time.

The main thing I had my eye on was her gocco printing set.  I’ve been curious about gocco for a while but it’s always seemed like a pretty expensive craft to try out as the inital outlay is pretty steep.  Since Kirst was getting rid of hers (and for a bargain price) I thought this was too good an opportunity to turn down, and so gocco printing is now on my list of things to learn this year.

I couldn’t help myself and ended up buying lots of other things too…

And… (drumroll please)…

A gorgeous vintage typewriter!  I love love love this and am looking forward to using it for, well, anything I can find an excuse for really.

It was lovely to finally meet Kirst (we’ve known each other online for quite a few years now), and the flufftastic Milo of course, and I hope I get a chance to see her again before she makes her move overseas.

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