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Wraptious Design Competition

Wraptious Summer Design Competition

So I did a thing and decided to enter the Wraptious design competition with my Meadow Flowers designs.

Originally designed as a set of stickers for one of my monthly Subscription boxes I expanded the design a little to suit cushions and prints for the Wraptious competition.

There are 5 different designs, all from a similar colour scheme but with different colour highlights and different flowers. From poppies to bluebells, cornflowers to daisies these will brighten up your home and bring a bit of the great outdoors indoors.

Wraptious Summer Design Competition

You can see all the cushion designs together on the Wraptious Facebook page, please give the post a ‘like’. Or visit the Wraptious website where you can vote for each individual design. You can even buy a cushion or a canvas/print. Not only will your likes, votes and sales count as votes towards the competition, they will also make me smile. And I will do a happy dance!

How to Vote?

How to buy the cushions or prints

Visit the Wraptious website where you can buy each individual design as a cushion, print or canvas.
(Please send me a photo of your cushion in your home, I’d love to see it in place!)

About the Wraptious Design Competition

Artists and Photographers are invited to submit their work to the Wraptious website during the competition. There is no theme or preferred medium. Your work could be turned into a beautiful giftware range. It’s free to enter, open to all artists globally and any age. You own copyright always, earn commission and it’s the only time we take on new artists. 6 artists with the most points are automatically shortlisted, while a further 6 are chosen by us. Give it a go! 🙂 (or please vote for my designs!)

I’d love your feedback on the designs in the comments below. Which is your favourite? Which would best suit your colour scheme at home or would you love a mix of 2, 3 or more designs? Let me know below.

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Are these Chelsea Flower Show Worthy?

Sustainable and plastic free at the Chelsea Flower Show and close to home

Lindum's Wildflower Turf at the Chelsea Flower Show
Lindum’s Wildflower Turf – Winner of the RHS Chelsea Sustainable Gardening Product of the Year 2023

This is not my garden! The photo above is actually of Lindum Wildflower Turf at the Chelsea Flower Show, which is the first to be grown without plastic matting earning it the prize of RHS Chelsea Sustainable Gardening Product of the Year 2023.

At Cards and Gift Wrap we are all for sustainability and plastic free, which is why we have our own range of plastic free paper tape…and we also love flowers!

So this week, while we’re all in awe of the blooms at Chelsea I thought I’d do a little focus on some of our favourite floral artists.

Fresh Flowers at Tatams

Claire Henley

Claire is well known for her coastal and floral designs, has been a firm favourite throughout Phoenix Trading and Flamingo Paperie and I am delighted to find her cards are available through the Eco-friendly Card Company too so her cards will be available to you for years to come at Cards and Gift Wrap.

Nicola Evans

Nicola doesn’t just do flowers and she’s one of those illustrators who is so versatile that sometimes her work isn’t instantly recognisable, if you know what I mean.

But her flower bouquets and patterns are always popular.

Pink Orchids

Summertime Vibes Birthday

Jane Morgan

Jane Morgan is new to Cards and Gift Wrap but we instantly fell in love with her wildflower canvases of beauty.

Jane’s cards are available with words on the front or usually with a blank alternative – I’d love to know which you prefer?

Sally Rich

Also new to Cards and Gift Wrap is Sally Rich. Her cards are all without words but full to bursting with bright and cheerful colours.

Floral cards are so versatile and are great to keep in your card box as they can be used for so many occasions and for anyone.

Freesias

Winging their way through the postal system to me right now are some of my own floral designs with Gaelic words on them – I was even featured recently in an article for PGBuzz (the greetings card industry magazine). You can read more about that here.

Growing your own!

Meanwhile I potter about in my ‘crub. If you follow me on Facebook or Instagram you’ll already have seen my strawberry (yes singular – so far!)…is there anything more satisfying than growing your own?

Happy gardening and may the wonders of the Chelsea Flower Show inspire you!

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Paper craft kits

Paper craft kits
sloth paper craft kits

Love sloths, pugs, flamingos or unicorns? Always wanted one of your very own? Well now you can with these fabulous new paper craft kits from Flamingo Paperie.

I made a couple of these kits, and they are fun, a lot bigger than you realise, really sturdy and I don’t think you need to be a paper craft expert!

Each kits contains everything you need to complete it, even a pair of scissors.

The models are big! For example the sloth is over 30cm long, so not far off life-size.*

The paper craft kits are presented in a 100% recyclable/biodegradable gift box. I think they’re great for a treat for some crafting me-time, a perfect gift for a friend and good news for the environment too.

What’s inside the paper craft kits?

If you’re worried you aren’t experienced enough to complete a kit, then you needn’t be. There’s a picture for guidance on the front of each kit. On the bottom you’ll find some basic tips and instructions, with more instructions inside. All the tools you need are in the box, including glue, in an easy to apply tube with nozzle, scissors, scoring tool if required, cocktail sticks to help spread the glue into difficult to reach corners and sheets of card printed with the templates ready to cut, fold, score and stick.

Animal kits

There are several different animals to choose from, sloth, flamingo, unicorn, pug and t-rex. They have varying levels of ‘difficulty’ though it’s not so much a difficulty, rather a time required to complete each one. The quickest is the unicorn with an estimated 3 hour construction time, the longest is the t-rex with an estimated 18 hour construction time.

Floral kits

All sets of flowers look really stunning when complete and you don’t have to be an expert paper crafter to make them look good. The estimated construction time for each kit reflects the time required to complete it. It’s not a reflection of how experienced a crafter you need to be. Each peonie flower takes about 2.5 hours while each rose is estimated to take about 4 hours. There is enough in each kit for 6 flowers or more. These are fun projects to do alone but I recommend completing the flowers with friends. Have a crafting afternoon.

