Thursday 23 December 2010

Merry Christmas!

I want to wish all of my Blog readers a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.


It has been an exciting year for Claire Hurd Design with lots more planned for 2011. It has been wonderful to be able to share my goings on with you all and I look forward to blogging even more next year.


All of your custom, support and comments have meant the world to me and have helped Claire Hurd Design become what it is today as I sign off and put my little business to bed until the 5th of January. Thank you so much for everything and have a wonderful happy, healthy, family holiday.


Best Wishes, Claire xxx



Monday 6 December 2010

And the winner is ........

Helen Ruse!


Congratulations Helen, I hope Father Christmas brings you the craft supplies you have wished for!


If you could send me your address to studio@clairehurd.co.uk I shall put your goodies in the post for you.



Thank you to everyone who entered, both here and on my Facebook page. You left some lovely comments. The overwhelming wish was for families and friends to be together this Christmas. There were a couple of entrants with poorly family members so I wish them a speedy recovery and hope they have a fit and healthy festive period. 


Claire x


(winner selected using random.org)

Sunday 5 December 2010

Christmas Giveaway Update

Unfortunately Facebook are no longer allowing competitions to take place on business pages. I am therefore transferring my competition to my blog. All existing entries will be included and anyone else wishing to take part can leave me a comment below this post.


Simply tell me what is at the top of your Christmas wishlist this year.
Competition closes at 5pm tomorrow (Monday 6th December) - good luck! 



Tuesday 30 November 2010

Christmas Giveaway on Facebook!

I am having a Christmas giveaway on Facebook. Pop over to the Claire Hurd Design page to join in. 


All you need to do to win the handmade Christmas goodies below is leave a comment under the giveaway post telling me what is at the top of your Christmas wish list this year. A winner will be selected at random next Monday.




I look forward to hearing your Christmas wishes, good luck! 

Friday 19 November 2010

Framed Artwork Commissions and a Cake!

I have just had some lovely feedback regarding a framed artwork commission I did earlier this month so it is now safe to share it with you without spoiling any birthday surprises.


I was asked to produce a customised version of my Boating Artwork to sit alongside a customised version of my Afternoon Tea Artwork that I was commissioned to do earlier this year. Both artworks were to celebrate 60th birthdays. It is always so lovely to be asked to produce gifts for such special occasions.


 'Love of the Sea since 12th November 1950'

'Loving Tea since 13 May 1950'

If you would like to order one of my personalised items or would like one of my products customised to suit you then please email me at studio@clairehurd.co.uk.


Now, on the theme of Birthdays; Having received lots of lovely cake making goodies as wedding presents I have been eager to do a bit of baking. The perfect occasion came up with my Husband's birthday so I made this..........




A real chocolate feast! A true 'boy' cake with homemade chocolate Lego men and Lego bricks. I really enjoyed making this. My next cakey makes will be cupcakes so a bit easier to ice!


Wednesday 17 November 2010

Winchester Handm@de

I had a lovely day on Saturday selling at the Winchester Handm@de Christmas craft fair. The fair took place in the Guildhall which has been refurbished since we were last there in the summer and is now looking great, much more light than before.




My products sold well and it was lovely to have a chance to meet my customers face-to-face and get their feedback. It is so nice when people have the time to stop and chat. People had such lovely things to say about my work and were so encouraging about where I am heading with 'Claire Hurd Design'. Most of all people admired the quality of my work which I was really pleased about. It is so important to me that everything I produce is manufactured to the highest standard. I want to show with my products that 'handmade' means made with love, care and attention to detail; making it stand out from mass-produced goods. 





As is always the case with the Handm@de craft fairs the other stall holders were all really friendly and there were some beautiful products for sale. In particular it was really lovely to catch up with Meninafeliz again. I first met Meninafeliz before I had taken part in any craft fairs and when I was still new to online selling. They have always been so friendly and encouraging and full of advice. We had such a lovely catch up and I was even treated to one of their lovely products (I won't know what until Christmas day!) by my Husband. Take a look at their beautiful work HERE.


