24 hour at the studio. The mind of a creative spirit

Firstly, I make no apologies for this blog post, heavily laden with photos.
I've reduced the pictures in size in the hopes that the download time will be quicker. I want to take you through a journey. A thought process that many artists go through when faced with a brief.

This is the one of a number of solutions I will offer to this particular client. Practice and jumping off pieces if you like. I've used the name Tanya and Dave from a previous client as the Bride does not want to reveal herself yet.

The Bride brought in some pictures of invitations she had seen and particularly liked the funky swirly patterns, hearts and butterflies...that was my starting point.

I refuse to use pre-decorated paper, so commonly found in craft shops. I feel I can hardly call myself a designer maker if I use other peoples designs.....so I started with a simple swirl design and added some hearts....

The pattern looked a little bit weak... so the attached hearts were coloured in.

But, before I went any further I took the first design and printed that in colour first.....then did a second pass through the laser to see if it was possible to combine colour and foil together.....

It was, so I tried a few other colours too....

Hmmmm.... a bit weak and wishy washy if you ask me, but it may appeal to some....it depends what someone is looking for.

So I worked on the design even more, added a few more spirals, and a few little bubbles here and there....

I seemed to be getting somewhere....but still didn't like the gaps as I had an idea of using it as a background and the more filled in the better...

I then printed the pattern onto red card and foiled it.....

then cut out some hearts.......

Hmmm.....nice.....let's try in on purple!

Ah, now the ideas are coming thick and fast...

I need to get on and make a corner border....with a few tweaks here and there, I was quite happy with this

but needed to see it printed and foiled,

and try out a printed heart on it...

Much better in hot pink heart with hot print foil....

Of course there's always a chance that

she may ditch the heart idea altogether and go for a butterfly

And there's lots more ideas in the pipeline.

I try to offer 4 roughs for the Bride to choose from

and this is only the start.

I wanted, however, to show you a truthful thought and working progress which took place over a 24 hour period. Some thinking was of course done at home and each trial sparks off new ideas....those foiled hearts for instance....who knows where they will lead. Whatever happens, I'll keep you posted.

I just love hearing a Brides ideas and then working with them and coming up with interesting solutions. It's how the creative spirit works :o)

New Wedding Stationery Design

I've started on new designs for my 2012 Wedding Collection. Wedding have become a large part of my business and I may have to ditch the more personal commissions that I sometimes get asked to do.

I love this border and it worked out really well on all the stationery. This one I foiled in silver, but I have many other colours available.

As well as the invitations which measure 10cm x 21cm and come with envelopes at £2 each, I tried the design on place cards too....

And I'm thrilled at the way it worked on the Thank you cards. It's important when designing borders that the design works on ALL the stationery and at both large and smaller formats. The Thank You cards are 10cm x 10cm and are £1 each. The outside is foiled and any wording of your choice can be added to the inside.

If you are interested in the above stationery or any of the other designs I make, feel free to email me at inspiredbyscript@yahoo.co.uk or alternatively you can ring me direct at the studio on 01609 776 866

To see more of my Wedding Stationery don't forget to visit my Flickr Gallery by clicking this link

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.

An Alternative to standard, traditional, place cards for a 60's themed Wedding

Kate arrived clutching over 100 leaves, some VW's and some pretty dresses for her 60's themed wedding.

The VW's were for the little boys and the dresses for the girls...

The leaves however were a little bit too small for me to letter on, so I offered to make them bigger.

The leaves were for the adults and a hole was cut into the end so that they would slip over the stalk of the plastic apples..

Not only different, but cute too!

A Week When Your Feet Don't Touch The Ground

It's been the busiest week at the studio, that I have had for a very long time....I wish ALL weeks were like this.

I've had 2 lots of place cards to make for two separate brides and added to that I've had a full Wedding order to do. More about the place cards later.

Karen loved the foiled cards and wanted something plain and simple, with the only remit being... 'Hot Fuchsia Pink' ....

