Gypsy chic issue 10 edited by lorraine stylianou

the magazine dedicated to greeting card publishing and entrepreneurship

Gypsy Chic

magazine Issue 10 - 2016

Pixels on the Card walk

INDUSTRY

DISRUPTION WITH AIRBNB

FREE

King Kontent

- SHARING YOUR STORY

eorgia Frost G h it w s w ie v r te INSIDE!!! In dy Joel u J d n a s n ig s e D e of Georgia Breez

BIZ AND CASHFLOW TEMPLATES

BOOK NOOK

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CONTENTS 3

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

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INTERVIEW WITH... GEORGIA FROST OF GEORGIA BREEZE DESIGNS

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KITTY KARMA

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THE ART OF DISRUPTION

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10 FREE BUSINESS PLANS 11 WHAT’S YOUR CASHFLOW SAFETY NET? 12 INTERVIEW WITH... JUDY JOEL 16 BOOK NOOK/KING KONTENT

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17 LET´S TWIST AGAIN 18 PETAL POST 20 EZINE NEWS - ISSUU UPGRADE 21 BUZZSUMO/TREND WATCH

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LETTER

from the Editor

W

elcome to Issue 10 of Gypsy Chic, my window on the world of greeting card publishing, art, and entrepreneurship. This edition is a proper medley of articles, a mixed bag of interviews, biz themed write-ups, product and trend reviews, and musings.

I hope you will enjoy reading all about my two featured interviewees, Georgia Frost of Georgia Breeze Designs, a talented collage designer, and one of my fellow ABNA members, Judy Joel, naïve artist extraordinaire who knows so much about galleries, exhibitions, image licensing etc. With the brilliant Instagram (that’s giving Twitter a right royal run for its money) I’m able to connect with artists around the world and build my interview funnel more easily than ever before.

I managed to fit in two flights in October, the first to Liverpool – that mad, friendly city, and one to London too. I attended the Exhibition Masterclass at 30 Euston Square and picked up some interesting tips on body language at Tradefairs, the importance of making connections, and the element of surprise at shows, and Lifecycle Marketing. Thanks to Sharon Little of the GCA for arranging tickets for members – it was massively

generous of the exhibition organisers to host the day with drinks reception at the end all free of charge.

My daughter and I shot around the West End and City of London at record speed fitting in a 10 second visit to the National Gallery, a 10 minute walk around Spitalfields Market, and a race around Covent Garden. “Why, Sir, you find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.” - Samuel Johnson.

But leave it we must – to deal with business matters in Essex before our return flight.

The tea shops in Covent Garden are stunning and I passed lots of venues – bars, and restaurants I used to book for Xmas parties, in my previous life in University administration.

But that is so 2010. I’m hoping to get back to the big smoke very soon. In the meantime, put a brew on and enjoy this double figure edition (made it to Issue 10 .)

Lorraine www.lorrainestylianou.com

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Interview with .....

Georgia Breeze

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1. TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT HOW GEORGIA BREEZE BEGAN AND THE TRADE FAIRS YOU HAVE ATTENDED. lll I studied textiles and surface pattern design back when it was all based on hand crafted design and technology was not what it is now. I have always been drawn to texture, colour and pattern and have had a love for stitching. I have made cards for as long as I can remember with a great response. Friends and family always encouraging me to sell to retail, but felt that the cards I produced were labour intensive and would always be too costly for mass market. Whilst taking a break from teaching I set about researching how I could produce cards with a hand made feel but would be suitable for wholesale and this is really where Georgia Breeze began and after attending the ladder club in 2012 took the plunge and did my first trade show Pg Live in the following June.

of working, but my artwork will always be centred around hand crafted design, which I am really passionate about.

It is hard not to be influenced and inspired by my location. Living by the sea definitely motivates me to on a day to day basis. I feel very fortunate to live on such an amazing Coastline. In the past I have designed ranges themed around coastal life and I will be most definitely be creating new ranges with a seaside theme.

