it's a wrap

Don’t you love a well wrapped present? I do, I love the way it adds another layer of care to a specially chosen gift.

I enjoy wrapping presents too. I like coordinating the giftwrap and card, and occasionally dressing it up with ribbon or a bow. The year before last I designed and shared my own gift tags.

One of the things I love the most about buying handmade is the wrapping. Don’t you think? I’ve rarely received a parcel from a maker that wasn’t wrapped with care and individuality, and a beautiful piece of string! And I love buying cards from artists I know and love. I have a bit of a collection as you can see, though I find it hard to give them away, as you can see!

You won’t be surprised to hear I am one of those annoyingly slow present openers who carefully removes the sticky tape, carefully unknots the string, and tries to save the paper!

I was a bit sad this Christmas that I didn’t get to spend as much time and thought on my wrapping as I’d have liked. I had grand plans to make some wrapping paper and gift tags using an inkpad and stamps. I’ve done this before with potato prints when the kids were small but it has remained one of those projects that I always mean to get too but run out of time.

So this year I am starting the year as I mean to go on. I got the stamps and tags out and some crispy new brown paper and made a start.

One of my sister’s in law is a great wrapper. She always personalises her parcels with string and stickers and layered wrapping. Her presents are always distinctive. I’d like to be more like her. Another sister in law always has the perfect card. Carefully chosen especially for each recipient, mine are always perfect for me, and I always end up saving them.

In line with my resolution to have my presents more organised this year, I bought four brooches from local maker Polli's sale last month. One for each of my four sister in laws’ birthdays this year. I’m feeling smugly organised. With that purchase out of the way I'm going to get them wrapped and tagged, ready to send out. I might try to buy some little gift boxes for that extra touch. Oh and these little shoes bought ages ago from Melissa Wastney that I've had tucked away were wrapped and tagged and gifted to a precious new little girl on the weekend!

To inspire me I've also started a new Wrap pinterest board to collect images for inspiration.

I’m also ahead of the game for Valentine’s Day with these special wine boxes sent to me by Pack Queen. I love the way they dress up a simple bottle of wine for gift giving, and the different colours make the perfect base for a bit of stamping. I’m going to personalise one with this newly carved heart stamp for Mr Flowerpress’s Valentine’s gift, a bottle of nice champagne which I’m hoping he will share with me!

How about you? Are you an organised present buyer and wrapper? And do you give Valentine’s Day presents? We aren't too fussed about it, but I'm lucky enough to get chocolates from my favourite local chocolate makers sometimes, and I always share!

product shoot

Green Filigree

Sky Filigree

Ink Filigree

Ocean Filigree

Chalk Filigree

Do you remember I restyled one of my tea towel product shots back here?

I loved it so much I always had it in the back of my mind that I'd do the others, styled according to their colours. The Filigree design has been with me since the first days of my Flower Press shop so it feels good to be refreshing and renewing the product photography.

Speaking of those first days, it is six years ago next week that I started my little venture!!

As with many things that happen round here it wasn't scheduled in, nor written on a to do list, but the fancy struck me the other day, the light was right, I pulled the couch out of the way and put our coffee table in the sunny spot from the window with indirect light and stood on the table to take the photos. So professional!

I'm sure I'm not alone in taking my photos in funny situtations. In fact one of my favourite spots is the kitchen bench, which has just the right light!

Which is your favourite shot? I'm a bit torn but I'm loving the green most I think :-)

my creative space - labelled

These labels have been on the 'drawing board' for ages I'm afraid, they've been one of those little things that kept getting pushed down the list again and again. So I was delighted to finally get this parcel yesterday! This is a new design using my newish logo and with a bit of colour to add some fun. They are from Fancyweaver for those of you who are tempted to get some of your own.

I chose this favourite blue because I thought it would go well with most things. And it reminds me of this wonderful Van Gogh painting of almond blossom, quite apt for spring time which is springing around here.
Now to go and make something to sew my label into! More creative types here.

my creative space - pack

I'm feeling really organised today (don't you love that!) as I've packed and wrapped about a hundred tea towels over the last couple of days. A lot of them have gone off to shops, in Sydney and a new one in Melbourne (more about that soon). But some of them are still here, giving me a lovely sense of organisation. In fact I'm always happiest when I have folded, labelled and packed tea towels in every colour sitting in the drawer like this. I'm almost sad to see them go! (They're in the shop though if you'd prefer to see them in your drawer ;-)

If I'm not back before then, don't forget that next Tuesday I'll post the August edition of Show & Tell. Another favourite blogger, this time north of here...

another year

My Etsy anniversary and blogoversary and flickrversary come one on top of each other in November. And then in December I have my wedding anniversary a week before my birthday and all two weeks before Christmas in the crazy busy end of the year! So usually its a blur.
This year though I got to pause for a moment and go out to a swishy Greek restaurant with my little family on Friday, and then yum cha lunch with some special friends on Monday. I feel well spoilt and well loved.
Yesterday I got so many thoughtful presents. Mr Flowerpress bought me some really lovely things, like this old printing block and the vintage bakelite thimbles. He bought me a truffle in a jar and a copy of Handmade Nation (all by himself, no direction!) and even op-shopped some vintage fabric amongst my other presents :-) How cool is he.


I got this lovely Elk brooch from a friend, an organic cotton bag, a printed cotton apron, a great Kikki K calendar (I will be organised next year), I got some thrillers to read over Christmas, a garden nursery voucher. Each present I opened showed the person knew me and had really thought about the gift. And then they all rang me :-) I felt very loved.
Today a little Etsy distraction arrived and I had to include it here. The lovely Mitsy from Art Mind is such a special person - so nice to deal with, and look how she packaged my little birds. I bought two so I could give one away... but I think I might have to buy a third! I love her series of emotions based on a simple shape too.

christmas wrapping

Laura at Lupin has had the most wonderful wrapping ideas on her bugs and fishes blog recently. I've asked her if I can show some of them here. She has lots of other great crafty stuff on her blog too and of course she makes the most amazing felty things in her Etsy and Dawanda shops. Her craftiness is very inspiring and she is generous with instructions and how-tos.


I love simple but beautiful wrapping, and brown paper so to me these are just beautiful. Only problem is I'm one of those careful unwrappers and this would make me even slower!

bon voyage

One of the boys' best friends is moving next week. The three of them have been close friends for the last three years since kindi. I wanted to give him and his little brother something personal as a leaving present. Something to keep the connection. I wanted to make it and not just buy a toy.
I had an idea the other day for this, a letter writing post pack. I love this idea and if I'd had more time I could have added to it endlessly!
Included are some coloured envelopes from my stash, some different sized coloured papers, fine liner pens (so grown up) in four different colours, some blank postcards for them to draw pictures on one side, some stamps and some blank folded cards. Also in the pack were some stickers. You could also collect addresses in a little book, add some rubber stamps and an ink pad, though I wanted to keep it flat so it didn't add to the packing and it was portable.


All of this in boys colours and packed in a neat little plastic folder to keep it all safe and then wrapped in a block printed tote.

industry

Catching up with my orders yesterday. Somehow it took me all day, I had to sew on some more labels, package some prints and tea towels and I'd run out of envelopes so I had to go to the post office twice.

Here they are (spread out on my bed - I really can't wait for my little space upstairs).

I was really touched because on the anniversary of my first sale, Liz who was my first customer, ordered some new prints. I still remember sitting at my computer that first day and getting the email to say someone had bought something from my Etsy shop. Excited is an understatement :-)