Great Oaks from Little Acorns grow

If you live in England, you might of seen an Entertainer shop around when you're out and about.  Well, that business started up where I live in Amersham.  Over the years it's been in 3 different locations in the town, the one it's in now being a very recent move.

I was commissioned to illustrate both the oldest and newest shops next to each other, showing the progress of the shop, toys and the Entertainer as a brand.  It's come such a long way!  It was a pleasure to capture these shops in an illustration and it'll make the perfect gift for the recipient at Christmas.

Homemade Christmas Presents

I love giving gifts, creating gifts, and of course receiving gifts!

Christmas is for me a lot about family.  I care about getting the right presents for them.  I don't buy something for the sake of giving a present!  In fact, people I love will often get a present from me when it's not Christmas, their birthday, or some other present giving occasion, just because I have seen something perfect for them, or that perhaps made me think of them.

This year I have tried to buy handmade, or make my own.  Twitter, Facebook, various Blogs, craft fairs and Etsy have over the year given me endless inspiration.  I use the 'Add to favourite items' on Etsy to remind myself of gifts for people, and the 'Add shop to favourites' to bookmark shops by friends, inspirational shops and suppliers.  All this has helped me track down the perfect gifts for my friends and family!

1. Lolly print by Sean Mort via HelloDODO

My sister spyed this gorgeous print at The Renegade Craft Fair earlier in the year and fell in love with it.  But with a small budget and small flat she couldn't justify buying it.  She's now moved to a slightly bigger flat, so what a perfect present!  HelloDODO had written up a blog post here about the fair and I was able to buy the print via Sean's website. Perfect.

 

2. Jewellery by Wear Me Out @ The Handmade Makers Market in Oxford

The Handmade Makers Market was in fact my first 'real' craft fair - HURRAH! You can read about the day here.  Myself and Chloe seemed to have a mutual love of each others crafts.  My sister declared she loved everything, so I selected a matching necklace and set of earrings for her main Christmas present.  'Wear me Out' jewellery is made to be worn everyday - none of that keeping it for best malarky!  With that in mind I chose something I knew would go with everything and was suitable for work too - she's got no excuse!

3. Tote bags inspired by a conversation with Anna Jane Searle on Twitter

I've followed Anna for quite a while now on Twitter and love her jewellery in her Etsy shop.  She also has a gorgeous illustration style that is clearly well liked as she's had issues recently with people stealing her designs for t-shirts!  We were having a chat about this and the outcome was that I should try out some designs of mine on tote bags :-) and I am so glad I did!  I did 4 tote bags for some of the ladies in my life (Mum, sisters, friends) instead of gift bags - they pretty much cost the same!  As well as this I put some of my Untapped Cities building illustrations onto some for the craft fairs I did and had a great reaction, which was ace.  So Anna, thank you so much for the inspiration!

4. Handmade soap.  Kit bought from Soap Basics

I can't quite remember how I came up with this idea...but it went down really well.  I got a mix of clear and opaque, green and purple, pumice powder and poppy seeds, grapefruit scent and see breeze scent.  Wrapped each in waxed paper and hand wrote a nice label for each :-) I only got a standard rectangle shaped soap mould, but there was a little gem mould in it too!  So cute!  So I was able to do a bag of mini soaps for a friend of mine who is 8, she loved them.



5. Felt iPhone case with felt sourced from Piglet's Pincushion

I had intended on buying one of these from a shop on Etsy but after postage and tax were added, it was just a bit much for a present I wasn't sure would be used or not.  I then came across a tutorial (here!) and decided it must be fate as I had some felt already from a previous project, and got to work!  It was loved, and I think he does actually use it :-)

 

6. Knitting wool bowl by Little Wren Pottery

Browsing Etsy I came across Victoria Baker's lovely shop and thought that these bowls were such a great idea, I knew my Mum would love it too!  I didn't think that my Mum would particularly like the snail design but liked the garden theme so I got in touch with Victoria to make me one with a leaf design instead and the text 'Just keep knitting' round the side.  She was very easy to talk to and happy to do a leaf design for me.  I ended up getting two, one for my Mum and one for a friend :-) Gorgeous bowls, so lovely, and my Mum was amazed.