I have also been commissioned by a local stockist to create a piece of artwork of an iconic view of our town. This image was then applied to products such as coasters, tea towels and other design led souvenirs, which seem to be so popular a the moment.

This potentially could be a project that could work within other areas and something I may explore in the future.

2. AS A DESIGNER YOU HAVE FOCUSSED ON STITCHED COLLAGE AS THE BASIS FOR MOST OF YOUR DESIGNS. DO YOU USE A VARIETY OF PAPER AND FABRIC, AND HOW MUCH OF AN INFLUENCE DOES YOUR LOCATION IN THE SOUTH WEST OF ENGLAND HAVE ON YOUR DESIGN CONCEPTS. lll My main style is based around stitched paper collage. I love to use mixed media where I can, I use a combination of papers some which are found and other which I create. I am always very conscious to make sure that the patterns I use have a commercial license. I love to add fabric embellishments and other bits of haberdashery. I am a bit of a magpie really. As my business grows I am hoping to develop my style into different ways

3. WHEN DID YOU PICK UP YOUR FIRST AGENT AND WHAT HAS BEEN YOUR BIGGEST LEARNING CURVE TO DATE IN YOUR BUSINESS (E.G DEALING WITH A TRICKY EXPORT ORDER, BARCODING, LATE PAYERS, OR PROTECTING YOUR WORK?) lll I picked up my first agent at Pg live, for me shows seem the best place to attract agents. Agents come and go and it’s often difficult to find good one and to keep hold of them. For me I have found it very challenging to keep up with the demand for new, especially if you are a one man band. Being a card publisher involves so much more than just designing as I rapidly found out.

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4. HAVE YOU LICENSED ANY OF YOUR DESIGNS SO FAR, AND IF SO, HOW DID NEGOTIATIONS GO? lll I haven’t licensed out any of my designs as of yet. It is something I am very much interested in and I am trying to learn a little more about the area of business. I have been in negotiations with a cou-ple of companies over the last few months, but have decided not to move forward with this at the present moment, there is so much time and money invested into licensing I feel it is important that it is right for both it for both parties involved. I’m sure the right deal will come along at some point and I will look forward to the opportunity when it arises.

6. YOU HAVE JUGGLED QUITE A LOT OF THINGS THIS YEAR IN YOUR BUSINESS – A NEW WEBSITE DESIGN, ARRANGING THE PHOTOGRAPHY OF YOUR CARD RANGES, AND A HOUSE MOVE. WHAT IS IN STORE FOR GEORGIA BREEZE IN THE NEXT 24 MONTHS, AND CAN WE EXPECT A NEW PRODUCT LINE OR THREE? l l l This year has flown by. Particularly this summer has been the most challenging to date. My work life balance is very important to me and important that I am around for my family as much as I can be, however as my children are moving into their next phase and having finally finished our lovely new home, I am able to focus more on my business, which I am really excited by. It has been fantastic journey over the last two years. I have met some great people, have gorgeous new stockists all of the UK and have started exporting too something I had not even considered before. Over the next 2 years I hope to continue to build the brand, exhibit at more trade shows, increase agent coverage and most certainly bring out some new exciting ranges.

5. YOUR PALETTE IS GENTLE AND FEMININE WITH A STRONG COMMERCIAL AWARENESS OF THE MARKET. BEFORE YOU BRANCHED OUT AS YOUR OWN BRAND HAD YOU WORKED FOR ANOTHER PUBLISHING HOUSE OR IS YOUR SIGNATURE STYLE WHOLLY YOUR OWN, HONED AND PERFECTED AS YOU WENT ALONG? lll When I first started Georgia Breeze designs I had spend couple of years researching, but I had very little experience having never worked within this industry. I just put myself out there, with little thought to how the ranges worked and how they would sit together in a outlet. Over the last two years I have become more commercially aware, listened to agents and customer feedback and acted upon it. This has been difficult at times, but has paid off in the long term.

This is most definitely an on going process for me as I am sure is the case with most designers. It is very important to move with the times, be aware of trends, but it is equally important to keep a strong sense of you and your brand.

