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!

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!)

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.

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'!

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.

Another Folksy Friday Feature

Gosh, my Folksy shop really is popular today! My Cupcake Make-Up Purse has been featured in the very first Folksy Friday treasury to appear over on the 'Pirate Treasures Jewellery' blog. The treasury has a Cake theme so do pop over and take a look at the other delicious items on show.

Another Blog Feature and De-Stash Purses

I have been featured in another lovely Folksy Friday treasury today. Kate from 'Buttercup Boutique' featured my  Personalised Framed Cupcake Artwork in her Pink themed blog post today. Thank you Kate x

I am continuing to create de-stashing projects in an attempt to reduce the amount of fabric scraps, ribbon, off-cuts and odd reels of cotton that I have. This is clearly going to be an on-going activity!

I have been making 'De-Stash Purses' to sell at the upcoming Handm@de Craft Fair in Winchester (Sunday 4th July, Winchester Guildhall). I have lined them all with the same acrylic coated linen/cotton lining that I use in my make-up bags making the finished purses really durable (and also using up my lining scraps!).

Handmade Wedding Cards

With my mind very much on weddings at the moment and having just gone through the arduous task of cupcake tasting (someone had to do it!) I thought it was about time I introduced a wedding version of my cupcake greetings card.

This card is blank inside making it suitable for wedding congratulations, wedding acceptance and also wedding invitations.


It is now available to purchase from my online shops including my new Facebook shop.


If you would be interested in me designing and making a personalised version of this card for you as wedding invitations then please email me at studio@clairehurd.co.uk and we can discuss your requirements.


Cx

Exciting News!

I am really excited to share my news with you today - Claire Hurd Design has appeared in print!

Turn to page 6 of the current issue of Popular Crafts magazine and there is my personalised cupcakes artwork! As you can imagine I am very happy. It is a great issue too with some of the designers I follow online also featuring - I am in very good company.

Hopefully there will be more of this to come in the future. It is great to see that all of my hard work is worth it and my designs bring enjoyment others.

Handmade Teatime Bunting

I have been making cheery teatime themed bunting recently and finally listed it in my Folksy shop today. This perfect addition to any party or picnic has teatime themed appliqué motifs, ribbon, ric-rac trim and hand-embroidered detail.

There are nine carefully handmade and decorated flags on each length of bunting. The flags have been secured 3cm apart creating a lovely fluttering of colour on the sugary pink tape header. Each flag measures approx. W.14cm by H.15.5cm. The total length of the bunting (excluding ties) is approx. 148cm and the generous ties at each end measure approx. 38cm.

Claire Hurd Design products featured today

Today is a good day for Claire Hurd Design!

My personalised Elephant baby bib has been featured on the Cuteable blog for Flickr Friday.

My framed boat artwork has been featured on the Quite Contrary Crafts blog as part of a seaside themed Folksy Friday treasury.

My framed personalised cupcakes artwork appears in 'Today's 40 Favourites' on the Not on the Highstreet website.

Thank you to everyone for featuring me, I am so pleased that you like my designs.

Claire x

Fabric shopping in Cornwall and New Cupcake Make-Up Purse

I hope you have all had a lovely long Easter weekend break. I went away to Cornwall for a lovely weekend of fresh air, good company and good food!

I took the opportunity whilst there to stock up at Truro Fabrics. If you are ever down that way you must pop in, the shop is huge! It was very difficult to come away with just a few fabrics as I wanted a bit of everything! The fabrics I finally chose are in the wash at the moment so I shall share them with you later.

I am running low on some of my favourite fabrics but I do still have some pretty ones that need using up. I have added the above make-up purse to my online shops to make use of that cheery pink floral fabric. I also love to use gingham, it is such a simple but fresh and pretty fabric.

This cake-lover's make-up purse measures approx. W. 15.5cm, H. 14.5cm, D.4.5cm making it perfect for keeping in your handbag for every day use. You can purchase it HERE.

Giveaway Competition!

I have a giveaway competition running on my Facebook fan page to celebrate reaching 200 fans.

For the chance to take part simply pop over to my fan page and leave a comment on the competition post letting me know what your favourite product is from my shops. I shall randomly select a winner next Wednesday. The prize on offer is a selection of handmade greetings cards, a handmade fabric cupcake brooch and a surprise Easter treat.

