Can you spell PARIS?

so ive finally decorated the mdf letters for my wall im pretty chuffed with them, and ive now gone out and bought some more letters to start doing kiddys names, see if anyone would be interested! 
p.s 12 sleeps till my first trip of the year to paris :)

one of those days...

Well my hotel got cancelled AGAIN, and no its not sorted yet, booooo. oh well i imagine i'll have it sorted by thursday? maybe. So much stress, my last trip to paris was when we had that freak snow here in the UK and France in december, snow up to your hips now'a'days in the UK is very rare, and in true british fashion, we panic like the world is ending, so you can imagine what the chances were of us getting on the train to Paris, but we did!! seems like I cant have a trip without stress!
Well anyway if you dont know, I'm a Graphic design student, and i've decided to use my crafting/painting/illustrating skills to develop my design over the summer, and so i'm doing another blog to run along side this one! I'll keep you updated with how that one does. Also I will post some of my work on here that might interest you all! 
To give you a taste here is a project for the Ted Baker watch campaign competition i took part in. 

This YCN brief was  to create a new camapign for Ted Baker’s watch range, the outcome had to be fun, british and brave. With an influence from British fairytales I have tried to capture a delicate quirky and vintage feel to the campaign as well as not loosing that special Ted Baker essence

I named the campaign “Time” and created a typeface made of clock parts, flowers and the odd fairytale element, which can be seen on the paper carrier bag in the photo. The packaging I created is quite simple and not fussy but the added embellishments are what really catches your eye. The tags on the packaging are all handmade, with actual clock parts to add an authentic unique feel, and it has that affect where people want to pick it up, its that attention to detail. The watch inside the box is held in place by being placed around a cardboard playing card, its different and fun.

 This image is to show the point of sale that would be in the Ted Baker shop. Old oak style shelfing would be used to display not only the packaging but also different sized jars, each unique. Some of the jars have what seem to be floating watches inside as well as butterflies, dinosaur skeletons, floating clocks, playing cards and twigs as well as other things. Its that idea of things being caught through time, and left on old shelves to be discovered and that idea of catching things, like in your childhood where you’d read books about catching fairys and other 

precious things. It not only brings fun to the campaign but it intrigues people to have a closer look, and to put a smile on their faces

These photos show a  close up of the items used in the point of sale. They all have a vintage quirky feel. The display definatly has the wow factor thats going to draw shoppers in but its not until you come up close that you can see the detail and quality in the entire thing, which I believe also reflects the product. The jars 

displaying the actual watches all have old 

fashioned price tags hanging from the jars so the prices can be easily seen. Items put on the shelves such as the tea cup and newspaper finish off the display perfectly, as the Brisitsh always have time for tea and a newspaper.

This image is to show the idea for the window display. The jars that would be used in the point of sale, would also be created in human size, icluding all the contents of the jars. They would be stood in the window to give the impression that when passers by walked up, it felt like they had been shrunk down, and could in fact be caught in one of the jars. Creating that fairytale feel.




hope you like :)
natasha xox

forget the jars its all about the tins!

hi guys, well yesterday I had a very stressful day, I got an email saying my hotel for one of my trips to paris this summer had cancelled! Well after being on the phone to eurostar and expedia I finally got it sorted, and I'm staying at a hotel I've previously stayed at, which is just behind the military building opposite the eiffel tower! Well enough of that. Today I went to my Gran's house to take over her painting room and turn it into a craft room. After a lot of sorting out, I finally got everything done, looks so organised! Didn't have time to start my letters for my wall, but I did decorate a few old tins my Gran had given me. 

I've used an old image of Paris and an old french label, I'm intent on filling my bedroom with vintage french shabby chic items, especially ones I have created! Feels so much better then something bought! Hope you like 

Natasha xox

This weeks plans

Well the other night i decorated a little candle in a yankee candle style jar, I have a shelf in my room which I intend to put lots of vintage hand made parisian things on. I'll post a picture later. 
Today I was going to goto my local carboot but like a typical english bank holiday, it chucked it down all day. Ah well my jar, lace and bottle hunt will have to wait till another day, sunday actually! I went to Hobbycraft today, it was a VERY brief visit, my boyfriend drove me there, as where it is I was scared of the crazy roundabout outside and too nervous to drive myself. So this meant I had him following me about dragging his feet, and pushing me away from stuff. So I will have to drive there myself later this week to fully look! However they had some 3D card letters, and had done some examples and decorated them, which have really inspired me to decorate my wooden ones I have! So thats my plan this week! decorate my paris letters, i have acrylic paint, old paris photos, vintage looking flowers, wooden butterflies, old tickets everything and anything for these letters, however i'm a bit nervous, I don't want to ruin them. Any tips?

Selling my craft

So i've been thinking about selling the items I make, but I'm completely lost at how I go about it. It's like this brand new world that I have no idea about! I don't know if to just make a few things and sell them through people, or make loads and then try and get a stall somewhere!!?? Ahhhh its so scary! After my amazingly long summer I have one year of uni left, and now all I can think about is I need to start saving, I mean how am I ever going to keep funding my trips to Paris once I've left uni and entered the real world? 
Natasha xox

I love jars!

I'm obsessed with jars, they're just perfect to dress up and make perfect gifts. I've created these two jars for two people at work for birthday presents, and filled them with boiled sweets. I have so many french labels i've printed off just waiting to be added to jars

 I bought this wooden heart the other day to embellish. I've seen so many in the shops lately but they've all been quite plain. So I bought this one to see what i could do. I just love the pink, duck egg blue and brown colours of the string. It'd look beautiful in a cottage.

My mannequin in my room was overflowing with necklaces, and kept falling over!! So i decided to make a feature of it the other day and add a few butterflies and flowers.

And finally I'm onto my last bit of this post, if you haven't already given up on reading it!

I just thought i'd share with you a few things I have bought to play with. My Mum gave me some really small jars, which will be great to embellish and put bath salts in for presents for people. I also have some beautiful Paris fabric to make a cushion with, and also some wooden letters spelling Paris out. I cant wait to get started on these letters, I have so many ideas for them, I just dont know which ones to choose! If anyone has decorated their own letters before, please give me some tips! 

for now, Aurivour  Natasha xox

Hello everyone or should I say Bonjour!!

Okay let me introduce myself,  my name is Natasha and I live in a city called Hull in the UK, I'm a graphic design student, and I've just completed my second year of my degree course. So I do graphic design, why would I want to do a craft blog? Well I've been buying craft stuff for nearly two years now, I've done a few scrap books but it's not until recently that I've really got into it. I'm obsessed with Paris, and vintage things, so the majority of everything I make will be along those lines. I recently did a project for uni for the point of sale for a new campaign for Ted Baker, if anyone has been into a Ted Baker store you'll know how vintage and quirky they are. Well this project brought out my inner crafter and i spent hours making watches float in vintage jars decorated with feathers, flowers, floating cogs, anything you could imagine. Hopefully I'll be able to post my project on here for you all to see. So anyway summer is here, Ive taken over my Grans painting room with craft stuff, and trust me its alot. I plan to make everything and anything this summer, in between my two trips to Paris of course ;)