GEORGIA BREEZE

W: www.georgiabreeze.co.uk E: info@georgiabreeze.co.uk Tel: 07966 932059 F: www.facebook.com/georgiabreezedesigns T: https://twitter.com/GeorgiaBreeze1

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KITTY Karma!

I

t’s hard to own up to mistakes sometimes

passed, and no cats. After two months, I left very

– it’s a bit like saying sorry. We will do

negative feedback on the seller’s account. Almost

anything to avoid the word but use words

the next day, the most beautiful package arrived

like “Apologies”, “Oops”, “Oh no”!

in layers of colourful tissue, and the cat collection

I messed up this week on Etsy – my new online

were hidden inside a tiny fabric purse. These ink,

shop. I didn’t notice the sales conversations coming

and watercolour illustrations had taken the artist

into to my email feed. I could, I argued, be forgiven

days to create. What I hadn’t realised was that

for not concentrating due to 1) my recent house

area of Hawaii had suffered a terrible hurricane –

move and the upheaval it caused, 2) Having no wifi

on a par with the recent Hurricane Matthew, and

connected in the new place and finding working

my poor seller was without power for weeks.

from a mobile less than productive 3) My multiple

Of course if we make a mistake, it is imperative

email accounts which are becoming more and more

to put it right as quickly as possible, but there

these past weeks 5) the distractions of family life.

have no knowledge, that can sabotage things. It

laborious to check, 4) My heavy travel schedule

are often unforeseen circumstances, of which we

The fact was, I just didn’t pay enough attention

is worth reminding ourselves to be gracious with

and I missed a sale. I noticed I had received

others when things don’t go according to plan –

payment into my paypal account, but in my

and to say SORRY when we are at fault.

confusion thought it was a credit from another

e-platform. With Etsy, the seller is responsible for

dispatching the goods and I blew it! Not one week went past, but three before I realised that my poor customer was jumping up and down wondering where her Friendly Feline greeting cards were.

As soon as I realised, I acted at record speed,

raced across two counties to get the order

dispatched, and emailed my customer to let her know to expect them. I also send spares.

Perhaps it was karma coming full circle……

About 10 years ago I collected tiny paintings

called ACEO’s. I ordered a series of miniature cat paintings (I still have them somewhere) from an

American artist in Hawaii on Ebay. Winning the

bid, I waited patiently for my “bespoke” package of OOAK (one of a kind) creations. One month

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THE ART OF DISRUPTION - USING AIRBNB TO CUT COSTS -

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ne of the biggest ways to disrupt an industry is to introduce a business model that revolutionises the ways things are done through technological innovation and drastic price undercutting.

A perfect example of this is Airbnb. They’ve taken on the hotel industry, and given the entire business a run for its money. Everyone can benefit since you can build up credit by recommending the site to your friends on social media, as well as letting out that spare couch, room, or apartment you may have whilst you are away. Social proof by way of testimonials, reviews, photos, and comments will influence both the guest, and host’s reputation, helping everyone through transparency, to decide if they will stay with you, or if they want you in their home.

I started my Airbnb journey this summer when I took the family for a weekend break to the Lakelands. Opening two tabs on my browser, I compared prices of local hotels against those offered on the Airbnb website. No contest! Booking a penthouse apartment for the fraction of a hotel stay was a decision that took all of two seconds to make. I read the reviews, studied the host’s photos, liaised with her via a few messages, and packed my bags. My host was a retiree of many years, who simply funded her enviable lifestyle of golf, yoga, new cars, flash apartments, and beach holidays by letting out her home as often as she could. She had already been availing of the site’s benefits – a brokerage model – for over two years.

And many of you may already be doing the same.

