A card that says 1000 words....

Its strange the assumptions we make, most people would assume, you would send a Birthday card, Christmas cards and congratulations cards among others but a "Missing You" card...? My response to this was a firstly a little taken back, it was something i had never heard of before and i certainly hadn't ever seen one, but then it occurred to me, why should we forget the people that are no longer here, we would have sent them cards on their birthdays at Christmas or a good luck or congratulations or any other occasion while they were alive we wanted to acknowledge so why not sent them a card telling them we miss them?!


I was first asked to do the card 3 days ago by a very good friend of mine. She asked me if i would make her a very special card and i of course said i would. She said she wanted it to be a Missing You card and again assumptions were made and i assumed it was for someone that had moved away or someone she doesn't see that often. Then she explain. She has a friend who 10 days after she passed her driving test and not long before her birthday was tragically killed in a traffic accident. The effect it has had on my friend is enormous as it would anyone. At that point i became aware of just how important this card would be. It had to capture everything about missing someone, the tragic loss of someone, the showing that the good times are remembered and they are loved. I was touched by the thought. I knew how important this would be for my friend and she chose me to make a card to be placed on her grave....By far this was probably the hardest thing i have ever had to do craft wise. It may seem pretty simple on hearing the idea, but i had to get this just right. My brief was it has to be Blue as that was her favourite colour. It had to be simple but express how much she was missed but also express how she is remembered in such a good light, no poems and inside had to be blank for her to write her own words...I was completely stumped....The hardest thing for me was trying to connect with another persons loss. Quite a few of my friends knew the young girl that had died so i had already heard alot about her and the tragic circumstances in which she died, but how do you tap into someones own feelings of loosing someone. We've all lost or experience loss in all its different contexts, Losing a friend because you grow apart, losing a race when were at school, or losing a loved one to a old age, We've all experienced it at some point but we all deal with it differently, We all have different outlooks on it and opinions and that is why this card was the hardest thing so far. So i sat and drew a couple of ideas but nothing fitted so i started thinking about how i could signify every one's feelings of loss into card that would be suitable and i thought of a few little but important phrases that i could use along with the words "Missing you" then out of no where it came to me. Forget-Me Nots...They are blue and say everything that i couldn't express it was perfect.....so after an hour of toying with the phrases and the layout i got to work. I used a special pearl paper that was in an electric blue to back the wordings and i found a very simple picture of a Forget-Me-Not and mounted this onto self adhesive foam. I found the most perfect backing paper which had starts on and luckily was also blue!! It was all falling together and here it is the finish product.

I'm really pleased and luckily so was my friend. I think it says everything you can never find the words to say, i really hope it does it job, to show everyone who visits her grave just how special she was and also shows the young girl that she has a friend who is always thinking of her.

Another rainy day....some more crafting moments...

Well wasn't today just miserable? Rain rain rain, but I secretly love days like these, the days where its 1pm in the afternoon and you have to have the lights and heating on because it’s so cold and dreary outside...Perfect crumpet and tea weather. :)

But even the miserable weather couldn't sadden me this morning as I woke to find a total of 53 fans on my Facebook Page thought to the experienced business facebooker may not be a lot it was an achievement to me in a small 10 days. I promised my fans I would announce some special offers once at 50 likes, so that I did. Currently offering buy one card get one half price and a discount on already made Christmas cards...I'm hoping this will help me gain some interest in my work and get the ball rolling and if it doesn't I guess I will have to wait for the next 50 likes. I guess it’s all swings and roundabouts in this game. :)