Leaves and Feathers

The leaves and feathers kits is a set of templates for various leaves and feathers to be drawn round and cut out. The kit contains 10 sheets of different coloured card and 10 metres of twine so you can use them to embellish your gift wrapping. Alternatively they would make a beautiful forever wreath or table decoration.

Who are the kits for?

The guidance on the box suggests that the kits are suitable for over 12 years old but that under 12 could complete with supervision. I made the peonies with my 11 year old daughter and she had no problem completing it (in fact her flower looked better than mine but don’t tell her I said that!).  I would say age 8 upwards with help. You don’t have to make the kits in one go so you can stagger the completion to suit the attention span of the child. Equally if you’re completing this on your own, you don’t need to set aside 18 hours in one sitting to complete the t-rex, you can do it in stages as fits your time.

I made the flamingo on my own but over a few days, doing a little bit here and there. It isn’t difficult. I did take care to line up the tabs carefully and to hold them in place while the glue set but I was really impressed with how quickly it stuck.

A few tips from my experience

The animals are made of thick card which keeps shape really well. The models are really sturdy once built.

The flowers are made of tissue paper. Mine travel about as I have them on display at fairs and I’ve inadvertently squashed them a few times, you wouldn’t know! I readjust them very easily, and quite often!

The glue takes a while to dry on the tissue paper on the flowers. The tissue goes a bit soggy if you stick too many petals together at once. Our other hint would be hold the peonies upside down to stick the petals on. This gave a better shape and was easier to stick the petals.

My biggest tip would be to do the flowers as a group. This was fun. Plenty tea and cake and chat while we cut and stuck.

If you have any questions about the kits then just drop me an email.

*Three toed sloths are approximately 58cm long, at full stretch, according to LiveScience, our model is over 30cm and he’s not stretched out!

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Easter cards

easter cards

Easter isn’t very far away so I’ve picked out a couple of Easter cards, gift wrap and gift ideas below. If you’re a busy person struggling to find time to order cards then how about an Easter/Spring bundle?

Easter Cards

Butterfly Tree, illustrated by Kim Anderson

I love this card, it’s glittery and just so pretty. Butterflies can symbolise hope, life, transformation…all things that our mothers give to us. Lots to be grateful for.

Easter Wishes, illustrated byJennifer Bartlett
Easter Wishes

Possibly the sweetest card you could send this Easter to a loved one or someone special. I think this would be the perfect card from a grandparent to a grandchild.

Easter Wrap and Gifts

Whichever card you choose, you’ll be sending an exclusively designed one that will make someone say, ‘wow, thank you that’s beautiful’. If you need gift wrap to go with it then there are some gorgeous Florals ones from Flamingo or the Flowers and Stars, that also has matching gift tags. (All Flamingo gift wrap and tags are 100% recyclable)

colour in garden

If you’re looking for gift ideas then you might like the colouring in garden poster. This would be a great gift or holiday activity for all ages. Some of the illustrations are detailed enough for the expert ‘colour in er’ while they will still look good after some embelishment from little hands too.

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Floral greeting cards

floral greeting cards

Find the perfect card from our exclusive range of illustrated designs. With plenty of cards to choose from, including blank floral greeting cards and new designs added regularly. The card you need is right here, whatever the occasion.

Bestselling floral greeting cards

Floral Birthday Cards

Sympathy Cards

If you like your sympathy cards to say something on the front then we have some great ones to choose from. If you think a floral illustration does the job just as well then take a look at the floral range.

Artists

We have several artists who illustrate our floral greeting cards designs exclusively for Flamingo Paperie but some of the most popular ones are:

Alison Vickery, Gerry Murray, Claire Henley, Mikki Butterley, Diane Dimerci, Karen Tye Bentley, Lorraine Duff, Claire Winteringham, Vicky Pugh and Laura Stone.

If you think I’ve missed something in this selection please leave a comment so I can add it in, thank you. If you’d like a mixed pack of cards then you can get on in my shop. I’ll email you to ask what cards you’d like in your pack.

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Exclusive cards for exclusive businesses!

best seller pack Phoenix Trading

If you’d like to see a better range of greeting cards available locally, all high quality with stunning artwork and illustrations, at prices that are really good value – then why not stock Phoenix cards in your area?

Stunning cards from Phoenix Trading

Many people contact me from all over the world wanting to know how they can buy Phoenix cards. Well here’s the thing – they can’t – unless you sell them!

Wherever you are in the world you can now be an International Business Customer with Phoenix Trading. You can buy cards at a discounted rate and sell them on to friends, family, through your business, small shop, hairdressers, post office, etc., making a nice business for yourself – and of course having a never ending supply of fabulous, gorgeous cards for your own personal use too!

This is a great opportunity, if you love cards and want to see a better choice, quality, price of cards in your area then you can make that happen now. Registration form and full terms and conditions.

If you don’t know where to start, and what to order first, we’ve even put a pack together of some of our bestsellers to get you off to a great start.

best seller pack Phoenix Trading

However, you can’t do this if you’re in the UK, France, NZ or Australia – that’s because if you’re in these countries you have the amazing opportunity to become a Phoenix Trader and build a team of Traders around you.

Be the first in your area to stock these amazing cards, you can order now and I’m sure your friends and neighbours will thank you for it. I bet they’d love to know a ‘card lady’ they can depend on!

Full product list