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TRADE SHOW ACCOMMODATION Now presuming you want to attend the Spring Fair at the NEC, you have a choice of booking accommodation at Hotels, Bed and Breakfasts, rented apartments, or Airbnb, if friends aren’t an option. A micro greeting card business owner is unlikely to have the cash to splash on single occupancy rooms costing £215 a night (and that is apparently after the event organisers have negotiated a discount), especially so if they are paying for a stand as well. To make that price up in card sales over the five days of the event, you’d have to take a lot of orders – and there is no guarantee you will. Even the cheapest single occupancy room of £75 a night – if booked through the NEC’s hotel links – will involve a 20 minute drive to the venue. And what if you don’t drive? The hotel

choices you have (to name a few) are Genting Hotel, Hilton Birmingham Metropole, Ibis Styles Birmingham NEC, Crowne Plaza, Arden Hotel, Novotel Birmingham Airport, Holiday Inn Express, Best Western Plus Manor, Jurys Inn, Copthorne Hotel, Novotel City Centre, Novotel City Centre, Regency Solihull, Holiday Inn Solihull etc.

By comparison, a room near B40 1NT on Airbnb will cost anything from £29 to £50 per night (based on my using the filter of a single room with bathroom). The results will often produce twin or double rooms, with all amenities for an average price of £41and only 6 minutes away from the venue. Now that’s

an option I would certainly be following through.

On my recent business trips to Liverpool (September 16) and London (October 16) I alternated between friends, and Airbnb. In Liverpool I stayed in perfectly clean, warm, safe rooms for £20 a night – and I can genuinely say I made friends as well. When I claim those expenses against tax, I do so knowing I purchased the best priced room available and would challenge any accountant, or HMRC to find better.

OK, you say! So I’m an Airbnb disciple. Well - I think in this post Global Financial Crash environment, we have to be super savvy with our

expenditure. I’m sure we are all too familiar with the grim statistics that almost 80% of small businesses fail in their first five years. If we as suppliers can’t rein in our costs, how can we pass these on to our customers who will be working harder and harder to give their consumers a better deal. Given that there is so much competition at big tradeshows, we can be sure of one thing – there is always a new publisher with a better website, social media presence, and product than ourselves just ready to disrupt our status quo. If booking more reasonably priced accommodation can give us that competitive margin, surely it is worth exploring.

REVIEWS I LEFT

REVIEWS LEFT FOR ME Carmel Kelly Lorraine was a lovely house mate, very friendly, I would highly recommend her to other hosts and she is very welcome to stay at mine if she ever returns to Liverpool. October 2016

Clive Cook It was so nice to meet and host Lorraine in my home. A very friendly, sociable and respectful person . I really enjoyed the experience and you will also! Welcome back anytime

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FREE BUSINESS PLAN TEMPLATES

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art of the reason so many new businesses fail is because they haven’t written their business plan, or referred to it since drafting it. As we know, the plan should be a living document that you tweak as often as new products come on board, new avenues are developed for your business, or changes in management occur.

As this useful video from Bplans.com explains (https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=FIoGLHT4wGE) a business plan is NOT 1) a document you write once and never look at again 2) a bunch of scribbles written on the back of a napkin 3) just written for loan applications

4) Neither is it just for first time start-ups 5) Nor just for business school students If you haven’t written your business plan yet, here are some free template links to help you. https://www.princes-trust.org.uk/help-foryoung-people/tools-resources/business-tools/ business-plans http://www.bplans.co.uk/sample_business_ plans.cfm https://www.score.org/resource/businessplanning-financial-statements-template-gallery http://www.bplans.com/members/downloads/ business-plan-template/

Keep believing!!

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WHAT’S YOUR CASHFLOW SAFETY NET?

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s you will know cashflow is the lifeblood of your business. Your aim in business is to ensure that more money enters the business than leaves it. Sometimes this is not always the case however. In fact, we will often have a negative flow of cash over a specific period which is a cause for worry, and stress – but sometimes we just wing it. There are times when I check my bank balance three times a day to juggle funds – moving amounts around to keep one account from going into the red. This is not advisable over the long term.

Having measures in place to protect this from happening is vital. Having a cash safety net is vital to your business. It will consist of a reserve of funds that you can use to bail you out at difficult times (an agreed overdraft for example), your own nest egg to tide you over lean months, as well as a method for chasing late or bad payers so you can ensure some liquidity.