My neighbours at this fair were the lovely 'Quercus Silver' and 'Jude Allman'. It makes such a difference at craft fairs when you are positioned with people that are producing beautiful that captures your interest and that are nice and friendly! Quercus Silver were selling silver and resin handmade jewellery and Jude Allman was selling beautiful ceramic pots, buttons and decorations. Do check out their work as I am sure you will love it as much as I do. Quercus Silver can be found HERE and Jude Allman HERE.

Wednesday 10 November 2010

A Trio of Christmas Decorations

My handmade Christmas decorations are now available to purchase as a mixed set of three; consisting of one Christmas robin, one Christmas pudding and one Snowman.


Click HERE for more details.



Personalised Christmas Stockings

I am rather late with these this year, many apologies. Thank you to all of those that have enquired about these and placed your orders already.


My handmade personalised Christmas stockings are now available to purchase from my Folksy shop!






A generously sized handmade Christmas stocking personalised just for you. These bright and festive Christmas stockings are handmade to order making them a truly special gift that can be treasured forever. This Christmas stocking measures approx. 59cm tall, 37cm from heel to toe and 22cm across at the opening. The hanging loop measures approx. 9cm and is stitched downwards inside the stocking hiding it from view when not in use.


Click HERE or contact me directly at studio@clairehurd.co.uk to place your order 

Thursday 4 November 2010

Christmas Robin Brooches

I really hate to give up on a project or throw anything away. This has resulted in many half-finished projects and test samples for new designs around my studio. I recently came across the Robin test sample I made for my Christmas decorations last year.


This first sample really didn't work, it was much too small, tiny even. Tiny but very cute! So, I have tweaked it slightly and turned my rejected sample in to a cute little Christmas Robin brooch to wear at my upcoming Craft Fair (Winchester Guildhall, Saturday 13th November, 11am-5pm!). I was so pleased with the results that I have created templates for the design and am producing it for sale in my online shops.






This cute little fellow has a bead and sequin eye, a foam beak and a lined felt wing. He has been lightly stuffed and the wing has been secured half-way so it stands proud. The brooch is fastened on the reverse with a silver-coloured brooch bar with safety catch. The robin measures approx. 8cm from tip of beak to tip of tail and approx 4cm tall.

This festive little bird would be a great addition to a Christmas outfit or snug Wintery coat and can be purchased from my Folksy shop or my NOTHS shop.

Monday 1 November 2010

Christmas Snowmen

Things are really busy here at Claire Hurd Design at the moment. Online orders are gaining a festive momentum, private commissions are flooding in and I am preparing stock for the Handm@de Craft Fair at Winchester Guildhall on Saturday 13th November.


With Christmas in mind I have made a new decoration - a Christmas Snowman. I am pleased with this one - I think he looks rather cute! He is now available to buy in my online shops.





Wednesday 20 October 2010

New Products Official Photographs

At this time of year there seems to be just a half-hour slot on sunny days between 10am and 10:30am where I can take photographs in the garden. At this time the sun is high enough in the sky to avoid too much shadow and has not yet gone behind the trees and become dappled. Therefore when I saw the weather was good yesterday morning I dashed out to get my new photos taken.

I now have images ready to list my new Personalised Liberty Print Make-Up Bags online, I have been able to list my Christmas Pudding Hanging Decoration, and I can give you a preview of this year's personalised Christmas Stocking design.

So, firstly here are my Make-Up Bag/Make-Up Purse photos ....



This is my new Christmas Pudding Decoration ....


And, this is my new Christmas Stocking to be listed in my online shops soon ....


If you would like to pre-order a personalised Christmas Stocking as shown above please email me at studio@clairehurd.co.uk. Cx

Friday 15 October 2010

New Products

Firstly, please forgive the quality of these photographs. I have had to take them indoors using flash, it has been so dark here today. I shall be taking proper photographs and listing these items in my shops next week but wanted to share them with you before the weekend.