But I do already have another order in hand that I had to tackle today and luckily due to my son’s unusual afternoon nap I was able to get cracking. I was asked to make a 50th Birthday card for one of my friends mums and the brief was, Pink glittery and butterfly's...But plain and simple. Not the easiest of briefs how can you make pink and glittery look simple...Well I love making cards like this, where I have to capture something particular that the customer wants (It was also important as being a friend she could do me favours reputation wise and I wanted to show her and her mum what I could do) but nevertheless I set to work. I managed to get hold of some lovely pink pearl card from my local market, which I have discovered is great for the little odds and ends, So I thought I would use this as a base, I then found amongst my scraps a lovely turquoise and white polka dot scrap piece which I though would come in just perfect, armed with my glittery 50 and my butterfly's I set to work. Strangely as much as I enjoy making the more girlie card, I really struggled with this one. I changed the places of the butterflies and the 50 several times before I was happy, and then I decided after I was happy-ish it wasn't good enough. I'm a bit particular when it comes to making my cards, I would never make something I wouldn't buy myself for someone else and I just didn't feel that way about this one. So I took a break...15 minutes later I returned and as if by magic I knew what i had to change to make it perfect( Amazing what a little break does) With a few tweaks and some re-arranging I was happy. I think I managed to fit the brief, so here it is my second order :) (below) I'm really pleased and I love the contacts in colour. So I sent over the pictures to my friend (What would we do without camera phones lol) who said it was just as she wanted it and was perfect for her mum. I was so pleased the fact it was an aged card made me think more about the receiver, she was more likely to keep a card like this which was for a special age to look back on (or is that just me who hordes stuff for a later date ?!?) so I knew I had to capture just how she would feel when she opened it something that would be as special as the day itself. Unfortunately not long after that just as the kettle had finished boiling J had woken up and, an end to my crafting session had arrived....

Having still got the crafting bug from my little unexpected afternoon stint, I decided I would crack out the art and craft stuff this evening, whist watching the latest with Alfie and Kat in Eastenders, and make some more demos for My Facebook Page. I also needed to make a card for J to give to his Grandad, as it is his birthday on Sunday.  So i indulged for the next hour. After doing a few samples (and catching up on the Footballers wives repeats) I had completed 2 demos and one Grandads birthday card, which I was pleased with. So exclusively I'm going to reveal them here first before they are on my facebook page. :)

Save the Date Demo

A Card for Grandad!



A demo Christmas Card


Well that be just about all crafted out for today...Hope you like cards above and don't forget you can find all of these pics and other cards i have done at My Facebook Page. I'm off to London tomorrow (to get a heat magazine he he) and hopefully going to see if i can find any quirky bits and piece around Covent Garden i will report back if i do!! :)

Another day...Another blog

Ive been a busy little bee since my last post with my first order!! :) Such a thrill hearing myself say that! Ok so its my Sister-In-Law to be, but she only ordered once she saw the pictures on my Facebook Page so im guessing thats a good thing. :)


My first card was a 21st male birthday card for and as Sister-in-law put it "A raving Karate fan who competes for Great Britan" the next peice of information she tells me is she needs it in a weeks time....thank god we were communicatiing via email, because if she had seen the look on my face she would have been slightly worried...Where was I going to find something karate related in that amount of time, as i knew i had nothing to fit the bill...Cue eBay, thank the lord for this amazing website that gets me out of trouble at every oppertunity, the first thing that ever sold on eBay may have been a cornflake (true so ive heard) but it is now a vital life saving tool of mine that is listed in the top of my favourites. After an hour or so of trawling through pages of karate embellishment, toppers and die cuts (and maybe looking at a few other bits hehe) i came across the perfect little man in a karate outfit and a black belt. With one swift click i was putting in my details and it was on its way within 24 hours! (Pretty snappy for an order placed at 3pm)


Two days later postman is walking down the drive and im so excited to get said Karate man with a very cute face, i swing the door open and my lovely postman nearly lost the entire roads post as he jumped with fright.
"Waiting for something important love," was his responce once he has got himself back together.  Meanwhile J my son, comes running out to the door shouting At At (to me and you that is Pat Pat as in postman pat) while the postman stands and has a little chat with J, im tearing into a nice crisp brown package, Julie Andrews didnt get it wrong, Brown paper packages (Althought this one wasnt tied up with string) is certainly one of my favourite things. Finally after brown paper, and bubble wrap i prise out my new Die cut man with the karate outfit on with a grin on my face from ear to ear. " Was that your something important love," apperently just at that moment karma decided to make an appearance and get me back for scaring the poor postman mintues earlier. I nearly hit the ceiling as the postmans comment broke my little excited bubble. " Yes, i ordered it two days ago and so happy it arrived i can get on with my order now," From the look on the postmans face he wanted to know more..so i showed him my little die-cast man. The postman raised his eyebrows at me and said "hmm sure it means more to you than me," And with that he said goodbye and off he went. J was left standing at the door for at least 5 mintues after it was shut saying ba ba at at (Bye Bye Postman Pat)


So finally J is in bed and i get 5 mintues to myself , B the other man in my life (fiance) was at work so i had the living room, and tv to myself and out comes all my art and craft stuff , i find my little Die-Cut man and indulge in the land of crafts for the next hour or so.....