If you have enough funds to last a few months, well done. However, new businesses will often find that money simply leaks out in the wrong direction and you have to put some “stops” in place to stall that flow. This will include speeding up the time suppliers have to pay you, chasing non payers regularly via software, emails, and bring forward reminders in your diary.

Knowing how much money your business actually

needs is also crucial before negotiating an overdraft with your bank – particularly if you are incurring charges for the additional funds if you use them Here are my top tips to manage cash flow (which I need to practice more myself).

1 Send invoices on the same day to the same client every month so they know when to expect them.

2 Charge a late fee. One of the best ways to ensure payment is charge a penalty on money owed. Late payments can cripple a business and it really pays to be tough. If you mention the charge up front, then your clients won’t be surprised when it appears on their invoice.

3 Don’t spend money in the business just because you can put it through expenses. Think really carefully whether you need that new laptop or latest printer. If that item gave you several weeks more cashflow, then it may be better to hold back and wait till you really can afford it.

4 Keep some cash in reserve. It is sensible to keep a reserve that would sustain your business for several months if you can possibly do so. Aim for six months. It gives you much more stability.

5 Factor out invoices if chasing them is proving too much – it is better to discount the invoice totals and get money into the business than wait months for bad payers to settle.

FREE CASHFLOW TEMPLATES:

http://www.mybusiness1st.co.uk/Assets/Articles-Finance-tools/Cash-Flow-Forecast-Template https://www.startuploans.co.uk/cash-flow-forecast-template/ l http://quickbooks.intuit.com/r/financial-management/free-cash-flow-statement-template-exampleand-guide/ l l

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Interview with .....

Judy Joel

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1. HAVE YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO OWN YOUR OWN ART GALLERY? lll Yes. As an artist myself it is the perfect situation. I sometimes paint whilst I am in the gallery. I know ALL of our artists personally and spend most of my day not painting but talking to people, and I enjoy every minute.

My husband Paul, sorts out all the important things like the finances, the insurance, the bills etc, which leaves me free to be more creative and to hang the paintings in our gallery.

2. WHAT PROCESSES DO YOU FOLLOW WHEN YOU SELL SOMETHING IN THE GALLERY? lll Whenever I sell anything I write each card and reproduction and original painting down on a list on the desk with the name of the artist, the price of the piece, the method of payment and the address of the person who paid for it.

When Paul comes in he works out in the columns beside the amount I took what the artists gets (60%) and what we as the gallery get (40%). Every Saturday Paul puts every scrap of information onto a spreadsheet including every single card sold, onto the computer and saves it. At the beginning of every month he spends at least two days in the gallery adding up what people have to be paid and writing their cheques with letters.

Whenever an artist brings in anything new, or more cards, I type them in on their lists, and every so often I go through the sales book and make a note on individual artists’ folders of what was sold and who too, from their stock already written out for each artist. These individual lists are sent to the artists at the end of every year so that they know exactly what we have left in stock and

what was sold – when and who too. I always ask that they check the stock with their own records to make sure that no mistakes are made.

3. ANYTHING ELSE YOU WOULD SHARE WITH PEOPLE ABOUT RUNNING A GALLERY? l l l The only other main task of being a gallery owner is to smile and be friendly and make coming to our gallery something people will want to do again whenever they visit the area. We have been going for 11 years now and it seems like only one.

4. WHAT IS INVOLVED IN RUNNING AN EXHIBITION? l l l Organising exhibitions is fun but hard work. First you have to establish what sort of exhibition it will be and then you have to contact the people whose work F

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you are going to show and when we have these exhibitions we generally store away some of our usual artists’ work in the cupboard or in the back of the top gallery and concentrate on hanging the exhibition in the ground floor area. All participating artists have to be sent information to tell them where to send their work, dates and times of delivery and collection, private views, and on the forms I send them has to be the submission details so that nobody gets anything wrong, and charges the wrong amounts for art.

