Almost there...

Goldilocks, Swimming Galas and The Apprentice

Been fiddling around tidying up loose ends today and ticking off last minute bits to do for Friday. Friday is Jellypark Day!! With the new store opening, the DT team announced and the challenge blog launched - well it's going to be quite a big day for us. 

Today we did a trial run on the store and did a dummy purchase to make sure everything is running smoothly - so far so good! As I look around the store I just wish I had time to get all my ideas ready right now and stock the shop to brimming. This is early days for us though and we will grow over time - so many plans whizzing around inside my head!

Today I squeezed in some different jobs too, Mum hat was popped on to go and see youngest in his school swimming gala and my sister needed a picture of Goldilocks for a project she is working on. Here's what she got:

Right, time for feet up, a nice cuppa and wait for The Apprentice to start on the box...

Free digital stamp and step by step decoupage sheet

Yay, free stuff!

I have just added a page to this blog where I will be popping on some free things for you to download. Maybe you are new to digital craft supplies and want to try it out or maybe you are an old hand and just love a lovely freebie!

Click on the 'free stuff' page above and find your first two little presents from me!

Only 5 days to opening day and 7 random facts

The heat is on, both here in the UK where we are boiling in some kind of mini heatwave and at Jellypark where we are getting ready for Friday's grand launch.

While we busy ourselves scribbling to-do lists on scraps of paper and check stock and stuff, I thought I would let you know a few random facts while we keep you waiting for everything to finally get up and running.

Prompted by a message left on this blog from Wendy at http://www.1stuniquegifts.co.uk/blog who passed on The Versatile Blogger badge with instructions to:

1. Make a post linking back to the person who gave you the award. 

2. Share 7 random things about yourself.  

3. Award 7 recently discovered bloggers with this award and contact them to let them know they have won.

  

It's me, Claire! What do you want to know?

So are you ready for 7 random facts?

1. Jellypark is not really named after anything in particular, I wanted a name that would make you think of childhood fun and jelly and parks used to come pretty high on my list of good times when I was a nipper!
2. I have an Arsenal season ticket. Arsenal runs through the family DNA and my first memories are about Arsenal, I plan my winter diary around the fixture list and I can bore you to death with my top ten best Arsenal goals, top ten Arsenal players, top ten Arsenal...ah well, you get the idea.
3. I have had double vision for about two years and have a weird stick-on prism thing on my glasses so I can see properly - looks SO amazingly stylish.
4. I sometimes do some backing vocals for a local band - get me the rock star.
5. I once refereed a local football match when the ref did a no show, the men were all shocked into politeness by have a female ref and gave me no trouble!
6. I have a pact with several female friends that once we reach a certain age we are going to all retire to a delightful row of small cottages somewhere in Norfolk over looking a beach, own cats, paint all day and drink too much gin. Anyone else up for it?
7. My brother-in-law used to do the voice over for 'Katie Price - the next chapter' (ok I realise that is not a fact about me, I've rather run out of anything interesting now)

Here are seven bloggers I have recently found and liked:

Just Coffee Please... & Stamps, & Ribbons, & Paper

Tip Top Toppers Things

pile it on

http://suziemcfloozysmusings.blogspot.com/

http://inkydoodlecrafts.blogspot.com/

http://crafteebee.blogspot.com/

http://alicepyne.blogspot.com/

Now back to work!!

Customer Feedback

An email was waiting for me this morning with a link to this page with the most beautiful cards made with some of our digital stamps - aren't they just brilliant?

click on image to find this digital stamp in our Etsy shop

click on image to find the digital stamp in our Etsy shop

Juggling Work and Family (and dropping the balls a lot)

I have had the pleasure of seeing my youngest son in his school play and my eldest son receive an award at school this week - a chance to take a break from work and just enjoy family stuff and I loved it.  Things are naturally busy insane at the moment because of Jellypark Store opening next week so I must confess to neglecting the home and family a teeny bit over the last few weeks.

As I walk past the over flowing washing basket and cringe slightly at the gathering dust on various surfaces I do sometimes wonder how I am meant to wear both my Mum Hat and my Business Woman Hat and manage to pull off both roles.

I am very lucky that I love my job (what's not to love about getting to colour in all day?!) and at the moment I'm even enjoying the admin side of things as I see the store all coming together. So I'm over run with work at the moment but as most mums of school age children know, this is the time of year when the calendar starts to bulge with places to be.

This is one of my decoupage sheets for sale over at
  Craftsuprint, click here to see more details

In the next couple of weeks I am attending a drama club play, two school parents evenings, a sports day and a swimming gala. I have to make an old man costume for the play as well as whip up a Tudor outfit for the youngest's school trip to Kentwell Hall. Add to that the usual making of school packed lunches, washing school uniforms, supervising homework (oh and just loving the school chucking in 'make a model of a Tudor house' project this month, thanks for that) and I haven't even started thinking about actual housework stuff...

