Anna's Personalised 18th Birthday Party Invitations

At the same time as Eileen & Chris's Wedding

it was also their daughter Anna's 18th Birthday.

So.... I had to come up with something 

a little different than the usual 

wedding Invitations and Stationery.

Most of my art work is drawn with a 0.8mm fine line pen.

This makes a decent thickness of mark when it comes to foiling.

Anna had seen and liked a similar design 

on some Wedding Invitations,

but where there were stars in the spirals, we decided

 it would look great to put the number 18

We added sprinkled stars all around the border

and incorporated them around her name,

which helps to keep things uniform

I think we were both happy with the finished result.

HAPPY 18th BIRTHDAY ANNA!

Personalised Wishing Tree Tags

Paul came to see me after we had first met some moths earlier. He'd been married for year and clearly didn't want or need Wedding Stationery.

What he did discuss was whether I could make some Birthday Invitations.... but with a twist.

Paul explained that it was not only his 50 th Birthday, but after 3 long years, it was also the end of his 9 year old sons treatment for Leukaemia. Therefore they were having a joint celebration!

Here's what we came up with....

Paul came back a little later and wanted to have a wishing tree instead of a guest book, then guests could wrote their wishes for both Paul and Thomas and would be a lasting reminder of their special day.

This is what I came up with......

I foiled the cards in 3 different colours....

Green, Purple and Blue.....

I then came up with a little poem...

OK so I'm no poet Laureate! :-)

The poem read:

Choose a card, Green, Purple or Blue,

Write on a wish, you want to come true,

Tie on string, attach to the tree,

Whisper those words and you let them go free!

It was nice to see the Wishing Tree and tags being used for something other than Weddings. In March, it will be used for a Baby's Christening :-)

We at Inspired by Script want to congratulate Paul on his
50 th Birthday and sending lots of love and special wishes for Thomas's continued health.

Personalised Birthday Card for my mum :-)

It's been the busiest week ever!

And it's my mum's birthday tomorrow...

So the card was done in a hurry,

with not a spot of hand lettering in sight....

Plain and simple.

14.5 cm x 14.5 cm

Hand Made by Sue Simpson
at the studio of
Inspired by Script

Personalised Birthday Card for a little girl - Ambers 6th Birthday!

Personalised Birthday Card for a little gir!

It was my little niece, Ambers 6th Birthday

She's a very pink Princess kind of girl.

I always find it pretty hard to design and make cards for kids...

Oh and men too! 

A simple concertina style card, folded out to reveal her name AMBER in cut out letters. Then decorated with sparkly, diamonds and hot pink and purple butterflies.

She rang me tonight to thank me for her card and tell me....

"It's the nicest card I've ever received"

What a compliment :-)

HOW TO MAKE a Hand Made Personalised Birthday Card

It's my sister-in-laws birthday today.... 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY FLORA!

If you are a card maker, there's always 

an element of guilt if you actually BUY a card! 

I feel that it's a cop out and would only do it

 in extreme circumstances!

This time, I wanted a challenge,

something a little bit different

than I had done before. 

So for those of you who are interested,

here's how I made it.

First off, using a fine line permanent pen (o.8)

I drew some flower doodle, outlines... 

Then using water-based brush pens,

coloured them in and blended with water.

Then I scanned them and added

a few more......

Then I cut each one out....

Here's my collection.....

Then I printed out the card front....

And foiled it with a lovely HOT PINK!
(If you haven't got a foil machine, print in colour instead)

I decided it was too white...

so scraped on some pastel chalk....

And blended it in with some old towelling 

Then used fixative.... 

so Flora didn't get filthy when handling it!

The pastel colours suited the card much better!

With some of the flowers I added foam pads to the back

to give the card some dimension....

You may be able to see it better here...

Oh... then I added some little diamantes,

for a little bit of sparkle! 

Doesn't that look better?

Still.... it lacked a certain something....

Ahhhh.... a little bit of HOT PINK ribbon!

It's always nice to make cards for friends and family. Very often clients don't get to see your full repertoire
so your chance to go a little wild is stifled.
But if anyone is interested and would like one of these made for someone special... I have a few of these flowers left (I printed double.... just in case it went wrong!) I'd be happy to make them one. Email me at: inspiredbyscript@yahoo.co.uk

Personalised, Made To Order Banners

I saw these in the local craft shop and couldn't resist the temptation to buy them. Normally I would have cut my own, but the fancy, scalloped deckle edge, didn't seem worth the effort, when I could buy them ready made...added to that, it made sense to have more time to play and get creative.

My first thought was for Wedding Banners.... possibly with Mr & Mrs on, or because it's almost Valentines day, simply the word LOVE.

The letters are cut from Vinyl and the banners can be made to order....perhaps even finding a use for Birthdays. E.g. Chloe's 18th?

All in all, I'm pretty pleased with the results and I'm offering any name or greeting at £1 per letter and the lettering can be cut in most colours. I

love them and I'm already thinking of other things I can do with them. What about kids bedrooms? Letters co-ordinated to match the room....or choose 2 colours. The choice is yours and the ideas endless.

