Summer Inspiration

Well ice cream season has begun, and so far our English summer has had some beautiful days and hot weather - I love the candy colours of this time of year, and how everything and everyone looks so colourful. People seem to be more daring with wearing colour this time of year and this is just one of things I find so inspiring.

Summer to me means flip flops, sand, ice cream and beach huts. Pastel coloured beach balls and bright floral maxi dresses. I love being more adventurous with accessorizing this time of year as well - I love sequins, chunky necklaces and bright shimmering eye shadow.

Here are some beauties that have been inspiring me so far this summer.

Found here.

Found here.

By Carys Walker-Davies, found here.

Found here.

Found here.

Cotton Candy Fine Art Print By Moonflowers.

Summer is all about being outdoors, and I just love this collection of goodies for enjoying the sunny weather in style - the garden pot candle and candy polka dot lights are perfect for summer evenings and how cute are the vintage paper garlands!?! By the way, printable papers are great for paper chains, just print one of your papers, fold vertically a few times and then cut and stick for lovely paper garlands! My new Summer Candy paper collection would work well for this idea. Enjoy these goodies! 

1. Cocktail Parasol Straws - Dotcomgiftshop 2. Ice Cream Children's Coin Purse - Ovation Studio 3. Red Spotty Windmill - Dotcomgiftshop 4. Knickerbockerglory Magnets - Dotcomgiftshop 5. Pink  Stripe Paper Party Straws - Dotcomgiftshop 6. Drinking glasses - Dotcomgiftshop 7. Blue Polka Dot Bowl - Dotcomgiftshop 8. Ice Cream Summer Card Wallet - Crash Course Craft 9. Garden Pot Candle - Dotcomgiftshop 10. Tea Party Doilies - Dotcomgiftshop 11. Candy Spot Party Lights - Dotcomgiftshop 12. Rustic Zinc Hearts Garland - Dotcomgiftshop 13. Summer Ice Cream Gift Tags - Todo Papel 14. Wooden Tray - Dotcomgiftshop 15. Union Stripe Hammock - Dotcomgiftshop 16.   Ice Cream Sundae Lip Glosses - Dotcomgiftshop 17. Jelly Moulds - Dotcomgiftshop 18. Woodland Bunnies Lolly Makers - Dotcomgiftshop 19. Vintage Party Paper Chain Kit - Dotcomgiftshop 

I couldn't be so inspired by all these wonderfully summery lovelies and not create my own summery designs. Here's the new Summer Candy paper collection! You can view it in the shop here.

 The set includes 8 unique designs, all inspired by bright summer colours and patterns! 

Here are the designs for you to have a closer look at: 

You can find detailed descriptions of all of these paper designs here.

All these papers feature bright summer colours and patterns - the polka dot and stripe papers are wonderfully bright but classic designs that will work wonderfully in all your summer paper craft projects. Make paper chains, bunting, gift tags, scrapbook embellishments - all these papers are sure to make your summer craft projects pop! Why not make invites or cards and invite your friends round for a summer themed party? You could have an ice cream sundae party where everyone can make their own ice cream sundaes - make cute invites for the party using the pink ice cream paper! Or, how about making some bright blue bunting on summer days that aren't so sunny with the cute blue cloud paper to bring the blue skies indoors? Children will love making with these bright colours! Make a memory board of your summer by using these papers and your summer holiday family photographs - you can bring it out every year and it will be a lovely way to reminisce about summer memories EVERY summer! The whole family can make it together.

Have a really wonderful summer! 

Chloe xx 

Beautiful Yellow Inspiration

I'm really loving the colour yellow at the moment, it just makes you feel instantly happy and cheerful, so it's certainly brightened my day getting all these beautiful goodies together for you!

I also love how yellow works so unusually but beautifully with other colours such as red and grey, it's such a versatile colour and looks gorgeous no matter what other colours it's combined with! I made a treasury list yesterday on Etsy featuring red, grey and yellow finds - I love the colour combination, it's smart, stylish, pretty and cute all in one go - you can view it here.

So here's a few yellow goodies that have inspired a new yellow paper pack in the Patchwork Printerie shop!

