DIY Business Cards

I've had a few people I've met recently, who, when I've mentioned I make jewellery - ask if I have a business card, and unfortunately I haven't! D'oh! So realising I'm missing out on easy potential extra marketing, and not wanting to spend heaps of money geting some printed, I decided to DIY some. Using illustrator and publisher I made a fairly simple design based on my banner/logo with all the important info, and printed out a handful on photo paper. Being on photo paper they are not as thick as cardstock but they aren't too bad. I'll pop a few in my purse so I will never miss out again! I'll also send one out with each order too....

Also, some new things in store.. firstly here are some earrings....in purple and pink

and here is a new cameo brooch...

Awww-ward :)

I was very honoured to recieve a blog award from Mel from the lovely Crafty DIY Bride blog. Thank you Mel!

The rules for accepting this award are to:

1. Thank the person that awarded you

2. List 7 things about myself

3. Pass the award to 15 other stylish bloggers

4. Let those bloggers know

So firstly, again, Thank you heaps Mel - it was very sweet of you and I feel very honored!

Secondly, hmm.. 7 things about myself...

1. I have a 8 month old baby boy who is growing way too fast....

2. I drive a silver "family wagon"!!

3. I have been vegetarian for 13 years and counting

4. My starsign is Aries

5. I am obsessed with cameos

6. I have a bachelor degree in earth science

7. I love painting my nails

Thirdly, I have awarded the following 15 fabulous blogs... and let them know :)

1. wing by sea

2. spokes n' daggers

3. that vintage

4. tractorgirl

5. zinnia pea

6. white raven designs

7. two cheeky monkeys

8. savage kitten

9. redeem designs

10. new earth soaps

11. messy bessie

12. maddabling

13. billymac clothing

14. klbailey art

15. michvanetta

Enjoy ;)

New Year, Time to Clear!

Happy New Year everyone, and as always - thank you for your ongoing support!!

It's time to say thank you to all my facebook likers, as I am holding a big clearance sale on Facebook, starting Thursday 13th January 2011 at 8pm. If you'd like to see what is up for grabs, head over to my facebook page and check out the clearance photo album!

There will be everything from rings, to brooches, necklaces and earrings.. all heavily reduced.

Don't miss out! It's a great chance to get some handmade jewellery bargains!

Indulge: Jammy Star Biscuits

Christmas certainly is the time to indulge in yummy treats, and what better to get yourself in the festive mood than cooking up some Christmassy delights. I love these kind of jam biscuits so I made them today with a Christmassy edge, normally there would just be a round circle cut out, but I used a star this time :)

The recipe for these yummy biscuits is from the BBC Good Food Website:

Ingredients:

225g unsalted butter , softened
150g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 egg yolks , beaten
250g plain flour
110g ground almonds
raspberry (or apricot) jam, for spreading
icing sugar , to dust

Method:

1.Beat the butter and caster sugar together until pale and fluffy. Add the vanilla and egg yolks and mix thoroughly. Gradually add the flour and ground almonds. Lightly knead the mixture until it comes together in a ball. Wrap and chill for 1 hour.

2.Heat the oven to 170C/fan 150C/gas 5. Roll the dough out to the thickness of a £1 coin on a lightly floured surface and stamp out biscuits using a 6-7cm cutter. Reshape leftover dough into a ball, re-roll and cut out more biscuits. Stamp out a smaller circle from the middles of half the biscuits.

3.Put the biscuits on lined baking sheets and bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden. You may need to do these in batches. Rest for a minute then transfer to a cooling rack. When completely cold, spread the whole biscuits with either jam. Dust the ring-shaped biscuits with icing sugar. Put a sugar-dusted ring on top of a jam-covered biscuit and press lightly together.

Unfortunately (as so happens when you're trying to cook whilst also look after a 6 month old!), I made a mistake and didn't cut out enough stars, so I was left with more of the full circles than I needed. I decided to stick two of them together with jam anyway and I dusted them with icing sugar using a plastic template. So they worked out ok for a mistake!

I also had lots of left over little stars from the cut outs, so I put a dob of jam on them as well as some dusted icing sugar. You could always just roll the uncooked stars up and make more biscuits but I liked the idea of having some different shapes.

Merry Christmas Everyone, make sure you indulge!

My Creative Space

I've been working on some new items this week. First some simple woodcut brooches and secondly some cabochon earrings, rings and hairclips. Whilst pondering over my creative space today, I found it quite interesting to reflect on when I started Petaliferous and how I seem to be forever changing the way I do things and constantly growing and improving my techniques and designs etc. It actually makes me think in horror at some of the things I created when I first started out, and how simple they were! (but without them I wouldnt be doing what I'm doing today, so they were all necessary - mistakes or not!). I guess it highlights the beauty of handmade. Each item reflects the artisans skills at that time, at that place... like a little time capsule really :)

Heres the brooch backs drying on the timber cut brooches. Sadly these are a limited edition and therefore I have very limited quantities.

And here's some new cabochons ready for the cooker :) My mum has requested a pair of turquoise rose filigree leaf earrings and she's been waiting a while, so it was time to get them done! Sorry Mum!

I'm hoping to have a Market stall somewhere in Melbourne next year to sell all these pretties at. Any suggestions where you think my stuff would be a good fit?

Secret Santa, The DUSTy kind

I recently signed up for a Secret Santa (kris kringle) within the DUST group, and sent my gift off to my secret recipient earlier in the week, hopefully they recieve it soon so I can share with you what I sent!

Today, however, I recieved a gorgeous little parcel in the mail from my secret santa! It was so unexpected, and so lovely. It came from May, from MayBrady and I absolutely love it.. here's what I was very lucky to recieve (thank you May!)

Beautifully Giftwrapped...

A bundle of gorgeous handmade cards and gifttags...

featuring cool retro art prints...

and in her signature style, a vintage scarf headband ;)

Thanks May!