Once the paintings arrive, it is a bit like a jig saw puzzle to get it hung just right, and this I like to do alone, because very often you have an idea about something and it’s difficult to get your idea through to anyone else because it’s just hard to express what is still jumbled in your own minds eye. I will also make a list which I will have started weeks before from the information on the submission forms which are returned long ahead of time.

Also artists are asked to submit jpegs of their paintings so that these can also be put on the website.

From those jpegs we can make a selection for either an invitation (which we don’t do every time because the postage is just getting so stupid now) but we can design an invitation to be put out by e-mail or make into posters to dot around the areas local to us and send to various hotels and other places where people may be looking to see what is on.

Also from the jpegs we receive we can make up some press release and send images to various papers

and magazines and ask for them to be included if possible with a press release and some editorial. Most of the time we have to pay for these images to be seen, but every once in a while there is an opportunity to advertise for free and that is great when it happens. Advertising, like postage is not cheap. We also make sure that we have an up to date CV for each artist.

5. WHO ARE YOUR MAIN VISITORS TO THE GALLERY? l l l As our gallery is in a fishing village of outstanding beauty and which many people come to see for themselves.

Sometimes bus tours drop their cargo of people off at the Harbour front and they visit all the galleries in the area and usually end up in a the pub before catching their bus back. We have found that it is a good idea to have a mixture of reproductions as well as original paintings.

Very often we don’t sell a single original

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painting for a whole week, but will sell several unframed reproductions or original prints from as little as £12 each.

Cards are popular, especially as in some cases we have the images on cards of some of the paintings on the walls, and many, many images of the village itself.

We have mostly local artists. One of whom has written a book called “The Mousehole Mice” and these go very well indeed. We have some unknown artists whose originals are on our walls and some very well known artists’ work as well, with prices of originals ranging from £120.00 to £12,000 hanging side by side.

6. DO YOU GET APPROACHED DIRECTLY

BY ARTISTS SEEKING GALLERY REPRESENTATION? lll Sometimes people come in to ask if I will accept their work in my gallery, and I dislike being caught off balance and will never make a decision even if I like something because I will need to discuss it with Paul, but our gallery is so full of art at the moment we really have no room for

any more whether I like them or not. I will generally reject anyone on principle who simply comes into the gallery with a portfolio and who hasn’t even glanced at the walls and who has no idea of what sort of art we show.

We are predominantly a gallery showing representational and figurative art, and not abstract art. So when someone comes in with a black canvas with a squiggle I don’t have any problems about telling them that it is “not our handwriting”. Some artists DO have a look around first and I have more time for those people. My own work is naïve and quite different from the representational works of our bestselling artists, but I have now made space on one of the walls for myself, which I had not done before, and it makes for an interesting mix of representational, figurative, AND naïve.

JUDY JOEL - Painter and Gallery Owner – UK The Little Picture Gallery, Mill Lane, Mousehole, Cornwall, TR19 6PQ W: www.littlepicturesmousehole.co.uk E: little.pictures@virgin.net T: 01736 732877/01736 731823

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KING KONTENT l It is claimed we have more technology in our smart

about their daily musings.

phones today than was required to send a man to the

We want to hear about past struggles, and how they

moon decades ago. With apps, and social media,

were overcome. Content is king and it is worthwhile

technology is helping to move power away from the

creating something original rather than rehashing

media elite to the people – you and me. We now own

what is already out there. I often take days compiling

our own media (this e-zine is testament to that) and we

articles for my magazine and get irritable when the kids

can connect with people across borders with whom all

interrupt my thought process. I include lots of personal

kinds of business can be done.

experiences – my mistakes and successes, the highs

How do I manage to fill each issue with interviews

and lows of business. My purpose for giving up hours

from artists across the world? 1) By asking 2) by using

of time to this project is to give value – and be part of

private messages on Facebook, email, and Instagram. It

a conversation. It’s like missing that end of term group

wasn’t impossible to get interviews 20 years ago, but so

photo. If you are not in the frame, you feel like you aren’t

much more time consuming. Now all I need is time to

part of that community. It is also, of course, a way to raise

read through blogs, watch amateur Youtube videos, and

brand awareness. We have to communicate our brand,

check peoples photo montages. This gives me a massive

share it wide and far, and make it fun.

insight into an artist’s mind, and their artistic processes.

