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The story of an EGG

A few days before Christmas Eve a very large box arrived in the post . Inside was my egg...

The poor thing was looking a bit pale so I gave it a good lick of paint...

To read more about the reasons behind my design click here

For the next step in the process I immersed myself the art of gold leaf. (Sometimes quite literally, it gets everywhere!)

I prepped the area with the size (metal leaf adhesive). Due to the shape and sheer size of the area to be covered I worked in small sections.I wanted to create a patch work effect to the end look so each piece of leaf was cut into small sections before applying.

To read more about the reasons behind my design click here

I had decided on a JM Barrie quote from Peter Pan for the quote. This quote was to wrap itself around the egg twice, in between the bands of Gold Leaf. Each letter was painstakingly cut from a vintage map of Dublin.

Just a small section of the map...

Next came the birds.

To help protect the surface I sealed it with a lacquer. Masks on people!

And the final piece

(above) No I didn't make 4 eggs, the wonders of photoshop, to demonstrate how the bands of gold and text wrap themselves around the egg.

To read more about the reasons behind my design click here

I hope you enjoyed this post, it took me a while to put it together!

Until next time.

xx V

To read more on the Jack and Jill Foundation
please CLICK HERE

And to read up on The Big Egg Hunt check out their website here

How I work

I think that everyone works differently. I love deadlines and I work best under pressure. But this also means that I am very good at procrastination. I need to structure my days otherwise I get nothing done, or at least not what I am meant to be getting done. I've tried lots of different methods, including never ending lists. And I found that trying to do too much was almost as bad as doing too little. Here are the rules that work for me.

Rule No. 1 Be Realistic
don't give yourself an impossible amount to do and then be disappointed when you don't get it all done.

Rule No. 2 Don't start the day on your computer
I love technology and it's an integral part of my business but if I start the day online I find that before I know it it's midday. I always start the day designing or making. I normally leave out a project the night before that I can pick up and get going on first thing in the morning. I have my laptop booted up so if there are any urgent emails I can deal with them but they are not my priority.

Rule No. 3 Plan your day the night before
After a bit of work I came up with a 'Planner' that works for me. I have a bunch of them printed out ready to go. Feel free to download and use it here.

Rule No. 4 Don't waste your time

When I go on social media sites I set a timer. (This trick I learnt from the awesome Laura Roeder) I give myself 10 minutes and a daily goal. For example reply to or interact with 10 tweets with the aim of getting at least 5 to respond to you. Then when they do keep up the conversation. DO NOT CONSTANTLY SELF PROMOTE! It's boring and one of the main reasons I will stop following someone.

Finally

Rule No. 5 Just get on with it

Not everything that is part of your business will excite you. For example I hate doing accounts, taxes and all that numbers stuff. But you have to do it. So set aside a portion of your week or month and just get it done. And when you do complete it treat yourself.

How do you work?

xx V

Craft Tutorial 2: How to make a string tie envelope.

Update to String Tie Envelope Tutorial

You can now find the tutorial at our new blog

Link to the new blog post here

A little bit of me...

Just before Christmas I launched a new product line, my hand covered pencil sets, and they were so popular that they are here to stay. Here are some of the fruits of my labours...

Map of Ireland

Spiderman and the Falcon

Beano Comic Book Pencils

Superhero Comic Book Pencils

Superman and Batman Pencils

Beano Comic Book Pencils

I think the next design will be a literary range.Shakespeare's plays me thinks. Watch this space.

All pencils available on my Etsy shop.

xx V

New Products on Etsy!!

Quite excited by my new range of customised pencil sets. They've been so overwhelmingly popular at all my Christmas fairs I've launched them on my Etsy Shop.

A set of 5 hand covered dictionary pencils in a matching gift box. Now for the customised part. As they are dictionary pencils you get to choose your own letter. Then each pencil and the lid of your box will have definitions of words beginning with your letter.

All handmade by me in my studio in Ireland. As always love to hear what you all think.

xx Vanessa

New Product Range for Christmas!!