7. Cross stitch iPhone case by Miso Funky @ Renegade Craft Fair

Another one for my Mum.  She really is into her knitting and cross stitch!  I thought this was a great present, and will certainly get people's attention when she finishes it!  Looking on their website there are more designs and objects to cross-stitch too :-)

8. T-shirt by Tim Easley

I've followed Tim on Twitter for ages and love his selling blurb!  Makes me laugh out loud the things he comes up with to give you a reason to buy a magnet/tote bag/t-shirt/print - it's great!  When I saw this design, I knew my boyfriend would love it - he's a huge fan of The Big Bang Theory series.  The t-shirt came with other goodies too (which I kept for myself :-p ) and is a lovely quality.

9. Ship in a bottle screen print by HelloDODO

Two friends of mine love boats, sailing, and travelling in general and this print just seemed perfect for them.  Such lovely colours, the yellow I think is a great contrast with the blue.  It's going to look fab in their new house too.


So.  Did you go handmade this year too?  What did you make/buy?

Independent Retail shopping crawl and map

The first weekend in December 2012 boasted the first 'Indie retail shopping crawl' for Old Amersham.  This meant that the independent retail shops in Old Amersham, Buckinghamshire, UK got together and produced a map.  On the allocated days you then took your map (available in all participating shops) with you and collected a stamp from each on your map.  You didn't have to buy anything, just to simply go in and ask for a stamp.  Of course I stopped for a chat in most shops and it took me about half a day but theoretically you could probably do it in half an hour.

This lovely little map really opened my eyes.  I discovered shops I didn't know were there, bumped into friends and enjoyed a lovely breakfast out.  I booked appointments and got some Christmas presents sorted.  This is a great event to do with friends or family and is a lovely day/half a day out!

And as a bonus, if you completed the map and got all of your stamps, hand over your map to a participating shop and you're entered into a prize draw to win a hamper of goodies which features something from all the shops involved.  Absolutely amazing!

If you missed out, not to worry!  The shopping crawl will be back to Old Amersham again in 2013.  Keep an eye out on here for updates and in local BUCKS and HERTS magazines and papers.  You can see here about how I first got involved in this project.

The illustrations used in the map of the shops in Old Amersham were also used on Christmas cards.  If you'd like to pre-order then please get in touch by leaving a comment below or emailing charlotte_vallance(at)hotmail.com

Collaboration with You Deer

My friend Alex (You Deer) lives, works and plays over in Oakland, California.  She came to visit last year which was amazing and I miss her a lot.  We wanted to do a project together, one that would help us stay creative throughout the year.  This has led us to develop a 12 month project, a brief a month, a final piece a month and hopefully more creative fun every month.

For myself I'm setting the rule of screen printing.  I do not do enough of this!  I love it, and whilst I doodle and use watercolours a lot, I hardly ever screen print.  So this project is in effect giving me that kick up the bum I need to do more printing.  This in turn means more designs - HURRAH!  Designs for me that is.  So much of last year was spent doing lovely commissions that I felt I didn't get the time to develop and grow my style much.  Untapped Cities gave me a helping hand with this in September 2012 in my watercolour work, as I illustrate every 2 weeks for them, it keeps me fresh and gives me a chance to challenge myself.

So I've started on mine, but I am yet to hear from Alex.  I'll be able to share the whole print when Alex has done her piece too!  Perhaps you can do me a favour and leave her a comment on her blog asking when she is starting her side of our project?  Brilliant, thank you so much!  Oh, and if you do, leave me a comment saying so, or Tweet me and I'll send you a little thank you ;-) deal?


Alex's blog : youdeer.blogspot.co.uk
Alex's shop : www.turnipturnip.etsy.com