The Lovely Art of Celia Hart

We just can't get enough of Celia Hart's beautiful designs. Celia works from a small studio based in a humble village within Suffolk. The majority of her designs are inspired by the countryside of East Anglia. She interprets her thoughts and ideas by finely cutting out block prints of wildlife animals, exquisite birds, gardens and vast landscapes. Every print she creates is hand pulled and due to the nature of this method it causes subtle variations, meaning each print she does is unique in it's own way.

Tutorial: Tissue Paper Flower

Here's a little tutorial on how to create your own tissue paper flowers! This method of making them is low in cost and is easy for beginners. The only equipment you will need is a pair of scissors, a couple of toothpicks and a glue stick.

You can use any colour tissue paper, but I would suggest using green for the stem, to make your flower look realistic. We went with white for the petals and black for the middle of the flower.

Be careful when wrapping the green tissue around the toothpick, as it tends to rip if you're not delicate enough with it. You only need one toothpick per flower.

Cut a thin strip of the black tissue paper, approximately 25cm in length and fray one side of it using scissors like shown. This next bit can be a bit tricky, so be careful not to rip the tissue paper and you glue and wrap the the frayed strip around the top of the stem.

The flower petals don't have to be of equal size, as you'll be spreading them out when they are attached to the stem. If you want your flowers to look more bright and bold, then maybe try a yellow tissues paper or purple. When all the petal shapes are cut out, cut a small cross in the centre of each one, this will help you thread them on easily.

These are the final steps... When threading the petals on, make sure you don't go off the other end of the stem!

Your flower should now look similar to this! We added a little black leaf onto our stem to match the flowers centre. You can easily thread one on just like you did with the petals.

Now In Stock: Kate Broughton

We now have in store a variety of little goodies from the lovely Kate Broughton. Kate is a designer based in Nottingham, UK. From her own studio at home, she makes an abundance of decorative novelties ranging from transferable nail art to illustrated fridge magnets. Below is a small collection of her work that we've got for sale...

1. Owl Nail Transfers   2. Set of four Owl Badges   3. Craft Nail Transfers   4. Mixed Bird Nail Transfers   5. Deer Nail Transfers   6. Set of four Craft Badges   7. Set or four Vegetable Fridge Magnets   8. Four Whale Badges   9. Set of seven Autumn Temporary Tattoo's.

With Kate's eye for illustration and expertise in printed textiles, she is able to create fun, quirky merchandise, which make for great gifts or a little something even to treat yourself!

Aardvarkonsea

'Aardvark on sea' is the magnificent project run by Lesley and Pea, who have a passion for all things English, old or new. Based in their studio in Hastings, the pair spend their days carving lino, collecting wood types, and drinking gallons upon gallons of tea. Together they create a range of enlightening letterpress prints with words of wisdom and inspirational quotes.

Within their cosy studio in the hub of The Old Town, Hastings, Aardvarkonsea produce a large quantity of their work on a vintage Vandercook press. Each design is set out by hand using vintage wood and metal types to create extraordinary and original letterpress prints.

Feel inspired by these prints? Take a look at what we have for sale from Aardvarkonsea in our shop!

Just in: Laura Gee

These quirky illustrations are by are brand-spanking new designer, Laura Gee! We just love her unique, simplistic creations, her range of designs are truly different. Whether it's an angry cheetah or a pair of passionate polar bears, there's bound to be a design that expresses what you're wanting to say.

You can get a hold of Laura's prints here on our website! What are you waiting for?

Tutorial: Origami Cat

We were so inspired by the origami animals, that we decided to create our own little friend! Want to create one just like ours? Below is a step-by-step guide to show you how, it should only take about five minutes.

Origami is a great way to have fun at a low cost, all you need is origami paper (a perfect square) and a crafty pair of hands. Why not get a few people involved and create a cat army!

Draw a face on and add bits of paper to give your cat some characteristics!

Crafty Creases

Check out these little guys! Carefully hand made origami animals, made entirely out of paper, no cutting, just folding. Origami is a traditional Japanese folk way of folding paper into decorative shapes and figures, the art of folding like this started around the 17th century and was later popularised during the mid 1900s. Since then, the technique has become vastly popular, making it a modern art form. 
Origami is basically two words put together, 'Ori' meaning folding and 'Kami' meaning paper.

The Print Project

Want to get your hands on some new stuff? Now in store are some lovely hand-pulled letter pressed prints from The Print Project!

The Print Project is a company based in Bradford who strive to keep the technique of letterpress printing alive, by producing high quality work with carefully chosen phrases and a satisfying texture to the lettering. They use a range of antique printing presses such as an Arab, which has been powered by hand, foot and eye for over 100 years!

Pop in to our shop, so you can snatch one up before they all go!

Featured: Tom Frost

This week we're going to be looking at Tom Frost, an illustrator living and working in Bristol. He works with many different mediums when creating, such as; screen printing, painting, drawing and also 3D pieces. What a talented individual!



























Tom currently works with Magpie, a London based studio who design and produce gifts that bring a smile, and items for around the home that distinctly have a British edge. His range of delightful designs are based on mammals within the British Isles. The series 'Wildlife' features four nocturnal animals; An Owl, Otter, Fox and Hare.
We just loved his distinctive style so much, that we now stock part of the Wildlife range in store and online!

Get Real With Dee Beale

Got a love for hand printed textiles? Then you'll be glad to hear that Nook & Cranny will soon be stocking up on some of Dee Beale's adorable designs. I'm really excited! Are you?

Dee Beale is a print maker/designer based in the Peak District. She has a passion for producing hand printed fabrics and paper goods in patterns mainly consisting of various wildlife animals and flora. The colours which she prints with have a wonderful rich feel to them. She hand pulls all the prints in her own little print making studio, using a Japanese Print Gocco, which is very similar to the screen printing technique.