Random Ideas..

So my first few days off have been fun, I've managed to pack in quite a lot!! I also managed to Skype with my friend Michelle who recently moved to Hawaii from Seattle!

I've also been making all kinds of random things, I've been thinking about being off for so long that I now have lots of ideas in my head...

The main photo today is of this month's free gift - when people by something from my site, I like to throw in a freebie, it's easy to do and not very expensive.

This month, I am giving customers x4 mini thank you cards. Made using x3 punches, round, scalloped oval and JT's butterfly. I stamped the sentiment and voila! freebies are ready.

I've also just started making a clock...random I know, but on my fave cheapo craft site, they had the clock faces and the mechanisims for £1 each?! It would be rude not to buy those and have a go.

The photo below shows the clock face and the paper I have cut to decorate it. I am planning on cutting butterflies out of the gold paper (also shown) and using them to indicate 12, 3, 6 and 9.

Pretty nifty eh? I think I'll give this one to my Ma.

I also made this bespoke Valentine's card -

My friend's boyf sent me a text asking for a special card for her. For some reason I really wanted to use a raunchy stamp for this card..Finally an excuse to buy a Kenny K stamp! This stamp is from the Krash Kittenz range and she's called Penny Pitstop. The background is a Pink Petticoat paper. I'm really pleased with the end result, I hope my friend and the boyf are too :)

Cx

Starting to get my romance on...

Well, not really :) but I have started making Valentine's Day cards for our website.

I'm not a big Valentine's Day fan, but I love working with hearts so...This year I thought I would try and create some more contemporary cards.

The main photo today is of one of 4 designs I have been playing with. This one is the most time consuming, as you have to hand glue the back of the die-cut Love Birds and it is muy tedious! But on the other hand it is is so simply beautiful, I want to send one to myself so I can frame it (weird or no?)

You can also see my 'drying rack' in this photo - it's a piece of string, hung between the shelves and I drape cards across it that need to dry. This bad boy also works with pegs and can hold 20 cards - sweet. I have 2 of them.

Anyway I digress..here are the other 3 designs, I made 2 of them a couple of weeks ago and I am still happy with them - I try and start 'seasonal' cards early, makes it less stressful.

The card below has a bit of a manly feel to it I think. The Union Jack stamp is from Paperchase and I've always been a bit confused as to where I should use it. Perfect use methinks.

Valentine's Day - Spots and Hearts

Valentine's Day - Lots of Hearts

The card above is a bit of a twist on the more traditional lots of red and hearts. I went for a lot of red, but offset by a fair amount of white. The felt glittery heart mounted on the scalloped heart helps to keep it contemporary, as does the lack of 'Happy Valentine's Day'. I think it's nice to leave the sentiment off when you know the recipient will know why they are receiving the card.

The final card below is a bit of a twist on the main photo - portrait and using a pair of scalloped hearts, with one embossed with spots. This card is really quite classy and once again I want to keep one..

Grey Scalloped Hearts

A red version

What do you think?

Cx

Shiny New Website

Yes that's right folks!

It's finally live and it's beautiful.

Check out the new improved Ham 'n' Mule Designs website - complete with new our logo and lots of wonderful cards. It's much easier to use than the version that we bashed together last year! We have spruced the blog so we are now all lovely and matching!

It's taken a couple of months to sort out, but JT and I are very pleased.

A big thank you to Maggie at LittleDotDesigns.

Now spread the word and let's get on the map!!

Cx

Change is coming..

 Happy Friday everyone!

This is a pretty short post, just to show off the new Ham'n'Mule logo, because I love it so much! It's still lo-res, so might not show up as wonderfully as I want it too. I think Maggie, the designer has totally captured the essence of what we do, I love the button and the birdie.

The new and greatly improved website should be up and ready to use by 5th November. Most exciting! I will be taking more pics and adding to it this weekend.

To tie in with that, I have updated the look and feel of the blog....bye bye birdies. It made me sad to lose the birdies, but sometimes to achieve something wonderful you have to embrace change. It's not complete yet, but I'm taking baby steps to get it right!

Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

Cx

p.s With this post, I will have passed the total number of posts for 2011 - which was a big goal for me, so I am most pleased and we still have 2 months of the year to go!

Sneak preview...

Leopard Thank You

I thought I'd give you a sneak preview of some of the gems that are going to be on the new improved Ham'n'Mule Designs website.

I've had to think really carefully about what goes on the site. I realised that I had to make sure that I used materials that I will always have available! Which meant some of the things I wanted to use had to be sidelined for now. 

The main picture today is a really sweet Thank You card - love the flower, which I punched using the new tool that JT and I bought at the craft fair in August.