I look forward to seeing you there. Good luck xxx

EDITED 31/03/10 - This giveaway competition is now closed. Congratulations to the winner, Alex Broadbent - your prize will be on its way to you this afternoon x

Cupcake and Heart Cards now Available with Text

My Cupcake and Love Heart cards are now available with the options to have no text, an elegant 'With Love' ribbon threaded through the card face, or with a pretty 'Congratulations' ribbon threaded through.

Take a look at my NOTHS Shop for details.

Mother's Day Cards

Now that Valentine's Day has been and gone it is time to concentrate on Mother's Day (14th March). I discovered some lovely 'Special Mum' printed ribbon whilst out shopping for materials last week so I have added it to a couple of my card designs to create something especially for Mum.

My 'Special Mum' appliquéd cupcake and heart cards are now available to purchase in my online shops (Folksy and NOTHS).

Archive Afternoon Tea Artwork

I had been intending to frame this afternoon tea artwork from my portfolio archive for a long time. There were just a couple of details on the design that bugged me though and I kept putting it off. This weekend I finally got around to amending the details that bothered me and this artwork is finally mounted and framed.

I did blog about this artwork previously after its first few tweaks in July 2008 but out of curiosity I looked up the details I had filed regarding this design (I keep dated patterns and templates for all of my artworks). Would you believe I made this design in July 2007?! Certainly about time it was finally amended and framed! And surely a clear sign that I am not likely to tire of the theme of afternoon tea and cakes!

I have a few more archive afternoon tea designs that could do with reinventing. I have had a few suggestions and requests from one of my stockists so lots to think about. I will keep you posted on what I come up with.

Valentine's Cards

Due to the popularity of my appliquéd love heart card and limited availability of the materials used for this design I have run out!

No panic though, I have taken the opportunity to update my love heart card and also re-introduce my cupcake cards. Cards are still available to order for Valentine's Day right up until midnight on Thursday 11th February.

I shall also be making these cards available soon with ribbon messages reading 'With Love', 'Congratulations' and 'Happy Birthday'. Details will be featured here once they are available.

Handmade Fabric Cupcake Brooches

The latest additions to my range are pink and aqua handmade fabric cupcake brooches. These brooches have been designed to sit alongside my heart brooches which I blogged about previously. All brooches can be found in both my Folksy Shop and my Not on the Highstreet Shop.

I have not listed these brooches as suitable for personalisation but if you would like one personalised with a name or (short!) message of your choice then please email me with your requirements and I shall see what I can do (studio@clairehurd.co.uk).

Claire x

Bunting and Butterflies!

My bunting is finished! I am really pleased with it so thanks again to Mum for doing all my cutting for me and getting me started. I have made it in three sections so it can be hung in one long strip or in three sections one above the other if space is limited.

Please excuse the quality of the photos, they were taken in the evening and would really have benefited from some natural light!

Keep your eyes peeled for bunting appearing in my online shops (here and here) in the new year. If you would like to place an order before then simply email me at studio@clairehurd.co.uk.

I also wanted to share my butterfly badges with you. I shall be selling these at the Handm@de Cambridge Craft Fair on Saturday the 5th December (not long now!). These floral butterflies have been hand-stitched to their fabric base down the centre only so their wings stand forward and reveal a contrasting geometric fabric reverse. The butterfly shown has a bright pink gingham on the reverse.

Tea Cups and Fairy Cakes

Apologies for not having updated my blog in a while. I have been very busy with orders recently and have been spending my time in front of my sewing machine rather than my computer.

I had a large bag of parcels to post today, a combination of online orders and commissioned orders. I wanted to tell you about one parcel in particular - framed embroidered artworks destined for my new stockist!

I am so excited about my design work now being stocked in the 'By Jove' tearoom shop. I was introduced to this delightful tearoom when hunting for wedding venues and my fiancé and I celebrated booking our wedding over tea and cakes there!

I am a huge fan of tearooms and home made cakes so could not believe my luck when I was introduced to this tearoom. It is beautiful, quaint, truly delicious and has a fabulous little shop alongside the tearoom. I could not have hoped for a better setting for my framed embroidered artworks. 'By Jove' will be stocking my 'Fairy Cakes' and 'Afternoon Tea' framed embroidered artworks and my cupcake themed greetings cards.

Please click here to be taken to the 'By Jove' website. I cannot recommend this tea room highly enough and suggest that if you are anywhere near Burwell (Cambridge) you should pop in for tea and cakes, enjoy the atmosphere and marvel at the quirky handmade tea-cosies covering each delicious pot of tea!