My Personalised Liberty Print Make-Up Bags have been hugely popular recently and I now only have enough fabric for two more. For these make-up bags I buy a length of Liberty Print fabric and then work my way through it as the orders come in, the fabrics are seasonal therefore effectively making my bags 'limited edition'. Once the fabric is gone, i'ts gone!


I am therefore introducing two new colourways for the winter season. The first is berry cordurory / olive pin-cord teamed with a bright and cheery pink and green ditsy floral Liberty print. The second is a lovely chocolate brown pin-cord teamed with a contemporary Liberty floral print in shades of brown and teal. 



I shall be introducing a new smaller make-up purse size that is personalised with a lower case initial (my make-up bags are personalised with an upper-case initial).


I shall also be adding a handmade Christmas pudding hanging decoration to join my existing Christmas Robin decoration already available in my shops. The pudding is made from felt and brushed cotton and embellished with a button and tiny black bead currants.




Must get on with completing more orders now. I hope you enjoyed having a little sneaky peak at my new products. Cx  

Tuesday 12 October 2010

Crafty Details from my Hen Parties

I blogged about my Papered Parlour Hen Party back in August. Here is a little reminder of the bags we made.


I really wanted to add some fabric and stitch detail to my design but was out of action following my hand operation at the time. The wedding then took over and I didn't have the spare time. I have now finally finished my bag by adding some appliquéd fabric bunting flags to my printed ones, some appliquéd fabric leaves on the tree and some simple stitch lines. I have also stitched some text and the date on the reverse.




With two of my bridesmaids being children (aged 5 years and 20 months) I felt I had the perfect excuse for a second hen party! I therefore organised a Bridesmaid's Tea Party and invited all three of my bridesmaids and their families. We had a wonderful time playing in the garden, eating cakes and ice lollies and making imaginary cups of tea with our new tea set!


(Handmade mini muffins - we soon polished these off between us!)

I handmade the invitations for this tea party based on our sage green and chocolate colour theme adding lots of pink and flowers to make them suitably girly. The images below show details of the face and reverse. I hand-embroidered the design and added appliqué detail before scanning it in to the computer and creating a design for the reverse. The final invitations had a printed version of this embroidered design on the face and a personalised reverse all mounted on a chocolate card base. My finishing touch was to hand-stitch tiny buttons on as the cherries on the cupcakes.

(Face)

(Reverse - Fanchesca's Mum had her own invitation as my chief Bridesmaid!)

Back to Blogging and Lots to Share

I am back! Sorry for staying away so long. It has taken me a little while to get back into the swing of things and to get photographs ready for sharing with you.


In the time I have been absent from my blog I have got married! (so happy - we had such a beautiful day). I have also been on honeymoon to St. Lucia. Now back to reality and normal crafting life I have been preparing products for Christmas.


I shall try and blog about all of the handmade details of our wedding in as close to chronological order as I can. These wedding posts will be interspersed with details of new products and Christmas preparations. 


Right now I am going to leave you with one of my favourite sunset photographs from our honeymoon (I took rather a lot!). The colours of the skies were amazing and we spent a long time each evening, cocktail in hand, looking out to sea and watching the sun go down. 



Thursday 9 September 2010

Shop Closure

My online shops will now be closed until the beginning of October in preparation for my new season collection launch. I shall be taking a break from blogging too and look forward to sharing lots of news and inspiration with you when I am back.


Take care, Claire x


* Edited to note that my shops have now re-opened *



Wednesday 1 September 2010

Handmade Boating Artwork now Available

The sun has finally come out and I have managed to take photographs of my new Handmade Personalised Boating Artwork. I am relaunching my design from last year in a new larger size with more space for text (personalisation now available with up to 30 characters).



The centre boat can also be personalised with three initials of your choice.