The next card is an update on my favourite Pink Petticoat stamp.

Elephant 'It's a boy'

 The card below is a technique you've seen before that I borrowed from an idea on Pinterest, I really like the contrast of black and white on the bronze paper. I think this is a great card for weddings, engagements and anniversary's. And yes it's that Woodware punch again.

Multiple Stitched Hearts

Just a couple to whet your appetite!

Early next year I'll be launching a special edition section to the site so I can use some of the items that I only have a small amount of in my stash. We'll also be adding brooches and other yummy items.

Cx

Time to breathe a little..

..It's all been rather hectic over the last couple of months, but now I am gearing up for my birthday and a well deserved holiday.

I've been making cards, writing text and taking photos for the new website, making cards for Christmas (more about that later), making entries for National Cardmaker 2012 and generally working like a dog!

So where do I start...

Well today's main picture is of one of the Anniversary cards I made for various friend's anniversary's. I am so pleased with how they came out that I have used this idea as one of the new Ham'n'Mule website staples!

Here are a few more examples - I am loving the Woodware heart punch right now, the spotty backgrounds are my old favourites by Pink Petticoat.

I worked like a crazy person in August before I left for NYC to get all of the entries done for National Cardmaker, it was fun, as I got to try lots of new techniques. It was also the first time I worked with A5 cards and now I am hooked!

I entered lots of the categories, so fingers crossed..... The rules are you have to use at least one item from the  category on your card. Here are my entries.

Craftime

Craftime was fun, I cheated a bit with card 3 - as I only used ribbon... I loved working with the little dresses and I tried a new card format with card 1 and card 2 has a pull out at the top of the red die-cut.

Dovecraft

I did make 4 cards for Dovecraft, but my Ma felt one was lame and so I listened to her as a 'consumer' and the other one I didn't get to post before I went to NYC! My fave is the Union Jack Anniversary - notice the Woodware hearts again...

Paper Cellar

Unfortunately, I didn't find that many items locally for Paper Cellar, but the glittery shoes and bags worked well and I still have some left to play with at a later date.

Sizzix

At first I thought I was going to struggle to enter this category, but then I remembered - embossing folders! I have always loved the Thank You folder, but it's so big it's hard to work with. I used a coredinations card to emboss it, so I could sand it back to make the words pop. I really love the button and the ribbon. The blue/green card was fun as I got to use a new technique that I saw at the crazy craft fair JT and I went to. Basically you emboss an image, ink a brayer and then roll over the embossed image - voila! I like the tinge of  excess ink, it looks a bit shabby chic to me.

Stampin' Up

You can imagine my delight when I saw the Stampin' Up category! What a great opportunity to use the  Birdie, Owl and Bunting punches. I love these entries - apologies for the blurry joyfold Owl - I did take these photos every morning before work for a week! I love the birdie, it looks like a melon! I wish I'd made more for this category, but time was limited. Next year I will start earlier :)

Tonic Studios

Only one card in this category, but it was by no means the easiest! I used a geared punch and punched every strip on the front of the card individually and stuck them down individually! But I think the end result is a really wonderful card. I got the heart cards on sale at Craft Superstore and really wanted to use them some how and I had this idea to have an extra message on the front, which works I think. Obviously as this is Valentine's themed the Woodware punch came out again...

Well, that is the end of this epic post.

More later in the week, before I head to Tenerife for a week!

Cx

Launch Day!

Finally after months of planning and much hard work, I am happy to announce that hamnmuledesigns.co.uk is now live!

I hope everyone loves it as much as I do.

I have to say a massive thank you to JT for helping me make all the Christmas cards - it wouldn't have been possible to do all of this, this year without her!

Today's pics are just a few of the cards on sale on the website.

Cx

Big Day for HamnMule

Hi!

Well it's been very busy since my last post. Birthdays (mine!), parties, hen-do's, working and weddings have come and gone! I have also been busy building the new website for HamnMule to sell our Christmas Cards.

It's been a big task getting the website up to scratch, but I think I am there, we are in the final test phase and we should go live at the end of this week - very exciting!

Today's pic is of the Thank You cards I made for my birthday, which I am entering into my first blog challenge in months! Yay!

DYSU - #41 Use Your Scraps.

These were made using A6 black card blanks (a real bargain from Craft Superstore), Kars silver Christmas cardstock scraps from the Christmas Card making, Martha Stewart bubbles border punch, recycled bling (I found a small bag of non-adhesive bling in a charity shop) and peel-offs from my local craft shop. I like to make little Thank You sets, as I think it's nice to send out Thank You cards made for a specific occasion.

Anyway, I'll be back later in the week to launch HamnMule.