Happy Birthday Holly

My goddaughter and very first Stars and Buttons model celebrated her 2nd birthday this week. Cue usual laments about how quickly time flies/they grow up etc.

I think she's getting even cuter, even if I am a bit biaised. Now I need to start working on some more toddler outfits...

Stars and Buttons Go Screen Printing

The Boy in action

Ever since Stars and Buttons started, I've wanted to create unique and special designs that make my stuff stand out. Drawing is not my strong point but luckily my other half trained as an Animator and spent some time working as a Storyboard Artist. He's got a great quirky style and is always doodling so I've been trying to get him involved and turn his promises of help into some actual final designs that I can use.

The Boy's dog design

Finding the time with busy day jobs has been a challenge, so I decided to enrol us both in a screen printing course to inspire us. Last week, we both fought hard to leave our office jobs a bit early to race over to Islington and spend the evening at the wonderful Make Lounge. 

This is my third craft course at The Make Lounge and I can't recommend it enough. The classes are always friendly and well organised. After only a few hours (and a few glasses of wine) you leave with not only some completed projects but a life skill that you get to keep forever.

My fruit tea towels

I kept my designs super simple and tried to focus on learning all about the paper stencil technique. The teacher Helen Rawlinson, who is an acclaimed lighting and textile designer, was a brilliant teacher. She shared lots of top tips and kept us focused throughout the session. It was great fun and soon memories of messy afternoons screen printing at school came flooding back. I forgot how satisfying squeegees can be! I printed some fruit shapes on tea towels and created a couple of special Stars and Buttons tote bags to use at my sewing workshops this summer. (Pictures to follow once I've added some finishing touches.)


The Boy created some much better designs, including a dog and wiggly worm and flower combo, which he printed on a couple of tea towels along with some T-shirts that came out really well. (He's a perfectionist so insists these are not the 'final' designs!)

The Boy's worm & flower (and yes we're trying not to mention that it looks a bit phallic!)

I think it's safe to say we both now have the screen printing bug and are trying to find a space we can hire for short printing sessions in London.


Next stop is our own designed, printed and hand made products. Exciting times!



Visit The Make Lounge website for more information about their classes.

Find out more about Helen Rawlinson by checking out her blog.

Shop Talk

Exciting news this week as my bibs are going to be stocked in a real life shop! Kirstin from Rocket and Fairydust is setting up her very own shop in Merstham, Surrey. Alongside the hand-painted furniture that she produces, she'll be stocking lots of lovely gifts and homeware for children including my Stars and Buttons bibs. I've been building up my stocks so I can send a load down to Surrey for the shop opening. Will try to post some photos of my stuff in the shop when I make it down there.

 

 Rocket and Fairydust opens from midday on 11th June.

38 Nutfield Road, Merstham, Surrey, RH1 3EW

 

Rummaging...

This is the last post about our week rummaging our way through the antique, junk and charity shops of Sussex. I just wanted to share this picture with you of the wonderful shop Roberts Rummage in Hastings Old Town.

It's literally stuffed full of all manor of odds and ends, crockery, pictures and....buttons!!

Open For Business!

Finally! Today I am flinging open the virtual doors of my online shop and inviting you all to come on in and have a look around. I hope you like it.

You can find the Stars and Buttons Etsy shop here.

When some of my close friends started having babies, I spent quite a lot of time looking for original yet trendy little gifts. That's more difficult than it sounds when you throw in the word 'affordable' so I decided to make my own and Stars and Buttons was born. Now I'm selling my homemade bibs and burping cloth gift sets online which I'm very excited about. I love sourcing lovely printed fabric to turn into bibs, burp cloths and lots of other handmade things. Watch out for a wider range of fabrics and gifts which I'll  be listing in my Etsy shop soon. There'll even be pretty things for grown-ups.

I want to say a quick thanks to the lovely Amy who runs the excellent Robin & Mould Etsy shop for her advice and for providing the motivation to stop worrying about the details and just start selling! And to my lovely model Eléna, who was one of the first to road test the bibs and who is already proving a great bib saleswoman!

You can follow me on Twitter @starsandbuttons.