1. 1950s Party Dress - Wear Are They Now 2. Assorted Yellow Buttons - Miss Pink Robin 3. Be Happy Cushion Cover - Sweet Nature Designs 4. Cushion - Ikea 5. Abstract Yellow Acrylic Painting - Sage Mountain Studio 6. Origami Paper Shade - Nellianna/Studio Snowpuppe 7. Elephant Print - Popitay 8. Herrang Candle Holder - Ikea 9. Vintage Style Paper Party Cupes - Dotcomgiftshop 10. Mustard Yellow Suede Leather Hex Nut Bracelet - The Pink Ruffle 11. Kindle Touch Book Style Cover - Covercraft 12. Yellow Butterfly Watercolour Print - Carol Sapp 13. Let's Go On An Adventure Art Print - Bubby and Bean 14. Vintage Farmhouse Dresser - Mint Home 15.  Yellow Porch Swing Fine Art Photograph - John Harmon Gallery 16. Yellow Plush Fox Pillow - Laura Frisk

I love all the goodies in this post, and I've got a real soft spot for the Abstract Yellow Acrylic Painting by Sage Mountain Studio, what a beautiful piece. 

Looking at all these beautiful yellow items of course inspired me to create some new designs for the Patchwork Printerie shop, so here's the new Lovely Yellows collection! 

You can find out more about this new collection here.

This beautiful bright collection is perfect for all paper crafts, scrapbooking, card making, bunting, gift tags, paper chains, notebooks, collages, art projects, as always the possibilities that digital paper packs give you are endless.

There's also been two new love heart-themed items in the Patchwork Printerie shop in the last few days, including a digital collage sheet packed with gorgeous shabby chic hearts that you can cut out and add as embellishments to your paper crafts! You can view them here. 

Thanks for reading! Which colours do you love teamed up with yellow? Yellow & purple are also another favourite of mine - match made in heaven!!

Have a lovely day!

Chloe xxx

Sweet Birds Inspiration

The last few days I've been doodling and drawing for a new set of bird-inspired designs that I'm working on. I must admit that I've really been drawn to the whole owl craze lately, I never quite (somehow) realized how cute they were before, but I'm especially in love with the gorgeous glittery owl in this inspiration board.

Come to think of it though, I loved owls when I was a little girl, and I was obsessed with this book:

The illustrations are also beautiful in this book, which leads me to my other love of mine, children's illustration. I absolutely love books (I have 499 books on my amazon wish list) - yes really - and I'm a little bit obsessed with children's books for both the stories and the illustrations in equal measure. I love how charming & magical children's books are.. I think everyone has a favourite children's book or character that they remember and have vivid memories of reading and enjoying the stories and pictures - I think that's such a powerful & beautiful thing. I also love collecting vintage children's books - these are a few Enid Blyton books I picked up a few weeks ago for pennies at a charity shop (sorry about the poor quality image - blame my blackberry!):

ANYWAY! I think I've diverted a little from the sweet birds, so here's my current inspiration for my new designs!!

1. Little Birdy Gift Tags, Dotcomgiftshop 2. Bird Bunting, John Lewis 3. Glitter Owl, Laura Ashley 4. Paper Teaplates, Dotcomgiftshop 5. Birds Greeting Card, John Lewis 6. Cute Bird Candle, Dotcomgiftshop 7. Birdhouse Keyholder, Laura Ashley 8. Birds Girl's Dress, Laura Ashley 9. Bird Cardholder, Dotcomgiftshop 10. Bird Baby Mobile, Dotcomgiftshop 11. IPhone Bird Case, Cath Kidston 12. Birds Ribbon, Dotcomgiftshop 13. Bird Scarf, Laura Ashley 14. Duck Egg Fabric, Laura Ashley

I'm also creating some cute printable collage sheets that will be perfect for scrapbooking!! 

Thanks for reading, I'd love to hear your suggestions for bird designs and I'd love to hear what your favourite books were as a child! Mine were Beatrix Potter, Wind in the Willows and the Tiger who came to tea! (I used to get so excited when going to my Nana's house for the simple reason I knew I could read it over and over again) I still love it now.

Do stop by again soon as I'll soon be sharing the AMAZING vintage goodies I bought at the weekend!!

Lots of love,

Chloe xxx

Colour Crush: 28/07/2012

Wonderful World Print by The Wheatfield, available at The Wheatfield Etsy shop.

Cute Paper Bunting: How To!

