Sunday 18 November 2012

Personalised Father Christmas Bauble And Complimentary Gift Wrapping For Handmade Monday



A new style of Christmas bauble has emerged at Free Spirit Designs! Although i've been very much enjoying the simple elegance of my recent designs i took the plunge this week into doing some more detailed work and i have to say i'm loving the results (so expect more soon!)



Personalised Father Christmas Bauble


The background i chose for this bauble was a bit of a risk - black being a colour more associated with Halloween than Christmas! However as soon as i saw the gorgeous shininess of it i loved it, especially when i saw how fantastic gold and silver look against its lustrous sheen... maybe black can be Christmassy after all! (Do share your thoughts on this btw, i'd love to hear them!)



In case you were wondering, this is the same type of porcelain bauble i've used for my other designs - decorated with enamel paint and then oven fired for a chip resistant finish.



Personalisation


I came up with a fun idea to personalise this design which i hope you like as much as i do! It reminds me of a book my brother and i had a children - it was a Christmas story i think... (i'm hopeless with details on these things!) What i do remember though is that the two children in the story had the same names as my brother and i! I don't know how my parents managed to source this level of personalisation but we LOVED it - these things really do add to the magic of childhood.

So, back to the bauble... you see how the Christmas presents on their way down to the waiting chimney pot have blank tags attached...




...that's right, you guessed it! Anyone purchasing this design will have the opportunity to choose the names on the tags. Anything up to five gifts can be featured in the design, each with their own name tag.

More images and details can be found in my Etsy shop where it is available to buy for £16 (as with all my products, shipping within the UK is free).



Complimentary Gift Wrap Service


This week i have finally got around to something i've been meaning to do for a while - offering a complimentary gift wrapping service. This includes delivery to the recipients address and personalised message on a gift tag if required.




I'm currently in the process of updating all my listings with this pretty picture of the wrapping i will provide... simple yet stylish :)



In Other News...


CRAFTfest


Christmas CRAFTfest is just around the corner (24th Nov - 1st Dec) and i'm busy stocking up my virtual stall... For the uninitiated, CRAFTfest is a regular week long online craft fair organised by crafters network, Creative Connections - i took part in my first one in September and learnt so much about networking and other things related to online craft selling that i just had to be part of it again! Another lovely thing was the atmosphere of camaraderie and mutual support and 'meeting' lots of lovely fellow crafters :)

I will let  you know how i get on this time in due course!


Craft Couture


Craft Couture is a Facebook page i found out about from Jan over at Handcrafted By Picto when she mentioned it in her Handmade Monday post. I popped along to investigate at the time and liked the idea, but it has developed a little since then so i thought it worth mentioning this fantastic little enterprise again.

The premise is to try to connect those seeking to buy handmade items with the crafters that make them. Buyers post requests on the page and then crafters can reply with appropriate links to items (either their own or another crafters). There is none of the indiscriminate self-promotion or spammy posting that you see on other pages because only those seeking items can post - sellers can only reply. 

I think its a great way to encourage people to shop handmade this Christmas and to help them find just what they're looking for from the handmade community.. yay! :)


Handmade Monday


I am linking this post, as i do every week, with Handmade Monday, the fabulous linky party run by Wendy over at Handmade Harbour. Do join me in browsing the superb array of crafty blogs on display over there!

If you visited my blog last week and left a comment, thank you! Your thoughts on my dog and cat baubles were super useful and so kind too :) x

Have a wonderful week!


34 comments:

  1. The new bauble is gorgeous. I love the idea of names on the tags and the packaging is really pretty. Good luck with Craftfest is sounds like a great idea.
    Ali x

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  2. I love the bauble the black makes it stunning. Thank you for the FB link had liked but have forgotten to check the wants pages

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    1. thank you! i'm glad you like it too :)

      you're welcome, its hard to keep up with networking isn't it... so many places to visit! x

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  3. I think black works really well - Santa only comes at night. The idea of personalizing them is very inspired. Love them.

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    1. thank you! you're right, Santa is a creature of the night, i thought about that too as i was painting this! x

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  4. I love the black background (btw one of my daughters has a black xmas tree). I love the little gift tags on it too!

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    1. thank you!!

      oooh a black tree! I'd love to see that... i imagine decorations look very striking on it x

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  5. Love that bauble, a perfect picture of Christmas and very special to be able to personalise it :)

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  6. Sometimes it's good to venture out and try something different from usual. It must have been difficult to paint the bauble, well done.

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  7. I love the bauble too, the black really does seem appropriate as the night sky and shows off the detail so well :)

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  8. The bauble is beautiful. I think the colours have a stained glass effect using the black as a background.
    Wendy

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    1. thank you!

      the colours really do stand out against black don't they! x

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  9. so cute + great that can be personalised x

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    1. thank you!

      i agree, personalisation is always a nice extra :) x

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  10. I love the black too and like Wendy's daughter I have a black Christmas tree. I love the idea of the personalised tags on the bauble.
    I'm glad you checked out Craft Couture. :)

    Jan x

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    1. thank you!

      i'm really intrigued by these black Christmas trees! I must find one to look at :)

      Craft Couture is fab, thank you for the link x

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  11. Ohhh I LOVE the black baubles :-) They are super cute!

    The facebook page sounds great - I do get so bored of the spammy posts that get put on the networking pages.

    Simmi xx

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    1. awww thank you Simmi! i'm glad you like :)

      hopefully you'll find the page useful, i think it could grow into something really good x

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  12. I think the black background is inspired as its just right for Santa to be delivering his gifts against. Thanks for the link to Craft Couture, have visited and liked and will be keeping an eye on their page :-)

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    1. thank you Bev!

      i'm really glad the link was useful :) x

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  13. The black is great- the colours really pop and sparkle, and I love the little tags to be personalised- very good idea!

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  14. What a beautiful bauble! love the story behind it and even the level of personalisation. I love the black - I've made a couple of decorations with black, I think it can look really striking - even thinking of using a bit of black myself this year!! Your gift wrapping looks fab too. :o)

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    1. awww thank you very much!!

      i agree black can work really well :) x

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  15. I think the black on the baubles work well. After all, Santa only comes to visit when it's dark and the night time delivery scene on the bauble looks fantastic.

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    1. thank you very much Steven :)

      its true, Santa travels under the stars doesn't he! x

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  16. Another great Xmas treat, I love that the bauble has a black background, it gives it a more modern feel than the traditional baubles available. Good Luck with the Xmas Craftfest!

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    1. thank you very much Clare, modern sounds good to me! :)

      lots of CRAFTfesting luck to you too :) x

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  17. The black design makes it really unusual. Love it. Good luck with crafty fest

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Your lovely comments are much appreciated x