I obliged, but after looking at them from a design point of view and the name of 'Richard' having 2 ascenders, the design itself looked a little bit.... errrr unbalanced....So, we decided to introduce a butterfly theme into the design.... MUCH BETTER don't you think?

For the month of January and all the way up to Valentine's Day, I'm offering FREE R.S.V.P. cards.

I also made some little cards to go inside the Invites as a polite way of asking for money rather than gifts.

the place cards, Menu's and wedding Post box will be left until a month before the wedding, once the final numbers and guests names a re confirmed.

I also have a busy month with birthdays. It's a long term friends birthday as well as my daughter-in-laws birthday at the end of the month.

I really love that little tumbling heart design that I made for the Valentine's Day cards, and used it once again for their cards.

I love it so much I'm going to design a full set of wedding Stationery round it too.

Sometimes things just work out perfectly and it's a real buzz when they do!

Love, Love Me Do... Hand Made Valentine's Day Card

So..... the bug for these doodle thingies goes on.... this time it's hearts and love all the way.

With Valentine's Day fast approaching and no cards in the shop, I decided to get a shuffle on while I was quiet and design a new card... because you can bet your bottom dollar, that if you have nothing made, people will come in and ask for them.

I hand coloured each of the cards. This is easy when you only have a short run to paint and it makes them all look unique....

I've foiled 3 in red and 3 in silver... so 6 cards in all and each one different.

Pink, Orange and Red...

We were invited to a wedding of a long time friend of mine the following week and I decided that the design would make a great personalised Wedding Card.....

What do you think?

Wedding Concertna Card Commission

For some reason I found this in my 'draft' box and never got round to blogging about it. So, this was a concertina book/card, made to commission, for a Bride and Groom to be....

The concertinas always invoke an element of surprise when opened, if the recipient has never seen one before.

The client wanted two poems on the one card. First from The Song of Solomon and the second Love's Philosophy by Percy Bysshe Shelley.

The center panel was left clear for the client to add their own message.

The covers and the inside are soft ivory and the hearts are a lovely sage green....the colour theme of the wedding. ivory ribbon and inside a delicate silver strand decoration brought the whole piece together. Beautiful!

I've added Love's Philosophy to my quotation page

Personalised Gift Tags

Just a quick hello.... and a chance to share some photos of the gift tags I made to add onto my christmas gifts this year.

I was looking to make something a little bit different.

. Everyone loved them and took them off carefully and kept them :o)

a Winter Wedding

I've stored up a few photos from just before Christmas that I've forgot to add to my blog. No great movers and shakers here....just little commissions, that filled in the time and were fun to do, so not great detailed descriptions either.... you will be pleased to hear lol.

These are a few simple place cards for a winter wedding. Silver gouache on white and with an added cut out snowflake. I glued the bottom on the snowflake over the crease so that they stood up when folded. Simple but cute :o)

When You Wish Upon A Star - Personalised greeting cards

I can't believe that it's 31 years since my son was born. Ironically 31 years to the day later I was writhing around in agony on a hospital bed once again.... this time for quite different reasons. I was getting my long time back problem sorted out lol.

I love making cards....and especially for family members that I know will appreciate them. I drew the design using a 0.8 fine liner pen, before scanning them and dropping them into a card template which I already have set up on my computer.

Once printed I then foiled them using holographic foil, which catches the light and casts wonderful rainbows around the room.

The card was then painted using water soluble brush pens and then shaded by adding water.

I just love the orange and warm sunshine yellows of these pens and WOW! What a difference a bit of colour makes

The finished card.....

Full frontal....

It's my mum's birthday tomorrow....so I used the same design

but coloured it in [inks......

I've made a few extra, using silver foil to put in the shop.

Personalised Ruby Wedding Anniversary Card

I put my foiled to good use on this one. A ruby Wedding Anniversary Card.... Personalised with the names and celebration date of the happy couple :o)

And we're back!

After the extended holiday period, it's back to the studio and all hands on deck.