I'm so pleased to announce the arrival of the first Digital Bunting set in the Patchwork Printerie Etsy shop!


I absolutely love this bunting - it's so so cute, easy, fun and affordable!! It's perfect for when you need an afforable but attractive party decor solution. The colours in this first set are lovely and bright and would be perfect for children's parties. The set also allows you to pick n' mix the colours you want - perhaps you or the birthday girl/boy's favourite colours are yellow & red or green & purple - no problem! Make your own personalized paper bunting in no time. 


Here's a step-by-step guide on how to use your digital paper bunting set: 

Just one thing to let you know before we start - I've designed the bunting so that it can be hung in two different ways - it's up to you which way you do it. You can either cut the triangles out and hole punch the top corners and then thread through your chosen ribbon, wool or twine, or you can cut the bunting out as a diamond shape, including the grey foldable area at the top. If you choose this option, just simply fold down the grey area once you've cut out one of your diamond shapes and then glue it down once it's hanging on your wool, ribbon or twine. It's completely your choice and whatever works best for you!

DIY Paper Polka Dot Bunting

You will need

~ Scissors

~ Wool, twine or ribbon

~ Hole punch (if you're hole punching the top corners)

~ Printer

~ Your computer with your digital bunting files

~ Glue (if you're folding down the grey flaps)

1. Ok, so first you need to decide which colours you would like your bunting to be. You can mix and match which colours you use. Once you've done this, roughly decide how long you want your bunting to be, and decide how many pages you will need to print for your bunting. If your bunting isn't long enough, you can always print out more until it's perfect!

2. Once you've done this, double click on the bunting files you want to use, press the print button and type in the number of pages you want to print. Then go ahead and print your files!

3. After your files have finished printing, cut out the bunting triangles from each page. Cut out just the triangle shapes and exclude the grey area if you want to hole punch your bunting - or cut out a diamond shape including the grey area if you want to fold and glue it down. 

4. Now arrange your bunting in front of you to get a rough idea of how long you need your wool, twine or ribbon to be. Once you've done this, cut the required amount and then either thread it through your hole punched bunting or hang the bunting on the wool/ribbon/twine using the flaps. If you're using the latter method, you'll need to lie the bunting carefully face down and then glue the flaps down securely.

5. You've now created your paper bunting, congratulations! It's quick, easy and fun. Now for the fun part - hanging it! 

So there we go - cute paper bunting in just five very easy steps! 

Here are some extra ideas for using your paper bunting!

• Have fun printing, cutting and gluing some paper bunting on a rainy day with your little ones. This bunting is perfect as a children's craft because not only is it easy, fun and colourful but the bunting can be printed out time and time again! They'll love seeing their creations and it will be an affordable activity that you can all do to enjoy precious time together. Children will love hanging the bunting and putting something they've created on display! They can also hang it on their secret dens which will they will love!
• Why not add some cute bows to your bunting or customize it? Just because it's paper bunting doesn't mean you can't add your own personal touches - you could add glitter, ribbons, bows, sequins, the possibilities are endless. Children will also love giving the bunting their own personal touch. As you can see, you can get super messy with your little ones while creating the paper bunting or keep it easy, tidy (ish!) and fun. 
• Why not print just three bunting triangles out and hang them above a picture in a frame to make it pop and give it a new lease of life? Add ribbons at each end to add extra cuteness. 
• This bunting is perfect not only for bigger celebrations, but it's great as a last minute decoration. Perhaps you're having a sleepover, having a move night, inviting your best friend over for tea & cake or dinner and you want to add that special touch. This bunting can be made in under ten minutes and really gives that special touch to any occasion. 

Bunting is cute, but bunting you've made yourself is even sweeter, and it will make you smile even more knowing that you or your little ones have created it. What's more - you can enjoy it time and time again, forever in fact! 

I do hope you enjoy making and hanging your bunting.

To purchase the Patchwork Printerie digital polka dot Bunting set, click here! 

Lots of love, 

Chloe xx

Colour Crush: 26/07/2012

Abstract landscape Acylic Painting by Heart On Canvas, available at the Heart On Canvas Etsy Shop.

Colour Crush: 25/07/2012

Snow Owl Print by Yellow Button Studio, available at the Yellow Button Studio Etsy shop.