I do love doing all the kids stuff though and as they suddenly seem older it reminds me to make sure I really enjoy all this because it will be all be gone too soon.

But what exactly made me think this was going to be a perfect time to launch a new business?!

A Digital Painting - but is it real art?

This is just a teeny little bit of one of my new box canvases - just to give you another taster of whats coming on 1st July! Box canvases are brilliant for children's bedrooms - bright art for the wall but no heavy frame or glass to break. 

This was painted digitally on the computer, created in Corel Painter 11 - not a paintbrush in sight. I'm quite new to creating art this way and I am loving exploring all the new different techniques - possibilities are endless. Here you can mash together oils, pastel and pencils, swapping between them easily to get exactly the effect you want. 

It's quick and the bonus of no mess too which for me is perfect as I am the messiest painter going...if I am painting with acrylics then I end up with as much on me as on the canvas. There will be some that will always question whether digital art is as 'real' as painting with raw materials - who is to say? 

I've always said I am more of an illustrator than a proper fine artist anyway so I am not entering into the argument, I'm just loving it and plan to do a lot more work this way.

A Card Tutorial

My Favourite Things stock some of my stamps but just had to share this video with you that shows a card being created from their Pure Innocence range. It's a brilliant design and loved watching it all come together - check out Arlene's other YouTube videos and her blog - love it!

Counting down...

...it's only 12 days to launch day!

It's getting close and we are getting a little bit goggle eyed from far too many hours on the computer getting everything ready. Scribbled 'to do' lists are lying around desks and stuck on fridges, stock is arriving and sitting in boxes around my feet and the kids are moaning about not being fed...

But it is so exciting and just can't wait to get everything up and running now. The website design is all done and now work is mainly getting all the stock photographed and listed up on the site. As it comes together I'm getting lots of ideas about other things we can produce, a range of children's party invites is definitely one and we might even get these ready for launch day...if only we can find the time!

Sneak peek time

To complement our Tooth Fairy letters, we have our new Tooth Fairy calling cards. A rather cute set of 8 mini cards that come in a cream organza bag - perfect for leaving under a pillow with your pound coin to let a child know the Tooth Fairy has visited!

Promo video for new store.

New promo video for the store! The singer is my very beautiful and talented little sister Jo who is about to release a fab new CD...more to come about that later.

1st July is Grand Opening Day at Jellypark!

All the hard work is starting to come together and we are pleased to announce that we will be opening our virtual doors on 1st July 2011. Plans being put in place for competitions and special opening offers but in the meantime we will be teasing you with some sneak peeks at some of the goodies we will have for sale - starting with our brand spanking new girls colouring posters! 

They come in a cardboard tube which is a perfect place to store the pictures between colouring sessions too (these are going to take you a while to colour!). There are 3 big posters designed by Claire and a set of pencils included - boys designs are on their way too...

Design Team Call

Been waiting to announce this for a while! With the help of the very lovely Jennifer Scull we are launching a challenge blog for Jellypark digital stamps and we are on the search for people to join our very first Design Team.

Interested? Pop over to the Jellypark Challenge Blog to find out al the details and apply to join us! There are lots of benefits to being part of the Design Team including 25% discount on digital stamps from our new Jellypark Store opening next month and free samples of new releases to work with. Jennifer is going to make it lots of fun and she will be organising some great challenges that will be open to everybody...come over and join up now!!

VISIT THE JELLYPARK CHALLENGE BLOG

Website building = whizzy eyes

I've been staring at my computer screen for so long over the last few days that my eyes have gone all fuzzy.  There has been much work promoting my digital stamps as well as setting up the new online Jellypark shop and it's all starting to take it's toll! The shop means designing it's look as well as adding all the stock, each item needing a description, images, price details, postage etc. Phew!

Want a sneek peek? This has been my desktop for the last week:

Not sure the exact date we'll be opening but it will be very, very soon people....

Special Personalised Tooth Fairy Letters

Following on from our hugely popular personalised Santa Letters over the last couple of years, Louise and I have added a rather sweet Tooth Fairy letter to our range! Louise has once again made a beautiful letter using my illustrations, I hand finish them off with hand lettered names and signatures and add a little bit of fairy sparkle. 

The letter includes personal details about the child, we ask you for information once we take the order. Louise has made the cutest little extras that come with the letters - an organza bag full of fairy dust, a little certificate and a handmade pouch for the child to pop their tooth into.

We will be selling these from our new website once we are up and running but just for now they are available on Ebay, the latest listing is here