A Personalised Birthday Card Using Cut Letters and Foiled Print

It's some time now since I bought my Foil Machine and Plotter and I must admit that it's taking some time to get to grips with the plotter....but I'm a winner not a quitter and quitters never win.

The programme has a language of it's own and they don't come with a user manual. I think they expect anyone who uses one of these to be 'In The Know' so to speak....so it's been a steep learning curve, but fun along the way.

It's my Sister-In-Laws Birthday on Monday and I decided to try and excel myself and use both the Foiler and the Cutter in one design.... I just didn't think it would take me a day to create it lol.

First the foiling way printed in a gorgeous hot pink and then the cut lettering was done making sure that the letters were cut within the already printed design....a lot of mistakes and trials to get this far :o)

The letters will come in handy as next year I'll just glue the cut ones onto a piece of card....well it's a thought! The name came out in one piece as I made sure that each of the letters was connected to the ones either side.

I then trimmed away the bottom edge of the card and inserted a beautiful purple to set off the lettering. I just love the shadows made by cut letters don't you?

All in all, I'm over the moon with the results, but unless someone wants to pay me a days work or I get pretty much faster at these I will not be offering them for sale at the Inspired by Script studio or on the website.

They are however stunning and if you are on my birthday list, I may very well repeat these cards for my friends....time permitting of course :o)

Important news!

Inspired by Script are proud to announce that as of this week, I am joined at the studio and gallery by....Ta da da da da daaaaah! (Drum roll please.....

from Steve Simths Jewellery. Kiln fired, dichroic glass jewellery that is just absolutely gorgeous!

The glass is fired at high temperature, using many layers and the results lead to an iridescent light catching finish. From the glass he makes pendants

Drop and Stud earrings.....

Bracelets

If you would like to see more of Steve Smiths Jewellery go to his website at http://stevesmithjewellery.co.uk and follow him on Facebook by clicking here

There is far more items for sale in the gallery than he has listed on his website....as per usual, creators are great at making stuff, but very lax when it comes to listing on their website or etsy shops :o)

Cut Letters - Birthday Card for Pam

Just a quick post today....A handmade Birthday Card, made using the cutter. Beautiful purples and lined with lavender. I think the white contrast looks stunning against this colour.

I'm planning on offering these as personalised on of a kind pieces in the studio....but I will have to get a wee bit quicker to make them profitable... this one took me 3 hours!

Happy Hearts for positive people

I love hearts don't you? I decided to buy some wooden hearts to make little hangings to give away as Wedding Favours. At first I painted them all bright colours and then decided or rather backed out and repainted them Ivory.Each heart has a little positive quotation on the front, is edged with gold and then assorted coloured ribbon is tied for the hanging. They are so cute. The hearts measure 10cm high.....too small for Calligraphy, so they had to be printed.

They make great gifts, so the first idea of making them for Wedding Favours may be an optional extra :o)

Thay are on sale at the Gallery for £5 each. As always, if you are interested, please email me direct and I can send you a list of quotations available.

Cut Letters Birthday Card

Just a couple of days after my sisters birthday, it happens to be my brother-in-laws. I've been playing around with my cutting machine and just had to experiment with turning calligraphy into a cut letter design....I thought I'd share the results.

I'm finding these cut letters really inspiring and have ideas buzzing around my head, which I will share as they are produced. The idea for these is that I will produce names to order, especially for special occasions.

What is a Mantragram?

You've probably never heard of a Mantragram before. It certainly is not in Wikipedia..... and that's probably because I invented the word! Quite some years ago now I was told about Weathergrams, which are:
poems of about ten words or less. They are written on narrow strips of kraft paper cut from used grocery store bags. They are hung on bushes or trees in gardens or along mountain trails. There are generally seasonal and are left out for three months or longer. The name means 'weather writing' -- notations by sun, wind, rain, and possibly ice. Written with the proper inks, the writing lasts. Let them weather and wither like old leaves. In composing one, let the meaning grow out of things, with some action involved if possible -- in a hear and now. The meaning is not all on the surface. The unexpected is essential. It is not a condensation, but a moment of vision.
Taken from this link here: http://www.mlhp.net/alum/weathergram.html

Then some time later our great calligraphy friend Fran Sloan died suddenly and we (calligraphers all over the world) decided to make weathergrams in her memory and the term: Frangrams were invented. We did Fran proud and we hung them in our gardens all over the world as her funeral was taking place.
I took the idea a stage further and thought that they would look wonderful with Inspirational and Motivational Quotes on them and perhaps even use them to celebrate the birth of a baby or even a marriage. They were made for longer lasing and more substantial materials and were very definitely made for inside the house.

So they are a cross between Mantras and Prayer Flags. Mantra being a sound of energy. Generally I make these to order but I do have a few stock Mantragrams for sale at the studio. Why not have a go at making a Weathergram yourself?