Busy Busy

What a busy month March has been.

I've hand painted a headboard for my friend's little princess. It's nice to get the paints out for a change, it happens so rarely and I did enjoy it.

Also, it was MY little princess's 10th birthday (Where does the time go!?) and we made her a Hollywood themed party. She was very clear in what she wanted; I had lists and mood boards presented to me regularly (WHERE does she get that from I wonder!?), with guests, order of the day, cake designs, decor, which family member was doing what etc...

We had a red carpet, tinsel shimmer curtains, paparazzi (courtesy of Auntie #1), cocktails (courtesy of Auntie #2), quiz and karaoke (courtesy of Dad), Hollywood Hills cake (courtesy of Grandma), door staff (Grandpa "if your name's not down...") and we even created her own VIP brand (courtesy of Mum!) to decorate the room, the cocktail menus, thank yous etc.

A successful and tiring afternoon!

Work has been really varied, with logo and branding for new handmade chutney business The Artisan Pantry:

I've designed probably the coolest Bar Mitzvah invitations:

And have done LOTS of Leeds Owl Trail art and heritage workshops in schools, the Leeds City Art Gallery, Museum and Central Library.

I'm also working on version 5 of the Leeds Owl Trail map. I love my work with the Leeds Owl Trail, I wonder how many owls we've made over the last year with children around Leeds? It must be a couple of thousand by now!

Now we're zooming into April, I'm continuing to mix it up with more 'Owl' projects, a couple of bespoke invitations and there's always my ongoing greetings cards and framed baby name pictures. It's certainly never mundane being a freelancer!



Christmas Cards with a personal touch

Following on from my post about my Christmas cards in M&S, I must also mention that my Christmas designs for Ballistic Blue are also now available. These designs are available to personalise and also add an optional photograph so really are a lovely personal Xmas greeting, especially to distant family and friends.

It's really easy to navigate their site and upload a photo and add names and a message.

They would also work well as corporate cards with a staff or product photo.

You may recognise some designs from here. I spent some time reformatting them for personalising front and inside; I think they'll work really well.

And for New Year parties!

My New Shop!

Visit my shop here: Rosalind Wilson

When I design greetings cards and invitations there are a few avenues I currently follow, for example designing for a publisher or company e.g. Marks and Spencer, Ballistic Blue where they produce, sell and deliver my (and others') designs. I also create and produce designs for greetings cards and invitations directly to my own customers.

The latter is where I have been struggling with my (not very good) business head. The time I put into meetings and consultations, production, storage, delivery on top of the design doesn't seem practical. I felt I needed to either invest in production on a bigger scale or concentrate purely on designing for publishers.

The latter made more sense. However, I love the diversity of my individual customers' briefs and the personal contact I have with the 'end user', I think it keeps me on my toes and generates fresh ideas.

I've discovered a way I can have an online shop where I can format my designs to be personalised and purchased by the customer, then produced and delivered by the company that run the site: Zazzle.

My Shop allows me to put my designs on Cards, invitations, thank yous (and even bags, mugs and t-shirts) which can be customised and purchased. Zazzle offer delivery options, money back guarantee and lots of help to the artist and customer.

I can still have that personal relationship with the customer, receive feedback and take invividual requests.

Even though I've only recently set the shop up and am still filling its virtual shelves, I've already made quite a few sales and been lucky enough to win two "today's best" awards!

I hope you like it, and I'd love to hear your feedback and ideas!

Poppy for Poppy

Here's a little design to celebrate a first birthday party: a special pink poppy design for a little girl called Poppy!

Now we are nine

Well, the birthday weekend is over and I think it was a success. We had a swimming party (did you guess that already?). I made the cake. Icing is not a medium I'm totally comfortable with and I don't find it at all relaxing, but I get a request each birthday and I can't refuse a creative challenge! The cake sponge for my daughter is always pink!

The notebook I made Sadie has already started being customised, so I guess she liked it! She also recieved one of these beautiful colour in posters by Scandi from her friend Ruby, which will look great framed on her bedroom wall, I just have to try not to be too precious about letting my nine year old colour it in!

The pens she used to colour in the notebook were another gift; Berol Felt Tips. I love them anyway (school/stationery nostalgia!) but they will now for ever be associated in my mind with John Thorpe MBE (Leeds Civic Architect) and my recent visit to his studio in a Leeds Owl Trail capacity. He colours in his amazing maps with his trusty berol pens, mapping and planning places and spaces in Leeds.

More Love Stuff

This is the card that I adapted my Tigerprint competition entry from. I changed it to suit their typography brief better, though I think I may prefer my original design? It's a card suitable for weddings, anniversaries, valentines or other romantic occasions!



Keeping on a romantic theme, my wedding invitation design above has been expanded as a range on ballisticblue.com with rsvp and thank you cards to match. This design is available in duck egg, pink, taupe, lilac and black; and you can order this design as a birthday or anniversary invitation too.

These two designs are also on ballisticblue.com, and can be personalised as anniversary, birthday or wedding invitations too, and with room inside for a photo upload!