Pennies from Heaven

As you may have seen, I haven't been here for a while.  I've been so busy with my new venture with my husband Daren, Pennies from Heaven.  It's a wedding stationery business.  During the recession, which for us lasted over 5 years and was a very trying and traumatic time, we tried so hard to keep our heads above water.  It wasn't until well into the recession that I literally woke up one morning and shouted "WEDDING STATIONERY" at the top of my voice!  It was so obvious and had been staring us in the face!  I had been papercrafting for just over 10 years at the time and Daren had over 25 years graphic design/artwork experience working for some very prestigious companies throughout his career, so with his skills of layout and mine of cutting and sticking (!) I knew it would work.  He, however, was much more hesitant.  He didn't think for one minute we could find the custom we needed to make it work.  So I put my research plans into action!  That was at the end of October 2012.  And our baby, PENNIES FROM HEAVEN was born on 1st January 2013!  We set our objectives to have one customer in January, two in February, four in March and so on.  We realised all our objectives at that time and a little bit more!  By the summer, we couldn't believe how well it was going.  We did our first wedding fair in September 2013 and have now done three all in all.  We are now just about to reach our 100th bride and groom!  Our orders are flooding in and we can create virtually anything for our lovely couples.  We've done an array of colours from cerise pink to cadbury purple, from a pink and peach mix to aubergine and cream.  We've created cheque book invitations, laser, pocketfolds, semi pocketfolds and our latest creation is petalfolds (see pic) with butterflies.  We are so pleased and later this year/early next year we have even more to look forward to!  If you know someone who would like to get in touch, please ask them to email (penniesfromheaven@virginmedia.com) and we will point them in the right direction to see our samples.

Thank you for reading.  I hope to pop back very soon.  

It's certainly been a while ...

At the start of this blog many years ago, I was very behind. All my crafty friends had started blogs years before me and I wasn't going to give in and write one as I knew I wouldn't keep it up. And here I am, years later, having not kept it up!

However, I have kept my crafting up, unlike a lot of my friends whose lives have often taken them in another direction.  That's almost the same for me although my new life involves crafting.  Along with my husband Daren, on 1st January 2013 we started our new business.  He has been a graphic designer/Artworker since he left school many moons ago and he's good at it.  As I am a papercrafter, the obvious business to start at the height of the recession was Wedding Stationery.  So because of lack of work from both  sides (I was at that time audio transcribing TV and radio programmes) after  me sitting upright in bed one morning and trying to convince him that I'd finally 'got a great idea' Pennies from Heaven was born!

And here we are over two years later, 83 couples down the line and many more in the pipeline, we are going great guns with our wedding stationery business.  Daren already had an office at home and after our eldest moved out, we decided to turn another larger bedroom into my very own craft/production office so exit the remaining furniture, in come the in-laws, paint brushes along with  all the decorating accessories you could wish for to create the perfectly decorated room, and in a matter of days I had a very light lime green and pinky purpley room to match the purple carpet that had been left behind!  It was fantastic and I was so pleased with it.  In went the furniture, most of what we already had from my little old craft room, although a cupboard and a couple of desks were added.  In came the Mac for my emails and sourcing materials and I was perfectly set up.

So here we are two years later enjoying meeting engaged couples and making their beautiful stationery of their choice.   If you know anyone that is getting married and may need wedding stationery, find us at www.facebook.com/penniesfromheavendesigns Come and say hello!

Another competition entry for The Cupboard Trilogy

This is my second entry into The Cupboard Trilogy/Sarah Lawrence heart stamp competition. I like the mix of brown and pink so decided to stamp her hearts in pearlescent brown dew drops. I also used a Leanne Ellis stamp for the first time and coloured it in with matching promarkers. I have mat and layered the card onto pink glittery card and edged it with cream cotton lace and matted it onto cream bazill. Finished off with pink card candi. This card took me quite a while as I knew I wanted it to be 8" x 8" but couldn't quite decide how to finish it off to show the beautiful stamp in the best light. I hope you like it.

The Cupboard Trilogy: Valentines Day ....

The Cupboard Trilogy: Valentines Day ....

The Cupboard Trilogy Valentines Day challenge

So here I am as promised! Back with my latest creation. It's one of my entries into The Cupboard Trilogy Valentine's Day challenge, as a tribute to Sarah Lawrence who died suddenly in December 2011. Sarah was the owner of Craftynotions and was a well known and respected mixed media and texture artist and author and designed the stamp that came free attached to February's Craft Stamper. I have stamped and embossed the stamp 8 times in black and once in pink to make the heart stand out. I have mounted on pink card and then black card and stamped black floral swirls on the actual card before mounting the hearts. I finished off with a black grosgrain ribbon and bow. I hope you like my creation in memory of Sarah Lawrence.