The Launch

The Launch day is nearly here, the 6th September, but everything is practically ready. The brochures are in the midst of being printed, letters of introduction, postcards, flyers and posters are done. I'll be uploading the new website and new products on my Etsy shop on the day. It is our wedding anniversary the next day, so hubby and I will be having a double celebration that weekend.

Things will change as I get going, but that happens, especially when new ideas are escaping from my sub-conscious every night. It can be annoying when I've forgotten what i dreamt about the night before, but I have a pen and paper by the bed, so I catch a few of them. A lot of the ideas are just not viable, but some of them are and they are going to be incorporated into the mix at some point.
I'm working on a new range of notebooks at the moment, I thought I'd get those going quite quickly as they are a less expensive option. The current range costs from £20 - £50, but the new ones will be from £16.00 to £19.00. They will be the same quality and the same materials, but will just have fewer pages.

In the autumn, I going to be working on a product for toddlers, not saying what it is yet, but you'll be the first to know when it launches. It will be very interesting to see how it evolves. It was an idea that my Mentor came up with after seeing my work for the first time. It will be a lot of fun letting my inner child out for a while.

The blogs posts have been devoid of photos, but that will change on Friday, promise.

Talk soon

Love & hugs
Angela
xxx

Brochures

I've spent the last day and a half working on my brochures. I found some great paper that I've decided to use as the brochure cover. So much nicer than the card I was using. The paper makes the colours more vibrant and I'm delighted with it. The thing is, I've run out of colour ink for my Kodak printer, so I've come to a halt until I get some tomorrow. The paper was advertised as A4 when I bought it, but it is 4mm short on the long side. Doesn't sound like much I know, but when the content pages are exactly A4, it's a bit of a pain. Just as well my new guillotine arrived yesterday. As Ray Winstone would say "It's a monsta". Heavy metal indeed, there isn't a bit of plastic on it. I think I'll be using this for the rest of my bookbinding career, can't see it breaking any time. Anyway, I'm going to have to cut the offending A4 pages to match the not quite A4 ones, easy job, though I shouldn't have to do it.

Talk soon

Love & hugs
Angela
xxx

New Toy

Ordered a new toy today, it's probably only something that would excite me though. A heavy duty guillotine. It cuts through 400 sheet of paper and it's something I really need for McLean Book Arts. My book blocks will now be perfect. I've been cutting the paper with a knife up til now, still looked good though. It should arrive next week, so I'll save cutting any more paper until then.

It's only a couple of weeks until I launch, so I'm going to be very busy getting things ready. I have about 5 x 1 day courses to attend after that, and I also have a training course with Pitman Training, so really, September is going to be hectic.

The Etsy Edinburgh Crafters Team are going to have a few things going on as well. The Captain is Vicky and her Etsy page is Science Coming To Town . Vicki makes gorgeous xmas cards and decorations and her sets of chromosome ornaments are totally fab. Check out her site before they are all snapped up.

Love & hugs
Angela xxx

Nearly ready to go

Well, exciting times, I have a launch date and I'm nearly ready. Got flyers, posters and postcards done, my business cards are great. Tomorrow I have an appointment to see the bank about a business account. The bank appointment is making everything very real, not too scary though, I'm really excited. I have an appointment with my Business Mentor next week to finalise my brochure and go over the details of starting up, then I'm ready to send out the marketing materials. The items on my To Do list are gradually being ticked off.

I had lunch with my friend Adele today and told her all about my plans, I hadn't seen her for a while, so she didn't know about it. We used to work together. She was telling me all about her daughter, who is now two. She sounds like a real cutie. It was lovely to see her.

I've been doing some work this evening and now I've finished my blog.

Talk soon

Love & hugs
Angela xxx

P.S. Just bank from the bank, a lovely lady at HSBC has given me a business account.

McLean Book Arts Postcard

Today I completely ruined 2 casebound books I was making, bah. I really should not do things when I'm not well. I'll learn the lesson eventually. Started on another 2, but coptic bound this time, looking good.

I created a postcard to send out with orders. The front is my avatar with the web address below. The back is kind of like my business card with a thank you message on it. The message can be changed to suit the purpose. I've done an example for my Mentor to see next week.

I'm hoping to get this light cube tomorrow so that I can start on my brochure photos.

Talk soon

Love & hugs
Angela
xxx

Edinburgh Free Fringe

Today, DH and i went into town to see some of the Fringe. We went to see some musicians at the Free Fringe at The Tron. I bought a CD by an Aussie musician who lives in Berlin called Geordie Little. He is a brilliant guitarist, who writes his own music and has a great style. You can hear his music if you click on the link above. It's a great venue to hear music, all for a donation at the end of each set.

I've put in an order for a photo light cube from a supplier in Portsmouth. This will help me get the light for my brochure photographs looking more professional and it will let prospective customers see the notebooks a bit better. I should get it mid-week, so I'll get the draft introductory brochure done by the time I'm meeting my Mentor the following week. After the photos are added, I'll just have the descriptions to do. It shouldn't take too long.

Watching The Hobbit on Netflix. I'm sad to say, that we think that the story has been stretched far to thinly to make 3 parts. We will watch them all, if only because it's Tolkien and we loved The Lord of the Rings. I'm writing my blog while watching it, it's ok, but I wouldn't buy it.

Talk soon
Love & Hugs
Angela xxx

P.S. Guess what?  LoveFilm are sending us The Hobbit on DVD. Hahaha

Commissioning an Avatar

I've commissioned a larger version of my bee avatar from Marilyn from Accentuate on Etsy. She is a fantastic graphic designer from Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA. I've completely fallen for her work. If I didn't go with the bee banner, there are many more of her graphics that I have on my favourites. I'm also getting a larger version of my banner for Facebook and my blog. When you purchase one of her packages, you are buying a one of a kind, aka OOAK, that only you can use. It took me ages to figure out what OOAK meant, d'oh. I'm thinking of printing the avatar on a t-shirt, it would look good on black.

I've just found out that one of my Etsy friends, Marta, who also does graphics, is selling banner packages on Etsy. Marta's shop can be found at LittleMars. Her work is brilliant and it's worth clicking the link and having a look. I really love her mini journals and typographic prints, I going to buy a mini journal soon, need to decide the on the quote. Actually, I've decided, I would like a "dreams" one please Marta :)

I went to IKEA today, to get a 3 drawer pedestal to put under my work desk. It was only £25, bargain. I need the storage and hubby is having a drawer for his study things. I'm going to spend Monday re-arranging and labelling boxes, I love boxes.

Talk soon

Love & hugs
Angela xxx