Digital Photobooks

One of the many things I love doing is designing digital photobooks.

I like to use BLURB to print the books as they have a great range of sizes and options for the finished product. Depending on the budget, you can go from basic to top of the line including linen covers and sheer inserts.

The challenge when doing one of these books is keeping a uniform design concept throughout. If I'm doing a book from ONE EVENT (eg. a wedding, holiday, school highlights) then this is much easier to achieve. Here is an example of a recent book I did for a barmitzvah album. Doing a one-event book, can also be executed quite successfully by simply using the templates available in Blurb - although I like to create myown templates so that the pages don't all look the same!

However, I recently did a book for an 80 year old as a tribute to his life. I've decided to call this type of book a LifeAlbum. With these albums, it's much harder to create the uniformity of design, as I am given vintage photos, black and whites, documents, certificates, postcards, and all sorts of paraphernalia aside from photos, to include in the book. 80 years of photos and memorabilia is no easy task to incorporate into a book, but once it's done, it's such an amazing keepsake.

I like to design using Photoshop and PSElements as well as sometimes using the templates available in Blurb.

At the moment, I'm also designing a book for myself called my great big collection of family photos


This is an idea that came to me when I realised that although I have printed photos or albums of big events or holidays we've had over the last 7-10 years, there's not much photographic evidence of any life in between those events - other than a lot of images saved onto CD's! All the birthday parties, lost teeth, ballet concerts, school ceremonies, mother's day breakfasts etc. are nowhere to be found... until now! In my Big Book! I'm sure, once it's done, my family will be very chuffed to see themselves in pictures again - on the coffee table.

Floral Workshops

I have taken the proverbial plunge and designed a series of Floral Workshops for home floral styling!

Yes... after much deliberation and consideration, I decided to do it. I've done workshops with children for so long, and so the time has come now to give working with adults a try!

From my experience working at the Florist, I discovered that so many people actually don't know very much about flowers - they either stick to buying the same things, spend money on the wrong things, or often waste money buying things they don't know how to look after. Not knowing how to look after fresh cut flowers or plants can be quite costly, so I've designed my workshops around all the questions people often ask at the florist, and added in some extra bonus activities - like how to make a vase of metal or glass, which I thought would be fun (and very appropriate seeing that I am facilitating the workshops and I love making things!).

Maybe one day, I might write an e-book with all the info I put into my workshops.

If you are interested to book in or read more details, please click here or in the link on the side bar of my blog.


The workshops will be loads of fun and make lovely gifts for anyone who loves flowers! Contact me if you would like a gift voucher.

Gift Tags

How many times have you been stuck for a card or tag to attach to a gift? It happens to me all the time! And I handmake them - so I have no excuse!
I made a huge batch of tags for the florist where I've been working recently and they have been marching out the door tied on to all the bouquets of flowers!




They are sitting on the counter near the cash register and people seem to prefer these gorgeous little handmade lovelies to the standard florist cards.
There's something so nice about the handmade touch. It's quite interesting how handmade is really making a comeback in so many areas as we all look for that more personal connection in our everyday lives. You can't get that same sense of character from machine made stuff!




So now my workbench is full of papers, tools, glues, cutting mat scalpel and Stanley knife as I churn out the gift tags.
A couple of gift stores in my local area have already ordered to sell through their shops and to add to their gift wrapping service.




I've put them into my etsy shop in manageable packs of 10 or 25 and included postage in the price.

Grab a pack today and you will know you have them at the ready to tie on to your next gift!


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Valentines Day Creation

I've been charged with making some decorations for the florist shop where I work for Valentines Day. After having a quick look at the catalogue of florist shop point of sale decorations, I decided that I would rather do something with a bit more handmade flair.
I found a couple of polystyrene hearts in our storeroom, and decided to turn them into big, plush, red felt hearts that we could hang in the shop window.
I used about 2.5 meters felt for each heart that I made. You also need long strong pins - I used floristry pins.
Start by cutting 10cm strips and then cut them into squares and then into circles.




Fold the circles in half then in half again and pin to the top of the heart surface till completely covered.




When the top is covered, turn over and do the other side then continue around the side edges. I cut slightly smaller circles to do the sides.








On my second heart, I painted the heart with red paint first, so that I didn't need to worry to much if there were a couple of gaps.

In the background you can also see some hanging heart garlands that I made. If you'd like me to post how I did them, please let me know.
Now... Lets hope the customers feel the luuuuurve!




Also did a similar one using paper doilies and a fresh rose in the center. I used a pink rose for the pic but we'll be putting in a red rose for Valentines day.




The rose is in a water tube which is hidden under the doilies. I used white wired string to secure it in place.




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Wired Glass Jars & Bottles

I love glass jars and bottles.



When we got married - 24 years ago, I convinced my hubby that we should start a collection of art glass pieces. We got a few nice glass pieces for our wedding but that's about where the collection stopped! Once children and bills start taking over, there's not a lot left to spend on expensive hand-blown glass!

So, how have I managed to fulfil my passion for glass collecting??

Recycling glass jars of course!

One day, at a homewares store, I noticed they had cute glass jars with wire handles - that cost A BOMB! It was then that I decided I would rinse out and take the labels off all the cute and interestingly shaped glass jars from food products we used at home. I keep a bottle of this label remover under my kitchen sink just in case I come across a nice bottle I want to recycle.



Sometimes I would buy a certain product at the supermarket just to get the jar it was in! My favorite jars and bottles are - essence bottles, pasta sauce jars, embossed jars, cordial bottles, mustard jars, and antipasti jars.

These ones usually have great shapes and interesting patterns embossed on the glass.

I have added wire collars and handles to hundreds of jars and bottles with these easy steps:


1. Cut a piece of wire twice the length of the top of your jar.
2. Make a loop at one end.
3. Make 2 more loops at the 1/2 and 3/4 points along the length of the wire. These will be the loops for the handle to hook on.
4. Thread the end of the wire through the first loop and tighten the wire around the top of the bottle. Bend the end back so the collar is now secure. Cut the excess wire.
5. Give the 2 handle loops an extra twist with the pliers to tighten the wire collar.
6. Cut another piece of wire for the handle and thread through the handle loops. Bend wire back to secure the handle in place.


I have built up a great collection that I've used to decorate many functions.
I've also added hooks to some of the handles so that the jars can be hung if needed.
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