Support Locally Made This Christmas

Saturday 6th December - Langmeil Wines Tanunda.

Sunday 7th December - Hart Mill, Port Adelaide

Sunday 14th December - Bowden

Last chance to purchase my Messagemark products directly from me! Come along to one or all of the amazing events listed above and stock up on SA goodies. Please support our small local businesses this Christmas to help keep your $$'s in South Australia!

Toodle-pip,

 

Christmas Production

Using the paper drill at my local printery

Gift Tags Drilled - Tick!

I just got home from an afternoon hanging out at my printers Digital Print Australia. They are so good to me, they even let me try out some of their machines. I particularly love the electric paper drill, so it was an afternoon of drilling Christmas tags!

Sorting Gift Tags

 

Then I had time to hang out and keep an eye on the Christmas Card print run, and look... the printer was also getting into the spirit of Christmas with a bit of tinsel! LOL!

2500 cards to hand crease!

2500 cards to hand crease, just a small mountain! Better call my creasing boy......D E N I S ! !

Sending Chrismas Cheer

Well the silly season is upon us...so sending you some Christmas cheer for a wonderful festive season full of fun and laughter.

During the Chrissy and New Year period, the Messagemark online shop will still be open, however there may be a slight delay in delivery due to running on a skeleton staff member (me!) from 24th December to 9th Jan 2012. I will do what I can to deliver your cards within 7 working days, but do apologise in advance if there are any delays.

Wherever you are, however you celebrate your Christmas, I wish you peace, joy and happiness!

Toodle-pip,

Jingle Bells + Furry Friends

Hestor wanted to help me out this year by modelling some of my Christmas range. I must say he did really well at trying to act natural and not look straight at the camera! I think his feline beauty kind of out shines my gift tags though! To see the entire photo shoot with Hestor check out more pics here >

The 2011 Christmas range is now available to buy online. Don't forget we donate 20% of the total sale to Cure4CF Foundation when you buy through our online store. Please help Cure4CF reach their goal, to develop a cure for Cystic Fibrosis.

Toodle-pip,

Sending Christmas Cheer

Well the silly season is upon us...so sending you some Christmas cheer for a wonderful festive season full of fun and laughter.

I am proud to say that over the past two months we have raised a total donation of $340 for Cure4CF.  When products are purchased from our online store, Messagemark makes a 20% donation to Cure4CF Foundation.

It is exciting to see this donation grow from small beginnings in 2009. Every little bit helps, so I thank everyone who bought our paper products from our online shop - you contributed to a great cause!

During the Chrissy and New Year period, the Messagemark online shop will still be open, however there may be a slight delay in delivery due to running on a skeleton staff member (me!) from 24th December to 10th Jan 2011. I will do what I can to deliver your cards within 7 working days, but do apologise in advance if there are any delays.

Wherever you are, however you celebrate your Christmas, I wish you peace, joy and happiness!

Substitute Tree

This is my substitute Christmas Tree. My real tree is currently sitting in the window at the Messagemark Studio, so I had to come up with an alternative for home. I had this mannequin standing in the corner of the lounge so thought I might as well decorate it! So one Christmas wreath, a few decorations and lights, and there you have it - our place now looks a bit more festive!

balsa wood mini tree

If you have a spare couple hours before Christmas and feel like doing something crafty, I discovered this ingenious balsa wood tree over at Design*Sponge. The full tutorial including photographic step by step instructions can be found here. (Thanks Design*Sponge, we love you!)

Unfortunately I have run out of time to make this myself, so maybe next year. My Christmas tree is currently sitting in the window at the Messagemark studio, so I have to come up with a quick alternative for home. Will post photos next week when I work out what to do!

Christmas Lights

Denis and I spent a bit of time at the studio today. We got a few niggly jobs completed - rearranged the layout in the studio, sorted and organised, mopped the floors, a quick product photo shoot, and finally put up some branding on the front windows (courtesy of The Alphabet Tree). My genius husband mounted some led lights in the window to create a soft ambient glow on my Christmas display. So now just a tad more external signage and the studio is finally complete.

Just planning my next window display. I think it might have to feature the new range that I'm launching next month.

Christmas Window Display

I've been working on my Christmas display at the Messagemark Studio and ended up pegging a row of Chrissy prints together for the backdrop in the window. The Christmas tree is covered in lights and my 2010 range of gift tags...And presents, of course you need presents under the tree! Empty boxes wrapped in natural recycled paper, trimmed with a contrasting colour paper stripe and cotton twine wrapped around numerous times. Not forgetting a gift tag to complete the package!

And if you are looking for an alternative to framed prints, try using a wooden trouser hanger (from IKEA)  - a great idea for a display or signage at a market.

2010 Christmas Range

It may seem a little soon (which is scary) to bring out the Christmas range... But if you are planning on posting Christmas greetings to your friends and family, especially overseas, then now is the time to start thinking about buying some cards!

Don't forget we donate 30% of the total sale to Cure4CF Foundation when you buy through our online store. Please help Cure4CF reach their goal, to develop a cure for Cystic Fibrosis.

My Christmas

Right - so this year we are celebrating Christmas at our place. The funny thing is I am only now working out what we are going to eat! Instead I have been busy making paper stars, bonbons and wreaths, and planing the table setting. At least it will all look good!

Better get into the recipe books now, only 2 days to go!

Grange Organic Market

It's the last Grange Organic Market for the year this Saturday so come on down and buy your last minute Christmas gifts. I will also have a huge range of Christmas Cards going out cheap!

WHEN: Saturday 19th Dec
TIME: 9.00am - 2.00pm
WHERE: 5 Beach Street, Grange
WEB: www.grangeorganicmarket.com.au

My Christmas Wreath

Well I am pretty happy with the result. I ended up making two wreaths experimenting with 2 different paper weights, 100gsm and 160gsm. I found 100gsm to be the easiest to use for stapling on the leaves and curling the ends - the 160gsm was a bit stiff to work with. Now I just need to work out where to hang it!

Thanks again to The Red Thread for this tutorial.

Christmas Wreath

This year I am going to make my own Paper Wreath as above. Here is a great tutorial from The Red Thread if you want to join me. Email me a photo of your finished project and I will post it to my blog with my own creation! Click here for the tutorial

Christmas Decorations

Gift tags make great Xmas decorations!

It's nearly time to get the Christmas tree out again. I love this time of the year. We are having Christmas lunch at our place and most people would be starting to plan the food, but me, I'm planning the table and house decorations. Of course I'm leaning towards creating decorations using recycled paper, and I'm thinking about using some of the designs from my Xmas Card Range. Will post photos as I complete each decoration...

Photo Shoot...

My cute fluffy neighbour kindly volunteered to model one of my Christmas gift tags. Shadow (alias Tinker - well that is what I call him) comes to visit every day for a chat and occasionally he might get a wee drink as well. I think Tinker's owner thinks I'm a bit weird. I phoned her offering to feed him if she goes on a holiday. Do you think that is strange or just friendly? My husband thinks the owner might organise a restraining order against me!