I try to take a long and well earned rest over Christmas, as it's so hard to take time off during the Sumner as it usually co insides with Weddings and well attended Craft Fairs.

Hopefully, this year, I'll be even more focused and there's lots of plans and ideas in the pipeline.

It's always hard when you offer, not only a service, but items for sale and with Calligraphy and Lettering Art the products are many and varied which can lead into some confusion as to what exactly 'we do'.

The little hearts above are part of my Power Doodle Range and for part of the decoration to my motivational and inspirational art prints. Originally started as a little bit of fun and a way of clearing my mind from the more formal and mundane jobs we get to do, but they then developed into a little bit of an obsession. They are not only fun but colourful too and bring a little bit of sunshine to the walls of the Gallery.

So, today, I'm back in the studio and it's business as usual. I'm looking forward to meeting new clients and working on fresh ideas.

I woke to the morning sunrise, something I haven't seen for quite some time. The days are already starting to lengthen and Spring is just around the corner.

I'm planning on getting my act together this year and really sorting out my Inspired by Script website, it's long overdue and looking a little bit jaded. The problem with websites is that they take so much time and commitment and mine has been badly neglected.

I'm also going to add other creative things to this blog. Art pieces that I have done for myself, experimental pieces and items and articles from other creatives. Not everything you see here this year will be for sale. Hopefully, this will make the blog more interesting for you, the visitors to my blog.

In the meantime, if you're visiting Northallerton, North Yorkshire at all this year, do pop in and say hello. It will be lovely to meet you.

We're looking forward to sharing the year ahead with you...

With the brightest of blessings for 2012, Sue xxx

50th Birthday Book

Orders for bookbinding come few and far between these days, so when they do I jump at the chance, especially where there's a fun element in them.

This one, in it's gorgeous peacock blue cover matched the foil perfectly. The lettering was foiled both on the outside plate and the inside page.

Japanese binding is most suited to loose leaves as there is no need to sew sections together and the raw edges at the spine binding can add to the decorative feature.

These books or albums can be made as guest books or photo albums depending on the paper inside. This one is A4 in size and has 110gsm paper in. The paper is thick enough for guests to write their stories in and not have any 'bleed through' no matter what pen is used.

I love making personalised books and wish I did more. Sadly, the price of mass produced books makes orders come few and far between....except when people want something EXTRA SPECIAL and are prepared to pay for the time and effort bookbinders put into each one.

You can see more of my books and albums by clicking here

Wedding Thank You Cards

It's been a busy week.....Here's the latest items made to commission at the studio. A set of 80 Wedding Thank You Cards, foiled in a beautiful satin green......

The foil colours come in 14 colour which you can see here.

Foiling as opposed to simple printing gives an overall more classy feel.

Amy and Ian wanted something that would match the flavour and theme of their Wedding Invitations and Seating Plan.

You can see more of my Wedding Stationery at http://northyorkshireweddings.blogspot.com or on my flickr page at

http://www.flickr.com/photos/30445846@N06/sets/72157627904951060/ where you will find lots of ideas if you or anyone you know is getting married in the coming months. Email me (Sue) at inspiredbyscript@yahoo.co.uk if you have any questions. We are here to help.

I'm still here.....and not AWOL.....

It seems forever since I last posted here and to all intents and purposes it would be easy to believe I have given up on lettering altogether....but I've been busy writing articles for The Creative Spirit.

You can see the full set of my Motivational and Inspirational Lettering Art by clicking on the link HERE.

It's been great fun taking time off from conventional and traditional calligraphy and letting go and being a bit more free and easy with my letters. Quirky? Yes! Kitsch? Yes probably....and a whole lot of fun and everyone loves them! :o)

Over the winter, I need to get my website kicked into shape....both my http://inspiredbyscript.com site and my http://northyorkshireweddings.co.uk site. Both need a lot of time sorting out the chaff from the wheat. a great project for the dark evenings.

So I will be back soon....in the meantime you can keep up to date by visiting http://the-creative-spirit.blogspot.com see you there xxx