This artwork would make the perfect gift for a new born baby boy, for boat lovers of all ages and would be ideal as a Father's Day gift. For more details please visit my shop.

Friday 27 August 2010

Yep, it has definitely been busy round here!



Gosh, things really have been busy here at Claire Hurd Design these last few weeks. And as if I needed proof, look how many cotton reels I have got through recently! I have been collecting them so I can make chunky necklaces with my little Niece. They really do serve as a good indicator of exactly how much sewing I have been doing.


I am a little torn at the moment. I have so much I want to share with you but also so many surprises that I cannot spoil by revealing things too early. I want to keep you all updated straight away with what I am working on but am just going to have to be patient.


Alongside my design work I have also been creating lots of handmade details for our wedding. Again, I have really had to restrain myself from posting everything straight away but I do want these details to be a surprise for my family and friends on the day so they will have to wait. I shall be busy relaunching some of my most popular items and doing some work on my shops soon so once that is all done I shall schedule a series of wedding posts for you (currently pencilled in for the first week in October when I can really spend time picking the best images).


In the meantime, something I can show you..........




I have finally finished my little bridesmaids' handmade silk roses! They are a combination of ivory silk, dusky pink silk and ivory satin (matching the little bridesmaids' dresses). They all have tiny bead detail and half of the roses have fine netting detail layered in and half have been left plain. I am certainly glad to finally have these finished!

Tuesday 10 August 2010

Shops now Open!

I am pleased to announce that my online shops have re-opened and I am ready to begin making again. Thank you for your patience whilst I recovered from my operation.


I am also pleased to let you know that my wedding cupcake card is featured on page 22 of the UK Handmade Wedding Gift Guide. Do take a look at the guide as there are some really lovely handmade products featured.



Tuesday 3 August 2010

A 'Papered Parlour' Hen Party!

Thank you to all of those that sent me get-well-wishes both prior to and following my operation. I am healing well and despite not quite having all of the feeling back in my hand yet hope to be well recovered by the time I have my stitches removed on the 12th. I can't wait to get full use of my hand back!


I have been feeling rather poorly following the anaesthetic so what better distraction than a 'Papered Parlour' Hen Party!


My wonderful bridesmaid Sophie organised a great day for me and my friends screen printing calico bags at 'The Papered Parlour' in Clapham, London. We had such a great time and it was lovely to see everyone enjoying creating their own designs and doing their own printing.


We were looked after by Helen who was a great teacher getting us quickly familiar with the printing process. She guided us with hints and tips for motifs and colours as we used the books provided for design inspiration and oversaw our printing giving a helping hand where needed.



Everyone got the hang of the printing quickly and did a great job. The photo above shows Helen and my friend Clare kindly printing my bag for me. I would like to say an extra big thank you to Helen for making sure I had a beautifully printed bag, something that I couldn't do myself with my hand still healing.

I was the last to finish the template for my bag design but I am not sure this would have been any different if my hand was okay! I always do like to make the most of every working second ;0)


Here are our finished bags! Aren't they great, I love how different they all are. Each so personal to the maker.





After all of our hard work we were rewarded with some very delicious tea and cakes in the beautifully decorated parlour.


I had the perfect crafty hen party so a big thank you to Sophie for organising it and for all of the lovely personal touches she added to the day. 


Many thanks also to Claire, Louise and Helen at 'The Papered Parlour' who were so friendly and helpful and made our day truly enjoyable. I cannot recommend them highly enough and urge you to check out their website for details of all of their other classes and parties.

Friday 23 July 2010

A Short Break



I am having to take a short break from making as I am due to have surgery on my hand (thankfully my left hand!) at the beginning of next week.


I shall be closing all of my online shops on Sunday night so if you would like to place an order please do so ASAP. I hope to be opening my shops again after a week or so, I will see how well I recover and keep you posted.


I plan to catch up with my blogging whilst I recover and will be doing some one-handed posting for you (!) and hope to create some lovely inspiring treasuries. This will give me a chance to continue being creative whilst I am waiting to get back to making.