Finaly after an 35mins (sooner than i thought) , and dead leg  my first card was finished and i stepped back to admire the work..I like it i thought, but as always i look myself off to the kitchen to re-fuel with a coffee, giving me the chance to walk away from my creating and then come back and take a fresh look something i have learnt is a very wize idea...On coming back and making a few tweeks i was happy. As always i took the photos and sent one to sister-in-law to make sure she was happy. Thankfully she was. And put it on the window sill for the glue to set. And here it is my first offical customer ordered card!! Im sure (if this goes well) there will be a time when i look back and think things were so basic in the beginning or think, i cant believe i didnt use this/that....but for now my first one...im very happy!! 

Well here goes...Im a blogging newbie...

Bring, a full time mum my days are full of first....First time crawling, walking, talking, drawing on the walls :S Ive seen them all from my cheeky 2 year old...But today is a first for me, My first time of writing a Blog!! Really i should have been up with it and already have one of these but i guess you get left out of the real world loop when you have a baby and before you know it the world and his wife has a blog.


So you maybe be asking yourself why have i started a blog :) and if you having guessed from the title :P I'm Nikita-Marie and i accidentaly fell upon my new business on warm evening in July, my partner and i are getting married in May next year (Finally making an honest women of me) and i sat down and thought i could save a few pennies if i made my own stationery. So a trip to the local craft store was in order. A few days later one Saturday afternoon after 2 hours!! Yes 2 hours i came out of the Craft store armed with lots of creative bits and pieces and sat down with a glass of wine to begin. I made mock invites, menu cards, name card and thank you cards and before i knew it i was still up in the early hours. Going to bed with a massive smile of my achievements i remember how i have always enjoyed this kind of thing. I was always the child at school sitting at school painting my hands with glue (we've all done it haven't we?) working out what i could stick together to take home to my mum, she still has them all to this day a fur cone stuck to a stick with so much glitter it was like being in a snow dome every time someone picked it up, leave stuck to a face mask to look like and Indian the lists of these "classic" could go on forever. Ive always enjoyed making things, as a child i used to make my own hand-made Christmas and birthday cards and even when i didn't have time to make a card whatever the occasion i would buy a card for someone. People laugh at me saying i could write a card for any occasion and that's what i like to do. Sometime i think its nice to know that someone else has realised just how special a certain occasion is and what better way to say it than with a card. So with all this running round my head i thought wouldn't it be nice being a young stay at home mum, to do something for us as a family, Ive always wanted to have my own business and never found the right business to own and as if my magic i just stumbled across the perfect one.


Well the past few months have been like a whirlwind, i have made cards for friends and family and they were received brilliantly (although I'm hoping this isn't just cause there my friends or I'm in alot of trouble now) and now i have my own Facebook Page my likers are slowly building up and i have received two orders via the page going live so far. Its slow and steady but that's ok, who knows next year i could be competing with Mr Clinton's (Maybe a little optimistic but hey no hard in wishful positive thinking) I have so far mainly just be making cards, although would love to branch into Wedding Stationery as that is what got me where i am after all. :) I promote Hand-Made, these days there are to many cards said to be "personalised for you" but i don't see how having template you alter is made for you. That why all my cards are completely bespoke and hand-made by me at home. I use a computer as little as possible to bring back the real meaning of hand-made. Each card is made with love and care individually with you and your ideas in mind. :D


Well that's a little (maybe too much I'm not aware of an acceptable blog length :S ) from me and about my ideas, i hope you will enjoy following my journey as a new crafter who know where this will lead? I'm just enjoy the ride for now!!


Night xx