To capture people’s hearts, the interviews, and stories

If you have a brand story to share email me here and

have to be authentic. We want to hear about their

together we can be our own media moguls.

childhood, see photos of their early work, and read

lorraine@lorrainestylianou.com

THE BOOK NOOK BLOCK PRINT BY ANDREA LAUREN

Lauren on Instagram (inkprintrepeat) you will

l In this delightful book Andrea Lauren guides

can watch her step by step process on video.

you through the various steps of creating your first print block. You will find numerous print

l If you can’t wait to start block printing,

block ideas perfect for the hand made greeting

why not order a kit from Amazon. This

card market – which could easily be scanned, and

handy starter pack includes all you need

tweaked for the mass market. If you follow Andrea

to start lino cutting. Happy days!

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LET’S

AGAIN

l When my daughter’s back is turned, I sneak her pencil case, and try out her new products. Kids have a way of discovering new brand variants much better than I can. With Crayola Twistables – and a Sharpie – I can create quick images perfect for vectorising without the need to prime canvases, and get all my paint supplies out. I’ve never personally enjoyed colouring with crayons because they are not precise enough – and too thick – but with these new slimmer versions, the end result is much more effective.

Chubby Checker – eat your heart out.

A pack is currently under £3 on Amazon for 12.

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Petal Post

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n this month of November, when we see lots of Poppies, the word that comes to mind is Remembrance. What better way to remember someone you know than to send a card.

In my Petal Post range I created postage stamped themed designs from vectors of my original paintings.

ORDER FORM

PETAL POST CARD RANGE £6 for 6 cards

CODE PET1

AMOUNT

Lavender & buttercups

PET2 Pansies PET3

Lily of the valley & red daisies

PET4

Primroses & lemon stilllife

PET5

Pink calla lilies

PET6 Allium PET7

Primitive roses

PET8

Glass of flowers

PET9 Geranium PET10

Flowers in a stripey vase

PET11

Blue daisies

PET12

Folk art flowers

PET13 Poppies PET14

Posy in a blue vase

PET15

Van Gogh flowers

PET16

Pink Tulips

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TOTAL

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! ! ! !

S W E N E-ZINE

ISSUU is bringing out a new redesigned, upgraded reading experience for all ISSUU publications allowing you to read, search and engage with content on computers, laptops and other devices in a new way. This is all happening in the next four weeks so watch this space, and happy reading!

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WEBSITE RECOMMENDATION

BUZZSUMO

l Thanks to my friend Louise of Social Bee NI for

Limited to just one search a day (unfortunately) using

recommending this website called:

the free search option.

www.buzzsumo.com It is useful for checking what is being talked about in your area. If you write a blogpost, or want to know what the latest hot topic in giftwrap, greetings cards, and homeware, is, for example you can check what is being talked about across the world wide web. It will help you to see how influential you are in your industry, bring up some fun insights, and show who is blogging and writing in your niche.

TREND WATCH ARE YOU A PIXEL CHICK?

J

ust as the fashion industry is raving about pixels on the cat walk (check out Anya Hindmarch), pixels are being spotted on the card walk too.

This is all to do with the fascination for 80’s memorabilia,

Sony Walkmans, old Nokia phones (Yes – my 12 year old son bought one of those this month), Rubik´s cubes, Space invaders, and vaporwave – a comical art and music genre focussing on digital sounds taken from distorted 80’s songs – slowed down to make it sad and nostaligic. The politics of this music genre is to mock capitalism but I’m not going there. If you type in pixel greeting cards on Etsy for example, you’ll find plenty of examples and here is one of my own uuu

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A window on the world of a greeting card publisher

Gypsy Chic magazine