Im very excited to announce a new product range, something that's been in the pipeline for a while and I'm launching just in time for Christmas. Those of you who see me at my monthly craft market will know about my 'dictionary pencils'. Timber Pencils covered in pages from an old dictionary, each one unique. Now as an extension of that we have the comic book pencils.

As each set is taken from the pages of a vintage comic book no two are exactly the same. Perfect for kids of all ages! You can find this listing on my etsy shop here

Let me know what you think.

Christmas Card Collection for 2011

Here we go. My Christmas Card Collection for 2011. Those of you who shopped with me last year will notice some new additions to the collection. Excited, I am.

To see more pics go to my Etsy store here

Until tomorrow.

In studio

This is the first in a new series of posts giving you a little peek into my world - well my studio anyway! I moved into a new studio space recently and one thing I've been struggling with was finding a good 'photo area'. There isn't a lot of natural light at the moment (a whole other story) so I decided to create my own.

Here's where youtube comes in. There is very little that cannot be solved using the wonders of the internet.

The Aim:To make a Light Box

There were a plethora of 'how to' videos but I picked this one below

To be honest once you have the general gist it doesn't take a whole lot of instructing. All you need is a cardboard box, I used a pretty big one so that I could fit larger items in it too, tissue paper, a sheet of white card, sellotape, a marker and a scalpel knife.

And this is what you end up with.

As you can see the room's pretty dark but inside you'de never know.

A Gertrude Jekyll Rose - the perfect antidote to rainy day blues.

Cute notebooks that kids make at my children's Birthday parties.

My Christmas Tree Decorations in silver here

One of my Butterfly cards here

Now that I have it I can't understand why I didn't do it years ago.

Tis the season

It's officially time to start thinking about Christmas. I, along with the rest of the craft world, have being doing so for a few months now. Finally all my products are designed, all my craft fairs are booked and now an awful lot of making remains. Over the next 8 weeks I'll be filling you in on what I'm up to. Along, of course, with all those amazing products and people in the world of art and design that inspire me as per usual.

I've just uploaded my first Christmas themed product to my Etsy Shop.

Set of 5 Pine Cone Christmas Tree Decorations in their own cotton bag

This set are antique gold with snowflake ribbon

News news news

Come one, come all! Tomorrow I will have a stand at the Farmers Market in Naas. The first Saturday of the month there is a craft section so, if you are in the area, come visit. It is just beside Trax Brasserie (formerly the Storehouse restaurant) and starts at 10am. There will be a small gift for those that turn up at my stand and say that you read about it here. I'll have a wide selection of my cards for sale including Birthday, Thank You and Just a Note Cards. Also come and check out my new range of New Baby and Easter Cards.

I will also have a selection of my Keepsake boxes. Each box is unique covered in vintage maps and materials. They can be commissioned for a special occasion so you can choose the theme to suit the recipient.

And don't forget the fairytale frames.

If you can't make it tomorrow you can also buy a selection of my products on my etsy store, including this pack of gorgous Thank you cards (below) that I've just posted, or by contacting me directly at studio@six0sixdesign.com

With Mothers Day just around the corner its the perfect place to come and get some inspiration.

Looking forward to seeing you on Saturday.

xxx

Vanessa

Until next year ..

Dear All,

Well I Do believe it is Christmas Eve, or Christmas eve day, morning.

This is where I say goodbye for the year and wish you all a very happy Christmas filled with lots of turkey and pudding and wrapping paper that you cant bear to throw away (ok maybe that last one is just me)
I'm shutting my laptop off for the next few days, over which time I will say quite often how I don't really need technology to survive and how nice it is to just sit back and read my book in front of the fire. This delusion might even last till New year. In the mean time I'll leave you with some pretty Christmas-ness

My favourite Advent calendar this year has to be this ultra Zen one from blogger Annnaleenashem. It might all be in Swedish but its a gorgeous blog.