Have a lovely weekend and I shall be back as soon as the grogginess of the anesthetic has passed! Cx

Monday 12 July 2010

A Quick Catch Up and an Exciting New Customer!

I have not been very good at blogging lately, sorry. I have been so busy designing and making but the end is in sight and I look forward to having a bit more time for wedding makes and online shop revamps very soon.


One thing that was keeping me busy was preparing for a big meeting in London. All of the hard work was worth it and I am pleased to say that Jane Churchill have purchased some of my design work for their Nursery Collection. I can't wait to see how they develop my artwork to become part of their range. It is really exciting to be working with such a wonderful brand.


Whilst in London I was finally able to make it to the V&A Museum for the Quilts Exhibition (shortly before it ended) and thought it was great, so inspiring, I really enjoyed myself. My Mum has the accompanying book so I shall have to have a read of that next time I visit. My Mum visited the exhibition before me a kindly bought me these two quilting fabrics from the exhibition shop:




After looking around the exhibition I added to this little selection with these:




I look forward to making use of them all. I shall have to think of something really special to make with them. I have always wanted to make a patchwork quilt with fabrics and embroidered and appliquéd pieces that bring back happy memories. Perhaps having visited this inspiring exhibition is my prompt to make a start.


I have a few customer meetings this week too so am busy working towards those at the moment.


Whilst I am here I also wanted to point you in the direction of the delicious blog 'Cakes I Create'. They recently featured my Cupcake Wedding Card in amongst all of their tasty looking cakes and recipes. 




Thank you for featuring me 'Cakes I Create'!

Claire Hurd Design in 'Kitchens, Bedrooms & Bathrooms' Magazine!

I am really excited to share these pictures with you today. I was approached by 'Kitchens, Bedrooms and Bathrooms' Magazine a short while ago asking for one of my Liberty Print Make-Up Bags. They were putting together a feature on denim entitled 'All in the Jeans' and wanted to include my make-up bag, of course I jumped at the chance!


The feature is in the August edition of the magazine, available to buy now. And here is my make-up bag on page 34!



Tuesday 6 July 2010

Handmade Baby Goodies

My handmade personalised elephant baby bibs have proven to be very popular so I have added a new boys design and made my cupcake bib personalisable too. These bibs can be found in my online shop HERE.




I have also listed two one-off appliquéd and embroidered textile artworks in my NOTHS shop. There is only one of each artwork available making them a truly unique gift to welcome a new baby in to the world. I am offering these artworks to my Blog followers and Facebook fans at a 15% discount (with free P&P). Payment needs to be by paypal. As there is only one of each artwork available they are offered to you on a first-come-first-served basis. If you would like one of these artworks then please email me at studio@clairehurd.co.uk.







For full details on these artworks click HERE for the baby blue bear and HERE for the baby pink bunny.

Handm@de Winchester Summer Craft Fair

The Handm@de Winchester Summer Craft Fair took place on Sunday and it was my first time having a stand there. The guildhall in Winchester is a lovely venue but rather dark so I apologise for the quality of my photographs. The organisers did a great job of getting people through the door and the fair was significantly more busy than the Cambridge fair I was at last November.



If you are visiting my blog for the first time having picked up my business card at the fair a big welcome to you! I hope you enjoy reading about all of my crafty goings on. Thank you to all of those that showed an interest in commissioning personalised items. Do have a browse around my blog and my online shops to see my full range and contact me on studio@clairehurd.co.uk for more details.



As always at the Handm@de fairs it was great to meet the other sellers and share experiences and advice with eachother. A special hello to the lovely Louise of Lolly & Boo who I met for the first time and had a lovely long converstation with about selling on Not on the Highstreet. Also a big hello to Cath of Emerald Framing who is a familiar face at the Handm@de fairs and always full of encouragement and smiles. It was great to see you again Cath!